Week 12 Reflection

This is the 12th week of my internship and the third week of my inquiry research implementation. Students are already in the routine of exercising three days a week, taking energy rating surveys, and myself leading instruction all day. Students really seemed to transition well. I'm feeling great about my instruction, because assessment scores for each subject are great and the class got a B average on their science test. For this chapter of science, I implemented a little more exercise through kinesthetic learning activities.  Students made up dance moves and presented them to show understanding of the different traits of animal groups in the vertebrate species. Also, during morning exercise activities, we moved like animals and shouted out whether animals we were moving like were vertebrates, invertebrates, and what animal group they belonged in. I wonder if the results on the final assessment test for this chapter are a result of exercise being implemented in the morning over an extended period of time or the exercise based lessons I've implemented during science instruction. I used a variety of instruction and assessment methods with this chapter, including having students observe and journal the different class pets in the room (turtles, hermit crabs, worms/vermicompost, iguana, and gecko), showing videos of different animal groups, and creating a movement demonstration of the animal group traits. All of these factors could be a contributor to why the students did so well with this lesson. They really showed understanding throughout the weeks of this instruction and paid close attention to every activity. It is hard to relate this attention, comprehension, and involvement with this lesson to my research implementation, because of all the other differing factors in this chapter's instruction compared to past science chapters taught this school year. However, my mentor teacher taught a science chapter a few weeks before my research implementation. In her lessons, she lead a hands-on activity, art based lessons, and open discussions. These varied instructional formats did not result in high scores from the overall class. Therefore, it is not as if past science lessons implemented only written or lecture format instruction. I like to think my exercise implementation has made some impact on keeping students alert and involved in regular instruction. I also think that by tying the science lesson done late in the day to the early morning exercise routine helped information to stick or become more memorable to some students who seem overexerted towards the end of the day.