Urooj Waqar

Making Teaching Visible

In fourth grade, I was looking for a learning engagement that

would allow my students to get into issues related to human and natural changes to the environment.
I was noticing that there was a lot of news that connects with this topic every day.

Specifically, I decided I wanted to focus on water scarcity. In my class, the students were
investigating how human development affects the water supply and water quality because there are
so many obvious global connections to make. After doing some quick searching, I quickly learned that
there was a lot of content out there on water scarcity. The trick was finding the right resource that
contained enough information but was still fourth grade appropriate.

After finding some sources that fit the ‘rich text’ description that this Visible
Thinking Routine demands, I identified a conceptual understanding I wanted
my students to develop during the learning engagement: Students will
comprehend that the accessibility of water influences human cooperation with
the climate.

In planning the learning engagement, I used the inquiry cycle.

During the invitation stage of an inquiry, I was responsible for igniting an authentic
interest in the students and capturing their hearts, brains, and spirits.

In order to do this, I asked them to imagine the situation when they didn't have access to water, especially
when they needed it the most.

During the investigation stage of an inquiry, I asked my students to discover information from a variety of
sources (Video + article), construct knowledge and understanding by digging deep into the material, and make
their thinking visible.

To study the topic of water scarcity, the students watched a video about a girl and how The Water Project
helped her village get access to clean and fresh water.

Students individually read the article and were told to record any associations, difficulties, ideas, and changes
they considered while they read.

During the demonstration step in the inquiry process, students were given the opportunity to reflect on their
learning, while they generate additional thoughts and questions.

To demonstrate their thinking and learning, fourth graders came together and shared their connections,
challenges, concepts, and changes in a discussion. Students kept on adding to their account sheets as they
heard the thoughts of others.
Connection:
I was very tranquil going into this lesson because it was a topic I truly adored teaching. The lesson got to a
really good start. As part of my preparation, I ensured they all had their copy of inquiry cycle and article for the
lesson. I spent the first ten minutes discussing how human development affects the water supply and water
quality.

Concepts:
Students found the starter activity very interesting because it required individual responses by placing their
answer in the inquiry cycle. Their perception was quiet clear after watching the video.

Challenge:
The main task was slightly challenging because I expected students to be able to complete it by themselves
with limited direction from me. All pupils, except for a few, met the learning outcomes and were able to
describe how human development affects the water supply and water quality using 4 Cs. Few students had
some difficulty in interpreting the article and then scripting down their contemplations on the organizer.

Changes:

Things to change for the next lesson:

 An easy version of reading material for the students who faced difficulty in interpreting the article.
 A slightly easy version of organizer for SEN students.