my name is Mark mcteer I'm head of science here at John Monash science school
each lesson we have specific learning outcomes for this particular lesson we
wanted the student to understand the different stages of meiosis and how
meiosis is similar or different to mitosis to start off with for today's
lesson I've got the question for you to consider list three differences and
three similarities between mitosis and meiosis the way that we structure a
lesson is typically we will have a we'll start off with an engager whether
students will get started on a particular activity to trigger their
mind or their memory or their thinking on the topic that we've either just
covered in the previous lesson or something we've going to be doing this
lesson then the next thing is that we worked on the lesson was to have some
specific delivery around what meiosis is so the way that I did that was to
structure a lesson based on some key guided questions that they were to
answer as we watched an animation okay we'll give you a couple minutes to write
some answers to those questions in there you may need to watch the video again
and you've got the link in the powerpoints some of the things that are
important in terms of differences and miss mix can be pointing them out just
before in mitosis the chromosomes line up
they need enough time to be able to hear from us a bit about some of the main
knowledge and content but they also need time to absorb it and to start
constructing their own ideas and to draw and demonstrate their understanding
so if in today's class we've got them to do that by during a chart of meiosis and
showing the different phases and what are the key points that or key things
that are happening in each of those phases when we set a particular task for
students and give them activity to do we guide the lessons by walking around
interacting one on one with students and it's not until you get really deep
that you can find any misconceptions if you just leave it a very surface level
what are you doing I'm doing the diagram ah looks nice well done and move on to
the next student you don't get to it you've said different cells to produce what do
you mean different how are they different they are identical like mitosis
are two identical and it is ok so genetically different and genetically
identical excellent I met with a student earlier um she I asked her some questions
and she was really quite stuck and I could have said here is the answer and off
you go but for that point there i said i want you to read and do a little bit of
research i'll come back in two or three minutes do you know what sort of daughter cells
they are to put name that's the mitosis ones ok get gamma gametes yes very good
gametes excellent so what are gametes
I'll give you one or two minutes to do a little bit of research and I'll come back and
check to see what you've got ok so I wandered around and have a chat with a
few other students and then come back again and say ok what did you learn
about this and she'd learned something she'd come up with something and
researched it what have you found out we take place in the somatic mitosis
meiosis takes place in the germ cells very good every aspect of the course
that we do is online so we use Google Apps and as our platform to deliver the
courses to students and that includes the sites shared google docs such as
sheets and powerpoints and everything like that and that enables us to easily
tweak and modify resources as we go to make them accessible to the students it
sort of changes the way learning occurs because the students are able to access
this at any time they will look at things before school after at home time
they will share docs with one another and learn collaboratively with each
other and also with the teachers we sit them on a particular task and they will
use their computer or their tablet and research as well so collaboration in our
school is vital and I guess at the heart of what we do in terms of team
teaching here so we will communicate so I'll tend to sit down and meet and talk
with a teaching partner that I have and we'll talk through all those issues and
ideas and contexts around that particular lesson we'll tweak and modify
resources as need be so in the middle of class when when we're teaching we'll
interrupt one another and talk and explain and give ideas about how we think the
students are going to need a bit more time their common misconceptions did
we not explain the task well enough and here they're going through what 10 steps
or 15 steps and what about if you're just going from first
yeah that's right and we give each other feedback and reflection on each other's
teaching as well as how the students are going it's a very dynamic environment is
a very fluid environment where we are open to learning but also and teaching
one another but also making sure the students are getting the most out of the
lesson