17 February - Vidcast Reflection

Name: Tara Levi
Podcast/Vidcast Name: Animals Classification Vidcast
Core Curriculum:

3rd Grade Science

    Standard 2: Students will understand that organisms depend on living and nonliving things within their environment.
    Objective 1: Classify living and nonliving things in an environment.
    Indicator A: Identify characteristics of living things (i.e., growth, movement, reproduction).

I chose to do this topic because I find that animals are very interesting and fun to learn about.  I think that kids feel the same way about animals, they’re different from us and so they’re new and exciting to learn about.  I picked the animal classifications that I did because they’re the first ones that are introduced to students in Elementary School, and one of the more important areas of learning where the students will actually be able to apply what they use in their young lives outside of school.  After having learned about how to classify these animals, they’ll be able to identify them while away from the classroom (i.e...camping, at a friends house, in a museum).

Some of the potential drawbacks could be that the vidcast is not very long.  The video is just a short clip and it might be a little confusing to students who have not heard about the classifications of animals before (and most of them will probably have not yet learned about it).  The vidcast is also impersonal and could be a little boring for some students.  

In using this vidcast, it can be paused for further teaching.  I think using the media will be a great way to draw the students interest, and once I have their attention, going into a deeper discussion or lesson won’t be as boring.  The clip has a fun song called “The Animal Song” by Savage Garden playing in the background that would be fun for the students to learn.   Also, the song playing in the background of the vidcast would be fun to learn as a class.