Lesson Analysis
Overall, the lesson went well. I was able to follow the plan and the students remained engaged throughout the four activities. The video of the lesson is unusable because the school band was rehearsing in the atrium while I was teaching in the pod area, so I have to rely on my observer's notes and my memory of the lesson. The students found all the animals in the slideshow without difficulty, and I decided to ask the students to share not only what animal they saw, but how it was hidden. This immediately led a student to say that the animals were "blending in" before I had used that phrase - great!
I had to get Hide and Seek via Interlibrary Loan, and it arrived the day before I taught. I went through the book to mark the pages I wanted to show the students, but I didn't read the text closely. During the lesson, then, I had to make a split-second decision to simplify and summarize the text on each page rather than reading it because the vocabulary was above the students' comprehension level. The students were more interested in looking for the animals than they were in hearing the text, anyway, so I don't think it detracted from the lesson. My observer noted that since the slideshow and the book were similar activities, it would have been good for the students to participate in a different type of activity between the two. I agree; with a whole class, the students' ability to sit still for the amount of time it took to view the slideshow and read the book could have been an issue.
When I read the title, one student responded, "I play hide and seek." I saw a teachable moment and took the opportunity to activate students' prior knowledge by asking them where they hide when they play hide and seek. I then was able to connect the game to the book by asking how the students thought animals hide before we read the book.
Another decision I made while teaching was to ask the students why the animals had chosen good hiding places. One student, looking at a picture of a lizard hiding among different colored stones, responded that the lizard was brown and gray, so his hiding spot was good because the rocks were brown and gray, too. This is one example of how students demonstrated understanding of how animals camouflage during the lesson. If I hadn't asked the students to think about what made the camouflage good, I'm not sure they would have understood the concept as deeply.
During the discussion, I was able to ask guiding questions and extending questions that encouraged students to give multiple responses to the same question (brainstorming) as well as explain and defend their answers. When I introduced the word "camouflage," I defined it (as my observer pointed out) in terms the children understood, using their own language of "blending in." All four students were already familiar with the term.
For the final activity, I intentionally modeled creating camouflage for the students, as that was something lacking in a previous lesson I had taught. I asked them what color the elephant would be if I wanted to camouflage it on the bulletin board, and they all knew it would be blue. Then I asked them to find the elephant I had camouflaged in the room earlier, and they could all find it and explain how it was camouflaged. When I explained the activity, three of the four students had no trouble finding a hiding spot, but one student sat looking around the area for several minutes. I went over to her and helped her brainstorm possible places to hide; for each place I asked her how she would color the elephant. She responded with the correct colors each time, so it seemed she understood the concept but lacked confidence. Once I helped her choose a location, however, she got to work and colored her elephant appropriately.
I had not planned a "sponge" activity for students who finished coloring early, but since Hide and Seek was still on the table, I gave it to the early finishers to look at until everyone was done. That worked well, but I could have prepared a better sponge activity.
Once all students were finished, I had each student tell me where they saw a classmate's elephant and how that elephant was camouflaged. Then students turned and talked (again, not in the lesson plan, but a good teaching decision) with a partner about why an elephant would camouflage itself. They shared what their partner had said, and then we ended by reviewing the term "camouflage."
I had to get Hide and Seek via Interlibrary Loan, and it arrived the day before I taught. I went through the book to mark the pages I wanted to show the students, but I didn't read the text closely. During the lesson, then, I had to make a split-second decision to simplify and summarize the text on each page rather than reading it because the vocabulary was above the students' comprehension level. The students were more interested in looking for the animals than they were in hearing the text, anyway, so I don't think it detracted from the lesson. My observer noted that since the slideshow and the book were similar activities, it would have been good for the students to participate in a different type of activity between the two. I agree; with a whole class, the students' ability to sit still for the amount of time it took to view the slideshow and read the book could have been an issue.
When I read the title, one student responded, "I play hide and seek." I saw a teachable moment and took the opportunity to activate students' prior knowledge by asking them where they hide when they play hide and seek. I then was able to connect the game to the book by asking how the students thought animals hide before we read the book.
Another decision I made while teaching was to ask the students why the animals had chosen good hiding places. One student, looking at a picture of a lizard hiding among different colored stones, responded that the lizard was brown and gray, so his hiding spot was good because the rocks were brown and gray, too. This is one example of how students demonstrated understanding of how animals camouflage during the lesson. If I hadn't asked the students to think about what made the camouflage good, I'm not sure they would have understood the concept as deeply.
During the discussion, I was able to ask guiding questions and extending questions that encouraged students to give multiple responses to the same question (brainstorming) as well as explain and defend their answers. When I introduced the word "camouflage," I defined it (as my observer pointed out) in terms the children understood, using their own language of "blending in." All four students were already familiar with the term.
For the final activity, I intentionally modeled creating camouflage for the students, as that was something lacking in a previous lesson I had taught. I asked them what color the elephant would be if I wanted to camouflage it on the bulletin board, and they all knew it would be blue. Then I asked them to find the elephant I had camouflaged in the room earlier, and they could all find it and explain how it was camouflaged. When I explained the activity, three of the four students had no trouble finding a hiding spot, but one student sat looking around the area for several minutes. I went over to her and helped her brainstorm possible places to hide; for each place I asked her how she would color the elephant. She responded with the correct colors each time, so it seemed she understood the concept but lacked confidence. Once I helped her choose a location, however, she got to work and colored her elephant appropriately.
I had not planned a "sponge" activity for students who finished coloring early, but since Hide and Seek was still on the table, I gave it to the early finishers to look at until everyone was done. That worked well, but I could have prepared a better sponge activity.
Once all students were finished, I had each student tell me where they saw a classmate's elephant and how that elephant was camouflaged. Then students turned and talked (again, not in the lesson plan, but a good teaching decision) with a partner about why an elephant would camouflage itself. They shared what their partner had said, and then we ended by reviewing the term "camouflage."