Science Lesson Reflection

My science lesson was focused on incorporating technology, so

some SIOP was incorporated and heavily used, while other features
were not used in the lesson. My big take away for this lesson was that
lessons do not need to have all 30 SIOP features included in them to be
a high quality lesson that encourages student learning.
Preparation
1-3 objectives and concepts- I started the lesson with reviewing
the objectives. The students knew that they were going to be
investigating reptiles with iPads. The objectives were taken from 2nd
grade science standards and so they were appropriate for the level of
the students. 4 supplementary materials and 6 meaningful activitiesthe class used iPads to learn about a reptile. Each group studied a
separate reptile and made a poster to display in the classroom. I
taught actions to help the students remember the characteristics of
reptiles and I had a PowerPoint, and examples of what I wanted them
to do. 5 adaptation of content- I grouped the students appropriately
(17) and the length of their reading passage varied by ability. One
particular student has a hard time completing any work, so I put him in
a group with a short passage and has his blanks filled in on his paper.
This made it so all he had to do was follow along.
Building background

7-8 link to background and new learning- Kaitlyn taught a lesson

an mammals the week before and I linked the characteristics of reptiles
to what they had learned the week before about mammals. I did not
do 7 very well; I did not link the lesson to their backgrounds. I didnt
know how to do that for this lesson because they were to be
investigating the animals in small groups. I know this could have been
stronger. 9 vocabulary- I used some vocabulary words that they had
learned the week before such as characteristic. Internal and external
features were introduced as new vocabulary and examples were given
of each. I feel like I did a good job providing the students with the
vocabulary they would need to be successful.
Comprehensible Input
10 speech-I used speech that was appropriate for the students
level and for 11- I gave clear explanations with examples for what they
were to do. But this was the first time I taught a lesson with this set up
and it seemed to me that they would just get into the groove of the
task and I would have to stop them to give new instructions to move
onto the next part of the lesson. That made the speech and
explanations tricky because it was sort of choppy. 12 variety of
techniques- I think I did this really well. They did a hands on animal
sort prior to using the iPads, and again, I had examples and visual aids.
Strategies

13 learning strategies- I know I did not do this very well for this
lesson, but I do not think the set up of this lesson was conducive for
implementing a variety of strategies. They were to investigate a
reptile and create a poster for display as a group. I will have to learn
more about learning strategies as a professional in order to implement
more strategies in the future. 14 scaffolding- the most scaffolding I
gave students was the fill in the blank paper. As they read the
information from the QR code, they had the same passage on their
papers and had to fill in the blank as they went. I know this was a
weak point in the lesson, but I was supposed to let them investigate
and learn on their own so I do not know what to do differently. 15questions-I know when we were discussing internal and external
features, I asked them to think of those two types of features. That is
the only time I remember asking questions like that and I know I could
have asked more probing questions at the end, or had them reflect on
what they learned individually.
Interaction
16 interaction and 17 grouping were very strong points in this
lesson because the majority of the lesson was focused on group work.
I created the groups ahead of time and assigned a reptile to each
group. The groups investigated together, discussed features and
selected three of them to put on their poster. These features were very
prominent in this lesson and made it a strong learning for the groups.

18 wait time- was not implemented during this lesson due to the
independent group work. I did not have questions or concepts that
required students to have wait time to answer. 19 L1 clarificationstudents were able to clarify and speak together almost the entire time
in their L1. This feature does not really apply to the contextual factors
of the classroom.
Practice/Application
20 hands on materials-As the lesson activities have been
described, this feature was prominent in the lesson. Every activity
they did was hands on. 21 apply knowledge to the classroom- looking
at my evaluation, I received a 4 on this feature and I do not know why.
Honestly, I do not understand this feature. What does it mean to apply
knowledge to the classroom? If it means for students to talk about it
within the classroom, then that is all they did. I know that I need to
study this feature more to truly know how to implement it into my
lessons. 22- students applied all language skills for this lesson. They
listened to me, read, wrote and spoke to each other to complete the
planned activities.
Lesson Delivery
23-24 content and language objectives- The objectives were met,
because students investigated internal and external features of reptiles
that help them survive in their habitats and they drew the reptile and
wrote 3 features. 25 engaged- The students were highly engaged and I

think it is because they got to use iPads and it was something out of
the ordinary. Regardless, I feel that they were engaged and staying on
task the majority of the time. 26 pacing-due to the set up of this
lesson, pacing was hard. If I were to teach this lesson again, I would
have a time limit set on the investigation and I think that would help
the pacing. Also, I think it was a lot of information to give the students
in one lesson. I would split the lesson into two or maybe even three
smaller lessons in the future. I think that would improve student
retention of the material.
Review/Assessment
27 & 28 review of vocabulary and content- I know this was a
weak part in the lesson. Again it was due to the lesson structure. As
groups finished their investigation, I had them start on their posters, so
I had to stop their poster work to review so I could give them their
assessment. So it interrupted their productive group work. I
mentioned setting a time limit next time and so all the groups would
be done with the investigation at the same time. Then I would review
and assess and after that, they would begin their posters. In the
future, I will not be afraid to try new things, but I will be flexible and
adapt them when needed to meet the needs of my students. If it were
my classroom, I would have let them work on their posters until lunch
and then reviewed and assessed after lunch. 29 feedback- As each
group was working individually, I went from group to group checking on

them and we discussed their animal. I also gave feedback praising

their effort and hard work, or corrective feedback to help them refocus
to get back on task. 30 assessment-The assessment portion in this
lesson was strong because they had their individual assessment but
they also had a group assessment or the poster. I was able to look at
the finished posters to see if they understood what internal and
external features were.
I administered a pretest the week before and the class average
was 20%. When I graded their posttests the class average increased
to a 70%. I know that by using SIOP in this lesson their learning
increased. I know that some features were weak or even not used in
the lesson but some features were highlighted such as interaction and
hands on materials. I think having them work together allowed
opportunities for discussion, exploration and this resulted in the
construction of knowledge. The reason so many students did not do
better on the assessment is due to lack of understanding the word
characteristic and not having a place on the second portion for the
students to list 3 features. In the future, I would add an action (making
a c with my hand) for characteristics to help them remember that the
actions we were doing were the characteristics of reptiles. The second
thing I would adapt is the assessment. I did not have a place for them
to list the chosen features and I think that confused them, so some
students didnt label any features.

One of the most valuable takeaways I took from this lesson is

that lessons can be revised each time they are taught to make them
better. I know this lesson wasnt perfect and that means SIOP was not
perfect, but I can improve it. This was still a good lesson because
student learning occurred but I know it could be better. Adjusting the
SIOP in this lesson is key to increase student learning.