Student Teaching Reflection 4

This week we are starting to prepare students for a Socratic Seminar! this is the first time

my master teacher has done a seminar for a formal assessment instead of a test. She had said that

she had attempted to do seminars, but students had always struggled and never quite got the gasp

of the seminar. I had decided to challenge these students and do a seminar since this unit would

be smaller than other units. This unit would only be a week long, since it is a new unit to the

standards and does not have the development that other units have.

Students will be learning about genetic technology such as CRISPR and epigenetics. This

week students had worked on group activities, notes, and watched a video on different variations

of genetics and how these genetics change over time. Students also learned that there are many

different kinds of genetically modified organisms and that it does not always mean a bad thing.

This was done by watching a vide on corn and how corn has been genetically modified. This

week consisted of giving students basic knowledge of genetic modification and how this process

can happen, both artificially and naturally.

Students seemed to enjoy these lessons and had showed a lot of interest in the subject.

They really started to entertain the idea of genetically modified food when I showed them a

video on the development of corn, especially because it included the idea of Punnett Squares that

they had just learned. I had also brought in some apples from my tree and an apple from the store

to show them the difference between genetically modified vs organic apples. The students were

shocked at how small the apple was compared to the store bought one. This seemed to have

radiated with them because they kept bringing it up in their small groups discussions. I also left it

on the table for students to look at on their own time if they wanted to.
 The goal this week was to develop a unit on my own. In the past I had used material that

my master teacher had created and put together. She saved everything she does every year for the

students so that she can use them again for the next year. This is great because it allows a teacher

to have all the materials they need, but she also adds to her materials every year with new

experiments and assignments to change up her lessons to match the new standards and based on

students understanding of the lesson. I had decided to develop with unit since it is new in the

standards. I had used materials from HHMI and Pearson’s website. In the past HHMI lessons

have worked well with my students. They seem to like how they are developed based on what

the students already know, and build upon that knowledge to more complex ideas. They had

done well with HHMI based unit for Genetics, so using HHMI for this unit was key to help them

develop their knowledge of epigenetics.

It had been hard to develop this lesson to fit within a week time frame, but has been

working well so far. Next week the students will only have two days to finish prepping for the

Socratic Seminar and read some more articles that they can use as reference. This is an important

step for the seminar since they need to cite their information and not just give baseless claims. I

am also worried that this would not be enough time to prepare my students for the seminar, so

my goal for the next week so to continue to prepare the students for the seminar so that they are

ready and feel prepared.