Rationale for Geologic Time Scale

Alverno Advanced Education Ability: Diagnosis Relating observed

behavior to relevant frameworks in order to determine and implement
learning prescriptions.
Wisconsin Standards for Educator Development and Licensure:
Standard 7 The teacher organizes and plans systematic instruction based
upon knowledge of subject matter, pupils, the community, and curriculum
goals
I developed a lesson on Geologic Time Scale to present to an eighth
grade suburban classroom to fulfil an assignment for LTM 612. This lesson
was my first attempt to create a lesson to present to students. I learned
about the classroom population through careful observation and close work
with my supervising teacher. This particular class was nearly evenly split
boys and girls and contained one student who received support through an
IEP and the special education teacher, though not in this content area. The
class was a diverse range of learners in ability, perseverance, and preferred
learning methods. I created this lesson from scratch and while it was very
cumbersome, the end result was well received by the students and staff
alike.
After being a keen observer in the classroom, I was able to understand
how presenting learning in multiple modalities could increase engagement
and content learned. My supervising teacher had conducted a VARK
inventory where students noted how they learned best. I combined that
information with my observations about student abilities to create a lesson in
featuring multiple learning styles such as reading/writing, listening, and
visual information as well as the ability to move from station to station for
students who need to move during class time. To meet each students
learning ability, I had specific information in bold print so that the amount of
reading could be adapted for students who needed differentiated work. I
provided a visual representation of the geologic time scale on each sheet
along with having an additional fun game look style of time progression
available for student use.
This lesson and activity was very time consuming to create and
implement, however, through its development, I demonstrated my ability to
relate my observations into learning outcomes for students (Alverno ability:
Diagnosis) as well to organize my lesson based on knowledge of my students
and classroom (Wisconsin teacher standard seven.) It is imperative that

teachers know their students so that they can maximize the amount of
engagement and learning taking place in the classroom.