Rationale
A. How is your topic central to one or more disciplines [and how does it meet mandates]?
The enduring understanding about change over time is something relevant to my students especially at an age where they are losing their baby teeth. The loss of their baby teeth is a gradual change into childhood. My topic on metamorphosis using life cycles will help students understand that the tiniest changes can be significant over time. Using life cycles is a specific example of a larger concept of understanding change over time. Professor Bergey believes that the stages of a butterfly and a frog’s life cycle will help the students visualize how significant these small changes can be. Not only is it important for students to learn about change over time using life cycles, Professor Bergey also believes that this curriculum can generalize their knowledge about life cycles to other living things. She states that the butterfly’s life cycle is similar to most insects and similarly, the frog’s life cycle parallels other amphibians’ life cycles. Using this knowledge she asserts that students will be able to generalize other life forms’ life cycles such as reptiles, birds, and mammals as they “all develop from egg cells to embryos and gradually change to adult form. So each piece of knowledge the children learns gives them another building block toward so many more.”
Learning about the life cycle will help students master mandated skills in using informational text. Since my topic will be integrating science and literacy, I will be using a variety of informational text throughout my curriculum. My students are currently involved in learning about informational text by learning facts about animals, participating in a school-wide informational text celebration about change and identifying elements in nonfiction books. As I conduct my curriculum I hope I can scaffold my student’s learning about informational text with their prior knowledge. As the students and I create a Science Word Wall gathered from informational text, this is one method of mastering a mandated literacy skill in allowing students to use learned vocabulary and respond to texts. Using learned vocabulary and phrases from this topic can generalize their knowledge about different life cycles. As we read different texts about the same subject, the students can master the skill in identifying similarities and differences between texts. Using the PA Common Core ELA Standards on how to use informational text, I can apply all of these standards to the PA Academic Standards for Science and Technology about observing, comparing and describing the life cycle for animals. Integrating the literacy standards will help me fulfill the science standards about understanding the life cycle. Observing will be one of the central components to my curriculum as each student will have a caterpillar of their own until it emerges into a butterfly. They will be observing their classroom pet, which will first be larva, for about three weeks. The students will keep track of their observations by recording their findings into their journals.
B. Why would your topic be interesting?
1) To your students?
During the Scientific Methods course in the fall, Professor Bergey had the cohort participate in a variety of activities such as making our own fossils, observing live mealworms, conducting electricity and other various hands-on activities. As she was conducting the lesson, she suggested that as future educators, we should teach science to make it a hands-on experience as much as possible. Given that we are supplied with resources, students will find hands-on science activities engaging. When I conducted my Term III science lesson about observing rocks, I found that this hands-on learning was one of the reasons why none of my students sat idly. They were interested in the lesson because they were able to activate their own learning.
For my hands-on curriculum, I plan on structuring my lessons to activate student learning. They will find it engaging because we will have live animals in the classroom while simultaneously researching and learning about them. Hopefully by having these classroom pets, the students will want to know more about the butterfly’s life cycle by gathering questions and researching the answers. We can research their answers as a class through lessons or even through independent practice when they read on their own. As I start with butterflies and transition into the second week about frogs, the students can conceptualize the stages of a frog’s life cycle using what they already know about the butterfly’s life cycle. By connecting the two concepts, the students can immediately begin to notice any similarities and differences between the two life cycles as they gather their information. As we observe the caterpillars’ growth, the students will learn how to write informational text as they record their observations into their science journals. I would like for the students to think like scientists as they record their observations while thinking about life cycles. I want them to find this curriculum meaningful and authentic because I want them to activate their own learning.
Throughout the curriculum, by using a graphic organizer I will encourage the students to reach out for answers that they are curious. Instead of having them use a KWL chart, I would like to take a different approach in charting information. We will chart their knowledge using the Reading and Nonfiction [RAN] strategy. As the unit progresses, they will chart what they think they know before we begin the unit. They will also confirm if their ideas were correct and pose new questions to research later on. This graphic organizer will be in front of the classroom where it will be visible so students will have easy access to organize their knowledge. Providing students access to our classroom resources such as the SmartBoard can engage them in multi-modal learning.
As they create a class book on both life cycles, each student will be able to think and write like a scientist using all of the information they have gained from the curriculum. As a product of activating their own learning, they will have multiple resources that they can tap into in creating a class book. They will have the opportunity to use their observation journals, vocabulary from the Science Word Wall, nonfiction books, life cycle charts, diagrams, classroom pets, Big Books, their field trip experience and other resources they would find useful in creating their book. Rather than giving them all of the facts on what to write for their book, I want them to choose what they want to write about. The students will write what they care about, what they find important to them and share it with others in their very own informational text. As a final project, the students will have the opportunity to share their books to the rest of the class. The students can construct their understanding of the life cycle through independent and group research. I can impose questions throughout the unit such as what they think might happen to the larva’s growth if the weather in the classroom changed. Similarly, what would happen to the frog’s eggs if the water were to be warmer or colder? Another question I would like to impose would be why they think the tadpoles’ legs grow before their arms. Providing them with these types of questions can promote them to behave like scientists and research their answers.
2) To you as a teacher?
This curriculum is important to me because after taking the science methods course in the fall, I want to implement what I learned from the course into the classroom. One of the lessons that I felt were meaningful and authentic were the hands-on activities. Also, having never taught science other than my Term III lesson, I wanted to challenge myself as a teacher in the classroom. During my childhood, I found science to be particularly difficult. I would like to overcome this difficulty by challenging myself in teaching science through an enjoyable hands-on experience. This curriculum will be taught by allowing the students to activate their own learning. As a class we will gather our questions and information together while learning how to think like scientists. I want the students to develop the idea that all living things change differently and develop the enduring understanding that all living things change over time.
I believe that a strong classroom community fosters student learning and achievement. Through Gillies’ cooperative learning, I would like to incorporate cooperative learning into my curriculum where students will be able to promote each other’s learning through the various related activities I have set up. As a teacher, it is important to structure the groups in a way where all members each have a task where they can each contribute to, are able to work together as a cohesive group and have the interpersonal skills to communicate with one another. Providing differentiation through cooperative learning facilitates scaffolding for individual learners. Scaffolding student learning to monitor their achievement is important where this provides an opportunity for me to reflect on my teaching practice. As a part of the classroom community, I am envisioning myself as both a teacher and a learner of my curriculum.
C. How is this topic accessible to students?
1) In terms of developmental appropriateness?
According to the Hands-On Standards Science text, scientific process skills such as observing, communicating, inferring, and investigating are appropriate skills for lower elementary students. The text states that process skills used behind science, reading and math are all the same. Connecting the process skills across curricula develops and strengthens students’ abilities on inquiry-based learning. Observation is the foundation of the inquiry process as students observe to gather information by using their senses to observe. The next foundation skill is communicating because inquiry-based learning relies on open communication. The students can share their data through their observation journals, gather data from informational text, create a class book together about frog and butterfly metamorphoses and other related activities.
Kindergarten students understand the larger concept of change over time. They may define change as a drastic alteration. Instead of seeing change being a complete 180 degrees from what it originally was, I would like for them to understand that even subtle changes contribute to the larger concept that living things change over time. Even though there are distinct, distinguishable stages in the butterfly and frog’s life cycle, they both undergo small, significant changes within each stage. I would like for my students to understand the larger picture that all living things, no matter how small the change may be, they are significant over time.
2) In terms of resources available?
We are very fortunate enough to have the Home and School Association at Penn Alexander to fund the entire Kindergarten classes’ butterfly kits. We also have the opportunity to go on a field trip to the Butterflies! exhibit at the Academy of Natural Sciences on the first day of my takeover. Given that the majority of that day will be at the museum, I hope my students will find the butterfly exhibit meaningful to them since it will be the second week of studying and observing our pet caterpillars. Many of my students have expressed that they have seen both butterflies and frogs at the Philadelphia Zoo. Since it will officially be spring during the two-week takeover, the students will be surrounded by natural resources located right outside of their very homes as well as Clark Park. As flowers bloom, birds can be seen and heard while butterflies flap their wings landing in gardens. Also, the BioPond right at Penn’s campus, right off of 38th street and Hamilton Walk is another great resource where live koi, turtles and frogs can be seen in a pond surrounded by a botanical garden.
D. How does this topic provide opportunities for multiple connections?
My unit on change over time provides opportunities for my students to connect the animals’ life cycles to their personal life cycle. They can conceptualize how they have changed from when they were a baby till now through family photos and stories their parents have told them. For those students who have siblings, younger or older, they can compare their growth with their siblings, parents and others around them. Not only can they conceptualize their life cycle to other human beings, but they can generalize a butterfly and frog’s life cycle to other living things. For example, a butterfly’s life cycle undergoes similar changes as other insects whereas an amphibian’s life cycle is similar to that of a frog. Although the butterfly’s and frog’s life cycle have distinct stages, not all living things undergo metamorphoses like they do. When mammals are born their form looks very similar to that of an adult. This topic provides a future opportunity for students to classify the different life cycles of all living things.
The enduring understanding about change over time is something relevant to my students especially at an age where they are losing their baby teeth. The loss of their baby teeth is a gradual change into childhood. My topic on metamorphosis using life cycles will help students understand that the tiniest changes can be significant over time. Using life cycles is a specific example of a larger concept of understanding change over time. Professor Bergey believes that the stages of a butterfly and a frog’s life cycle will help the students visualize how significant these small changes can be. Not only is it important for students to learn about change over time using life cycles, Professor Bergey also believes that this curriculum can generalize their knowledge about life cycles to other living things. She states that the butterfly’s life cycle is similar to most insects and similarly, the frog’s life cycle parallels other amphibians’ life cycles. Using this knowledge she asserts that students will be able to generalize other life forms’ life cycles such as reptiles, birds, and mammals as they “all develop from egg cells to embryos and gradually change to adult form. So each piece of knowledge the children learns gives them another building block toward so many more.”
Learning about the life cycle will help students master mandated skills in using informational text. Since my topic will be integrating science and literacy, I will be using a variety of informational text throughout my curriculum. My students are currently involved in learning about informational text by learning facts about animals, participating in a school-wide informational text celebration about change and identifying elements in nonfiction books. As I conduct my curriculum I hope I can scaffold my student’s learning about informational text with their prior knowledge. As the students and I create a Science Word Wall gathered from informational text, this is one method of mastering a mandated literacy skill in allowing students to use learned vocabulary and respond to texts. Using learned vocabulary and phrases from this topic can generalize their knowledge about different life cycles. As we read different texts about the same subject, the students can master the skill in identifying similarities and differences between texts. Using the PA Common Core ELA Standards on how to use informational text, I can apply all of these standards to the PA Academic Standards for Science and Technology about observing, comparing and describing the life cycle for animals. Integrating the literacy standards will help me fulfill the science standards about understanding the life cycle. Observing will be one of the central components to my curriculum as each student will have a caterpillar of their own until it emerges into a butterfly. They will be observing their classroom pet, which will first be larva, for about three weeks. The students will keep track of their observations by recording their findings into their journals.
B. Why would your topic be interesting?
1) To your students?
During the Scientific Methods course in the fall, Professor Bergey had the cohort participate in a variety of activities such as making our own fossils, observing live mealworms, conducting electricity and other various hands-on activities. As she was conducting the lesson, she suggested that as future educators, we should teach science to make it a hands-on experience as much as possible. Given that we are supplied with resources, students will find hands-on science activities engaging. When I conducted my Term III science lesson about observing rocks, I found that this hands-on learning was one of the reasons why none of my students sat idly. They were interested in the lesson because they were able to activate their own learning.
For my hands-on curriculum, I plan on structuring my lessons to activate student learning. They will find it engaging because we will have live animals in the classroom while simultaneously researching and learning about them. Hopefully by having these classroom pets, the students will want to know more about the butterfly’s life cycle by gathering questions and researching the answers. We can research their answers as a class through lessons or even through independent practice when they read on their own. As I start with butterflies and transition into the second week about frogs, the students can conceptualize the stages of a frog’s life cycle using what they already know about the butterfly’s life cycle. By connecting the two concepts, the students can immediately begin to notice any similarities and differences between the two life cycles as they gather their information. As we observe the caterpillars’ growth, the students will learn how to write informational text as they record their observations into their science journals. I would like for the students to think like scientists as they record their observations while thinking about life cycles. I want them to find this curriculum meaningful and authentic because I want them to activate their own learning.
Throughout the curriculum, by using a graphic organizer I will encourage the students to reach out for answers that they are curious. Instead of having them use a KWL chart, I would like to take a different approach in charting information. We will chart their knowledge using the Reading and Nonfiction [RAN] strategy. As the unit progresses, they will chart what they think they know before we begin the unit. They will also confirm if their ideas were correct and pose new questions to research later on. This graphic organizer will be in front of the classroom where it will be visible so students will have easy access to organize their knowledge. Providing students access to our classroom resources such as the SmartBoard can engage them in multi-modal learning.
As they create a class book on both life cycles, each student will be able to think and write like a scientist using all of the information they have gained from the curriculum. As a product of activating their own learning, they will have multiple resources that they can tap into in creating a class book. They will have the opportunity to use their observation journals, vocabulary from the Science Word Wall, nonfiction books, life cycle charts, diagrams, classroom pets, Big Books, their field trip experience and other resources they would find useful in creating their book. Rather than giving them all of the facts on what to write for their book, I want them to choose what they want to write about. The students will write what they care about, what they find important to them and share it with others in their very own informational text. As a final project, the students will have the opportunity to share their books to the rest of the class. The students can construct their understanding of the life cycle through independent and group research. I can impose questions throughout the unit such as what they think might happen to the larva’s growth if the weather in the classroom changed. Similarly, what would happen to the frog’s eggs if the water were to be warmer or colder? Another question I would like to impose would be why they think the tadpoles’ legs grow before their arms. Providing them with these types of questions can promote them to behave like scientists and research their answers.
2) To you as a teacher?
This curriculum is important to me because after taking the science methods course in the fall, I want to implement what I learned from the course into the classroom. One of the lessons that I felt were meaningful and authentic were the hands-on activities. Also, having never taught science other than my Term III lesson, I wanted to challenge myself as a teacher in the classroom. During my childhood, I found science to be particularly difficult. I would like to overcome this difficulty by challenging myself in teaching science through an enjoyable hands-on experience. This curriculum will be taught by allowing the students to activate their own learning. As a class we will gather our questions and information together while learning how to think like scientists. I want the students to develop the idea that all living things change differently and develop the enduring understanding that all living things change over time.
I believe that a strong classroom community fosters student learning and achievement. Through Gillies’ cooperative learning, I would like to incorporate cooperative learning into my curriculum where students will be able to promote each other’s learning through the various related activities I have set up. As a teacher, it is important to structure the groups in a way where all members each have a task where they can each contribute to, are able to work together as a cohesive group and have the interpersonal skills to communicate with one another. Providing differentiation through cooperative learning facilitates scaffolding for individual learners. Scaffolding student learning to monitor their achievement is important where this provides an opportunity for me to reflect on my teaching practice. As a part of the classroom community, I am envisioning myself as both a teacher and a learner of my curriculum.
C. How is this topic accessible to students?
1) In terms of developmental appropriateness?
According to the Hands-On Standards Science text, scientific process skills such as observing, communicating, inferring, and investigating are appropriate skills for lower elementary students. The text states that process skills used behind science, reading and math are all the same. Connecting the process skills across curricula develops and strengthens students’ abilities on inquiry-based learning. Observation is the foundation of the inquiry process as students observe to gather information by using their senses to observe. The next foundation skill is communicating because inquiry-based learning relies on open communication. The students can share their data through their observation journals, gather data from informational text, create a class book together about frog and butterfly metamorphoses and other related activities.
Kindergarten students understand the larger concept of change over time. They may define change as a drastic alteration. Instead of seeing change being a complete 180 degrees from what it originally was, I would like for them to understand that even subtle changes contribute to the larger concept that living things change over time. Even though there are distinct, distinguishable stages in the butterfly and frog’s life cycle, they both undergo small, significant changes within each stage. I would like for my students to understand the larger picture that all living things, no matter how small the change may be, they are significant over time.
2) In terms of resources available?
We are very fortunate enough to have the Home and School Association at Penn Alexander to fund the entire Kindergarten classes’ butterfly kits. We also have the opportunity to go on a field trip to the Butterflies! exhibit at the Academy of Natural Sciences on the first day of my takeover. Given that the majority of that day will be at the museum, I hope my students will find the butterfly exhibit meaningful to them since it will be the second week of studying and observing our pet caterpillars. Many of my students have expressed that they have seen both butterflies and frogs at the Philadelphia Zoo. Since it will officially be spring during the two-week takeover, the students will be surrounded by natural resources located right outside of their very homes as well as Clark Park. As flowers bloom, birds can be seen and heard while butterflies flap their wings landing in gardens. Also, the BioPond right at Penn’s campus, right off of 38th street and Hamilton Walk is another great resource where live koi, turtles and frogs can be seen in a pond surrounded by a botanical garden.
D. How does this topic provide opportunities for multiple connections?
My unit on change over time provides opportunities for my students to connect the animals’ life cycles to their personal life cycle. They can conceptualize how they have changed from when they were a baby till now through family photos and stories their parents have told them. For those students who have siblings, younger or older, they can compare their growth with their siblings, parents and others around them. Not only can they conceptualize their life cycle to other human beings, but they can generalize a butterfly and frog’s life cycle to other living things. For example, a butterfly’s life cycle undergoes similar changes as other insects whereas an amphibian’s life cycle is similar to that of a frog. Although the butterfly’s and frog’s life cycle have distinct stages, not all living things undergo metamorphoses like they do. When mammals are born their form looks very similar to that of an adult. This topic provides a future opportunity for students to classify the different life cycles of all living things.