Reduce, Reuse & Recycle!

Last but certainly not least group four presented today! Bravo to group four on mastering teaching the after school program! Group four did their lesson on pollution and it was great! After watching all of the other groups go, group four was able to take what they learned and turn it into a wonderful lesson. To start group four placed a piece of "litter" on each student's desk and announced that they had been visited by the liter bug and it was their job to recycle the litter into the correct bins. This was a great to get the students up and moving to get any left over energy from that day out! Immediately after they finished sorting the litter, group four went over the rules and expectations for the class. My colleague Allison did a wonderful job explaining the behaviors she wanted to see and introduced a game they would be playing. The game is called students vs. teachers. The object of the game is to beat your opponent by demonstrating good behaviors during the lesson, when the students did this, they earned a point, but when they did not, the teachers received the point. This was a great way to have students want to behave in order to beat their opponent.

I really enjoyed listening to group four teach their direct lesson. They included a acronym (P.A.W.L) to allow students to remember the 3 different types of pollution which include air, water and land. For each different kind of pollution group four briefly explained what it is, what causes it and what the effects are. I think that this was very short and to the point which made it easier for students to remember. Another thing group four did differently was that for each review question they had they included a political cartoon pertaining to the type of pollution they were reviewing. This was a very unique way to review and I will be sure to use this idea in the future. After teaching the different types of pollution the group gave the solution to pollution which is to reduce, reuse and recycle showing students how they too can help save our Earth from pollution. I think group four did the best job yet teaching their direct instruction and I was excited for the inquiry.

Group four introduced their problem using "Fred the fish," an adventurous freshwater fish who is going to swim downstream, but is scared of the obstacles he may face because of recent increase in pollution in the area. The students were asked to help Fred see what he may or may not face as he travels. The students were then reminded of the inquiry process and soon began to work on their experiments to see what would happen to Fred (a sponge in the shape of a fish) as a result of different forms of water pollution. This activity was very interesting and engaging as each group was interested in helping their friend Fred travel safely. Watching my colleagues work with the students I could see how intrigued each group was in their process. Congrats group four on your excellent work!