My Experience Observing my Peers Teach In a Digital Science Classroom: 1

My Experience Observing my Peers Teach In a Digital Science Classroom:

In my opinion, the first group of my peers that presented teaching a science lesson were successful and should be proud of themselves. It was very hard to be the first group to teach, and group one must be given credit for setting the stage for the rest of the class. This group had not observed this type of lesson before; they went into it blindly and still did an excellent job. They were able to captivate the students, get them excited, and motivate them for the lessons that would continue over the following weeks.  Group one explained to the students that by the end of these lessons, they would be "plant botanists". This was a creative and clever incentive to engage and motivate the students. All of the groups that taught after group one referred to the idea that the students were working to become "plant botanists".
Group one had an excellent direct instruction lesson. They conveyed information to the class, checked for understanding, and made sure the students were repeating all new terms and retaining information.
My suggestions for this direct instruction lesson include: making sure the students have proper materials to take notes on, like maybe a booklet or packet that they can keep for future reference.
I found group one's inquiry lesson to be very creative. They were the first group to go, so they had no other ideas to work off of. They proposed a problem to the students at the beginning of the lesson: they had to write an informational letter to an alien that does not know anything about plant life. They had the students solve various riddles in order to collect information that related to the direct instruction lesson, and that would guide them through the letter they would write to the alien. I thought this was a creative and captivating idea. The students enjoyed it. Each teacher took turns walking from table to table and presenting the students with different riddles to solve. I liked this because it was basically a modified version of a centers activity.
My only suggestion for this inquiry lesson would be to manage time better. The lesson would have been more effective than it was if the students and teachers had more time to work through the inquiry process and complete each part of it in class.
Overall, group one did a great job! They really set the bar for the rest of us.