Birds, Bites and

Beaks
LESSON PLAN AND ANALYSIS

Carly Weinand
CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT (EDU 316) | MAY 4, 2017
Table of Contents
Introduction .................................................................................................... 3

Description .................................................................................................. 4

Classroom ................................................................................................... 5

Lesson Context ............................................................................................ 6

Lesson Plan ..................................................................................................... 7

Traits and Survival: Bird Beaks ..................................................................... 8

Basic Information ...................................................................................... 8

Standards and Key Concepts..................................................................... 9

Performance Tasks and Assessment ........................................................ 11

Learning Experiences and Resources ..................................................... 11

Supervisory Observations ....................................................................... 12

Reflection ..................................................................................................... 14

Personal Reflection .................................................................................... 15

Supervisor Feedback ................................................................................. 17

Response to Supervisor Feedback ............................................................. 21

Video Analysis ........................................................................................... 22

Student Work ............................................................................................. 26

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 Analysis of Student Work ........................................................................... 27

Conclusions .................................................................................................. 29

Final Reflections ........................................................................................ 30

2
Introduction

3
Description
For this project, we were assigned the task of creating, implementing

and reflecting on one full science lesson. We were to use the information we’d

discussed in class on how to design lesson plans and how to implement an

effective science lesson. This semester, we were placed in classrooms

throughout the city and worked under teachers in these schools. Our lessons

were taught in these classrooms with the students we’d been working with.

We video-taped our lessons for reflective purposes.

This paper will outline that process. First, I’ll discuss the classroom I

was in and the environment there as well as the context of my lesson itself.

Then, I’ll include the lesson plan I used to teach that day. In the final part, I’ll

reflect on the lesson in multiple ways, first, on how I felt the lesson went. Then

I’ll include my supervisor, Charlotte Teplow’s, notes and feedback on the

lesson. I’ll reflect on that and then assess the video-tape of my lesson. I’ll

include samples of my students work during the lesson and my response to

their understanding. Finally, I’ll reflect the process as a whole and my

assessment on my current standing as a developing teacher and learner.

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Classroom
This semester, I’ve been working in Jennifer DiSarcina's 5th grade

classroom at the Eliot School in the historic North End of Boston, overlooking

long wharf. There are two 5th grade classrooms at this school that the students

swap in and out of. This allows me to interact with the students from both

classes. In Ms. D's room, there's a full-time aid and a student teacher in her full

practicum who is there 3 days a week. The entire school is split into a lower

level with grades K1-2nd and an upper level with grades 3rd-8th. The Eliot was

part of the innovative school initiative and has a diverse student body of

around 500 kids.

As for the classroom itself, the room is a large square room with high

ceilings and many windows. The building has thin walls that aren’t sound-

proof in the slightest. The building was once home to Mitt Romney’s

presidential campaign headquarters. Ms. D has plenty of class materials

around the perimeter of the room and an area for working with small groups.

The students are set up at desks in groups of 4-6.

I spend my time during lessons observing mostly and occasionally

redirecting students’ attention to the lesson. Once we reach either a small

group or individual activity, I'll walk around the room answering any

questions I can and clarifying directions. Jenn is very nice and she keeps me

busy and fills me in on each child’s status in class and in life. She’s been a

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strong support for me and seems to balance her affection and strictness with

the students well.

Lesson Context
I taught my lesson on April 26th. This was a Wednesday and the students

had a normal schedule. The students had just had April vacation the week

before and some were just getting back to school after being away. Before I

taught, the students schedule started with MCAS review and then they split

into their math and ELA groups. I remained in Ms. D’s room and observed

both the normal and advanced math lessons which include a warm-up, a

lesson and an activity. The classes were shortened slightly to make time for

my lesson and around 11:30, the students transitioned to their homerooms,

Charlotte arrived, and that’s when I began my lesson. The lesson I had had

been reviewed briefly by my professors and Ms. D and I’d made revisions

with their feedback. I knew going into this that the students had touched on

the idea of adaptations but not delved into it fully. I’d seen the class during

science lessons before (which are a special at the Eliot) and they tend to get a

bit wild and unfocused. I also knew that my lesson was going to be a bit out of

the blue for the students because I didn’t give them much warning and they

weren’t expecting me to teach. Thankfully, I’d helped with math lessons in the

past, so me teaching wasn’t something completely new or out of the ordinary

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.

Lesson Plan

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Traits and Survival: Bird Beaks
Basic Information
Summary: In this lesson, students will experience natural

selection first-hand by acting as birds with a

variety of beak types trying to forage for beans.

This will provide a clear example of how certain

traits are advantageous and help with survival.

Grade Level: 5th

Time Frame: 1 hour

Subject(s): Life Science, Biology

Instructional The students will leave with a basic understanding

Goal: of genetic adaptation and a general idea of the

concept of Natural Selection. They will concretely

know that certain beaks have advantages and

disadvantages. They will have explored the topic

in a scientific way and exercised scientific

thinking.

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Prior Knowledge: Pre-assessment: multiple choice about adaptation,

short answer on adaptation, bird beak/food match

Standards and Key Concepts

Standards: MA.STES.3.LS4.2.

Use evidence to construct an explanation for how

the variations in characteristics among individuals

within the same species may provide advantages

to these individuals in their survival and

reproduction.

MA.STES.3.LS4.3.

Construct an argument with evidence that in a

particular environment some organisms can

survive well, some survive less well, and some

cannot survive.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.5.1

Engage effectively in a range of collaborative

discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacher-

led) with diverse partners on grade 5 topics and

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 texts, building on others' ideas and expressing

their own clearly.

Understandings: Students will understand that…

 Birds have a variety of beaks which reflect

the kind of food they eat.
 Depending on the environment, certain
beaks are more advantageous.
 Bird beaks are an example of natural
selection

Essential  How is a bird’s beak an example of

adaptation and advantageous traits?
Questions:  How does natural selection occur?

Student Learning At the end of this lesson, students will be able to:

Objectives:
 Follow instructions for appropriate material
use
 Assess the effectiveness of a specific beak
for collecting a specific food
 Discuss how traits like beak type affect the
survival of a bird
 Express scientific thinking verbally and in
writing

Language At the end of the lesson, students will be able to

Objectives: give an example and explain the concept of …

 Advantageous traits
 Natural selection

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Performance Tasks and Assessment
Assessments(s):  Participation in science exploration
 Behavior during exploration and discussion
 Discussion of exploration
 Completion of worksheets and science
notebook

Evaluation  Checklist
 Assessment of student-produced work
Criteria:

Learning Experiences and Resources

Sequence of 1. Prepare station elements at back table
(before class). Draw chart on board
Activities: 2. “Today, we’re going to do a science
exploration. I’m going to hand out a packet
for the lesson. Before we start the
exploration, I want you to fill out the current
understandings questions. You have 5
minutes to answer what you can” (pre-
assessment)
3. Read Introduction out loud.
4. Split students into 4 groups – group tongs,
group pliers, group straw and group
tweezers.
5. Read instructions
6. Hand out supplies. Set class timer to 5
minutes for each station
7. Clean up and move stations
8. Repeat until they’ve gone to each station
then move materials to back table
9. Discussion (Thinking Questions)
10.Reflection

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 Differentiated  Allow students plenty of time
 Provide one-on-one support when necessary
Instruction:  Bonus question if students finish early
 Provide alternatives for food allergies or
ensure nut/allergy free
 Provide plenty of visual/graphic aids for
ELLs and other students
 Keep important vocabulary words on the
board through the lesson

Resources:  Lesson Packet

 Cups
 Pliers
 Tweezers
 Tongs
 Straw
 Water
 Small Graduated Cylinders
 Large Graduated Cylinder
 Shallow Container
 Jelly Beans
 Sunflower Seeds
 Styrofoam
 Rice
 Stopwatches
 Paper towels
 Pencils/pens
 Whiteboard and markers

Supervisory Observations
Teaching  Gaining experience designing and
implementing lessons
Standards and  Confidently teaching a full lesson

Goals:

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Assessments(s):  Review of video
 Assessment of student understanding

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Reflection

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Personal Reflection
Teaching a somewhat random lesson was not to my advantage but

overall, I think I managed to make it work. I started by telling the class that I’d

be teaching a lesson that day as a part of my own class and that they’d be

helping me on my way toward becoming a teacher. Next, I handed out the

packets I’d prepared to go along with the lesson and said, “Today, we’re

going to do a science exploration. I’m going to hand out a packet for the

lesson. Before we start the exploration, I want you to fill out the current

understandings questions. You have 5 minutes to answer what you can”. This

pre-assessment ended up being really helpful when the time came for me to

evaluate the students’ understandings. I could look back on their pre-

assessment answers and compare them to the final assessment to determine

each student’s level of growth.

Once the students finished filling out the questions (or I cut them off for

time reasons) I moved on to the introduction to the lesson. I read this part out

loud and for most sentences, I’d paraphrase it a second time to ensure

understanding. This section defined natural selection and gave a brief

overview of the activity. I think that this part could have given a better

overview but I think introducing natural selection before going into the lesson

was efficient because I could use it as a call back later during the discussion.

Next, I had a student read the instruction out loud for us. This is probably the

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part of the lesson I’d spend the most time revising if I were to revisit the

lesson. While writing them out, I tried to make sure they were very clear. I

read them over to myself and was satisfied with them. I probably should have

had someone else read them through and see if they could follow them

because, of course, they’re going to make sense to me, I wrote them! But if

they make sense to someone else, that means they’re truly clear. I knew I

hadn’t made them clear enough when as soon as I let the students break off

into groups, I got a ton of questions about what they were supposed to be

doing.

Before I handed out the materials, I modeled what they were supposed

to do at each station. I think this worked well because it reinforced some

clarity into the directions. The rest of the lesson consisted of me circling the

room and checking in with each group. A couple students complained about

being unable to get any “food” with their beaks and I would ask them

something like, “well, thank about that, would your bird survive if this was the

only food available”? These kind of guiding questions really added to the

lesson, in my opinion and I felt =they redirected the students’ thinking.

I wish I’d left more time to discuss than I did. Thankfully, the time we did

have was enough to go over the main points of the lesson. We discussed

whether they predicted accurately, if they saw any relationships between

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beak and food type, the advantages and disadvantages of the beaks and

considered a situation where food was limited. I had them fill out a final

assessment and self-evaluation which turned out to be really helpful for

checking understanding.

One other thing I wish I’d left time for was clean up. The students

needed to be somewhere right after the lesson so I rushed to clean up after

them and I don’t like the idea of them thinking that’s my job.

Supervisor Feedback

Analysis of a Single Lesson Plan Assignment

Observation Form

Carly Weinand, Wednesday, April 26, 2017

How well did the pre-practicum student appear to carry out the lesson plan’s

objectives?

Carly’s stated objectives for her students to be able to do were: “assess

the effectiveness of a specific beak for collecting a specific food, discuss how

traits like beak type affect the survival of a bird, and express scientific

thinking verbally and in writing”. I believe that she carried these out quite

well; however I did not read their written conclusions to determine how they

expressed ‘scientific thinking’.

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Describe positive aspects of the lesson that demonstrate the pre-practicum

student’s developing skills as a beginning teacher.

Carly’s lesson exhibited many skills for a beginning teacher. This was a

well-designed Science lesson, providing relevant information about natural

selection, where she planned engaging stations for students to experiment

with their particular “beaks’ , and created charts to record their predictions

and findings. She led a lively discussion afterward, offering students an

opportunity to share their findings, and then asked them to write how their

observations related to a bird’s ability to survive.

Make some recommendations regarding further development of the pre-

practicum student’s teaching skills.

This was a very ambitious lesson, involving a lot of preparation and

planning, and many moving parts - explication, experimenting, recording,

multiple roles for students, discussion, and reflection. The children were very

engaged and enthusiastic. As Carly and I discussed afterward, learning

something new as important as natural selection requires more time on

instruction. This was, after all, the scientific underlying principle. To be fair,

her objectives were narrower, and those the children fulfilled; however

asking them to write more broadly relating the experiment to the elements of

natural selection was a stretch. I applaud her for tackling such a lesson with

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its many parts, I would recommend even more meticulous organization. And

as Carly herself suggested, she would have been well served to run it by and

rehearse in front of someone else.

Comment on any limit-setting and/or management that may have arisen during

the lesson (positive and negative).

This was as stated above a lively, engaging, active lesson, and while it

did get noisy at times, it was largely the students’ enthusiasm for what they

were doing. Carly used a few strategies like clapping to get students’

attention. For the most part she had planned well, assigned roles for each

group, had prepared worksheets, and drawn charts on the white boards for

results - all of which preempt management issues. She was diligent about

moving around to all the groups, answering questions and clarifying some

confusions.

Reviewing what the students produced from the lesson or the students’ work

samples, do they indicate that the objectives were achieved and that learning

took place?

As I walked about, I saw students experimenting, counting, recording,

and Carly collected these documents to look more closely at their learning.

From my observation and listening to their discussion, I believe her

objectives were achieved.

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Was the student teacher’s knowledge of the content accurate and developed

enough? If not, what recommendations can you make to the student regarding

mastery of content in this area?

Carly’s knowledge of the content did seem well enough developed.

She was clear and accurate in her introductory comments to the children, and

did search various options to create stations to test various “beaks”. She

appeared quite comfortable in fielding the discussion and asking good

questions.

Charlotte Teplow

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Response to Supervisor Feedback
Charlotte’s feedback is very positive. I totally agree with her on all of

her points. The lesson went very well and I do believe that the majority of

students left the lesson with my lesson goals met. As for Charlotte’s point on

clearer instruction, I totally agree. We discussed this afterwards and I

mentioned that running this section by another person could be very helpful

in ensuring the clarity of the directions. Especially with students who don’t use

materials in class very often, this is a point that should receive more attention.

Charlotte is correct that the classroom got too noisy at points (which, like

Charlotte, I hope was out of enthusiasm) and it was hard to keep this in check

but I tried to use several strategies to counteract the liveliness. Also, I

purposely put the charts on the board before the lesson to save time and keep

things organized and I’m glad she noticed that. I’m also glad she noticed that I

tried my best to check-in with each group and clear up confusions because I

was trying my best to make the lesson run smoothly.

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Video Analysis
General Questions
1. I feel like my tone of voice is very enthusiastic and upbeat throughout
the video of my science lesson. In the beginning I sounded a bit nervous
(because I was!) but as I got further into the lesson, I sounded much
more comfortable. I definitely think that the students understood that
they could take risks and ask me questions. I think I portrayed a
comfortable light environment with my tone of voice. Unfortunately, the
room got pretty loud a couple of times and I did have to raise my voice
but I think I was able to keep myself from sounding too aggressive or
angry.
2. I heard myself saying “think about that” a couple of times when the
students were frustrated with not being able to gather a certain food.
“What would that mean if you were a bird and this was your only food
source”? This is definitely a thought-guiding question to get the
students to connect their first-hand experience with a more hypothetical
situation.
3. I think I responded most to students who were actively asking
questions. If I could go back, I might ask some of the quieter students
what they were seeing or how they were feeling about the effectiveness
of their beak to make sure they were engaged and on the same page as
the rest of the class. To the students asking direct questions, I think I
made sure to remain somewhat vague and not answer any questions
that would just give them the answer but still clarify any confusion.
4. It’s a bit hard to judge my feedback to the students from my video.
Through the lesson, I was wandering from group to group and the
camera wasn’t always able to pick up what I was saying. From what I
remember, during the exploration, I mostly just made comments on the

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 students’ work and asked what they were noticing about their
exploration. When the discussion came, I wish I’d been freer with my
feedback. I noticed I said “I agree”, and was a little dismissive and
brushed over students’ answers to get to the point I had in sight. I
usually just nod my head as feedback and say “okay” or “alright” or
“nice.
5. I didn’t notice any specific moment where I addressed socio-emotional
need of the students in my review of the video. Again, it’s hard to hear a
lot of the conversation that occurred in the video but I’d like to think that
simply by answering questions and being supportive and open-minded,
I provided some regard for their socio-emotional needs.

Affective Qualities

 Accepting and tolerant

o I When I mentioned there were insects in the Styrofoam, one
student made a funny face. I reassured her that they weren’t real
insects just rice I’d died blue. I’d like to think that being accepting
and tolerant is something I do without actively trying. I made sure
they knew that some of the tasks might be really hard and that it
wasn’t a competition.
 Encouraging and supportive
o I couldn’t find any one good example for this but I noticed that
when the students were talking, I made sure I was actively
listening and nodding my head. I was trying to multitask by
cleaning up simultaneously so I probably could have done this
even better than I did and given the students my full attention
during the discussion. When I was making my rounds during the

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 exploration, too, I was telling the kids to try their hardest even
though some of the tasks were really difficult.
 Friendly and warm
o I noticed that I smiled a lot during the entire lesson. I couldn’t
pinpoint any one moment but again, I’d like to think that this is
something I do without actively trying.
 Having an appropriate use of humor
o When the students with straw beaks were talking about how
they’d bent their straws to be able to grab food better, I made a
joke about how if a bird were to bend their beak, it would
probably hurt a bit. I think that I use humor with the kids a lot and
it’s a great way to keep their spirits up.
 Calm, in spite of conflicting demands
o Since there was food involved, the students were asking
continuously if they could eat some of the seeds or one of the
gummies. I made sure to firmly say that, no, they could not eat any
of the food and that they had lunch right after we finished. The
room also got pretty loud a few times so I had to get their attention
by clapping and patiently waiting for the room to quiet down. This
is something I haven’t always been great at so I’ll definitely try to
work on my patience when things get stressful.
 Attentive and responsive to students’ needs and interests
o When multiple students had their hands up at one time, I made
sure to give them some way of knowing that I saw their hand and
would be with them as soon as I finished what I was doing. Things
like that are important because I’ve seen the kids get frustrated
with the main teacher for not noticing their hands in the past.

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1. I felt really good about… the lesson as a whole, considering it was my
first independent endeavor.
2. I was uncomfortable with… how messy the lesson ended up being.
3. What I learned most about myself was… that I need to learn the
difference between preparing for a lesson and stressing for it.
4. I had problems with… managing time for each section of the lesson.
5. Things I would do differently next time include… better time
management and clearer directions because I ended up spending extra
time having to review the directions in further detail.
6. The decision I made during the lesson that stays most in my mind
was… to prioritize the end-of-exploration discussion rather than giving
more time for the exploration itself.
7. When I think about teaching, learning, and the learning process, I
think that… I’ve come a long way in just one semester and this lesson
pushed me even closer to being able to design, write and implement
lesson plans.

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Student Work

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Analysis of Student Work
I went through the students work and commented on whether or not I

thought their understanding had grown based on their pre-assessment and

final assessment as well as an evaluation of their participation and behavior

during the lesson. I’m a little confused and unsure about whether or not my

lesson helped the student’s understanding because there’s a large range in

their work. Some students showed a complete growth between their pre-

assessment and final assessment, answering the same question they got

wrong in the pre-assessment right at the end of the lesson. On the other hand,

some students wrote very little or did worse on the final assessment than the

pre-assessment. I suspect that if they knew they were actually being graded

on this, they may have taken it more seriously or tried a little harder but it’s

hard to tell. From the discussion, I’d definitely say they left the lesson

understanding that a bird’s beak reflects its diet and that different beaks have

advantages and disadvantages. I’m less confident that the idea of natural

selection came through. I believe that a select few students showed an

understanding of bird’s beaks as a concrete example of natural selection but I

don’t think any of them fully grasped it as a general concept. I’m okay with

this though, because they have time to learn this later and for one lesson, they

learned plenty.

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 I also think this was a good exercise for the students’ scientific thinking.

They do show some of this in their science special but it can’t hurt to practice

this type of exploration further. Some students have a ways to go to show that

they can express scientific thinking verbally and in writing while others can

easily do this. Again, for one lesson I’m happy with the amount of practice in

thinking scientifically I was able to achieve.

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Conclusions

29
Final Reflections
Overall, I’m actually quite proud of how my lesson went. I’ve never

taught a full lesson to a full classroom so starting with a lesson of my own was

a big achievement. This lesson made me feel one big step closer to being an

actual teacher. For one of my personal goals for this project, I wrote that I

wanted to gain experience designing and implementing lessons and

confidently teach a full lesson. I may not have been confident at all times while

teaching the lesson but I think that I’m more confident in my teaching as a

result. I also feel much better about my ability to design lessons because of

how successful this one went. It’s a really nice feeling to put so much time and

effort into planning something like this and have the results be positive. I also

think that the things that weren’t as positive, like the directions section and my

timing, are a great reminder that I’m still growing as a teacher. I feel that,

even though those mistakes were made, they’re just another stepping stone or

learning experience on the path toward this career.

I’ve been very thankful for the support of those around me throughout

this process. I can’t imagine how I would have gotten this done without having

my classmates to bounce ideas off of, my family to vent to and my professors

to guide me. I hope that these supports will be there well into my teaching

career and I hope that I’ve been able to act as a type of support for Ms.

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DiSarcina. Overall, this has been a stressful but very positive growing and

learning experience.

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