Needs Assessment

Question 1: What Do You Know?

               As I begin the lesson on the life cycle of a pumpkin, I do not know if the students have any knowledge about a pumpkin’s life cycle.  I do know the students have a basic understand of pumpkin which includes the pumpkin being used during Halloween for Jack-O-Lanterns or decorations for the holiday.  However, I know most of the students understand pumpkins are a form of food which they can eat in a number of different ways.  While some students may have an idea of where pumpkins come from, many will not understand how they grow.

Question 2: What Do You Want To Know?

               After listening to the story Pumpkin Circle: The Story of a Garden by George Levenson, I would like the students to have a basic understanding of the life cycle of a pumpkin.  Based on the information gained from Pumpkin Circle: The Story of a Garden by George Levenson and addition books provided, I would like the students to make a few simple assumptions about how a pumpkin will grow and decompose within its life cycle.  As the students watch their pumpkins grow and decay, I want them to develop a more defined idea of the life cycle of a pumpkin from beginning to end and back to the beginning.

Question 3: What Are Your Trying To Measure, Determine, or Define?

The learning objectives I want to measure, determine, and/or define with this lesson plan include:

1.      The students will be able to describe the life cycle of a pumpkin.

2.      The students will be able to describe how a pumpkin grows.

3.      The students will be able to describe how a pumpkin decays.

4.      The students will be able to identify the difference between the growth of a pumpkin and the decay of a pumpkin.

“A learning objective is the specific knowledge that a learner has to acquire about a concept or skill and the tasks to be performed” (Alonso, López, Manrique, & Viñes, 2008, p. 392).  Each of the learning objectives will be defined in order to deal with a specific piece of knowledge.  A learning objective should contain “educational contents, a ‘good problem’ for group problem solving that covers the concepts described in the educational contents, and evaluation exercises to evaluate the knowledge acquired by the learner” (Alonso, López, Manrique, & Viñes, 2008, p. 392).

               While each learning objective should detail what the learner will learn, if the learning objectives are not clear, it can be overwhelming for the students.  “Consider the additional cognitive demands confronting ELLs, who must tackle academic language and translate between their native language and English” (Fisher & Frey, 2016, p. 84).  Understanding the purpose of the lesson and the activities within is a must for all students in order for them to comprehend the material, content, and participate in social interactions.

Question 4: How Will You Collect and Record Information?

               Each student will receive the Student Observation Journals to record the results of the life cycle of a pumpkin.  The students will be able to include pictures, drawings, and descriptions of each stage of the pumpkin as it both grows and decomposes.  In addition, the students will be able to use other books, websites, and videos to document what they believe will happen with their pumpkin.  Once they have documented the purposed finding, using the different resources, they will be able to compare those purposed finding to the real time results.  The students could even cite the different sources within their journals.

Question 5: How Will You Report The Information You Collect?

The teacher will collect the student’s personal Student Observation Journals in each student’s portfolio.   In using the portfolios, “the students collect more than a diverse body of finished work.  In fact, they gather what we have come to call biographies of works, a range of works, and reflections” (Wolf, 1989, p. 37).  Since the students will be completing an observation journal with both pictures and words, the teacher will be able to see how the student illustrates the pumpkin’s growth, as well as how they detail the growth progress.  The students will be assessed on how well they documented the life cycle of the pumpkin from drawing to pictures to descriptive words.  In addition, the student’s will be assessed on how well they participated in the different discussions and reading sessions.

Question 6: Are All Interested Groups Included in Planning and Conducting the Needs Assessment?

               The teacher will again include the classroom staff in developing the appropriate activities in order to complete the assignment.  The teacher will consult the para-educators, special education and resource teachers, ELL and ELA teachers, and any extend staff within the classroom.  They will be asked to help develop of the lesson plan to ensure all materials and each activity is appropriate for all students within the classroom.  As the students complete their work and observations, the staff members will observe the students activities to be discussed with the different staff members within the classroom setting.

In addition, each member from the para-educator to extend staff will include comments about their observations of the students within each student’s mini-portfolio and class portfolio.  By including the special education and resource teachers, the ELL and ELA teachers, and pare-educators in the observations, each member will be able to their observations and suggestions for improvement within the portfolio.  Since the teacher will have to split his/her time among a large group of students, the addition support would ensure all students are being considered and observed at all times.  In addition, the extend staff will be able to ensure the work is not too easy or complicated for those with special needs from language to physical barriers.

References

Alonso, F., López, G., Manrique, D., & Viñes, J. M. (2008). Learning objects, learning objectives and                learning design. Innovations in Education and Teaching International, 45(4), 389-400.                doi:10.1080/14703290802377265

Fisher, D., & Frey, N. (2016). Setting clear learning purposes for ELLs make the classroom friendlier by                clarifying your objectives. Educational Leadership, 73(5), 84-85. Retrieved from                http://eds.b.ebscohost.com.proxy-library.ashford.edu/eds/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=58696b00-   4226-4a4b-a3fe-804e456a308f%40sessionmgr105&vid=9&hid=121

Wolf, D. P. (1989). Portfolio assessment: Sampling student work. Educational Leadership, 46(7), 35-39.                Retrieved from http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED332166.pdf#page=363

My Typical Topic Format

Instruction Tab:

Students observe the growth and decomposition of a pumpkin as they learning about and how to grow a pumpkin.  Students will learn about the life cycle of pumpkins from nonfiction books as they practice early reading skills through shared reading. 

Use the Background, Policy, and Resources sections to research pumpkins and their life cycles from beginning to end.

Use the Decide tab when you are ready to record your finding regarding the life cycles of pumpkins.

Background Tab:

Students will read Pumpkin Circle: The Story of a Garden by George Levenson to learn about how a pumpkin patch grows and changes from seeds to plants to pumpkins then back to seeds.

Policy Tab:

The students will listen to the book Pumpkin Circle: The Story of a Garden by George Levenson read to the class.  The students will plant a sprouted pumpkin plant and watch as the pumpkin plant grows.  As the students observe the plant’s growth, they will record their finds in their personal Student Observation Journals.  The students will record using pictures and/or words to describe what they see occurring with the pumpkin from beginning to end.

Resource Tab:

Here are some additional books and resources about pumpkins and their life cycle to help research for the activity.

From Seed to Pumpkin by Wendy Pfeffer

Picking Apples and Pumpkins by Richard Hutchings and Amy Hutchings

Pumpkins by Jacqueline Farmer

The Pumpkin Patch by Margaret McNamara

Pumpkin Pumpkin by Jeanne Titherington

Kiddie Gardens at http://www.kiddiegardens.com/growing_pumpkins.html is a website which shows children how to grow gardens.

How to grow pumpkins at http://www.watchknowlearn.org/Video.aspx?VideoID=40627&CategoryID=9483 is a video that shows how to grow a pumpkin.

From Seed to Pumpkin at http://www.watchknowlearn.org/Category.aspx?CategoryID=9483 is a video that shows one how to grow a pumpkin starting with a seed.

Decide Tab:

1.      What did you think would happen to the plant as it grew?

2.      What actually happened to the plant as it grew?

3.      Did you know there were different genders of pumpkin plants?

4.      What is the different between a male and female pumpkin flower?

5.      How long did you think it would take the plant to grow from a sprout to a pumpkin?

6.      How long did it take for the plant to grow from a sprout to a pumpkin?

7.      How long did you think it would take for the pumpkin section to decay?

8.      How long did it take for the pumpkin section to decay?

 



My Topic Activity

Lesson 1: Observing the Life Cycle of Pumpkins

Overview

Students observe growth and decomposition while learning about and growing pumpkins.  This unit is tied to both literacy and math lessons during the pumpkin season. It provides a great opportunity to bring nonfiction literature to the read-aloud time and introduce your students to facts about the world around them.  Students will learn about the life cycle of pumpkins from nonfiction books and will practice early reading skills in a shared reading related to the unit.

Objective

Students will:

1. Learn about the life cycle of a pumpkin.

2. Observe growth and decomposition.

3. Learn where food comes from.

4. Practice early reading skills through a shared reading.

Materials:

•Pumpkin Circle: The Story of a Garden by George Levenson, and other books that you've used to teach life cycles

•Chart paper for recording student observations during the read-aloud

•Pots, soil

•Pumpkin seeds

•One large piece of a pumpkin

•Jar

•Student Observation Journals (PDF)

•Five Little Pumpkins by Iris Van Rynbach

•Pocket chart for shared reading

•Sentence strips

Set Up and Prepare:

1. Print student journals, one per student.

2. Make sentence strips with the text from Five Little Pumpkins and mount it in the pocket chart for the shared reading (as shown in the photo above).

Directions:

Part I: Nonfiction Reading

Step 1: Ask students questions about where pumpkins (and other foods) come from. Then tell students you will read Pumpkin Circle: The Story of a Garden to help us learn about where pumpkins come from and how they grow.

Step 2: Read Pumpkin Circle: The Story of a Garden aloud to the class. Stop to discuss what students notice and learn about pumpkin growth. As students recount the story, chart the sequence of the pumpkins' growth.

Step 3: To grow your students' understanding, follow up this reading with other books that teach life cycles and plant growth.

Part II: Planting Pumpkins

Step 4: Review with students what they learned about a pumpkin's growth and tell them they’ll get to grow a pumpkin plant in class. Then give each student a pot, some potting soil, and several seeds to plant.

Step 5: Show the students how to dig a hole in the soil and plant their seeds. Guide them when watering their seeds. You’ll need to water the pots and put them in the sun daily.

Part III: Observing Growth and Decay

Note: You may want to start this part when the seeds are just starting to sprout.

Step 6: Discuss with students what they do at home with old fruits and vegetables. What did they learn in Pumpkin Circle: The Story of a Garden about pumpkins that get old and mushy? (Introduce the words "decay" and "decompose.") Ask them: Have they ever seen fruit that is starting to decay, or get old and yucky?

Step 7: Tell students that you will watch a pumpkin grow, from the beginning to the end of the pumpkin life cycle. Tell them they will watch their potted pumpkins sprout and grow, then show students the piece of fully-grown pumpkin and tell them that we’re going to keep it in a jar (so it won’t smell) and watch the pumpkin grow old and decay.

Step 8: Pass out the Student Observation Journals (PDF). Tell students to record (with pictures or words) what they see as they take care of their seeds and watch the piece of pumpkin decompose. Look for ways to connect the students’ observations to books you are reading and things they are learning. Students will take their plants home after they have grown to a predetermined height.

Part IV: Shared Reading

Step 9: Shared readings are a non-threatening environment for early readers to practice tracking, fluency, phrasing, and sight words. The story Five Little Pumpkins by Iris Van Rynbach is a great book to use as a shared reading with this unit. (As the students become familiar with the text, I use it for skill-based mini-lessons — see below for an example.) Take out the pocket chart with sentence strips that you prepared for the Five Little Pumpkins.

Step 10: Read the Five Little Pumpkins poem from the sentence strips. While reading, point to the words with a long pointer.

Step 11: Once the students are comfortable with the poem, let volunteers lead the reading with the pointer. Optional: Have the students make pumpkin puppets and act out the poem as you read it together.

Reproducible Worksheets

Student Observation Journals

 

Supporting All Learners:

Encourage students who don’t normally raise their hand during discussions. Give them the opportunity to read the poem to you or the class -- as long as they feel comfortable doing so. Allow sufficient wait time for students to gather their thoughts and formulate their answers. Some students will be encouraged to read the pocket charts when the pointers are a different shape, size, or perhaps something fun like a large hand.

Lesson Extensions:

Take students to see a real pumpkin patch with a field trip.

Home Connection:

Have parents talk with their children about the food they buy at the grocery store.  Where does that food come from? How does it grow? Perhaps they can find smaller and larger pumpkins at the store.

Assignments:

Students will participate in a shared reading of a poem, and discuss the stages of a pumpkin’s growth.

Evaluation:

1. Are the students incorporating things learned from the read-aloud into their thinking?

2. Were they interested in the topic?

3. Did they go to the pocket charts on their own time and read them?

4. Do you see the reading skills practiced during shared reading when students are reading independently?

Assess Students:

1. Did students participate in discussions?

2. Do students participate in the shared reading?

Reference

Tankey, J. (n.d.). Observing the Life Cycle of Pumpkins. Retrieved from                http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/lesson-plan/observing-life-cycle-pump

My Topic Activity

Over the last week, the class has participated in Halloween themed lessons focusing on a number of different subjects from math to reading to art.  Today, I have included the lesson focusing on the area of science.  Since growing a pumpkin can take several months, the students will need to start with a seeds already sprouting at the start of the school year in order to complete this lesson within the right time frame.  Using a topic, like pumpkins, will allow specific learning objectives to be covered within the lesson.

               Topics allow the learners to focus on one specific learning objective and fully complete the one learning objective.  “A topic is the lowest-level learning object in a course or other knowledge product.  It is the building block of instruction that accomplishes a single learning objective” (Horton, 2012, p. 285).  As students participate in a topics lesson, they will complete an Absorb, Do, and Connect activities.  In addition, students are often assessed through a test which evaluates the execution of the learning objective.

               Topics have been identified as learning objectives, but what are learning objectives?  “Learning objectives state the observable and measurable behaviours that learners should exhibit as a result of participating in a learning programme” (Swanwick & McKimm, 2010, p. 17).  Learning objectives can also be referred to as instructional objectives.  When learning or instructional objectives are explicit in their description, the learner has a better chance to produce a greater performance outcome while mastering the objective.  In other words, “it is essential that they be written in a manner that makes their meaning clear to the students, parents and educators” (Williams, 2004, p. 4).

               While learning or instructional objectives are vital components in educational planning, there has been a move from the education process to the material being taught and the learning outcome.  “The question arises as to whether the concept of ‘learning or instructional objectives’ is different from the concept of ‘learning outcomes’.  According to Melton (1997) ‘the term “learning outcome” is simply an alternative name for “objective” (Harden, 2002, p. 151). 

While learning outcome may simply be an alternative name for learning objectives, there are a few difference between the two terms.  Learning objectives have a more detailed specification compared to learning outcomes broad statements describing the outcome.  Another difference between the two is where the emphasis on the learning is applied.  When using learning objectives, the emphasis of learning is placed on the details of each objective.  However, in learning outcomes, the details are less specific with a focus on the overall framework.

Since learning or instructional objectives allow the learner to focus on one specific learning objective, the topic lesson plan will have the students focusing on the life cycle of pumpkins.  For my topic activity, I will use a typical topic format to develop the research, analysis, and results of the lesson.  The format will provide the students with an Instruction tab, a Background tab, a Policy tab, a Resources tab, and the Decision tab.

The Instruction tab will tell the students about the activity while providing directions on how to complete the activity.  The Background tab will supply the students with details about the activity including possible alternatives if available and resources.  “The police tab reveals the most important constraints on a solution, namely regulations that govern the situation described in the Background” (Horton, 2012, p. 287).  The Resources tab offers the students a list of links to websites and documents regarding the activity.  In the Decide tab, the students will choose or state the results.

References

Harden, R. (2002). Learning outcomes and instructional objectives: is there a difference? Medical                Teacher, 24(2), 151-155. doi:10.1080/0142159022020687

Horton, W. (2012). E-Learning by design (2nd ed.). San Francisco, CA: Wiley.

Swanwick, T., & McKimm, J. (2010). Clinical Teaching Made Easy: A Practical Guide to Teaching and                Learning in Clinical Settings. London: Quay Books.

Williams, W. (2004, January). Instructional goals and objectives: Learning activities. Retrieved from                                 http://www.uvm.edu/~cdci/tripscy/archivepdf/Inst_Goals_and_Objectives_Lrning_Actites.pdf