Lesson Notes:
Have students compare methods, pick several students to present method and set up practical. Discuss things such as potential errors and how to avoid them. To write results and conclusion: Result, what you saw, why, any errors if it didn’t work, relate back to the aim. Hydrogen peroxide oxygen and water, manganese dioxide catalyst Reflection: Students were very unsettled and so I had them sit and write some things to settle them. I asked some students present their method and go through the practical and talk about safety and predicted results. I enforced students finishing their method before proceeding with the practical by making some show me before they could begin. Unfortunately students were not working well and on task and two test tubes were broken before my mentor and I stepped in and stopped the practical completely. I was unsure just how hard to be, as the class was usually really good so I let him take over to see how the situation could be handled. My mentor explained to the class how the noise level was too high so students had stopped working safely and the practical was stopped in case anyone got hurt. Then he made them write down 3 safety rules and then a result and conclusion based on groups who had completed the experiment. It was good to see this process, having students understand the seriousness of their actions but not getting angry or lecturing them too long. For some reason the class was just having a bad day! Lesson Notes:
Discuss atoms and molecules. Have students write a definition for these terms and check. Reflection: I tried to have students explore information and create summaries instead of being so structured and delivering content to them. It sort of worked, I made them plan their own summary table with dot points instead of headings, many of them were fine with the task but a few needed scaffolding. Even though I had been through all the information previously, instead of re hashing everything, I had them find the information in the text book. My mentor commented it was better to have them copy things rather than possibly form misconceptions and I explained my ideas to trial strategies we had been taught at Uni. I discussed safety issues and the practical side of the investigation but asked students to read the practical method before doing it, most went ahead and started and then got struck. I used this as an example for the importance of following instructions. I was hoping they were a little more mature and could work it out, but I needed to go through it step by step. We ran out of time to complete the next practical so instead focused on planning and writing a method based on the previous investigation. I found by having instructions on the board and things to go on with saved repeating myself or having to gain the whole class attention all the time. By setting them homework to finish in class activities had them working more productively. I’m also learning the art to gradually packing up my things in the last few minutes as they are not needed so I can go when the bell goes too! Overall behaviour was really good. Reflection:
The sequence and range of activities worked really well, having the students doing the most productive and larger volume of work first and then having a break and activity as the double lesson went on. I made sure to check homework and follow through on giving detentions when the student had already used their warning. I had 3 girls disappear for over 5 minutes when getting their books so I made them stay back at lunch those 5 minutes and had a talk about their behaviour. The class worked fairly well, I told them their homework early so they had the opportunity to finish in class. Some students negotiated to finish the questions in class instead of doing the activity as they had commitments after school which I was happy for them to do. We had a short break outside and played a new game, I picked topics for students to name items about. We got through about 6-7 rounds before the novelty wore off and was surprised at some of the knowledge the students had! The smartie activity worked well but I will need to modify the worksheet next time as a few of the questions weren’t very well explained. I had groups enter their data on a spread sheet which we can discuss further next lesson. Lesson Notes:
Have students suggest uses for hydrogen and oxygen Student task: Create a table with gas, symbol, properties and uses – not enough time, do next lesson as recap instead. Look at water with molecular models, breaking bonds is a chemical reaction Demonstration of hydrolysis Reflection: Lesson 5 is always a challenge to focus my students, I had lots of activities planned to engage students and tried to involve them as much as possible. I tried harder to be on top of behaviour management with lots of supportive actions such as name dropping, using the wait technique and lots of praise and clear instructions. The students seemed to enjoy the lesson although I had to work hard to gain their attention and even threaten to move students. I spent time clarifying a concept I had found they had not quite understood clearly about dissolving being a physical reaction and showed them a video clip and late used a role play to concrete the idea. We’ll see if it was effective this time! Notes:
Quiz - peer marked but collected to keep students accountable and to gauge student learning on percentages so far. Opportunity to ask about assignment with remaining time in lesson. Put up questions to be completed for students who finish early or chance to look at assignment. Reflection: The students were far more settled then I imagined after a mid-semester break! I had designed a quiz to assess student learning and focus them (which was not as necessary as I thought!). Quite a few of the students struggled with the same questions so we will revisit them this week. Also I set homework to ensure everyone is up to the same level which is some of the feedback I received from the students about not setting much homework and giving clearer direction where I expect them to be up to. During class time I gave them options to work on the assignment or finish their homework questions and wandered around to help individuals. I liked giving them the choice of activities depending on where they felt they needed the most time. I tried to manage the noise level better and was a little stricter on students staying on task, another point raised in the student feedback about controlling the class better. I had promised the students time to ask any questions about their assignment and once they had settled, were a little reluctant to stop! I let them work for longer but needed to stop if we were to play any games.
I found it really easy to explain the rules of the game, Who wants to be a Millionaire? And the students grasped the concept very quickly and started adapting strategies. I needed to make the questions more difficult so they needed to use lifelines and teamwork. Having cards was a great way of tracking which teams had used lifelines and were out. 15 questions was perfect! Worked well. Lesson Notes:
Recap last lesson – observations of burning steel wool, equation writing and revisit role play with molecules on powerpoint. Check students have copied slide 25 from last lesson Practical and answer check questions Talk about reaction rate Refer to burning steel wool, vinegar and sodium bicarb in bottle versus sugar and sulphuric acid reaction took 10 minutes. Wanted and unwanted reactions Feedback: Reflection: Today’s lesson went really well, I felt the students were engaged and happy to be doing their own experiments. I covered theory at the start while I had their attention and they remembered the key ideas I was trying to get across and now that they have done several experiments and seen some demonstrations I am able to start linking things together and use examples of things they have seen. The students finished the practical a little quicker then I predicted and so finished their observations and some questions while I set up the aspirin rate practical for the end of the lesson. I monitored their productivity by constantly checking their work and asking to see completed work before they could go to recess. I set up the aspirin demo in three groups and had them report their findings in a table on the board and we discussed variables, how to make it a fair test, observations, signs of a chemical reaction, linked it to particle theory and found a relationship between temperature and rate. My mentor jumped in a few times to explicitly link ideas back to what they had previously learnt in other topics which I was grateful for as I wasn’t sure which level to pitch content at. Things to remember next time:
Lesson Notes:
2.6 Writing percentages as fractions and decimals pg 128 Board example: 20% = 20/100 =1/5 ½% = ½ = 0.5% = 0.5/100 = 1/200 or 1/2% = ½ / 100 = ½ x 1/100 = 1/200 Reflection: I wanted to spend the first lesson working on the assignment: Sam’s skate shop with the students, many had little or no Excel skills. I got them all started where we left off and many started working at their own pace so I stopped talking out the front and just referred to the screen when it seemed necessary and moved around the classroom helping individuals and small groups. I used the due date for the assignment as motivation to work in class as it was hard to ensure all students were on task all the time when they were using laptops. The students seemed to enjoy the task and were all working really well. I gave them clear time frames to work and encouraged them to work on the assignment for homework as there would be opportunity to ask questions on Friday’s lesson. We then went out into the shared space to play a game for a break, some feedback was that I perhaps could have explained the rules in the classroom before moving off. It took longer than expected so I skipped the online game I had organised to calm them down after and moved straight on to the next part of the lesson. I had students recap the work we did last time and briefly gave an example of the new content before setting them to work. Several students were struggling with the new concept so I did an additional example for them, next time I would have them move forward so I could monitor the class better. The students were becoming off task quicker as the lesson was nearly finished so I had to move one student after a few warnings and also set a minimum question limit for them to go to lunch with a time warning. This could have probably been more questions then I set. The students wanted to race off when the bell rang but I hadn’t gotten to give my last instructions due to waiting for attention so I made them wait until I had finished which worked really well! Feedback: Rogan Tinsley Lesson Notes
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