This Prezi lesson includes videos, images, and audio to help support and guide my students through their first part of their rock investigation. Students learn differently and it's important to include various types of media in lessons. In this case, I will insert a link to the Prezi lesson on our Google Classroom site and students will proceed through the lesson either with a partner or alone. Having the lesson self-paced allows them to direct their own learning. With Classroom, they can record their notes in a Google Doc or Slide, which is the most recent tool they have been practicing. The video segments take students into the world of geology. I can explain it a hundred times over, but until they actually see it for themselves (or in these clips) it's difficult for some to grasp the concept. Many of my students are English Language Learners and it's important to help build their background with concepts like this. As struggling readers, the audio links take away the worry of decoding the text and allows them to focus on the content learned.
Allowing the students to manipulate the lesson pace helps support a disciplined mind. It gives them the control over reviewing a video multiple times to enhance their understanding of it. By linking this to our Classroom site, students can post follow-up questions to the class and open it up their new ideas and curiosities to a group discussion. Although the other students may not have the answers they need, we can facilitate a valuable discussion about where one might find the answers.
As students progress through the lesson, they are slowly building upon a foundation that they will need for the remainder of the science kit. The "chunks", or sections of the lesson allows them time to synthesis what they are learning. It's just the beginning, but building their knowledge about geologists and the skill of identifying the properties of rocks, will support their future investigations in upcoming lessons.
