Allison Miller

ED617

November 20, 2017

Lessons in Practicum Rubric When You Don’t Present

Item Point(s)
Lesson plan includes all UAS template components and is organized and well-written 2
Before and after discussions with host teacher are summarized 3
Three student work artifacts are posted 2
Lesson is self-evaluated including reference to student work 3
Total 10

Professional Collaboration - When I asked my teacher to help me schedule a lesson to teach, she gave me the choice of
teaching a lesson out of the regular curriculum or designing my own lesson on the rock cycle. She said that although the
district has adopted the NGSS, they are still testing science at the fourth grade level on the rock cycle. I think it’s a bit odd
that the NGSS doesn’t include the rock cycle, seeing how the concepts about Earth Science are hinged on the concept of
cycles, nevertheless I was overjoyed to tackle designing this lesson!

Candidate Name: Allison Miller Host Teacher Name: Karen Bornheimer

School: Susan B. English Grade Level: K-6 # of Students: 19

Date & Time of Lesson: 11/15/17 Length of Lesson: 1 hour

Topic of Lesson: The Rock Cycle Content Area: Earth Science

Materials:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6bkyXvYP4jM - Untamed Science Video
A white board or chart paper to draw a diagram of the rock cycle on.
Rock Notes graphic organizer (attached)
Rock Flip game (instructions for components attached)
Rock and Roll Comic Strip sheet (attached)
Fill in the blank Rock Cycle diagram sheet (attached)

Standards:
NGSS- 4-ESS1-1. Identify evidence from patterns in rock formations and fossils in rock layers for changes in a
landscape over time to support an explanation for changes in a landscape over time.

Although the NSES has been replaced by the NGSS in the district, my host teacher said that students are still being
tested on the rock cycle at the fourth grade level.

STAGE ONE: Essential Questions and Enduring Understandings

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Enduring Understanding(s) : Essential Questions to be Considered:
Students will understand how rocks form and change in a How are different kinds of rocks made?
cycle.

STAGE ONE (con’t): STAGE TWO:

Objectives/Learning Targets (Acquisition)
Knowledge and Skills:
• Students will be able to describe the three main types
of rocks: igneous, sedimentary, metamorphic.
• Students will know how rocks form and change.
Assessments/Acceptable Evidence Of Learning
Sources of Evidence: Students will
• Keep notes in a graphic organizer (grades 3-6)
• Create a comic strip of a rock’s changes while playing
Rock Flip.
• Fill in the blanks on the Rock Cycle Diagram worksheet

STAGE THREE: Learning for Understanding/ Instructional Activities

The Rock Cycle

Pre-Requisites:
Students should have read their associated science content on Earth’s Four Systems, specifically on the Geosphere.

Introduction:
The teacher asks for a review of Earth’s Four Systems. Asks for show of hands of who knows what the cycle is called in
the hydrosphere: water cycle. Today we are going to learn about a cycle that happens within the geosphere: the Rock
Cycle. What is a Cycle? Something that happens over and over again. Does anyone have any ideas about what might
happen in the rock cycle? Show students the Untamed Science video on the Rock Cycle.
Action/ Mini-hook/connection Process: Teacher does/ Student Does Product: Assessment/
Lesson to prior learning/ Evidence of Learning
knowledge

Lesson What were the three Teacher will begin to draw a diagram on the Grades 3-6: Rock Notes
on the types of rocks you white board of the rock cycle that closely (formative)
Rock learned about in the resembles the handout they will fill out the Differentiation: Younger students
Cycle video? blanks on. Students will provide input as will be involved in discussions, but
requested by teacher. Students in grades 3-6 as this is basically an introduction
will fill out a note organizer. for them, their comprehension will
not be assessed as closely.
Rock Now we are going to Teacher introduces the separate stations and Rock Flip Comic Strip sheet
Flip pretend to be rocks that explains the procedures of the Rock Flip (formative, performance)
Game go through the different game: Differentiation: All students should
and forces that change rocks (Divide class into 3 groups) You will roll the be able to participate in this
Comic from one type to dice or flip the coin to find out what happens activity. Teachers and aides can
Strip another. We are going to to you next. MODEL THE PROCESS. help younger students by reading
play a game and create Before you move on to your next the information at each station. I
a comic strip of the transformation, draw a little picture of what have also included descriptive
changes we go through. happened to you at this station. THE BEST photos of each step in the process
COMIC STRIP GETS THIS COOL ROCK of change.
FROM MY COLLECTION. (Maybe one
prize for each age group.) Keep playing the
game until all the frames on your comic
strip are full.

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Rock Review what you Once students begin to complete their comic Rock Cycle Diagram Sheet
Cycle learned about the rock strips, the can move on to completing the (summative)
Diagram cycle by completing the last page of their packet- a representation of Differentiation: Younger students
Sheet Rock Cycle Diagram the rock cycle diagram drawn on the board will not be assessed by this
sheet. during the direct instruction section of the worksheet. Once they are finished
lesson. This fill in the blank sheet will serve drawing their comic strip, they can
as a review for the student and a summative color it.
assessment for the teacher.
Closure: Restate EQ and briefly discuss whether objectives were met.

Self-evaluation:

I felt a lot more at ease teaching this lesson than I have been in the past two lessons. I feel like I have come into
my role finally and I have begun to take ownership of the authority and influence this position can have. I feel
that my attempts to keep all students engaged really paid off. They were fully engaged in the instructional part
of the lesson. I try to involve a lot of student input when it comes to instruction so I’m not just trying to lecture
at young children, but I also was cognizant of the time constraints, so was wise in choosing which concepts to
take student input about so it didn’t take up too much time.

They were definitely engaged in the introductory video, but I’m not really sure how instructional it was for the
younger students. As my host teacher said though, this was to be more of an introduction to the ideas of rocks
changing for younger students. I might have done better to choose a Bill Nye video, but I really thought that the
video I chose did an excellent job of showing actual footage of the changes occurring (well, except for maybe
the metamorphic stage) in their natural state, where as the Bill Nye video was more of a clinical approach.
Perhaps if I had more time, I would choose to show both of them, as they both have valuable things to offer.

The rock flip game went pretty well for the older students, but it was difficult for the younger ones to really
understand what was happening to them as rocks in each station, even when older students or aides read the
transformations to them and they were accompanied by supporting illustrations. Another problem was that I
might not have explained the procedures of playing the game well enough. I went through the motions of
modeling a few turns, but some of the students didn’t understand what type of rock they were when they came
to their station. Perhaps better station labelling would have helped, as well as simpler wording for the
transformations. Either way, they seemed to be engaged in the process and didn’t rush through the turns doing
sloppy drawings of the changes as I had anticipated.

The worksheets I designed varied in success. The note taking form I created should have been better aligned
with the video because they all stopped taking notes when the video was over. Perhaps a simple reminder during
the instructional phase of the lesson would have been enough. The rock cycle diagram sheet was pretty
successful, but I’m not sure that I could count it as a real assessment. If I had more time, I would like to review
this information again at another time and give students a short quiz. I think in the next lesson I would also
include reading material for the older students and have them do independent work.

Student Artifacts:

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Michael is in 4th grade. He will be
tested this year on the rock cycle during
district standardized testing. I feel that
he has a good understanding that the
geosphere has cycles, just like the other
systems that exist on Earth. He knows
that rocks change and what forces
change them, but maybe needs more
instruction and practice on how these
forces interact.

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Faith is a sixth grader. She was tested two years ago on the rock
cycle and seems to have a good understanding of the idea of how
different forces interact to change rocks. There was a bit of
confusion for her about forces that change rocks into metamorphic
rocks, but I am not confident claiming that any of these documents
provide any kind of summative assessment.

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Lily is in second grade. She did a very thorough job of drawing the changes she went through on her journey as
a rock. I especially like the two that are cracks in the earth, exposing metamorphic rock being eroded by a river
that forms in it.

Reflection

Overall, I feel that this lesson was a great introduction to the rock cycle and the idea that rocks go through
changes. I would love to continue on with exploring the different forces and how the different systems of earth
effect one another and interact. I feel like if I had one more hour session with them, we could review and
practice these concepts and I could better assess their comprehension in a more summative way.

If I were to do this lesson over again, I’m not sure that I would include the younger students. Even though I only
gave them the comic strip assignment to complete, I feel like their participation even in the game might have
been detrimental to the entire success of the lesson. If I would have only had the older students involved, I could
have spent more of my time interacting with them on how these different forces work. Instead, a lot of my time
was spent reteaching the younger students how to play the game.
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