Kegan Sherman

Professor Lovitt

SED496

Feb 4th, 2021

Instructional Activity 2: Modeling a concept, activity, lab, math problem, etc

The students having been learning about the geologic time scale in my mentor teacher’s

geology classes. They are focusing on learning the main eras in the Earth’s history. He created an

activity which gave the students an opportunity to take a closer look at the main events that

occurred in the different eras. Once the students finished their bellwork assignment, I presented

the activity for the day. I gave instructions and showed examples using information within the

assignment. The students were too fill out a table that consisted of four main categories. These

sections were the main eras; The Precambrian, the Paleozoic, the Mesozoic and the Cenozoic.

Under each section there were blank spaces to be filled in. Further down the assignment was a

main list of events that the students were to categorize by era and fill out the chart. Below that

were lists of events and the eras they belong to. The students were basically doing a scavenger

hunt and reinforcing the concept of the geologic time scale at the same time.

I demonstrated the activity for the students and did some examples with them before they

went on to complete it on their own, which uses the “I do, we do, you do” model. I held the

students attention and kept them engaged while I did examples from the assignment. One of the

challenges I faced during this activity was the online setting. It was difficult to gauge the

students understanding when I couldn’t see their faces and had minimal interaction from students

that actually responded, whether that was audibly or in the chat. All in all, I felt that I smoothly
and clearly explained the activity and gave the students good examples to work from. I am new

to Microsoft Teams so I had a few hiccups the first hour navigating the program, but I will learn.

My mentor teacher was very happy with the activity and assured me I would get more familiar

and comfortable with the program they used. If I were to do this activity again, I would try to get

more interaction from the students.