Famida Mohamedkhan

Teaching State or National Standards

As a lesson plan unfolds, concepts should be the basis. At the beginning of a lesson plan,
an important note is to have student objectives so that the teacher can base the concepts that are
to be mastered over the state or national standards. The standards work as a guide for teachers to
help students keep on track what they need to learn throughout the semester. Standards are there
to make sure all students understand the subject and complete it with success.
As a UTeach student, I have learned how to write lessons plans with the TEKS in mind.
The lesson is created around the basis of the TEKS. During one of my field experiences, I
developed a lesson to teach a seventh grade classroom. I was able to teach the classroom over
middle school life sciences TEKS. The lesson I taught was based upon the following TEKS:
(7.1) Scientific Processes. The student uses scientific methods during field and laboratory
investigations. The student is expected to:
(A) Plan and implement investigative procedures including ask questions, formulating testable
hypothesis, and selecting and using equipment and technology.

7.12 Organisms and environments. The student knows that living systems at all levels of
organization demonstrate the complementary nature of structure and function. The student is
expected to:

(B) Identify the main functions of the systems of the human organism, including the circulatory,
respiratory, skeletal muscular, digestive, excretory, reproductive, integumentary, nervous, and
endocrine systems;
The above standards were the main building block for my lesson plan. I used the TEKS to help
me identify what the students needed to learn to master this lesson and from there, I went on to
develop a way of relaying the information to them.
To make sure the students mastered the standards, I used different techniques such an interactive
engagement where the students had to wear gloves and stick their fingers into peppery water.
The lesson also included discussions, a lab, a video, an interactive animation, and even a take
home assignment. With these, I was able to reach out to different learners as well to make sure
all the students were able to grasp the information they needed.
I formatively assessed the students throughout the lesson through probing, observing, pre-post
assessments and discussions. The lesson was over the skin and the functions. As the students
performed the initial task of dipping their fingers into the water with their gloves on, I asked
them probing questions such as, "what happened when you dipped your fingers into the water?"
The students correctly answered, "nothing, the gloves protected my hand." Using this example,
the students figured out we were referring to the function of the skin, where the skin protects our
organs.
Before the lesson started, I had the students answer a few pre-assessment questions. This was
meant for me to figure whether or not they were ready for the standards I had planned the lesson
on. They had to answer:
1. What does the skin do for the body?
2. What would happen if you didn't have any skin?
These two questions were specific to the standard that covers the main functions of the systems
of the human organism; this lesson was on the integumentary system. These questions were
appropriate for that standard as the students were required to master the functions of the
integumentary system. The pre-assessment gave me an understanding whether the students had
any knowledge over the integumentary system. The engagement that required the students to dip
their fingers with gloves on and then off also was a form of assessment. It was a form of probing
through a mini lab to see whether the students knew that the skin's functions is to protect the
organs of the body.
The lab was another form of assessment and it covered the standard regarding scientific
processes. The students had to formulate a hypothesis on which solution they thought would dry
fastest on their skin.
(7.1) Scientific Processes. The student uses scientific methods during field and
laboratory investigations. The student is expected to:
(A) Plan and implement investigative procedures including ask questions,
formulating testable hypothesis, and selecting and using equipment and technology.
Another form of assessment used in my lesson was through discussion. The students were
required to share their hypothesis and their reasoning before conducting the lab. They were then
required to share their results and discuss what they thought lead to the results.
To make sure the students understood the TEKS, the students were required to fill out the
different parts of the skin such as the epidermis, dermis, subcutaneous tissue, sebaceous gland,
sweat gland, and hair follicle. I asked the students after the video and the animation the different
functions of each of the parts of the skin and the students were able to answer positively.
Finally, at the end of the lesson, to evaluate the students understanding of the standard regarding
the integumentary system and the functions of the skin, they had to complete a post-assessment.
The post-assessment question was as follows:
Please define the following key terms in your own words:
Dermis, Sweat Gland, Epidermis
This lesson was quite detailed and thus I had different opportunities throughout the lesson to
repeat information for the students to understand the concepts. Even though the lessons are
usually set to follow the TEKS, as teachers, we have the ability to form exciting lessons so the
students can learn actively through different methods such as discussions, labs, field trips,
projects, research, peer-to-peer teaching, etc. This lesson will definitely connect the students to
prerequisite topics such as the body system, future topics such as anatomy and physiology, and
other subjects as well.