Reflective Essay On Fish Lessons

I chose this lesson because I thought the idea of studying goldfish and guppies was a fun, interactive way to address the standards about characteristics and behaviors of animals. Overall, I felt as if the lesson had great potential, but I thought there were specific areas where revision was needed in order to better address the standards, learning theory and student goals. With the help of these various revisions, I was able to take a FOSS lesson and turn it into something more suitable for my future classes. As a general revision throughout the lesson, I modified how to address student behaviors when observing the fish. Instead of telling students their expectations based on what they can’t do, the students and I discuss collaboratively about what we can do. These ‘can do’ statements promote the student goals because they allow more room for creative thinking. When students are given a list of things they can’t do, they automatically shut down due to the limitations. This simple revision opens up more opportunity for creative thinking. Next, I revised the questions asked throughout the lesson. I noticed the provided questions were too guided, only requiring a one-word or short answer. These Dichotomous questions and short-answer …show more content…
Both of these are important because “it is crucial to listen to your students and find out what they are thinking” (Olson, 2007). Critical thinking on top of using prior knowledge is effective in science teaching because mental engagement is important and so is building accurate ideas. In this lesson, the biggest misconception I had to confront was the difference between a cartoon and real goldfish. By showing pictures of the cartoon and looking at the real goldfish, I provided concrete representations to confront this