Sadly, I see really poor science instruction in my classroom. My students do 1 week of science with my CT and 1 week of social studies with Lauren Kellar's CT. Anytime I have seen science in my classroom, it consists of my CT reading out of the science book and the students follow in their books and then they work with a partner on a worksheet. This is what I have seen every other week with my CT. The only way she assesses them is by grading the worksheets they complete and giving them an end of the unit test.
Science usually takes place in the morning. They all get their textbooks and sit on the carpet and follow along with my CT. I have noticed as I watch the students, many of them are not even paying attention and I have caught many of them following along on the wrong page, which my CT never realizes. My CT solely reads out of the book and then asks them the (boring) questions that are in the teacher edition textbook.
The students are never too interested unless it is something that really intrigues them which I have not seen too often. There is never any fun experiments or any activity that they do as a class or in a group. I have talked to my CT about it and she said she doesn't like to do experiments, so that is why I never see them in her class.
I do not agree with this because I think students learn well with hands on experiments and they always enjoy the experiments in science. That was always my favorite part about science and I know kids love it. I taught science one day and read a children's book on fossils and then we made our own fossils and the students were really into the book and they loved making the fossils. Something as simple as that makes it more fun for the students instead of reading out of a textbook.
This is more science than I have seen in past clinical settings because in all of my other settings they didn't do any science. It is just unfortunate that this is how my CT does science in her classroom. Dr. Osorio explains every single week that it is important to do hands-on experiments with them because it triggers their learning.
I will for sure use hands-on experiments and more interesting activities in my own classroom someday.
Jori,
ReplyDeleteWhile I am happy that at least kids are hearing science concepts throughout the week, like you, I am totally bummed by the fact that it appears to be so boring! Science and social studies especially are some of the best subjects for engaging, hands-on, interactive lessons. You should be so proud of leading what sounded like a science lesson that was just that. So now, thinking about your daily schedule in this setting, how could you alter the time spent on social studies/ science to incorporate more of a inquiry-based workshop model like we discuss in class? How might doing this change outcomes for these kids?
☺Kira