Self-Assessment of Workshop

Carrie Sun The Story of How I Am Learning to Teach (2015)
Self-assessment of my workshop
Date
Information
Feb 3 Worked collaboratively over a long period

of time with 2 other students interested in
teaching about plants and how to make it
more engaging.
Connections (e.g. between what learnt and

how I plan to use it to support student learning)
Extensions (e.g. further questions,

extensions, other applications,
improvements)
I would definitely use this lesson as part of my

activity toolbox for teaching plants. These
activities can also be modified for Grade 12
biology plants as well.
For some reason, I dont think we ever

got back the classess feedback for us
as the facilitators, only the video clips.
I know from watching the videos that
The question we wanted students to focus

on was: What are the distinguishing
characteristics of different plants? It
was broad enough that it could cover
almost every curriculum expectation, but
also interesting enough to do a lot of
different activities that answers that
question. It is also a good starting
question to build on knowledge as the
class goes through the unit, and provides
a lot of collaborative learning
opportunities.
Grouping strategy: Each student gets a
plant related card (fruit, pine needles, pine
cones, flowers, mosses, ferns). We tried
to focus it on the different types of plants
(nonvascular seedless, vascular seedless,
vascular angiosperm, and vascular
gymnosperm). Students must find the
table that has the most relevant
specimens that matches their card (we
tried to use as many real specimens as
possible - e.g. real fruit, pine needles,
etc.)
Started off with a diagnostic, called Plant
BINGO (topic bingo was one of the Peel
For the walkabout, if I was doing it in the

classroom for real, I would have students bring
something for the record of their learning to add
to their notes. The exploration and walkabout
would create their notes (then teacher could do
assessments based on whatever they explored
and wrote down). And we explained this idea to
the students as well.
I might even use the build your own plant
activity as a springboard activity to visit time
and again to build on ideas and explore new
concepts throughout the unit, in the same way
Reebops can do.
It may also be good to complement the Build
Your Own activity with a Grow Your Own Plant
activity throughout the unit (which we obviously
couldnt do during our 1 hour workshop).
I know though that I want to improve the

brainstorm bingo activity. Maybe instead
of me listing off the facts, a student or a
group of students could do it and lead
the class instead.
When I did the Sweller Questions activity
with my grade 10 applied math class (for
measurement and units, using boxes
and cones and other household objects
that had shapes), it didnt go over too
well, even with the incentive of Pokemon
Badge System. Only the students who
typically did stuff, did it, and the students
who typically didnt do stuff, didnt do it.
Which wasnt surprising.
Depending on the context and what
students know, the teacher can build on
the Sweller Questions activity, and
students can do more than just write
down what they see, smell, taste, and
feel. They can use math and physics and
chemistry and any other subjects they
know and incorporate it with that. (e.g.
measure how large different plant seeds
are vs. what they grow up to be) (or

Procedures). Students write down
everything they know about plants in a
5x5 grid, then the facilitator reads out
some precompiled facts and they try to
make a bingo. The winning group got a
prize.
We then went into our Explore First,
Explain Later activity: Sweller
Questions/Challenge each other activity.
At the table, students explore everything
about their specimen and record their
observations and learning, but must
decide on what to put down on the paper
together, by challenging each other. We
did an example using broccoli to show
them. Then students did a walkabout and
explored other groups specimens and see
what they recorded.
Final activity - Also Explore First, Explain
Later style: Build your own plant. We
provided a bunch of craft materials, and
asked students in their groups to build
their plants, now knowing what they know
about the characteristics of plants from
the first 2 activities! Then we had the
groups show how they incorporated
different features in their plant model and
then explain the features.
We also explained how teachers can take
it to the next level for their class - you can
incorporate research elements, or drawing
from other units (e.g. what features must
your plant organisms possess to be
evolutionarily superior to Earth plants?)
learn about the chemistry behind how

plants use their xylem and phloem - like
the coloured celery POE). This may be
easier to do for 7-8 class, than high
school (because continuity-wise).

I liked how Cathy allowed us to give her
feedback on the workshop assessment
feedback form (Feedback on the
feedback!). I like how we changed the
language to something more positive and
constructive, and the final product had
more prompts about what to look for.
Self-Assessment of Workshop Critical Thinking Questions REFLECTION
Critical Thinking Question
Does this activity support my enduring
knowledge criteria (i.e. what I want my
students to remember from my class
long after theyre gone?)
Yes/No
Yes
Is this activity safe?

Is this activity interesting for all
students?
Yes
No
Does this activity allow students to

think critically?
Yes
Can I determine (assess) what

students have learned from this
lesson?
How many expectations was I able to
cluster in this lesson?
Yes
Yes
Why/How?
We want students to understand distinguishing features of different plants and their
importance, and these activities act as a perfect springboard to begin exploring that.
After they leave, students should always remember some of the main parts of a plant and
how it is used.
Besides scissors, there is nothing that could harm a student.
Theres no way something can be interesting to ALL students in a class. There will always
be ones who think its dumb, or who get bored, or dont understand, etc. I think the best
thing to do is just be positive and enthusiastic as possible with this stuff and be a role
model (i.e. make your own model to show the class)
For the Sweller Questions/Challege Each Other activity, students can take it to the next
level by exploring components about their specimen beyond just what they see or feel. The
teacher can perhaps facilitate critical thinking by: They can interact with others and
challenge preconceptions; they can do research on their plant; during the walkabout, they
can find other plants and compare and contrast them, etc.
For the Make Your Plant activity, teacher can perhaps facilitate critical thinking by:
introducing next-level questions (e.g. what features will you include in your plant to make it
evolutionarily superior to Earth plants?), and incorporating that into the activity; students
can be given restraints and must build a plant given the scenario; students must modify
their plant based on a scenario, etc.
One can easily modify these activities to be formatives and/or summatives. The diagnostic
BINGO is already a good formative. For a summative, students could do a project similar to
this, or a summative test could incorporate open-ended questions about the activities (e.g.
Overall:
f2. And f3.

Specific:
f2.1, f2.3, f3.1, f3.2
However, this this is only brief introduction to these topics, obviously you as the teacher
would continue to build on todays activities and go as detailed as the curriculum needs,
and continue to uncover even more expectations.

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Carrie Sun The Story of How I Am Learning to Teach (2015)

Feb 3 Worked collaboratively over a long period

Connections (e.g. between what learnt and

Extensions (e.g. further questions,

I would definitely use this lesson as part of my

For some reason, I dont think we ever

The question we wanted students to focus

For the walkabout, if I was doing it in the

I know though that I want to improve the

Carrie Sun The Story of How I Am Learning to Teach (2015)

learn about the chemistry behind how

Carrie Sun The Story of How I Am Learning to Teach (2015)

Is this activity safe?

Does this activity allow students to

Can I determine (assess) what

Carrie Sun The Story of How I Am Learning to Teach (2015)

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