Artifacts and Characteristics of the Novice Teacher #7

The artifact that I am using is my Learning Cycle from my Science Methods course that I took in Fall 2009. A Learning Cycle had five phases to get students involved in the content being taught. The Learning Cycle spanned for three days in the classroom. I have decided that this Learning Cycle goes with Characteristic #7. Characteristic #7 is: We believe that the novice teacher should effectively integrate content and pedagogy.

The Learning Cycle that I made was about magnets. This was conducted in a third grade classroom at my PDS. The Learning Cycle encompasses many qualities and subject areas. Reading, Science, Math, technology and diversity are included in this project. The main reason I picked the Learning Cycle for this characteristic was because it included all of these subject areas. I got to use many different CSO’s for this lesson plan and by using so many subject areas every student in the class could participate in the activities that I provided. I also included modifications for the different types of learners: kinesthetic, auditory and visual. For the auditory learners I had a video about magnets; for the visual learners, I provided a transcript of the video about magnets; and for the kinesthetic learners, I included hands-on materials that went with the video. I also picked activities for this learning cycle that would be engaging and meaningful for the students. I included journaling after the lessons to see what students were understanding and misunderstanding. After the lesson, I read the journals and wrote down students' misconceptions to talk about in class the next day. This was very helpful for the students and for me.