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Sydney Wenger

ELM-490

3-31-19

STEP Standard 5-Implementation of Instructional Unit

Video Recording Link: https://youtu.be/DfJHwUsWe3Y

Summary of Unit Implementation:
Students received their pre-assessment as morning work on day one. The first part of
the lesson was to introduce the habitats to students. Students watched videos on what
a habitat is and got a good introduction when I read books to them afterwards on what a
habitat is. They then completed pages 1-3 of a habitat book.

Each day of the week Monday-Thursday, students were introduced to a different habitat
(arctic, desert, rainforest, and ocean). They first read a book about the habitat of the
day, watched a video by SciShows. Then they would get to do an experiment that had
something to do with animal or plant adaptations and traits in their environment.
Experiments included, the layers of the ocean, different beaks of rainforest birds, what
holds more water a cactus of a maple leaf, and Crisco acting as blubber. After they
completed this, they would then get to work on a classroom poster for each habitat.
They each got to draw and cut out different animals and plants for the poster and come
up and put them on the classroom poster.

Friday was the day that students wrapped up the unit. They started off by finishing their
habitat book pages 4-6. Then they got to make a triorama. This is where they could
choose one of the 4 habitats. They choose a habitat and drew what that habitat would
look like on their triorama. They then choose an animal that lives in their habitat and put
it inside. After this they had a writing application. They would write what their habitat is,
the climate of their habitat, and what animal they have that lives there.

The execution of all of this went great. Everything was timed out well and students were
very engaged in it all. Students all got to participate in their experiment, and all got to
contribute to the class poster.

Summary of Student Learning:

My initial perception was that they really took well to the lessons and were engaged. I
feel that many of the students knew what animal lived in what habitat and what traits
help them survive. There did seem to be a decent amount that had not idea about any
of this. This made me realize how important this lesson would be for those particular
students.
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There was one student that received a very low score on their assessment that I would
not have expected of them. I realized later that they just did not understand how to do
matching on a worksheet. I had to have a lesson with the class on how to do this
afterwards so that they would get it right and actually have a fair shot at explaining what
they know. I let this student retake their assessment, because I did not feel it was fair to
him if he simply did not understand matching. He did much better and this will help my
results be more accurate in the end.

Reflection of Video Recording:

It was very interesting to see myself teaching. Kindergarteners have a lot of
energy and you have to be on top of them at all times. It amazed me how many little
things I did not see while I was teaching. Things such as students having their head
down and not paying attention. Student talking to each other when they were supposed
to be listening. It amazed me how often this happened and how I did not even realize.
When you have much more demanding needs of certain students, it is easy to see how
many of these small thing’s students will get away with.
I want to improve on seeing these things happen and being able to be on
students more. I feel that certain students were taking my attention too much and I
could not catch everything. I will be paying attention to this moving on. I also feel that
some of my student who are to likely be classified as having autism may need
something more stimulating. I do often try and move students to the rocking chair or
give them something squishy to sit on or hold. This usually is just what they need to be
able to focus more.