During the rest of the unit I provide students with a variety of worksheets to review important concepts, they also practice reading and comprehension by reading a scientific article that discusses new species found on earth, and students practice with another dichotomous key classifying an imaginary organism. During the last day of the unit I take students outside and we classify common plants using a field guide. During the learning sequence lessons build upon each other relating classification to students everyday lives. As students become familiar with classification, the classifying tasks become more challenging. As a science teacher I have the opportunity to present content through experimentation and demonstration rather than just telling students factual concepts.
Science is the perfect subject for students to learn by discovery and inquiry.
When planning lessons for my classroom, I take into consideration the learning styles of my students in an attempt to plan effective ways to teach the content. Many times I place students in cooperative learning groups. One way that I have found helpful to keep students actively participating and on task during group assignments is by assigning roles or jobs for each member of the group. I also monitor and question students throughout the period. Students are not simply given an assignment and left alone.