JMU Elementary Education Program Megan Quigley Randi Baldwin, Clymore Elementary November 12, 2:00 PM

A. TITLE/TYPE OF LESSON The Incredible Edible Earth B. CONTEXT OF LESSON AND UNWRAPPING OF THE STANDARD

The students in my practicum have completed many activities like this which are very hands-on and require a lot of engagement. This activity will be good because it will have them engaged and thinking yet it will also provide a great visual for understanding the different layers of the Earth. At the time I will be teaching my lesson, the students will be moving from learning about oceans and salinity to learning about landforms. During this time they will be learning about the different layers that make up the Earth and afterwards they will be moving on to studying rocks and plate tectonics. It is a great transition between learning about what is on the Earths exterior to learning about what is on its interior. This lesson fits with what I know about child development because at this time in the developmental stage that the students are in, manipulatives and models will really help the students to understand the concept. By observing a model of the Earths interior, the students will hopefully understand and remember it.
C. UNWRAPPING THE VIRGINIA STANDARDS OF LEARNING and the NEXT GENERATION SCIENCE STANDARDS (NATIONAL STANDARDS) D. LEARNING OBJECTIVES Understand Know Do

The student will understand that the Earth is made up of different layers that each have unique characteristics.

The layers of the Earth; crust, mantle, inner core, outer core. The Earths crust is made up of rocks and granites. The core is made up of nickel and iron. The Mantle is the thickest part of the Earth. Temperature and pressure increase as you travel further towards the Earths core.

The students will identify and label the different layers of the Earth. The students will recognize the different characteristics of each different layer.

E. ASSESSING LEARNING

Objective The student will understand that

Assessment Exit Ticket

Data Collected I will observe the students as they

the Earth is made up of different layers that each contain different materials, temperatures and thicknesses. The layers of the Earth; crust, mantle, inner core, outer core The Earths crust is made up of rocks and granites.

fill in their notes page foldable and I will go over their exit ticket once it is handed in. Think-pair-share I will listen to the students discuss as they fill in their notes page foldable and label each layer. I will listen to the students discuss as they fill in their notes page foldable and recognize the different materials that make up the different layers. I will also be looking to see that they answered this correctly on the exit ticket. I will listen to the students as they fill in their notes page foldable and recognize the different materials that make up the different layers. I will also be looking to see that they answered this correctly on the exit ticket. I will listen to the students as they fill in their notes page foldable and recognize the difference in temperature and pressure at each layer. I will also be looking to see that they answered this correctly on the exit ticket. I will listen to the students as they fill in the notes page foldable on the different layers of the candy and the Earth. As students complete the activity I walk around and check understanding for each student I will be looking to see that the students answered this correctly on the exit ticket when comparing the Earth layers to the candy layers.

Exit Ticket Group Discussion

The core is made up of nickel and iron.

Exit Ticket Group Discussion

Temperature and pressure increase as you travel further towards the Earths core.

Exit Ticket Group Discussion

The students will identify and label the different layers of the Earth.

Checklist

The students will recognize the different characteristics of each different layer.

Exit Ticket

F.

MATERIALS NEEDED Bite size Milky Way bars (enough for each student to have one) Napkins Plastic knife Worksheet for labeling parts of the Earth (foldable) Exit ticket worksheet

G. MISCONCEPTIONS or ALTERNATIVE CONCEPTIONS

The lesson requires students to first understand the different layers of the Earth and then use a Milky Way candy bar to observe the layers. When students first learn about the Earths layers, they may learn things that contrast with previous beliefs. Some of the beliefs that they may hold about the Earths layers if they have not previously learned about it may include the belief that it is made up of liquid or that it is hollow. I will try to ask questions that have the children begin to think logically about the concept. For example, when you dig into the ground, you are digging into the Earths crust, therefore, is it really hollow?
H. PROCEDURE To introduce this lesson to the students, I will hand out a notes page (foldable, attached) that they will be putting into their science notebooks. With each lesson that they learn, they are given notes to go along with. They usually read over the notes and talk about them before diving into the lesson. They will be doing this with the worksheet for labeling parts of the Earth. I will go over the worksheet with them, having them color the worksheet and label it. I will have them color the inner core red on the diagram and then flip to the next page to read about the inner core. After we have read the notes page, Ill ask them if they now understand why I have asked them to color it red (it grows to extremely high temperatures.) Then, they will color the outer core blue. They will read the notes page, and I will ask them if they now understand why I have asked them to color it blue (it is made of liquid, not to be confused with water which is usually blue.) The mantle will be colored grey because it is made of rock, and finally the crust which will be green because it is the layer that we live on. After they have completed this, I will have them glue it into their notebook for future reference. To make sure that the students understand the layers before completing the activity, I will draw a simple diagram on the board and ask them what the name and characteristics of each layer are. I will ask a student to come up to the board to label them. I will ask the rest of the class if they agree with what the student has labeled on the board. If so, we will move on. If not, I will ask why, and have the students help out in order to correctly label the layer. Once the notes foldable is complete and glued into the interactive notebooks, I will pass out the exit ticket, a napkin, and a Milky Way bar to each student. I will instruct the students not to open the Milky Way bar just yet. Once each student receives their materials, I will have them follow my directions. They will first leave their candy bar wrapped and observe it with the wrapper on, which will resemble the crust of the Earth. I will ask them on the exit ticket to label on one side of the Milky Way diagram, its layer, and on the other side of the diagram, the layer of the earth that it represents. They will then open their candy bar and place it on the napkin. I will come around with a plastic knife and cut the bar in half. They will then observe the inside of the candy bar and label the diagram on the left side and the right side comparing it to the layers of the earthcrust, mantle, inner core, and outer core. At the bottom of the page, they will answer additional questions about what each layer looks and feels like, which layer of the Earth it is most like, and how or why it is similar to that layer. Once the students have completed the exit ticket worksheet, they will be allowed to eat the Milky Way bar, and then throw away the napkin and wrapper. When the students exit the classroom, they will hand in their exit tickets to me so that I will be able to see that they have correctly identified the layers of the earth and their characteristics.

I.

DIFFERENTIATION To meet the needs of all students in the classroom, I will be giving them step by step instructions so that no one is confused. When giving step by step instructions, I can model it for the class so that they know exactly what they should be doing. The students will have the option of coloring the layers of the Earth on their notes, so if they are not interested in doing this they do not have to. If students are finished early, they will be instructed to read their good-fit books, which is what they typically do when they are finished an assignment and waiting for the rest of the class. If children are struggling with my objectives, I will first instruct them to listen to their peers thinking. If they cannot gather ideas from their fellow students, I will be there to assist them and give them the guidance that they need.

Content Based on an interest survey, the students will be split into groups to complete the milky way activity. The diagram of the Earths layers that the students will be required to fill in will have three different levels. One will ask simply for the name of the layer (low), one will ask for the name of the layer and the characteristics (mid), and the third will ask for name of the layer, the characteristics and its thickness (high).

Process
I could provide different models for the layers (milky way, egg, playdough model, cake model) and the students could choose which they would prefer working with.

Product Instead of completing an exit ticket, the students could create a diagram, a poem, or a flip book to show their understanding. The first group (low) will be given a notes page foldable with only diagrams to label and color. The second group (mid) will be given a notes page with diagrams to label and color as well as an area for notes about each layer. The third group (high) will be given a notes page foldable with minimal information included and will be required to fill the rest in.

Interest

Readiness

Students will be paired into groups for the milky way activity based on readiness level.

J. WHAT COULD GO WRONG WITH THIS LESSON AND WHAT WILL YOU DO ABOUT IT? With this lesson, a couple things could go wrong. One thing that might go wrong during this lesson is that students could rush through it and not take time to correctly identify the characteristics of the Earths layer that make it similar to the candy layer. I have noticed that the students often do this, so to prevent this from happening I will try to go over the worksheet with the students while they are completing it. I will walk around to each student and monitor how they are doing. Another thing that might go wrong is that the lesson will not fill the entire portion of time that I will be given to teach it, or it will exceed this time limit. In the event that this happens, I will be prepared with further questions about the lesson. For example, I can ask Which layer of the Earth is made up of rocky material? If the time seems like it will not be long enough, I will try to make sure that the students have answered all questions before they resume coloring their note pages.

Lesson Implementation Reflection

I. How did your actual teaching of the lesson differ from your plans? Describe the changes and explain why you made them.

II. Student Work Sample Analysis: Based on the assessment you created, what can you conclude about your impact on student learning? Did they learn? Who learned? What did they learn? What evidence can you offer that your conclusions are valid? Look at the assessment data and identify 2 students who appear to fall into these 3 categories: (1) Gets it; (2) Has some good ideas, but theres still room for learning and (3) Does not get it. Organize your responses to the following questions in a chart/table form similar to the one below. Has some good ideas, but Student C Student D

Gets it Student A a. Understands This student understand the layers of the earth almost completely. He/she correctly identified each layer in the correct order, and was able to write about each layer giving specific characteristics that I was looking for. This student might show some confusion about the materials that make up the crust, but was able to identify that it is the layer that we live on. Student B

Does not get it Student E This student understands the order of the layers Student F This student understands the order of the layers, but does not give any indication of awareness of differences in each layer.

b. Confused about

The actual make up of each layer. While the exit ticket only asks to write one thing known about each layer, the student gave one word answers about their make-up which are incorrect.

The characteristics of the layers of the earth seem unclear. While not able to correctly label the diagram on the exit ticket, the student matched the candy layers to the earths layers on the lines below. The lines were

given to write something known about the layers, and in class were instructed that these could include temperatures, thicknesses or materials that they are made up with. The student gave no indication of awareness of these characteristics. c. Questions to ask to clarify what I know To clarify what I know, I might ask this student if he/she can tell me a material that makes up the inner core and the crust, since he/she was able to tell me that the inner core is the hottest part of the earth, and that the crust was the part that we live on, but not the materials. If the student is able to do this I will know that he/she completely understands the topic. I might ask the student why he/she wrote rock for the inner core, dirt for the outer core, and lava for the mantle. What gave the student these ideas? To clarify, I might ask why the student did not label the diagram, but matched the different layers on the lines below. This could show that the student is not a visual learner, but that he/she can show their thinking with words. Also, I would ask the student if they can tell me something about each layer to assess understanding of this topic. If not, I know that the student will need further guidance. After listening to this student during the lesson, and assessing

d. Ideas to work on next

The student was able to show me that he/she understands

The next thing this student should work on is clarifying

all of the things that were in my objectives. Since he/she showed proficiency in this, the next step could be to move to an in depth study of each layer, starting with the crust since it is most familiar.

what he/she knows about the layers of the earth. This is essential to move on in studying the earth.

him/her with the exit ticket, I know that the student has little understanding of this subject. To improve, I would try working oneon-one with the student to help with further understanding of the topic. Going through this same lesson over again may give the student clarification.

a. What does each student appear to understand? b. What does each student appear to be confused about? c. What questions might you want to ask each student to clarify what you know about the students understanding? d. What ideas does each student need to work on next?

III. Describe at least one way you could incorporate developmentally appropriate practice in a better or more thorough way if you were to teach this lesson again. IV. Based on the assessment data you collected, what would you do/teach next if you were the classroom teacher? V. As a result of planning and teaching this lesson, what have you learned or had reinforced about young children as learners? VI. As a result of planning and teaching this lesson, what have you learned or had reinforced about teaching? VII. As a result of planning and teaching this lesson, what have you learned or had reinforced about yourself?