Science talk and catch-up work

This week I did not see much science in the classroom as my teacher was working with the students in other subjects. However, I did perform my science talk with a few students, and this turned out to be very interesting because of the students’ responses as I prepared for my lesson on sound. One student that was extremely interesting to listen to is, in my opinion, the smartest girl in the class. I have written about her for other posts in other classes, and every question that I asked she was able to answer correctly or at least get part of it correct. She, as usual, was an exception in the class as many of the students did not have much prior knowledge on sound waves and vibrations, along with how they travel to our ear. The answers of many of the students are most likely comparable to the answers that the other students will have, which is obviously very helpful when I am planning my lesson. Other than performing my science talk, I helped some of the students individually on other work to help them catch up. All of this work that I do with them in the classroom is helpful because I am able to plan my lesson in accordance to how the students learn, and what types of activities will be the most meaningful for them. There are many different types of learners in this classroom, and many of them do not receive the support at home that is necessary to help students succeed. Therefore, I am learning what I have to do in order to get through to the students so that they learn the material and understand the best that they can. Keeping them on task is almost as important as anything else because of how energized they usually are, and I can use science to help this because of how interactive I can make the lesson. I was not able to talk to the CT too much about what was happening in science because of the amount of catch up work they were trying to accomplish.