Lesson 4 & 5 Discovering Minerals and Sharing what we know about Minerals

Kelly and I seemed very prepared for this lesson. We had time to go over what we were going to be doing with the students multiple times before the actual lesson.  We had all materials ready to go and name tags on their desks. The only problem was we did not know how many minerals and how many rocks for the students to observe. We thought 12 rocks and 12 minerals would be very overwhelming for the students so we lowered it to 12 minerals and only 6 rocks. After the lesson, we soon realized even this was way too many for the students. They were very excited to look at all the different minerals and did not want to look at just one.  We discussed properties of mineral A and B together and had the students observe and record properties of mineral C. We then gave them 6 rocks to find similarities and differences. They did find similarities and differences but what we realized after the lesson was they did not grasp that rocks are made up of different minerals.

I believe we had good class management and finished in the right amount of time, but the teacher took us aside and wanted us to show the most important part of the lesson, which is rocks are made up of many different minerals. She had us give the students one mineral and one rock per group and asked them what they see. The students observed the similarities and differences of the rock and mineral and realized that minerals are pure and only made up of one thing, where as rocks are made up of many different minerals combined together. I thought it was a great idea and I am glad the teacher helped us explain this to the class. Reflecting on our lesson I believe we should have just observed one rock and mineral altogether for the students to grasp this concept. Having 12 minerals and 6 rocks was very overwhelming and exciting for them, so they did not really focus on the most important part.

Before the lesson started Kelly wrote the process skills the students would be using on the board, and before the students observed their rocks and minerals, Kelly explained the important process skills to the students.

We ended the lesson on the rug discussing the similarities and differences of rocks and minerals which was our lesson conclusion.  One student showed the class that mineral graphite writes. She was very excited to share this with the class. The teacher then had the students go back to their desks after discussing with Kelly and I to explain how rocks are made up from minerals.  We also referred back to the rock cycle and asked how are the rocks made up of different minerals. The students responded very well and seemed to grasp the importance.

Kelly and I were overwhelmed after the lesson, but after talking to the teacher, she made us feel better. She gave us some great feedback and ideas for our future lessons.  For our next lesson we really need to focus on one or two important goals or questions we want the students to come away with. We were too focused on sticking with the lesson plan, that we did not focus on the most important idea. We have definitely learned a lot and I am looking forward to making our next lesson a better success!! :)