Assessing Prior Knowledge and Planning Instruction
Prior to this lesson, students need to know what a fossil is. We will be watching a video on how a fish fossil is formed but only very briefly to remind students. Prior knowledge and experience will be assessed when we are having a group discussion and adding new vocabulary such as paleontologists. Depending on how much input the students contribute to the discussion will decide how much time we need to spend going over previous information learned and the addition of the excavation process. This content is appropriate for third graders because it explores history and science while doing a fun activity that they can remember the information their entire life. The objectives I have for the lesson align with the standards by students filling out the KWL chart before the activity where they are forming questions based on their prior knowledge, recording their data with cameras of their fossil findings, and explaining the decay process and what comes next for the dead plant or animal. The lesson will be taught after learning the life cycles of plants and animals so they understand the whole process of how things start and end.
Designing Instruction (InTask Standards 7 and 8):
I am using the instructional methods that I have described because it provides a variety of ways for students to learn the information. We will be watching a short video, taking data ourselves, having group discussions, practicing the skill, and reflecting. Students will learn by talking with others and sharing ideas when first discussing the job of a paleontologist and then also experiencing (as much as we can) what they do hands on. I am engaging students in creative and higher order thinking by letting them take their own pictures to record their excavation and then having them answer questions that reflect on their experience and what they found.
Planning Assessment (InTask Standard 6):
The assessment aligns with the standards and objectives of this lesson by the students filling out a KWL chart to identify the key terms they already know and will learn about fossils, showing me they know what happens to dead plants and animals from the class discussions, and by answering the questions about paleontologists and how they find and extract fossils. The assessment shows student success when they can individually extract chocolate chips from the cookies using a toothpick like a real paleontologist extracts bones from the ground. The students will be assessed individually, in groups, and as a class whole.
How does your lesson meet each of the ISTE NETs Standards?
My lesson meets standard 1 by giving the students the required information and tools to expand their creativity and learning through the freedom of the activity. This is not a quiet or individual task. The students will use their own findings as well as other's observations to from, record, and explain the ins and outs of fossils and paleontologists. My lesson meets standard 2 by using a video to stimulate prior knowledge, using the internet to dig deeper and ask more questions while filling out ones I provided, and by using cameras to record their experience to look back on while answering questions. My lesson meets standard 3 by me modeling the video on my own computer for them to watch, me learning alongside with them on problems that arise during an excavation (such as a tool or toothpick breaking), and me checking their pictures and reflections via internet. My lesson meets all four elements of standard 4 by not taking inappropriate pictures or going on websites that are unrelated to our topic of the day, coming up with alternative solutions to the same activity and objective goal for students who need modifications, and bringing in the history/cultural point of fossil digging and the different locations paleontologists go to to find human, plant, and animal remains.
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