The Water Cycle

Teaching a group of fifth graders is a scary thought, but actually instructing to a group of dyslexic students is even more scary than I had imagined. I knew going into the classroom that the students struggled in reading, but I did not truly grasp the severity of it until I started teaching. I recorded myself instructing and watching myself was an eye opener.

The lesson I taught was on the water cycle with an implementation of comprehension (specifically focussing on sequencing). This lesson was meant to be an introduction to the water cycle so I was not expecting the students to fully grasp the broad topic right away. I had the students come to the carpet in front of the Smart Board with their individual white boards and markers. I started the introduction to the lesson by presenting a Smart Board activity and showing the students a picture of a man soaking wet. I asked, "Think silently about why this man may be wet." I then pulled 4 name sticks and asked the students to share their thoughts. All of the students told a detail, elaborate story about the man and how he may have become wet. My goal was to see if any of the students mentioned rain, and they did; the just had different imaginative stories to go along with it. For exampel, Elizabeth said, "I think that this man went to work, and it started raining. He forgot his umbrella so he had to walk in the rain." The key word I was looking for was rain. I then switched slides and had four pictures (a man looking at dark clouds, the weather forecast, rain, an umbrealla). All of the pictures were out of order. I gave the students a few seconds to look at them. "These pictures are out of order. I want you all to put them in the correct order. I am going to pull sticks and you will come to the board and move one picture." The first student to come to the board moved a picture, but put it in the incorrect location. When Roberto came to the board on the following turn, I said, "If you do not agree with the other person's placement, you can move it." I kept calling names until everyone agreed that all of the pictures were in the correct spot.

After the introduction I moved into the lesson. The first two slides were vocabulary terms I wanted the student to become farmilar with before beginning their reading passage. The vocab included the terms the water cycle, water vapor, run off, evaporation, condensation, and precipitation. A wondering I have is what an appropriate number of vocabulary terms would be? I want the students to learn as many as possible that would benefit them for later assignments without them getting overwhelmed.

When presenting the terms, I once again used the name sticks and had each student read a vocab term and its definition. We then further discussed the terms in full detail. When precipitation came up, I asked, "We know that precipitation is the falling of water from the sky. But water comes in many forms. Has anyone seen snow?" A few students chorally responded with yes or no. "Well snow is a form of water. When water freezes it becomes snow. Water can come in other forms, too. Forms like sleet and hail. Rain, snow, sleet, and hail." I then described what sleet and hail was as many students may not know what they are depending on where they are from in the country. The students could not read the larger vocab terms, such as condensation, though they attempted and came very close. However, I had them repeat each term three times orally with me. Although these terms are domain specific, I want them to at least be able to recognize them in the future.

After the vocab introduction, I introduced a graph of the water cycle to further assist students understanding. We all discussed it for a few minutes, and then I changed slides to a blank water cycle. I pulled name sticks, and the first name pulled had to come to the board and drag the appropriate term to the correct location on the water cycle. The students not at the board had to write the term they thought was correct. "When I count to 3, you guys are going to hold up your board." This gave me a general idea about who grasped the concept. At this point, many of the students mixed up the locations. I am wondering if it is because the vocab terms are so large and sound so similar.

After discussion of the sequencing of the water cycle, I provided a short three question quiz on the Smart Board. The questions gave the definition of precipitation, condensation, and evaporation. The students had to pick the correct term to go with the definition. I once again used name sticks (I am a believer in randomly calling on students instead of a choral response due to experienced behavioral issues) and the students had to come and circle the answer. The students not at the board needed to write down either A, B, or C on their whiteboard. We did a 3, 2, 1 showdown. Students still struggled with the ordering of the water cycle and the terms.

After the short quiz, the students went back to their seats and I provided each student with a copy of a nonfiction text of the water cycle. We discussed what makes a nonfiction text and fiction text similar and different. I could tell that this had been practiced before because the students knew to refer to the poster in the back of the classroom. I read the short text to them. "You can either read silently or orally as I read aloud." Not one student read aloud with me. This of course made me nervous and aware that they may have no clue what was being discussed. I noticed in my video that I read really fast. In my mind I did not think I did, but it was apparent that I was. In the video, I noticed that

The class then broke into two groups based on ability level. I took the four lower achieving students, and my in-classroom partner took the five high achieving students. I reread the passage to them, slower, and read the questions/choices following the passage. Lardius really did not grasp the water cycle. He often confused the steps and the ordering. Many of the questions were not straight forward- they involved thinking. For example, "Which of the following is the first stage in the water cycle?" The student needed to have a firm understanding of each stage. Wyatt often times talked over me and attempted to answer for another student. "Please do not talk over me or someone else," was a line that was repeated more than once.

The students worked hard through the passage, and I could see Amanda really starting to understand the water cycle after this passage.

The students had a break for arts and crafts, and when they came back I gave them the summative assessment and each student received notecards with A-D on them. The passage was a fictional text about the lifecycle of a snowman. It discussed all of the vocabulary terms, as did the first, just in a different way. It really showed the water CYCLE. My partner and I took turns reading the passage, pausing after each paragraph for discussion. We then read the questions and the students raised the notecard that they thought was the correct answer. Ladarius got every question correct! This is when I knew that he finally understood. I was so proud! Towards the end of the assessment, all of the students were excelling.

I overplan everything, and I have everything prepared a week before it is due. My lesson plan was very detailed- a full 9 pages long! Had this of been my classroom, I would have known their reading level, and would have provided easier passages so that they could read along, too. I would have also broken up this lesson into a week. The lesson today took a full 45 minutes. I was surprised that the students did it! I was so proud, too. My supervising teacher had great, encouraging, and constructive remarks. She said many of the things that i observed in my video. For example, reading too fast and making sure that I pause after each paragraph for review. Overall, I am pleased with how my lesson went.