The middle school observations (Grades 7-8) were done at M.S. 368 of In-Tech Academy.
School Website: http://intech-academy.org/
The high school observations (Grades 9-12) were done at the Bronx High School of Science.
School Website: http://www.bxscience.edu/
School Website: http://intech-academy.org/
The high school observations (Grades 9-12) were done at the Bronx High School of Science.
School Website: http://www.bxscience.edu/
Field Experience Journal Entries
In-Tech Academy - M.S. 368:
Subject: General Science Grade level: 8
Session: 1 Date/time: 4/20/2012 – Period 3
Topic Summary – The students were trying to review types of rocks and their properties in earth science. According to the teacher, the students performed inadequately on a test during spring break and the teacher thought it necessary to review. For example, sedimentary rocks and their properties, where they are found and used in daily life, etc.
Strategy Used – During this session I observed and did not interact with the students. The teacher handed out rocks in the beginning of class; the sponge activity seemed to be to write down observations about each rock that was given. The students took almost more than ten minutes to do this, which was way more than the previous class. The teacher kept having to redirect the students and she kept telling them positive things, such as “I know you are better than this” but it did not really make the students work any harder or faster.
Reflection – I honestly felt bad for the entire class including the teacher. This was the second period in a row she had taught this class and this specific class seemed to have a hard time completing any activity or answering any question. The class was very large and there were about seven to nine students in one group. In fact, in one group that was this large, the students pulled up chairs and shared desks. If I were to teach this class, I would ask for a larger classroom, considering the safety issues that would arise during a lab experiment or emergency. I also would not give out rocks to each group, since most of the students played with them and made noise with them. It did improve making observations, but for that matter I would just line up all of the rocks on the demonstration desk where everyone could see and if anyone needed any closer looks, they would have to ask to see in which only one student at a time would be able to quickly go up to the desk and hold the rock to look at it closer. I am not sure if the seats were arranged but I would make sure to arrange seats at the beginning, middle and end of every school year. The teacher gave out a worksheet later on in class, which was to be completed for homework because the students could not finish that assignment in class. In addition, I would have the students work in pairs instead of individually.
Subject: Honors Life Science Grade level: 7
Session: 2 Date/time: 4/20/2012 – Period 5
Topic Summary – These students, who were primarily made up of girls, were studying the nervous system. The teacher said they were worn out from testing all week, so they were going to continue watching a documentary on extraordinary people who have unique brains and nervous systems that psychologists and doctors and brain scientists were studying and testing to find out more about the nervous system. The unique real-life people consisted of a blind man that could see with his tongue and a woman that had half a brain but functioned almost completely normally in her life and wanted to succeed in the Special Olympics.
Strategy Used – There was no obvious strategy used but the teacher would pause the documentary, which was viewed on a projector screen connected to her laptop, and ask the students questions that related to their previous lessons or explain any concepts that she thought may have been too complex for the students to understand. I actually paid attention to the documentary myself and did notice it was intended for an older audience than seventh graders. I could picture this documentary being appropriate in a high school and even college setting. This teacher did not have to redirect some of her students more than twice throughout the whole lesson. She answered questions at the beginning, middle and end of class.
Reflection – It was a real pleasure being in this classroom and watching the students inquire about things that they saw in the documentary. They were considered an “Honors” class because they were ahead of the rest of their peers, but in reality the teacher told me that they were just meeting most of the standards and that a select few were exceeding them. However, these students seemed very eager to learn and I would try and challenge them by promoting more inquiry in that classroom, which I saw a lack of. I felt a great vibe full of creativity in those students and would want to try lesson plans that allow activities that would promote their individuality or simply guide them to learn on their own through research projects. I am not sure if the teacher has already done so, but I picture the students excelling in and enjoying the WebQuest I recently looked up on the lake monsters of the world.
Subject: Life Science - Special Education Grade level: 7
Session: 3 Date/time: 4/20/2012 – Period 6
Topic Summary – These students were on the same level of watching the documentary as the previous class. They were going to continue watching a documentary on extraordinary people who have unique brains and nervous systems whom psychologists and doctors and brain scientists were studying and testing to find out more about the nervous system. The unique real-life people consisted of a blind man that could see with his tongue and a woman that had half a brain but functioned almost completely normally in her life and wanted to succeed in the Special Olympics.
Strategy Used – Because this was a Special Ed class, there was another teacher in the room in addition to the regular teacher that taught the previous class, Ms. Defino. The students in this class were very ill behaved. I was dreadfully reminded of my personal experiences as a student during middle school. The teacher constantly had to redirect and even scold the students. Some students slept, others could literally not sit still, some were extremely distracted and most of them simply wanted to socialize with their neighbors. During one incident, Ms. Defino told a boy and girl to stop chatting (they were disrupting others from paying attention to the film) and eventually she told the two to separate, or “move.” The girl only moved one seat over and was still close enough to continue the conversation with the male student, which she did. This angered the teacher and she proceeded to threaten the student by saying she would call the dean, or principal. After a good loud five minutes of the student being disobedient, the teacher left the classroom, got an assistant principal, and then came back into the room to escort the student out to the assistant principal in the hallway and the student did not return. Both teachers consistently scolded and redirected their students, especially those that kept talking or making noise, such as banging on the desk or kicking other students under the desk. One student, who kept asking so many great questions, intrigued me and every time he talked to others it was on the topic of the documentary but this distracted his classmates. Unfortunately, to keep the class on track, both teachers dismissed his questions and I could tell that he felt somewhat neglected and disappointed. If I were teaching the class, I would tell the student to write down every single question he had, which I would hope kept him quiet so his classmates could pay better attention and so that he remained focused. I asked the teacher at the end of the class if the students were in arranged seats, and to my surprise she said yes! She said the students were arranged based on their IEP’s and there was no better way to arrange them. She also noted that some students help others at their table, since there were desks together to form tables in this classroom, and that the students somewhat know each other’s weaknesses and work on them together. For example, for the student that was sleeping throughout the class, the teacher told me he was only required to learn at least 50% of the lesson every day and when he does, he just falls asleep or blankly stares into space while his neighbor writes down information that he needs to know for the next class. There was also a student who the teacher felt was wrongly placed into special education because he was so bright. I did not interact with the students in this class, but told the teacher I would have loved to help the students with their work the next time I am in the classroom, which the teacher agreed to.
Reflection – I was surprised that this class and the Honors class were on the same level. I understand giving the students some kind of break during testing week by a less direct approach to teach, but I was also told by the teacher that the students were around the same place in learning. I understand being in the same position in learning but the previous class should be challenged more. Maybe the students will struggle in the beginning but after they have had experience in critical thinking and problem solving, challenges should be enjoyable. I guess this is true for all students, despite their level. I really wish I had a chance to teach this class and interact with these students. I admit that I would not know how to deal with the girl who rudely disobeyed the teacher’s directions, but I probably would have given her a specific seat to move to, since I had a feeling that she would only move a seat away. There was another student in the class who looked like he was at least 15 years old, because of his striking facial hair and he was very bored throughout the entire class. He also was escorted out. It seemed that every student had very different interests, as is probably the case for most classrooms, and to keep these students’ attention, I would probably use something that they are interested in. The documentary was not interesting enough for most students. Maybe they would be more interested with something that had to do with pop culture or social media or music. Perhaps bringing up rapper 50 cent’s survival after being shot nine times, (including the face neck and body) and showing how that affected his body systems would keep the students’ attention, considering this is an urban school.
Subject: Life Science – ELL Grade level: 7
Session: 4 Date/time: 4/20/2012 – Period 7
Topic Summary – These students were on the same level of watching the documentary as the previous class. They were going to continue watching a documentary on extraordinary people who have unique brains and nervous systems whom psychologists and doctors and brain scientists were studying and testing to find out more about the nervous system. The unique real-life people consisted of a blind man that could see with his tongue and a woman that had half a brain but functioned almost completely normally in her life and wanted to succeed in the Special Olympics. However, in the beginning of class, students were required to go over a worksheet that was due as homework that had students discuss terms of the nervous system as well as processes.
Strategy Used – These were the English Language Learners group. Like every other class, Ms. Defino, who taught this class alone, told me the seats were arranged. I heard her speak Spanish every once in a while, which I thought helped her relate to the students better. I constantly kept hearing Spanish as I noticed that the students were all of Hispanic descent. Some students that I heard speak fluent Spanish also spoke fluent English, whereas only a few students spoke broken or little English. This was a class that also needed to be constantly redirected. For them, as well as the previous class, the students did not find the material interesting and were constantly waiting for chances to interact with other and not focus on the worksheet. Watching the documentary did not prove to be helpful to these students, but rather, a waste of time.
Reflection – It is not hard to relate science to language. For the nervous system, one could teach how the brain recognizes languages and sounds, which would integrate psychology in it as well phonetics, linguistics and ELA. One detail of that concept is that babies are born with every phonetic sound, and what they perfect, or what language they learn, is based on the language that is spoken to them and around them. This also ties to development. This applies to the students because although they were Hispanic, they were not all from the same country and each Spanish-speaking country has its own dialect. For example, some Spanish speakers do not roll their r’s. I would also incorporate geography by having the class study and research the climate as well as native flora and fauna of different countries of the world (maybe through a WebQuest) into my lessons, especially if I was on an ecology unit. I would expect that this would give our class a good vibe towards international people.
Bronx High School of Science:Subject: Subject: Honors Biology Grade level: 9
Session: 5 Date/time: 2/10/2012 – Period 7
Topic Summary – In this class, students were learning about the immune system. They mainly discussed vaccines and how they work in the body, as well as why vaccines are important. Around the end of the period, the teacher, Dr. Unger, drew two graphs on the board about the success rate of a certain vaccine and asked the students to interpret the trends.
Strategy Used – In this class, I observed true inquiry. The students went back and forth with the teacher on questions, answers, and ideas that all related to the topic of the immune system and its functions. The teacher did not write much on the board, and when she did it was vocabulary that she did not always include the definition and later on in the lesson, she drew two graphs that described the success rates of a particular vaccine and asked the students to interpret the trends. Even at the beginning of class, the aim was given by the students based on their answers of the do-now. The teacher often used terms such as “infer,” “hypothesize,” and “predict” which acted as cues to refer to scientific thinking. The students were given a worksheet as an independent practice for homework to be completed by the next class.
Reflection – I really loved the way this class was taught because there was a true feeling of learning in the class. The fact that the teacher focused heavily on vaccines and common illnesses such as the common cold related to the students and they were obviously interested in learning more. The only part of this lesson that I would modify is how notes were given. Students were not given notes except for the handout as homework at the end and whatever was drawn on the board including the graphs. I thought the graphs were very important to student learning because students need to be able to interpret graphs in biology in order to create them during their own experiments. I would try to include reading and/or creating graphs in every unit. I would also organize the notes better on the board and include written definitions. To keep inquiry throughout the class, I would ask students for the definition of a term and then ask them to write it on the board.
Subject: Genetics Grade level: 12
Session: 6 Date/time: 2/10/2012 – Period 9
Topic Summary – These students were studying plant reproduction, defining terms such as alternation of generations, stigma, ovum, etc. This class is only offered to seniors and its prerequisites are AP biology, and that class’ prerequisite is biology. Hence, the students had to have taken two years of biology to enroll in this course, which was optional as long as the prerequisites were taken. The lesson observed on this day acted as a review. The students also touched upon Mendelian genetics at the end of class.
Strategy Used – First of all, the classroom’s physical setting did not promote learning. There were four rows of tables with computers under and hoods that protected the computer screen, but depending on what angle of the classroom the teacher was at, students could easily hide and use their phones under the hoods, which is what some were doing. Also, the teacher drew a plant and labeled some of its important structures, such as the stigma, but this was the most helpful strategy that she used to teach this lesson. Overall, even from a biology major’s point of view, the lesson was extremely boring. There was definitely evidence of inquiry since the teacher, Dr. Wheeler, did ask the students questions, but overall the lesson was a review. She later came to me saying that the students should be quicker in answering her questions and how she was surprised many forgot the basics from AP and regular biology. There were times she had to redirect the students, but never scolded them. She was mainly in front of the classroom. In addition to the crowded rows of tables in the middle of the classroom, there were four large lab desks – two in the front and two in the back – that four other students sat at because there was no other room. The students in the front had the most trouble since they often got the teacher’s back or side. There was only one white board in the classroom and it was very small – after the teacher wrote something, she had to erase it shortly to continue to add new information.
Reflection – Most of the time, students answered the teacher’s questions with some hesitation. This is also the last period of the day, as the students seemed very bored and restless, so a class of this caliber probably should not be taught at this time. However, to engage students (because they rarely wanted to engage in discussion with the teacher) I would have them do some kind of hands-on activity. I also suggest group work since many students were talking to each other. I could also imagine a field trip to the botanical gardens for this class. The students could be divided into groups and assigned a specific flower where they would research information about it (where it is native, where else it is found, what are its predators and its reproductive success rate as well as any unique fact or method to their reproduction). This would be difficult though, considering this is the last class of the day but I assume it would be possible to organize this as a weekend activity with the permission of administration and parents. In addition, instead of asking students what they remember about genetics in plant reproduction and asking them to recall facts, I would have the students do Punnett squares in pairs as the guided practice. The “Do-now” would ask them to recall how plants reproduce, and the sponge activity would be for the students to label parts of a plant, in which a giant anatomical diagram of a flower would have lines pointing to the areas of the flower students would have to know. Dr. Wheeler asked many questions during her direct instruction, but that took up the entire class.