Direct Instruction

We have been using anticipation guides this term to help us with our inquiry learning. Students are given the guide at the beginning of the topic, and they write if they think each statement is true or false based on only their prior knowledge. After the teaching has occurred, the paper is given back to them and they revise their answers and have to justify their true/false decision with information they have learnt. Most of the time their initial ideas were incorrect so they can reflect on why they thought what they did and how much they have learnt.

This anticipation guide was given in week 5, then reviewed in week 9.

Extended plan here.

Reflection on the video clip

• The sun shining on Lily's face was very distracting while editing so I apologise to viewers for that. I also realised later that someone (maybe even me) was shaking their leg or something, as every so often the camera shakes and wobbles a little.

• I was happy with how much each of these four students was able to talk about for each statement. Without prompting, they made connections to lots of different pieces of knowledge they held, or School Journal articles they had read.

Reflection on the lesson

Student Understanding and Lesson Content :- students demonstrated complex understandings of the learning we have been doing about the sun, Earth, and moon. They could make connections to other knowledge (E.g. phases of the moon are caused by the way the sunlight shows while the moon orbits Earth, and Earth orbits the Sun).

Lesson Pacing :- This was 10 minutes of filming, but the learning itself took several weeks so was well-paced.

Lesson Content :- As anticipation guides can be used for any topic, I think the content could always be made appropriate no matter what you were doing.

Warm up - Make a movie to reflect on your true/false answers on the first anticipation guide. Have your answers changed? If so, why? What do you know now? Explain why you think each statement is true or false.