Class OnAir Lesson 5.mp4Direct Instruction
The learning intention for this lesson was for students to become increasingly familiar with MRS GREN; an acronym for the processes that all living things do, albeit in their own unique ways.
The video focusses on teacher instruction as well as showcasing how the three girls worked together online. There was little student chat, as the girls were so focussed on their shared Drawing.
Reflection
This lesson was largely successful, though, as usual, quite noisy. After the excitement of looking through microscopes at different unknown organisms and guessing what they were, students collaborated online to produce a shared Google Drawing. Some numeracy was included as students had to produce a dot plot to share the distribution of their classmate's microscope-guesses, and had to apply knowledge of MRS GREN to their organism too. The three girls that star in my Class OnAir videos were very focussed throughout the lesson and coordinated and collaborated online with minimal verbal communication. Other groups (mainly the boys) can be heard throughout the video telling each other what to do or commenting on what they have found/seen/are writing! Everyone in the class participated and every group finished their Google Drawing within minutes of each other. If I were to teach this lesson again I would say to students from the beginning that their work would be projected on the board for them to present, rather than give them the 15 minutes warning that I did during this lesson. That way they could express what their group learnt in another form and/or it could have created a new role for group members as the "presenter."
WALT: Create a shared Google Drawing about how the organism in your microscope does MRS GREN. Living World Site here.
Observing and Hypothesising
Students observed cells down five microscopes and made guesses into post boxes as to what animal they might come from.
Collaborating and Graphing
Students worked together on a shared Google Drawing. One of the tasks was to share the guesses in their box as a dot plot graph.
Sharing
Student's work was displayed on the board and they answered some questions about their work; a more full presentation could have been more beneficial to learning and placed more responsibility on students. They also shared their learning to their blogs.
GOOGLE DRAWING TEMPLATE
Nicola Wells
Manaiakalani Education Trust
PO Box 18 061, Glen Innes
Auckland, New Zealand
