Lesson+Comparison

For the younger students in grade three I used the Big3 learning model. The lessons were very structured and directed by the classroom teacher. Questions were used to motivate student's thinking. Guided inquiry was used to move the students through activities that the mini-lessons covered. In order to teach the lunar phases, freedom of choice of subject was not an option. This was due to the maturation level of the students. The depth of the subject matter was limited to a single concept (the phases of the Moon) and multiple activities were presented in a variety of formats (online resources, hands-on) to promote understanding of the concept.
 * Lesson Comparison**

For the older grade five students I used the Big6 learning model. I felt that after practicing at the lower elementary levels with guided, Big3 models, the students should have some previous experience to draw from and evolved enough to use a more complex model. The older students were expected to perform a variety of skills (define tasks, extract information, synthesize, organize, evaluate etc.) as opposed to the younger model (plan, do and review). The depth of the subject matter would be defined by each group's information fluency levels and also the time factor involved in completing the inquiry lesson. I chose these approaches with the two learning models due to the student audience and lower than average science scores (see Student Audience).

Because of the age difference, the experience with information skills, and maturation levels, the roles of the student information scientist and instructional specialist differed from each grade level to the next. In the 3rd grade lesson, the instructional specialist had more responsibility in the teaching and learning process as she/he guided the class through the information. Just the opposite was true in the older 5th grade class as the student information scientist took more control over his/her learning and the instructional specialist took a lesser role. The instructional specialist in the 5th grade taught less, but monitored and assisted/intervened when necessary to keep students on track.

The younger students were involved in specific information to be gained. The older students had a choice of what information to pursue. For example, the younger students activities were chosen for them to guide them into learning about the phases of the moon (i.e. Birthday Moon Activity). The older students had the pleasure (or curse!) of choosing any topic related to the moon they wished. Another difference was in the evaluation options. The younger students did not have any options other than taking a quiz. The older students could demonstrate their knowledge orally and also through final products of their choosing.

The skills addressed for the younger students centered on more subject matter such as the Indiana Academic Core Standard 3.3.4 (Observe and describe that the moon looks a little different every day, but looks the same again about every four weeks.) The skills addressed for the older students were less subject matter and more information inquiry skill based such as Indiana Academic Standard 5.7.4 (Select a focus, organizational structure, and point of view for an oral presentation.) I found it difficult to choose subject standards when the students could pick their own subjects! However, both sets of students were using some similar skills such as seeking information (3rd graders finding their birthday moon/5th graders researching questions) and organizing information (3rd graders working through moon phase activity/5th graders planning presentation).