Whitney Dwyer

SED 759.02: Curriculum and Instruction 1

12/20/10
Dr. Larry Horvath
3 Day Solo Teach Assignment

Planning Commentary

1. What is the central focus of the learning segment (3 Day Solo teach)? Apart from being present in
the school curriculum, student academic content standards, or ELD standards, why is the content of
the learning segment important for your particular students to learn? (TPE 1)

The purpose of this learning segment is to use a real world situation in order to collect data,

analyze data, draft a hypothesis, test a hypothesis, and draw a conclusion. While performing this

epidemiological investigation students will martial the use of the scientific method and statistical

analysis skills in a way that is applicable to other academic areas beyond biology. The primary focus

of this learning segment is to first introduce the scientific field of epidemiology, what it is used for,

why it is important, and what epidemiologists do. Students will be studying a gastroenteritis

outbreak and thus will also be taught the symptoms, sources, incubation period, and common terms

used to describe gastroenteritis. The introductory class will serve the purpose of not only giving

background on epidemiology and gastroenteritis but will also act as a hook to engage students in the

unit by demonstrating how biology is real and closely connected to their lives.

Being that my school is extremely interdisciplinary, it is important that there is a common thread

amongst all of the content areas. The thread that ties this unit to humanities as well as their

specialized interest-based internship is the skill of analysis. Whether students are drafting project

proposals, or writing analytical essays they must always analyze data or evidence in support of a

claim or an argument. Although the source of the data, appearance of the material, and subject matter

of epidemiology is different, they will be able to use their prior knowledge of analysis from other

areas of study and build upon it through the use of statistics and scientific inquiry. This approach will
 help students disinterested in biology to still be able to engage with the material while still giving

students interested in biology, who are a minority in my class, vital analytical skills for their future

biological studies.

2. How do key learning tasks in your plans build on each other to support student learning of science
concepts, inquiry skills, and the development of related academic language? How will students use
the science concepts and inquiry skills to make sense of one or more real world phenomena?
Describe specific strategies that help build student learning across the learning segment/3 Day Solo
Teach. Reference the instructional materials you have included, as needed. (TPEs 1, 4, 9)

The majority of instruction is group-work based which will allow students to discuss ideas

amongst each other, rather than being dependent on me as their teacher to tell them what is right and

what is wrong. This will induce intellectual science based debates which will allow them to use

academic language amongst each other and will push them to deep more deeply about their theories

based on their peers responses. Students will also use their peers as resources to get clarity about

any concepts that were not clear to them, which is easier to do in a small group setting as appose to

whole class setting.

Throughout the learning segment students will perform the exact steps that epidemiologists

follow in real life occurrences of an outbreak. The data comes from an actual gastroenteritis outbreak

that occurred in Oregon in the early 1990s. Although gastroenteritis will be the major focus of this

learning segment, parallels between other outbreaks such as cholera in Haiti, bird flu, and HIV/AIDS

will be made in order to demonstrate the importance of epidemiology and to excite inquiry around

the study of other diseases. So that through learning about gastroenteritis students will also learn

about how different viruses and parasites spread throughout communities and why it is important to

practice various precautions.

Each day of the learning segment uses different instructional strategies to activate learning. Day

one, which is mostly introduction, will use a PowerPoint presentation as a guide with intermittent
 breaks that allow students to reflect both through writing and verbally with peers. There is also a

considerable amount of time built into each lesson plan for group work. In addition to the benefits

listed before, group work forces students who would otherwise participate passively to interact with

the academic content while also giving me an opportunity to give more support to students who need

it but may not appear to need support during direct instruction. I will also require the students to

chorally repeat any new terminology I introduce, this will allow them to become more comfortable

with scientific vocabulary and give me an opportunity to make sure students know the correct

pronunciation of the terms. I will also check for understanding by occasionally asking true false or

close ended questions and gathering responses by show of a thumb up or thumb down.

Throughout the learning segment students are progressively called upon to do higher levels of

thinking. Students will begin the learning segment by collecting data. From there they will decide

which pieces of data seem significant. They will use that data to draw histograms and spot maps to

help translate the data into a form that is easier to analyze. Once they analyze their spot maps,

histograms, and epidemic curves they will begin to draw hypothesis. By going about the curriculum

in this manner, students are beginning by looking at data that is given to them, manipulating that

data, analyzing it, to then synthesize everything they have collected and their prior knowledge to

compose a hypothesis.

3. How do your choices of instructional strategies, materials, and the sequence of learning tasks reflect
your students backgrounds, interests, and needs? Be specific about how your knowledge of your
students informed the lesson plans, such as the choice of text or materials used in lessons, how
groups were formed or structured, using student learning or experiences (in or out of school) as a
resource, or structuring new learning to take advantage of specific student strengths. (TPEs 4,6,7,8,9)

There are only three students in my class who have shown a significant interest in pursuing

biology. I have three others that are interested in other sciences, four who are unclear about their

interests, and the remaining ten students absolutely hate science. Their distain of science comes from
poor math skills, past experiences of confusion, having a very limited scientific background, and

feeling as though science has little relevance to their lives. Being that the majority of the class is

coming from a place of disinterest and anxiety, my goal for this unit is to make it as relevant as

possible and to scaffold the content in a way that guides them towards our desired results while also

giving them space to develop their own ideas. Students will use math in terms of graphs and ratios

but will not need to manipulate numbers in order to analyze mathematical data, which is often a

significant barrier in assessing whether they are able to analyze data or not. I will also incorporate

pictures and local references whenever possible to help them make connections and to employ their

interest.

Students will stay in the assigned same groups through the duration of the unit. I will design the

groups of three in a way that encourages collaboration. This means that I will group students with

peers that they feel comfortable enough to communicate with but not so comfortable that their

socializing would interfere with their work. I will be mindful to group English language learners

with students who are beyond proficient in English yet are patient enough to clarify information if

their peer needs support. Student groups will be a combination of highly motivated students with low

skills, not so motivated students with high academic skill, and a student who falls somewhere in

between. I will grade only one group members assignment a week and the other group members

will receive that group members grade, the purpose of this is to force group members to

communicate and will hopefully push students to all work at the same skill and motivation level.

Daily Reflection

1. What is working? What is not? For whom? Why? (Consider teaching and student
learning with respect to both content and academic language development.)
2. How does this reflection inform what you plan to do in the next lesson
Day 1:

It is clear that I tried to pack way too much information into the class block. Students did

not get the opportunity to work on the group work assignment so I was not able to gauge their

understanding of the material as well as I would if I had managed the time more properly. I also

found that students are not use to writing notes and it is difficult for them to take notes while I

am talking. Next time I will talk about the definitions before presenting them on the overhead

and will reserve more time in the lesson for note taking. Two other casualties of my poor time

management were my exit ticket quiz and the homework assignment that I had originally

planned. As a result, I will have to use their homework as the only means for assessment. There

is no other place I can think of this unit where the original homework assignment I had planned

is going to fit in so unfortunately I will not be able to use it this year. I also wish I had more time

to make sure that each team chose appropriate roles and had exchanged contact information so

that their work can be efficient. If possible, next class I might focus the do now around group

work responsibilities and how to work best with others. Overall, students were asking questions

throughout which showed that they were somewhat engaged in the instruction. One student fell

asleep but woke up when I began to talk about the dream team and how their groups were each

like the dream team which let me know that the pictures I included did attract some of my more

disinterested students. There were also a few times where class discussion was getting really

interesting but had to be cut short due to time restraints, so I also want to allow for more time for

that next class.

Overall, the biggest areas for adjustment for next class is to budget more time for class

discussion and note taking, and to make sure the learning objectives are more closely aligned
with the assessments. At the end of the class was not able to assess whether students had learned

what I sought out to teach them.

Day 2:

Based on students performances on the homework assignment given at the end of day

one, it was apparent to me that students had difficulty discerning what pieces of data is relevant

and significant and which pieces of data were not. Being that this was the case I decided to

dedicate the beginning of the class to reviewing the data from the previous assignment. The

original idea was to assign table groups a data category and have them produce a proportion

which would help to inform them if whether the data set was significant or not. This was meant

to be a quick review type exercise that ultimately took almost the entire class block to perform.

In retrospect I should have been more thoughtful about the data sets I assigned to groups, should

have done an example of creating a proportion from the data before asking the students to create

proportions on their own, held a discussion about the purpose of focusing on only significant

data, and established before hand what range of proportions should be considered significant. As

a result of not doing all the things listed above, students were a bit confused and had to rely on

me to figure out the correct answers, rather than allowing their own investigation to lead them to

the correct answer. It was also very time consuming.

By the end of class however, I was pleased at the progress students made towards

discerning which data was relevant, and felt that dedicating a large amount of time to that aspect

of data analysis was vital. Coincidently, we did not need to spend as much class time, as

originally planned, on making spot maps and histograms. The instruction around histograms and

spot maps was truncated but students were still able to produce products that demonstrated a

clear understanding of how to express data in those two forms. However, I still want to make
sure that I revisit spot maps and histograms in an upcoming lesson to ensure that they understand

fully the purpose of the two statistical diagrams.

Day 3:

After a few days of this epidemiological investigation, it seems as though students have

lost sight of what the main purpose of this unit is and what we are working towards. Due to the

level of group work and the focus of data analysis, I can assess based on students comments that

some of them have gotten into the routine of going through the motions. This may be especially

true due to the nature of the investigation having specific outcomes, which limits their capacity

to use their imaginations. In addition to their habit of working through the assignments without

put much thought into them, some of the questions in the assignments are too open ended. The

goal of the questions is to guide students to the source of the epidemic but when the questions

leave too much space for interpretation, students typically do not find the correct answers that

will get them to where they need to be. I was able to make this observation while reviewing the

previous homework assignment today in class. When looking over the homework I was confused

by the amount of students who got certain answers incorrect, but in discussion I was able to see

that the source of their confusion was in the wording of the question and not the content. That is

why I felt it was especially helpful to go over the epidemic curve analysis together as a class, so

that I could affirm their interpretation of questions while also guiding them towards the specific

answers the question was getting to.

Moving forward, I need to be more cognizant of connecting each step of the

epidemiological investigation to our greater purpose and goal of finding the source of the

epidemic so that students can see how each step is connected, and be more engaged in the

statistical aspects of the investigation. To increase their interest, I also want to include more real
 world connections beyond gastroenteritis. Lastly, time management was another huge issue

today and I did not get an opportunity to discuss in detail how to write a good hypothesis which

was a learning objective for todays class. I will review the hypotheses that students write for

their homework tonight and use them to inform what instruction I will need to do in regards to

hypothesis writing for the next class.

Instruction Commentary

1. Describe any routines or working structures of the class (e.g., group work roles, class discussion
norms) that were operating during the learning segment/3 Day Solo Teach. If specific routines or
working structures are new to the students, how did you prepare students for them? (TPE 10)

During the learning segment I generally used the same class routines I have been using since the

beginning of the year. I commonly use equity sticks to cold call students to get answers to questions, or to

prompt them to participate. I elicited students to respond to periodic checks for understanding by showing

either a thumb up or a thumb down. I also continued the use of do nows as a daily centering activity.

Two new routines that I introduced during this learning segment were group roles and grading one group

members assignment instead of grade every one individually. I prepared students for their group

responsibilities by presenting the group roles and expectations via PowerPoint, and giving them time

during class to choose roles. I also gave constant reminders throughout class while students completed

group work that I would only be grading one of their assignments and made sure that I returned their work

after the first day in a timely manner so that they could see how the grading system worked.

2. During the learning segment (3 Day Solo Teach), how did you further the students knowledge
and skills and engage them intellectually while supporting them in using or understanding
scientific concepts and/or collecting, analyzing, and interpreting scientific data? Describe the
strategies you used to monitor student learning during the learning segment/3 Day Solo Teach.
Cite one or two examples. (TPEs 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 11)

Throughout the learning segment I constantly checked for student understanding by sitting in on

their group discussions and prompting them to support their ideas with data. During points of
instruction when I observed students with furrow brows, other physical cues of confusion, or no one

had any questions after I had just introduced a somewhat complicated concept, I would do one of

two things; cold call or thumb vote. For example, when discussing whether the proportion of the

amount of people who ate at restaurant zz was significant, I asked the students who believed it was

significant to show me a thumb up and the students who did not think it was significant to show me a

thumb down. Once I had everyone voting one way or the other, I called on a student with a thumb up

to explain why they felt the data for restaurant zz was significant. After they explain their ideas and

support it with evidence, I asked a student who had their thumb down why they disagreed with that

student. From there a discussion ensues where I allow anyone from either side to fight their case. In

certain instances one side begins to back down and students see why their response was incorrect but

in this instance that was not the case. The students who were incorrect felt strongly about their point

of view so I stepped in and explained in detail why the students who believed that the proportion was

significant were right. After I give my explanation, I ask one of the students who had originally

believed that the proportion was insignificant to explain why in fact it is significant. To make sure

that others understand as well, I called on an additional student (a less vocal student) who also did

not think the proportion was significant to explain why in fact it is significant.

Throughout my instruction I have a cookie jar filled with popsicle sticks with each students name

on it that I use to maintain student engagement and check for understanding. I ask the class questions

intermittently throughout my teaching and pull out a popsicle stick to call on a student to respond to

the question. If they do not know the answer I pull out another popsicle stick, so on and so forth until

a student has a response. Once I have the answer I am looking for, I go back to the student I had

originally called on to answer the question again, to make sure they were paying attention and that

they now have some understanding of the content. If I have to choose more than two popsicle sticks
to find the correct answer, I will either review the concept at that time or plan to re-teach it in the

near future.

3. Reflect on the student learning that you think resulted from your teaching during the learning
segment/3 Day Solo Teach. Explain how, in your subsequent planning and teaching, successes
would be built upon and missed opportunities could be addressed.

The nature of this unit is that each step builds upon the previous, such that students are not able to be

fully successful with the assignments in this unit if they do not have an understanding of the

previous step. While this means that students who struggle will need additional support in order to

move forwards, it allows every student to build on the newly learnt material. Every assignment

requires them to analyze and manipulate new data while also having to compare it to previously

presented data. As the unit continues students will eventually need to review every aspect of the

investigation in order to draw a conclusion about the source of the epidemic outbreak which will

allow them to revisit skills they have learned over the learning segment.

In subsequent lessons I would make sure to review the epidemiological steps we have taken thus

far to connect students to the bigger unit picture which is an area that I have not done a good job of

drawing connections to. To take it a step further I would also review the general steps of the

scientific method to draw parallels between the two and to remind students that the process that we

are following is not unique to epidemiology but transcends biology and even the entire discipline of

science. While reviewing the scientific method I would also use that as an opportunity to discuss

hypothesis more in depth which was an area where I felt that I should have dedicated more time and

energy. Lastly, I would use current events such as the cholera outbreak in Haiti to offer an additional

area for investigation that they may be more invested in.