Unit Teaching Reflective Summary

Teacher Candidate for Science Endorsement: Alana Davis

Instructor: Marlee Tierce and Teri George
School: Mableton Elementary Grade: 5th grade
Unit Topic: Earthquakes- Earth Science
Write a 1-2 page summary of your experiences teaching this unit,
addressing the following questions:

How well were the units student performance objectives

attained? Were there opportunities for the students to develop
conceptual understanding through engaging in the learning cycle
(5Es)?

How did you use formative assessments to inform instructional

decisions during the unit?

Were the lessons/tasks scientifically worthwhile for all students?

Were there students that had difficulty achieving the goals of the
unit?

Was there evidence of a classroom culture that honors inquiry,

wrong answers, personal challenge, collaboration, and
disequilibrium as opportunities for new learning by all students?

When you have the opportunity to re-teach this unit, what will
you do differently (strategies, teaching tools, assessments, etc.)
to improve student learning for all students?

Use this page as a cover sheet for your summary.

This unit was a collaboration between myself and the Gifted

teacher at my school who is also in this cohort. The students did a
fantastic job meeting the performance objectives and they met the
standards. This unit was great because it provided hands-on learning
experiences, and it gave students the opportunity to self-direct their
learning with technology as well. Using the 5 Es learning cycle
provided my students with an authentic experience that help them
develop foundational knowledge of how earthquakes are both
constructive and destructive forces.
For this unit, we used formative assessment to attain any
misconceptions with a probe at the beginning. Additionally, we were
able to obtain more data from formative assessments during the
explain portion of the unit with a choice board that answered the
guiding question of the unit.
All of the tasks were worthwhile for students, but the choice
board activity really stood out as students chose to explain their
thinking using a multiple intelligence board. Each lesson was
beneficial as it help students to develop their knowledge of HOW
earthquakes form certain surface features, AND that they can destroy
as well. Most of my students did a great job achieving the goals of the
unit.
There were multiple opportunities in the unit for collaboration in
small group work and station labs. The students worked well together

and it was nice to see students helping one another out during the
labs.

When I teach this unit again, I believe that I will provide more
time for the extension activities. The students really enjoyed working
on the lab stations and on the choice board to explain their learning. I
know with the new science standards, there will much rigorous
collaboration and learning that needs to be achieved, so I may need to
beef up the rigor.