by: megan willis€¦ · unit plan purpose/sols covered ... – continental drift flip book –...
TRANSCRIPT
Unit Plan and Assessment of Student Learning
By: Megan Willis
Unit Plan Purpose/SOLs covered
● Purpose:
– Throughout the course of the unit, students will
understand how plate tectonics occur on Earth and
how the resulting geologic features occur.
● Virginia SOLs:
– ES.7 The student will investigate and understand
geologic processes including plate tectonics. Key
concepts include:
a)geologic processes and their resulting features;
b)and tectonic processes.
Days 1, 2: The History of Plate Tectonics
● Engage:
– Formative assessment on plate tectonics
● Explore:
– Pangaea puzzle
● Explain:
– Class discussion on Pangaea Puzzles
– Lecture
● Elaborate:
– Continental drift flip book – shows how continents drift over time
– Primary plate puzzle – shows that continents and plates are not the same thing
● Evaluate:
– Check the Pangaea Puzzles for completion, not accuracy
– Both it and the Primary Plate Puzzle are counted as daily participation if turned in
– Students can keep the Pangaea flip books
Pangaea Puzzle Student Examples
Continental Drift Flip Book
Primary Plate Puzzle Student Examples
Days 3, 4: Introduction to Plate Tectonics
● Engage:
– Venn diagram on solids versus liquids
– Silly putty
● Explore:
– Earth's layers lab
● Explain:
– Lecture on the Earth's layers
● Elaborate:
– Pie Slice of the Earth GeoBlox
● Evaluate:
– Check GeoBlox and activity sheets for completion, but correct the
activity sheets so that they can study them.
Earth's Layers Activity Sheet Student Examples
Pie Slice of the Earth GeoBlox Student Examples
Days 5, 6: Tectonic Plates
● Engage:
– The cookies sat at the front of the class during the quiz to pique student interest
● Explore:
– Students demonstrated the 3 main types of plate boundaries using the Oreos
– Students then made flip books on the three main types of plate boundaries
● Explain:
– Lecture on plate boundaries and their geologic features
● Elaborate:
– Based on the information in the lecture, students can fill in the rest of their flip
books
● Evaluate:
– Students are given rubrics for the flip books so that they know exactly what they
need on the particular tabs
Plate Boundary Flip Book Student Examples
Plate Boundary Flip Book Student Examples
Rubric
Days 7, 8: Products of Plate Tectonics
● Students finished up the plate boundary flip books from last
class
● Engage:
– Students watched a short YouTube video on the San
Andreas Fault in California
● Explore:
– Students were put into groups of three to complete
GeoBloxs on normal, reverse, and strike slip faults
– Class discussion on three types of faults
● Explain:
– Lecture on folds and faults
Fault GeoBlox Student Example
Fault Chart Student Example
Days 9, 10: Test Review
● Engage:
– The bingo boards sat in front of the class to pique student interest
● Explore:
– The class was separated into 4 groups, and each group worked on completing different
concept maps on the Popplet website
● Explain:
– After the groups finished their concept maps, they rotated around the room and saw the
other concept maps
– One student from each group stayed at their concept map and explain it to students as
they walk up
● The other students walked around to the other groups and listened in on what their
concept maps were about
● Elaborate:
– I hosted a Geo-Bingo tournament with bingo boards I created using concepts from the unit
– Students were allowed to use their notes and winners received either extra credit on the
test or candy
Concept Map Student Example
Concept Map Student Example
Days 11, 12: Test
● Students had 5-10 minutes to ask questions/study for their tests.
● Students took the test on Blackboard.
– They faced the back of the room so I could see their computer
screens. The questions were also in randomized order to prevent
cheating.
● As students finished, they had time to work on their homework that
was due the next class for Mrs. Dickenson.
● At the end of class, I passed out the same formative assessment that
I used at the beginning of the unit.
– This was so I could see how the students self assessed
themselves on how much knowledge they had gained.
● Finally, I passed out an exit slip that asked the students to explain
what plate tectonics is.
Assessment of Student Learning
At the beginning of unit plan on Plate Tectonics, I
administered a formative assessment to all of my ninth grade
students. This formative assessment was used as a way to
gauge the prior knowledge of my students before I started
teaching them. The purpose was for students to self-assess
themselves.
Provided below are the statistics for every class I taught.
The numbers of students shown in red indicate the numbers
BEFORE I taught my unit. At the very end of my unit, I
administered the exact same formative assessment to see if
the students had learned anything from the lessons and
activities. The numbers in blue indicate the numbers AFTER
I taught my unit. All answers were anonymous.
Formative Assessment
A-Day Block 2: (Pre-AP Earth Science)
● Plate Tectonics:
– I have never heard of this: 2 students, 0 students
– I have heard of this but I’m not sure what it means: 2 students, 3 students
– I have some idea what it means: 14 students, 5 students
– I clearly know what it means and I can describe it: 3 students, 12 students
A-Day Block 3: (Regular Earth Science)
● Plate Tectonics:
– I have never heard of this: 2 students, 0 students
– I have heard of this but I’m not sure what it means: 5 students, 0 students
– I have some idea what it means: 6 students, 4 students
– I clearly know what it means and I can describe it: 5 students, 11 students
Formative Assessment Continued
A-Day Block 4: (Pre-AP Earth Science)
● Plate Tectonics:
– I have never heard of this: 1 student, 1 student
– I have heard of this but I’m not sure what it means: 1 student, 0 students
– I have some idea what it means: 16 students, 4 students
– I clearly know what it means and I can describe it: 6 students, 14 students
B-Day Block 1: (Pre-AP Earth Science)
● Plate Tectonics:
– I have never heard of this: 0 students, 0 students
– I have heard of this but I’m not sure what it means: 3 students, 0 students
– I have some idea what it means: 15 students, 4 students
– I clearly know what it means and I can describe it: 5 students, 16 students
Formative Assessment Continued
B-Day Block 4: (Pre-AP Earth Science)
● Plate Tectonics:
– I have never heard of this: 0 students, 0 students
– I have heard of this but I’m not sure what it means: 2 students, 1 student
– I have some idea what it means: 16 students, 0 students
– I clearly know what it means and I can describe it: 4 students, 19 students
Assessment of Student Learning
The students' self assessments seem to indicate that they all
understood plate tectonics better after the completion of the unit. In
all of the classes, there was a huge increase of students who clearly
knew what it meant and could describe it. This data also indicates
that there was only one student at the end of the unit who still had no
idea what plate tectonics was. If I had more time and I had been with
my students from the beginning of the year, I might have figured out
another way of presenting the information to help that student.
I administered an exit slip at the end of my unit as well. I saw that
most students on their formative assessments indicated that they
clearly knew what plate tectonics was and could describe it after the
unit. This made me want to hear their own definitions and see what
they took away from the unit. Students couldn't use their notes, but
they had to come up with their own definition of it based off of
everything we went over. Below are some examples of student
responses.
Exit Slip Student Responses
Assessment of Student Learning
Some students were more general and vague with their
answers (slip 1), and some were much more specific (slip 2),
but both are correct answers. Some students remembered
specific events and tied it into plate tectonics (slip 3) and
some students still had some misconceptions (slip 4).
After the entire unit, I gave the students the unit test. I
administered this test on Blackboard (the school website).
Blackboard was a great way to incorporate technology in the
classroom. It also graded all of the tests for me and it
allowed me to pull up the statistics after they took it. I could
then see which problems students had the most issues with,
and which problems most of the class did well on.
Analyzing Student Performance
Analyzing the Test
Assessment of Student Learning
There were 50 questions and 100 possible
points. There seemed to be a normal bell-
curve distribution of grades. The average
score on the test was a 74.7%. The highest
grade was a 100% and the lowest grade was
a 34%. These analysis were performed by the
school BlackBoard website and were based
on 78 student attempts. It even showed that
the average time required for the test was on
average 24 minutes.