Unit Reflective Summary

Teacher Candidate for Science Endorsement: ________Kimberly McCreary_________

Instructor: _______Terri George___________________________________________

School: ___Picketts Mill ES_________ Grade: ___________1________________

Unit Topic: ___________Weather________________________

Write a 1-2 page summary of your experiences teaching this unit, addressing the
following questions:

How well were the units student performance objectives attained? Were there
opportunities for the students to develop conceptual understanding through
engaging in the learning cycle (5Es)?

How did you use formative assessments to inform instructional decisions during
the unit?

Were the lessons/tasks scientifically worthwhile for all students? Were there
students that had difficulty achieving the goals of the unit?

Was there evidence of a classroom culture that honors inquiry, wrong answers,
personal challenge, collaboration, and disequilibrium as opportunities for new
learning by all students?

When you have the opportunity to re-teach this unit, what will you do differently
(strategies, teaching tools, assessments, etc.) to improve student learning for all
students?

Use this page as a cover sheet for your summary.

 This Weather unit was planned for my first grade classroom to be taught during the
first month of the school year. There are 26 students in my 1st grade classroom (12 boys
and 14 girls). Five students are English Language Learners (ELL), and six students are in
the gifted program. Two students are on RTI Tier 2 to develop strategies to help them
become more successful in Reading and Writing. I planned this unit to help my students
meet the performance objectives as directed by the Georgia Standards of Excellence. I
used the 5 E format so that I could help my students to build new understanding on top
of their old ideas.
To begin this unit, I used a pretest so that I would know what misconceptions my
students had about the weather concepts we would be learning about, and what areas
they were already confident in. I used the results of the pretest to help me form small
groups throughout the unit. I also used observation, and formative assessments in each
lesson to determine which students were successful in attaining the conceptual
understanding, and which students needed still more assistance. Students who already
demonstrated understanding had opportunities for extension throughout the lessons,
and students who were struggling were able to meet with me in smaller groups for
remediation.
Each lesson was planned to address a specific strand of the content standard as
indicated by the Georgia Standards of Excellence (S1E1. Obtain, evaluate, and
communicate weather data to identify weather patterns. a. Represent data in tables
and/or graphs to identify and describe different types of weather and the characteristics
of each type. (Lesson 1) b. Ask questions to identify forms of precipitation such as rain,
snow, sleet, and hailstones as either solid (ice) or liquid (water) (Lesson 3) c. Plan and
carry out investigations on current weather conditions by observing, measuring with
simple weather instruments (thermometer, wind vane, rain gauge), and recording
weather data (temperature, precipitation, sky conditions, and weather events) in a
periodic journal, on a calendar seasonally, and graphically. (Lesson 2) d. Analyze data to
identify seasonal patterns of change). Only a few students struggled to achieve the goals
of the unit, as indicated by formative assessments throughout the unit. Using those
formative assessments, I was able to pull those students to help them be more
successful.
One of the most important ideas in my classroom is the idea of the Growth Mindset.
We start off the year by watching the Class Dojo growth mindset videos and discuss how
we often struggle with a task, but by not giving up and continuing to try again we make
the connections in our brain stronger and we learn and become smarter. I kept this idea
in mind in planning this Weather Unit. At this point, my students know to value personal
challenge as a necessary step in learning. I feel that this mindset is evident in the
activities and performance growth throughout this unit.
When I have the opportunity to teach this unit again, there are a few things that I
would do differently. I would provide fewer activities in each lesson and go more in
depth with the activities that remain. This would give me even more time to address the
struggles of the few students who needed more assistance. I would also use more
hands-on experiments (like cloud in a bottle, or tornadoes, and demonstrating the water
cycle using a hot plate and a pot of water). My students really enjoyed and stayed
engaged in the hands-on activities, so I would want to do as much of that type of activity
as possible.
Overall, I feel that this unit went well and while there are several things I could do to
improve the unit, I was very happy with the progress that was made and the success of
my students at meeting the performance standards.