Professional Documents
Culture Documents
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Central Focus/Big Idea: There are natural forces that change the landscape of earth.
Grade Level: 4
NC Essential Standard(s):
4.E.2.3 Give examples of how the surface of the earth changes due to slow processes such as
erosion and weathering, and rapid processes such as landslides, volcanic eruptions, and
earthquakes.
I chose argue and describe because the students are required to describe the invention that they
create as well as argue why we need it. In their writing, it is required that they use examples from
class that they saw or experienced in the wind experiment.
Content Knowledge (teacher): Teachers must know what weathering and erosion is, they must
know how to effectively explain what happened on the coast of Cape Cod in the beginning
picture, they must know how to accurately run a science experiment in a timely manner.
ASD – there is no feeling the “land” so there are no sensory issues in touching; they may fidget
as needed; I will repeat directions as needed; the student that needs to wear her headphones for
noise sensory issues is allowed to do so
If technology is not working, I have the pictures previously printed out to hand to the students.
Safety considerations: I will control the noise for the student who has sound sensory issues. I
will also make sure no students touch the “land” inside the box.
Content and Strategies (Procedure)
In your procedure, be sure to include all of the following 5 E’s. Your procedure should be
detailed enough for a colleague to follow. If you will be relying on technology (e.g., a YouTube
video), describe your back up plan thoroughly. Imagine your most novice colleague needing to
teach from your plan. Don’t just answer the questions. Additionally, I expect you to include
possible questions you could ask for each section. This needs to include higher-order questions.
Engage: On the board, I will put pictures up of a coast off of Cape Cod. Students will discuss in
table groups about what they notice.
Elaborate: We know things are naturally formed by erosion and weathering, such as the Grand
Canyon. As we see, things can affect the shape of shorelines and other things on the earth's
surface. I want you guys to invent a way to combat erosion on shorelines or ways to make
landslides less impactful to the community around it. (What does impactful mean?) You must
explain what your invention is and argue why the earth's surface needs it. You must use
examples of things we have seen in class and your response must be at least a paragraph. (Ask
what a paragraph is). As students are working, I will be walking around, answering questions.
They are allowed to draw first to help them write.
They will use the rest of class time to finish this and if they don’t, it will be homework.
Evaluate: Formative assessment: I will ask questions throughout the lesson to assess their
knowledge and understanding.
Summative assessment:
Reflection on lesson:
This lesson did not go anywhere near planned. I had to pass out all materials previous to
the lesson due to time restraints, but they messed with the materials way too much. I had to call
on multiple student’s multiple times to stop messing with things. The students don’t do much
experiments so there were no guidelines in place for them to abide by.
This lesson was well implemented and had a good flow. Students grasped this content
very easily and was able to see how the experiment was a representation of real life. I was very
pleased with how well the content and the experiment went well together.
In the experiment, students found out how wind can impact the soil, sand, twigs rocks
and gravel travel on earth’s surface. During the experiment, I asked things such as “What moved
easy? What didn’t?” “What changed from before you blew the ‘wind’ to after?” I had the
students in groups of 3 doing the same thing and I think this well. Originally, I thought about
having them in groups of 2 but I went with groups of 3. This ended up being better and more
effective. The students saw more of a change and were able to talk about it more. I explained the
worksheet before-hand, but we should have done the “if _______ then _______” section
together. I also would have worded the worksheet a little more clearly. It made sense to me but
did not make sense to the students.
After the investigation, we looked at more erosion and a mudslide on earth’s surface. I
asked them to compare similarities and differences in the original erosion picture and this
mudslide one. Some students also took it upon themselves to compare it to the experiment which
I think I will add on to next time. In the original plan, I was going to write the definition of
Weathering and Erosion on the board during the lesson but due to time constraints, I decided ot
go ahead and write it on the board previous to the lesson. The students then had to come up with
an invention to combat erosion or landslides. I should have shown them an example that I did so
they have a reference of what the paragraph should consist of. I think that since I did not show
them an example they were confused on what the reasoning portion of the paragraph was to look
like. However, they were really excited to create their own invention. I believe I will implement
that in other lessons also.
If I could do this lesson again, I would find a way to have them in rotations. I think that
would have been more effectives and given me better control over the class. I would have been
able to integrate technology effectively instead of just using it to display pictures for them to
compare and discuss about.
As a learner and a teacher, I discovered how much students thrive on hands-on
experiments. As a teacher, I need to learn how to better set guidelines for experiments. As a
learner, I saw how much you can connect to one subject. I could have picked only NC geography
to connect to what they learned in social studies – which I didn’t think about that until after so
that is also something I would do in the future.
However, they would not stop talking the whole class time. I kept using management
skills that I saw the teachers use, however, they still did not listen. I was looking for direction
and help from my clinical teacher but offered me no assistance. I think that really impacted the
lesson. I was so frustrated and distracted that I didn’t say a lot of what I should have for the
lesson.