Five Es Model of Instruction

Engage:  after talking about natural selection and sexual selection, we will be discussing selective breeding.  Students will be asked whether they think selective breeding or natural selection produces stronger organisms.  The answer is that both are correct; for example, with selective breeding, purebred dogs are weaker but racehorses are stronger. The problem they will be looking at is that purebred dogs have more health problems than other dogs. Why?

Explore: The students will first be asked to research their favorite dog breed before coming to class. In class, students will read an article on selective breeding in dogs, titled “The Purebred Paradox.” They will take notes on diseases/disorders related to specific species of dogs from the article, and add any they found with their researched dog.

Explain: Students will share what they have learned from the article and from their research with the class. We will discuss their data together as a class. We will also discuss as a class why purebred dogs would be weaker.

Elaborate: The students will then get together in groups and look for possible solutions to the purebred dog health problem. These solutions will be shared with the class. The students will then, in groups, draft a letter to the American Kennel Club stating their concerns and their possible solutions.

Evaluate: Students will be given an exit slip having them rate how well they could teach the concepts we learned about today to someone else, as well as rating how well the particular learning process went for them—what was helpful, what wasn’t. 

Social Cognitivism

I modeled how to cut out a paper snowflake.

Attention: I told her “Today I’m going to teach you how to cut out one of those cool paper snowflakes. First I’ll show you how to fold the paper, then I’ll show you how to cut it out.” This helped to introduce curiosity about what it would look like at the end, and as I was showing her, I would direct her attention to new things I was doing by saying “Okay, look and I’ll show you how to fold the paper. First fold from here to here . . .” and so on.

Retention: I gave her a visual image to represent what I wanted her to do—I showed her how to fold and then cut the paper, and I had her do it with me, one step at a time.

Production: I had her cut out a second snowflake with me doing it at the same time again, giving her pointers to help her do it better. Then I had her do it again on her own while I watched her and gave her pointers.

Motivation and Reinforcement: The reason I gave her for doing this was that every kid likes to cut out paper snowflakes, so as a teacher or a mom, she will want to know how to do this to help her kids when they want to do it. To reinforce her, as she did each step with me, I would say “That’s good!” and then when the snowflake was done, we opened it up and it was beautiful, so it made her want to make another one and see how different it would look.

Using Information Processing

This is how I will use the Information Processing model to teach mitosis to my students.

First, I will get their attention by saying “Today we will be learning about how cells divide! This will be on the unit test” and then show a short animated video on mitosis.

Then I will introduce them to the stages of mitosis, and have them rehearse it several different ways:

1.     I will talk about the key points of mitosis

2.     Then I’ll use the smart board to draw the stages of mitosis and have the students do the same in their notes with colored markers

3.     Using the elmo, I’ll demonstrate to the students how to demonstrate mitosis using pieces of yarn as chromatids

4.     The students will then explain the process of mitosis to each other using the yarn

5.     We’ll review the stages of mitosis one more time.

6.     Then I’ll have them take home a blank flip book and fill draw the stages of mitosis in it, cut it out and put it together.

Practicing it by drawing it, modeling it with yarn, explaining it to each other while modeling, and filling out the flip book will also help them to encode the process more effectively.

Behaviorism Blog

I could shape my students’ behavior in teaching them how to use the scientific method to do lab work. The general steps are make observations, ask a question, form a hypothesis, design an experiment to test the hypothesis, conduct experiment and record the data, draw conclusions, and summarize the results of the experiment.

1.      First, I would teach them how to make observations. I would put the students in groups of three and have them look at a living organism. They would make a list of observations that they made about their organism and share with the class. Then we would talk about the differences between inferences (assumptions) and observations (something they actually see). Then I would have them rewrite their inferences as observations.

2.     After that, we would use a common experiment and I would walk them through each of the remaining steps of the scientific process, checking with students on each step to make sure they are understanding and doing it correctly, offering feedback if they are not doing it correctly, and positive reinforcement for the progress they make on each step. The reinforcement I use would most likely just be words of praise.

Identity Development

Some of the things that students need to learn during identity development are how to persevere through difficult problems, to feel the satisfaction of a job well done, and to set goals and work towards them. I can help them do this by giving them projects to do in school, showing them how to plan it out, maybe giving them deadlines for various portions of it, and breaking it down into smaller, doable parts.

I can work as a facilitator, leading discussions that help develop critical thinking, so that students can begin to think about what their beliefs and values are, separate from their parents.  In fact, I need to encourage discussion and debate, especially with concepts or ideas that are challenging students’ perceptions of the world.

Other things that are important for identity development are gaining a sense of who they are in their job, gender, politically, and religiously. I can foster this by giving them assignments that help them explore themselves, or allow them to explore how they think about something that may be controversial or different from the way their parents think. I can also help them navigate through difficult peer relationships, modeling how to work out problems, and giving them guidance if anything happens in my class that would need working through.

References:  Educational Psychology, and http://sitemaker.umich.edu/barkley.356/identity

Differentiating for Readiness

Topic: Mitosis

First, give a simple pretest to find out what students already know about mitosis.  This could be something like:

·         Have students draw a chromosome, tell what they know about where a gene is on a chromosome, have them tell what they know about cell division. Collect.

Have them work in mixed ability groups, give them sets of index cards with the stages of cell division drawn on and explained. Have them arrange in a logical order based on what they already know. Don’t grade. Have two groups get together and compare notes, and then have them tape their results on a poster board and display.

As a class, talk about the logical order of mitosis, have them fix their posters so they are correct.

Divide into groups based on readiness:

1 group—have them look at the cards and answer some specific questions about mitosis.

1 group—have them look at the cards and write a paragraph explaining the process of mitosis

1 group—have them look at mitosis and compare it to meiosis, then have them write a paragraph explaining the differences and similarities between the two processes.

Show a simplified video of mitosis for visual learners.

Use one on one instruction for students who are struggling.

Using pipe cleaners or clay, have them take the index cards with the steps of mitosis explained on them, and take turns modeling with the pipe cleaners/clay what is described on each card. Have them go in order, step by step. Pick one group for each step and have them explain and display their step to the class.

Have students look at microscope slides and try to identify the different stages of cell division in the slides.

Teaching Evolution using Piaget

I am teaching about evolution to students who may not understand it, or have been given misinformation about it. Here are some things I could do to help them assimilate/accommodate this new information:

Concrete operational:
Play the "Natural Selection" game in groups. This is a game that helps them see how butterflies are selected for or against based on how they look relative to the environment. We would go through several "generations" where students act as "predators," picking off the first animal they see, then each remaining animal would "reproduce" or get another one of the same color. By the end they would have a better, more accurate idea of how natural selection works, then we would discuss it using evolution terminology.

Formal operational:
Now we would take those ideas relating to natural selection, and look at where we see it happening in real life. I've shown them how it happens with butterflies. Does it happen with other animals? How?  Does it happen with humans? How?  Is it reasonable to expect that it happens in plants and animals but not in humans? This would be a discussion where they would have to come up with answers and be able to explain their reasoning.