Reflection

A whole group lesson is a great way to incorporate all the students and the teacher within
the lesson. Large-group time gives children opportunities to practice skills such as talking to a
group, listening to their classmates, responding appropriately with questions or comments,
working cooperatively, and using and processing new information (Copple & Bredekamp, 2009,
p. 39). I think whole group lessons are beneficial because the students can learn how to work
together as a community with guidance from the teacher. However, whole group lessons should
not be too long because students can lose focus fairly quickly. According to Lemlech (2010), if
the teacher can hold students attention, the teacher will be the sole and continuing signal source
(p.61).
For my whole group lesson, I was able to incorporate several teaching strategies such as
asking questions that provoked students thinking, acknowledging their answers, giving specific
directions and feedback. I also encouraged the students to try to best when they were struggling
on this activity. I started off my lesson by telling the students what we will be focusing on and
gave them directions on what to do. I asked the students questions about what they knew about
plant structures and I allowed them to ask me questions also. I think I did a good job
acknowledging the students answers by writing what they had to say about a plant structure on
the SmartBoard so that their classmates can see it.
I think that my whole group lesson is developmentally appropriate for the students in my
class. Though, I would have liked to be able to do more of a hands-on whole group activity since
it is a science lesson. My mentor teacher wanted me to show the video on BrainPop Jr. However,
I was able to incorporate a lesson that allowed the students to express their knowledge through
creative arts. I believe that children learn better by actively participating in a variety of activities.

It is developmentally appropriate when teachers use a variety of strategies to help children

develop important scientific concepts and skills (Copple & Bredekamp, 2009, p. 315).
Overall, I think that my lesson went well. It was hard to get the students interested in
plants until I showed the video on BrainPop Jr. The students were able to answer my questions
very well and they were all wanting to share their answers with me so I can write it down. I think
that it was a good idea for me to leave the different parts of the plants on the SmartBoard for the
students to look at so that they did not have to ask me what they had define. However, one thing
that that did not go well was having the students draw their own plants, because I felt like
everyone drew a tree. I anticipated on a variety of plants, like trees, flowers, vegetables, and so
on. If I were to do this lesson again, I would probably come up with the definitions as a whole
class. The standard that I chose to create this lesson was Describe structures of plants (e.g.,
roots, leaves, stems, flowers, seeds) (LS-E-A3). From this activity, the students were able to
meet the standard by describing the different parts of a plant and understanding the function that
it has.