Reflection 2: Classifying landforms within a

Venn diagram

This is the ninth lesson of the Hend Alyammahi

Lesson “How the world works” unit, and Student
unit/page it is about comparing landforms teacher
within Venn diagram.
MST Mr. Joseph Townsend School RAK Academy PYP

Class Grade 4B Date October 9, 2018

Overall aim and context of the lesson

This is the ninth lesson of the “How the world works” unit and its main idea is to have the students use
a Venn diagram to compare landforms. This is to assess their understanding of the definition of each
landform and to enhance their ability identify similarities and differences

Select (S):
Identify a lesson and what standards are you addressing
Lesson: Comparing Landforms within a Venn diagram.
Strand: Earth and Spaces
Sub-strand: how the world works? (the formation of landforms)
Describe (D):
Who is the lesson for? Grade 4B (mixed level class: 6 HA/ 5 LA/ 10 MA)
Where did the lesson take place? in the Classroom

What were you trying to achieve in your lesson? The aim is that the students understand the use of
Venn diagram in comparing and contrasting two things (the sides has the differences and the middle
has the similarities) then apply their knowledge by comparing landforms within a Venn diagram.

What did the students do? The students compared landforms into land based or water based within a
Venn diagram by sticking pictures in the right place. Also, some of them had to name the picture first
or filling the blank Venn diagram.
Analyze (A):
Why do you think the students responded the way that they did?
Most of the students know the use of a Venn diagram (compare) therefore they were able to classify
the landforms into water/land based. Some of the landforms were tricky to classify but I explained and
provide pictures of them to make it easier for them. For the high level, they found it hard to classify
landforms into triple Venn diagram, therefore I asked them to use the most logical one and no need to
do all the pictures since they don’t fit.
How well did your teaching relate to the students’ prior understanding?
I knew that the students have gone through different types of landforms previously. That is why I built
my activities based on the ones they know, and I explained any extras. Moreover, I gave them back
some of the matching worksheets that they have worked on earlier to use them when needed.
How well did you engage the students?
Providing real pictures and different resource motivated the students to do the activities.
Furthermore, it challenged them to figure out the pictures and what they represent because, they used
clipart pictures at the previous lesson.

Appraise (A):
Explain the nature of the experience from the students’ perspective
Did your lesson meet your teaching goals?

If I was a student, I think I will find it an interesting lesson with all the good resources and worksheets.
Also, the way the lesson has been conducted would help me a lot in my learning where it was well
scaffolded. However, I would find it difficult to sort all types of landforms into only two or three
categories for the fact that most of them doesn’t have many common characteristics. Moreover, at the
pervious lesson we only learned the definition and looked at some pictures and don’t know much
about each landform.

For my teaching goals which was giving clear instruction I think the lesson structure helped me a lot to
be clear and deliver the lesson smoothly.

Transform (T):
How might you enhance student learning of this lesson in the future?
What are the implications for your professional practice?

If I would do this lesson again, I will ask the students to identify the characteristics of 6 to 10 landforms
only (do some research) and from that they can use a Venn diagram to sort them out. Maybe I can
provide a large triple Venn diagram for the high-level students, so all the pictures can fit.
For my professional plan: I think I did very well in giving clear and easy to follow instructions. I would
like to keep doing that in my next lesson and maybe concentrate on questioning and extending the
students answers in the upcoming lesson .