Marquetta Strait April 18, 2013 CU Life Science Strategies Training Reflection: 4 and 5 The last day of Claflin

Universitys Learning Improvement for Future Excellence (CU Life) science training, Mrs. Robinson had us review the information that we discussed throughout the semester. Some of the aspects we discussed were the five Es. The five Es are engage, explore, explain, extend, and evaluate. Our topics of discussion for this session were the elaborate and evaluate phases of the five Es. The purpose of the extend phase is for the students to apply the concepts into a new, but similar situation. Students should be able to infer information from visuals, such as charts and tables. The duration of this phase should be 10-20 minutes. This phase should be hands-on and allows the students to apply concepts or skills to new situations through new activities. During this phase, the teacher should expect students to use scientific vocabulary, definitions, and explanations from prior concepts. The students should be applying new labels, definitions, explanations, and skills to a new, but similar context. Although the new material may be more challenging, students should use their prior knowledge to ask questions, propose solutions, and make decisions. During the last phase, evaluate, teachers are able to assess their students learning. Teachers can use formative assessments as a way to observe students responses to the material. For instance, a formative assessment could be observations, quizzes, or ticket out the door. It is highly important for teacher to assess their students learning because it shows whether the students are grasping the concepts. There may be a few students that do not comprehend the

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lesson well and may need to be retaught. Students may have already mastered certain concepts, which would allow the teacher to move on to the next concept. A summative assessment is usually the end-of-the-unit test. These assessments allow the teachers to observe which students comprehended the lesson and what the teacher may need to reteach or spiral into the next lesson. Overall, being in Mrs. Robinsons science sessions have allowed me to build my instruction in the science field. I want my students to be curious and explore new concepts. By incorporating the science strategies that were taught in our sessions, my students will be able to develop conceptual understanding and use experiments to improve the world.