Team Teaching - California State University, Northridge



CSUN SED 610 Dr. Berry Team Teaching Assignment

By Dean Papadakis

The purpose of this assignment is to give you an opportunity to work with another teacher, share with them, and work through an academic unit together. Hopefully you will find that two minds are better than one. Your task will be to determine how and why two minds are better than one.

You should find a teacher in your school who you would like to partner with to plan together a two-week unit. Ideally you will be teaching the same thing on the same day for two weeks. You should first have a plan for the two weeks that both of you like. Then each day of the 2 weeks you should get together to discuss what went well, what could have been improved, what needs to be reviewed, and what you intend to do the next day.

You should include in this assignment:

❖ A two-week lesson plan.

❖ 10 days of reflection and planning.

❖ And a 2-3 page reflection on your impressions of what went well and what could have been improved

CSUN SED 610 Dr. Berry Team Teaching Assignment

Two-week Lesson Plan March 2008

Subject: Honors Physics Topic: Waves and Sound

Teachers: Dean Papadakis & Andy Stephens

Lesson 1:

Purpose: To learn about waves and wave speed

Introduction: Seeing sound demonstration followed by discussion and explanation of observations.

Activities: Slinky Labette

Review: KWL on waves. What is students’ prior knowledge on waves? What do students want to know about waves? What did students learn about waves?

Homework: Book Problems

Teaching Methods: Lecture, activating prior knowledge, discrepant event, think, pair share, ask your neighbor.

Lesson 2:

Purpose: To learn the difference between transverse and longitudinal waves.

Introduction: Slinky demonstration of both wave types.

Activities: Students make both types of waves using Slinky Springs and perform a qualitative lab, while students draw both types of waves and label the parts. Students will draw Venn diagrams of transverse and longitudinal waves.

Review: Discuss the review questions from previous night.

Homework: Book problems.

Teaching Methods: Collaborative learning, student lab, and formative assessment.

Lesson 3:

Purpose: To learn about how waves can interfere constructively and destructively.

Introduction: Draw two waves in and out of phase and discuss interactions.

Activities: Interference paper activity using manipulative with various waves.

Review: Discuss the results of the manipulative activity.

Homework: Book problems.

Teaching Methods: Lecture, desk activities, and discussion.

Lesson 4:

Purpose: To teach students about the Doppler Effect.

Introduction: Swing a source of string and allow students to hear the Doppler Effect.

Activities: Students get into groups to swing Bloogles, and listen to the sounds produced. Following their observation they test the frequencies of sounds produced by the Bloogles with oscilloscope and microphone.

Review: Review question: What is the difference between a longitudinal and transverse wave?

Homework: How does Doppler radar help us forecast weather?

Teaching Methods: Inquiry, real world application, and hands-on experiences.

Lesson 5:

Purpose: To learn about shock waves.

Introduction: Showing a video of a space shuttle landing and images of sonic booms from a jet.

Activities: Towel snapping sonic boom and discussion and Doppler effect simulation activity.

Review: Concept Development Exercise Worksheet-Sonic Booms. Students measure Mach number using images and a ruler.

Homework: Book problems.

Teaching Methods: multimedia, video, simulation, and independent practice.

Lesson 6:

Purpose: To understand the origins of sound and propagation through different media.

Introduction: Bring out toys that make sound and show the source is vibration.

Activities: Use hangers and strings to hear the difference between sound travelling through air and a solid.

Review: Quiz on wave behavior.

Homework: Sound worksheet where students compare the speeds of sound through various media.

Teaching Methods: Activating prior knowledge, cooperative activities, and formative assessment.

Lesson 7:

Purpose: To learn how to measure the speed of sound.

Introduction: Background discussion on how a tuning fork can be used to measure the speed of sound.

Activities: Measuring the speed of sound using a tuning fork and a resonance tube lab, measuring the speed of sound using a microphone probe from Vernier.

Review: What phase of matter does sound travel the fastest/slowest through?

Homework: Lab write-up, including the answers to the Error Analysis Questions.

Teaching Methods: Laboratory activity, data collection, and data analysis.

Lesson 8:

Purpose: To learn about natural frequency, forced vibrations, and resonance and their relationships.

Introduction: Show the natural frequencies of various objects such as a PVC pipe and ruler.

Activities: Demonstrating singing wine glasses with video, Mythbusters-Breaking Glass with Sound, Earthquake Building Resonance demonstration, carpet tube and Bunsen burner demonstration

Review: Conclusion paragraph on what students learned from the day’s activities.

Homework: Mythbusters T.V. show on “You Tube”-Breaking glass with sound worksheet.

Teaching Methods: Digital video, demonstrations, and formative assessment.

Lesson 9:

Purpose: To learn about the relationship between interference and beats.

Introduction: Demonstration using two tuning forks with clay, oscilloscope, and microphone.

Activities: Watch Chladni Plate video, students demonstrate nodes and antinodes with a slinky.

Review: Where did you see nodes and antinodes on the Chladni Plate?

Homework: Review questions from textbook and experiment with speaker placement in home.

Teaching Methods: Video, experimentation, and discussion.

Lesson 10:

Purpose: To understand frequency of sounds.

Introduction: Use signal generator to produce sounds throughout the range of human hearing frequencies.

Activities: Have students test their vocal range in terms of frequency.

Review: Review for upcoming test-9 station review.

Homework: Study guide to help with preparation of upcoming Waves/Sound Exam.

Teaching Methods: Study guides, activities, and demonstration.

Team Teaching Assignment

Reflection Day 1

What went well?

The students engaged in hands on experimentation and tested their own understanding. Slinkys are inherently fun.

What could have been done better?

The production of wave patterns could have been demonstrated on the slinky rather than drawn out.

What will you do tomorrow?

Transverse and longitudinal waves lesson.

Educational concepts used or observed:

Multiple intelligences were employed.

Reflection Day 2

What went well?

The students did the actual demonstrations with their hands to develop a better understanding.

What could have been done better?

We could have had the students demonstrate the different wave types using their bodies. This would have tapped into the kinesthetic learners.

What will you do tomorrow?

Interference lessons.

Educational concepts used or observed:

Cooperative groups-students with greater understanding helped the struggling members of their group.

Reflection Day 3

What went well?

Student directed learning took place. Students benefited from the discussion following the activity to clarify misconceptions.

What could have been done better?

We could have provided more examples of interference for the students either using simulations or slinky demonstrations.

What will you do tomorrow?

Lesson on the Doppler Effect, using a swinging tone generator.

Educational concepts used or observed:

Manipulative cutouts were used to develop understanding.

Reflection Day 4

What went well?

Students benefited from the visual simulation after experiencing the differing frequencies from the Bloogles.

What could have been done better?

We could have had students using the computer simulation and should have discussed more applications of the Doppler effect.

What will you do tomorrow?

Lesson on what are standing waves and interference.

Educational concepts used or observed:

Multimedia simulations.

Reflection Day 5

What went well?

Students enjoyed the video and images. They created a need to know.

What could have been done better?

Having the students complete the shockwave worksheet in class would have resulted in deeper understanding.

What will you do tomorrow?

Provide more lessons on sound and give students a review quiz.

Educational concepts used or observed:

Cooperative learning.

Reflection Day 6

What went well?

Having students perform hands-on activities engaged them.

What could have been done better?

We could have demonstrated how sound does not travel in a vacuum using a bell jar and pump with a cell phone inside. This demonstration also shows how radio waves and light waves do travel through empty space.

What will you do tomorrow?

Give lessons on the speed of sound through different media.

Educational concepts used or observed:

Using Investigation and experimentation.

Reflection Day 7

What went well?

Students learned that the speed of sound can easily be measured.

What could have been done better?

We could have done an activity with lightning and thunder to measure the differences in speed between them. We could have demonstrated the effect that Alka-Seltzer would have on the tuning fork lab (differing density of gas).

What will you do tomorrow?

Provide lessons on natural frequency, forced vibration, and resonance.

Educational concepts used or observed:

Inquiry activities.

Reflection Day 8

What went well?

Students enjoyed the Myth-busters video and a few of them tried it at home and made their own DVD.

What could have been done better?

We should have shown the video of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge buckling.

What will you do tomorrow?

Provide lessons on interference and beats.

Educational concepts used or observed:

Physics applications are numerous and connecting those in instruction engages more learners.

Reflection Day 9

What went well?

Students deepened their understanding through examples and hands on activities coupled with short periods of lecture.

What could have been done better?

Nothing, everything was very smooth.

What will you do tomorrow?

Provide lessons on frequency of sounds.

Educational concepts used or observed:

Using Video road map.

Reflection Day 10

What went well?

Students enjoyed using interactive technology to test their personal ranges of hearing and singing.

What could have been done better?

While students were performing their tests there was a lot of interference from other groups producing sounds. We could have assigned students to different areas to avoid this issue.

What will you do tomorrow?

Continue to review for the waves test. Provide sample practice questions to help students engage using metacognition.

Educational concepts used or observed:

Metacognition and data collection.

Team Teaching Reflections

❖ Reflections on Working with others:

One of the things that made the team teaching assignment difficult was that Andy Stephens and I each had a different teaching schedule. Andy was teaching physics each day of the week and I was teaching in a block schedule, which met every other day. One interesting thing about Andy’s schedule is that he taught for the same amount of time during each physics class that met each day, as I taught in my block physics class every other day. Consequently, Andy was with his physics students for about twice as much time as I was with my physics students, each week. One of the things that made the team teaching assignment easier was that we both used the same textbook, called Conceptual Physics by Paul Hewitt. Another obstacle was that Andy and I don’t teach in the same school. Consequently, we relied on daily emails to communicate with each other on what we were going to teach the next day, and how things went at the end of the day. When we both met at CSUN for our Wednesday classes, we had another opportunity to communicate with each other in person and discuss what we were teaching for the week and what went well and what did not go well. At my school, there is one other teacher who also teaches the same physics course as me. However, she teaches at a different pace than I do (much faster), and even though she teaches right next door to me, we rarely make the time to talk to one another about what we are teaching. We do communicate with each other occasionally, but not frequently. This is why it was a very helpful opportunity to team -each with Andy, even though we are not at the same schools.

❖ Reflections on pedagogy

Even though I have been teaching for many more years than Andy, what I discovered, is that Andy had many things to contribute to my teaching ideas. One of these ideas was sharing with me a “You-Tube” video from the internet that came from the television show, Myth-busters. In this program, the hosts asked the question of whether a wine glass can be shattered by having someone sing into a microphone at just the right frequency. I probably would not have seen this if Andy had not shared this with me.

It was a lot of fun having someone to discuss teaching ideas with and discussing the pedagogy of teaching physics. I learned that just because I have been teaching a long time (22 years), that does not mean that I can’t improve my teaching methods or improve on ways to present concepts to my students.

❖ Reflections on psychology

I am not quite sure what this reflection is exactly about but I will try to address it from the point of view I believe applies to teaching. When teachers teach by themselves, meaning when they don’t have a partner or fellow teacher to collaborate with, this can have an influence on the teaching style and technique of a teacher. In the case of team teaching with Andy, I knew that I would need to share some of my teaching ideas with him, which was a pleasure to do. This influenced my by forcing me to be a little bit more organized in having a lesson plan each day. This is how my psychology was influenced. Having a team teaching colleague helped me to deliberately sit down and plan out the lesson for the next physics class. This made my class teaching move along more smoothly and thus influenced my psychology of teaching.

❖ Reflections on teaching in general

I do have experience in collaborating with a fellow chemistry teacher at my school and have noticed how it always has a positive impact on my teaching. Therefore, having a partner in Andy also had a positive influence on my physics teaching. I think that administrators should make a deliberate effort to enable teachers to team-teach and to work together as frequently as possible. At my school, South Pasadena High School, we have built into our schedule something called late start days, where the students come to class at 9:20 a.m. instead of 8:00 a.m. and the teachers meet in their respective departments and collaborate. This happens every two weeks. Unfortunately, often the administration has some kind of assignment or project that we are to work on as a department, and consequently our time to collaborate with the teachers who teach the same subject, is limited. However, when we do get the chance to do this, it is very helpful and I think that all schools should have a schedule like this built into their daily plan.

❖ Reflections on science teaching

I think that science teaching is very unique among all subjects, because we have built into our lesson plans, laboratory experiments. This is not true for subjects like English or Mathematics. As a result of this, it requires more planning and preparation in setting up equipment for laboratory experiments. This requires cooperation among the science teachers. So having this team teaching assignment helped to inform me of the great importance of working cooperatively with another teacher. Although Andy and I don’t teach at the same school, we definitely helped each other with lab ideas and we shared them and this enriched my teaching experience during those two to three weeks. What might have helped enrich the team teaching experience that Andy and I had, would have been to be able to visit each other’s classroom and actually see what is going on in our classrooms. This would have been very difficult which is why we did not do it, but if we had the time and opportunity to do this, it would have had an additional positive impact on our teaching.

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