Adventures with our 2nd Grade Explorers

Adventures with our 2nd Grade Explorers

     This week's field work experience was very informative and compelling. There was a mass of information that was covered in just two days time. The general topic that Group #2 needed to teach the 2nd graders revolved around the Early Explorers. On both days, I observed how intrigued the students were to engaging into this educational material. 

     During the direct instruction on the first day, the students were given a lot of information in which they would need to know for the next lesson. Personally, I felt that there was too much information that was thrown at the students at once, but it was very well organized and the students showed understanding of the material. The teachers showed knowledge about what they were teaching which is always good to have when teaching topics to any age students. I observed how well the teachers were able to capture and maintain the students divine attention throughout the entire lesson. 

     During the inquiry instruction, I was surprised to realize that the cooperative instruction was combined with the inquiry instruction. I didn't think about incorporating both instructions into one big lesson. The inquiry part of the instruction revolved around the students working in groups and following the inquiry process to determine which explorer they had. I thought that this section of the lesson spent a lot of time focusing on the inquiry method and precise rules to go along with it. I felt that this was perhaps not the best approach because time management is a major concern and the lesson was unable to reach the independent practice section. I liked the idea of creating a poster for the cooperative instruction based on the research that was gathered during the inquiry instruction. 

Three Types of Lesson Plans

 

        Each of the three lesson plans are different in their own unique way, but they are still proper teaching strategies that teachers can use with their students. The Direct Instruction is different compared to Inquiry/Cooperative because the Direct Instruction is primarily teacher directed throughout the whole time that the instruction is taking place. The students are involved, but mostly through guided practice and being guided specifically by the teacher. The difference between an Inquiry Instruction compared to a Direct or Cooperative Instruction is that an Inquiry Instruction relies on the students investigating something by creating a hypothesis then forming a conclusion that is supported by evidence. The difference between a Cooperative Instruction compared to a Direct or Inquiry Instruction is that in a Cooperative Instruction, the whole lesson is student-centered and the students are collaborating with one another to achieve an ultimate goal or final product. These lessons are all critical to teaching and they all play an important part in helping the students learn.