Core Decisions of Lesson Design
What
One of the class pet hermit crabs.
In this lesson students will engage in the scientific practice of observation as they study their class pet, a hermit crab, and its habitat. My content goals are for them to 1.) understand the structure and function of a hermit crab's shell, and 2.) understand what a habitat is and be able to identify the habitat of a hermit crab. My process goal is that my students be able to engage in the practice of observation.
HowI will start the lesson by telling my students that they are going to be scientists examining the habitat of a special animal. I will then hook them into the lesson and activate their prior knowledge by bringing a hermit crab out of the cage, asking them what they already know about hermit crabs, what they are wondering about hermit crabs, or what they notice about the hermit crab in my hand. Then, I will give them some information about the structure and function of the hermit crab’s shell and show them photographs of different hermit crabs with and without shells. Next, I will introduce the process skill of observation by showing them the anchor chart I created that depicts the 5 senses. They will observe the habitat of the class pet using four of their senses (all but tasting). They will then observe the habitat of a hermit crab in the wild using their seeing sense through the use of the book I See a Kookaburra.
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Why
The SAPA Pyramid.
My effort to connect science to a variety of engaging objects and activities is the result of a desire to meet the needs of the specific group of students I will be working with. Given how infrequently science is taught in my classroom, they have very little classroom experience with scientific practice or content. Furthermore, I have chosen a group that is generally considered “low” compared to their peers (perhaps with the exception of one), and many of them still struggle to identify letters and letter sounds. My inquiry question for this whole assignment examines how to find the balance between putting the cognitive workload on students and providing appropriate scaffolding. In the context of the science lesson, then, I focused on finding a balance between the content and process demands. Given the relative inexperience with science content and practice as well as my students’ difficulties in reading and writing, I decided that this balance exists in the instruction of the meaning of ‘habitat’ (content) through an introduction of the scientific practice of observation (process). Observation is the foundation of all scientific practice and inquiry—the baseline in the SAPA Pyramid-- yet it is not something that I have seen done in my classroom in the context of science. As such, I want to dedicate a whole lesson to the development of this skill.