The selected lesson plans are an animal science unit for an Intro to Agriculture, Food, and Natural Resources class. This class is intended for 9th-grade students from all backgrounds. This unit includes many group inquiry-based activities, like indirect instruction days and a group research poster as the final project for the unit. The activities in the unit will engage learners with various learning styles through the various activities included.
Each of the first four lessons in this unit is directly related to an indicator from the Nebraska AFNR standards, in accordance with ACTE High-Quality Standard 1. This ensures that the content is pushing students to reach the goal of the standard and is not just “busy work.” Once students complete the first half of the unit, they then synthesize the knowledge gained in their species research poster, which is in perfect alignment with the unit standard AFNR.HS.20.5 “Differentiate key terms, components, and uses for animals in animal systems.” The research poster also supports the idea of “Getting Scientific” in the class.
During a lesson, I will measure student engagement through frequent check-ins to ensure that students are making progress on the daily activities. The great part about indirect instruction is that I can bounce from group to group as needed to support and engage the learners. I could forego using all of the questions on the worksheets if students are struggling to stay engaged. I can also shift strategies from group work to individual work and vice versa, or I can bring the class all together as one to work on the activities. I will have many options.
After each of these lessons, I will make a note on my scope and sequence about how engaged the students were in the content and how well they performed on assessments. This will allow me to know which activities should be used again and which may need to be tweaked for the next year. I plan to constantly update and improve my lessons as an agricultural educator as I gain experience and as I attend professional development events.