- Given a short narrative.
- Evaluate the experience explaining why it did not go well. You must tie the evaluation into student learning outcomes.
- Identify the CCT indicator that it addresses.
- How will it inform your future teaching?
Monday, July 4, 2011
Reflection: First week of student teaching - area of improvement
By the end of this first week you have taught an entire lesson in front of teenage students. Identify a lesson, activity or experience that did not go well.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I taught this week on the percent proportion and finding percent increase or decrease (Algebra I). I tried reviewing the homework by handing out the solutions and having the students work in pairs. The students are reluctant to work together, so they did not share answers or work together to correct each other. The cooperating teacher could tell that the students did not feel confident in the material and did some more work on the topic. After some review, the students took a quiz which included the material that I had taught. Two of the students did well. One student who had missed the class the day that I taught did poorly on the test. The other four students did moderately well. One student who is an ELL student struggled with the word problems. I think that the CCT covers this in Section II, Item number 7. I failed to see where the students were struggling, and the experience taught me that homework alone is not always enough to create mastery of a topic.
ReplyDelete1B. Teacher maintains appropriate standards of behavior: During my first class, I had a discipline problem with one of the students whom I shall refer to as GK. GK started to misbehave and I began to argue with him. Other students began to join in on the argument. After class, the cooperating teacher told me that my error was in treating GK like an adult. Instead, in a classroom, the teacher should not argue but simply tell the student that the matter is not up for discussion.
ReplyDeleteThe other mistake I made was that I allowed students to use their phones as calculators. As a result, some of the students were sneaking text exchanges during class. Again the cooperating teacher explained to me that calculators in the classroom are provided so there is never any reason for a student to use his/her phone. These were both simple but important lessons learned.
Today I presented a lesson on angle relationships with parallel lines and transversals. It included a challenging amount of vocabulary and new associations. Some of the students clearly had more prior knowledge than others. During the independent practice portion, it became clear to me that 3 students were still having trouble measuring with a protractor and this was getting in the way of their ability to identify angle relationships and solve problems on the worksheet. Other kids sailed ahead. We had 25 minutes left (it’s a 3 hour class) and my cooperating teacher noticed this, so she did a quick micro-teach on the converse postulates, which all students (including the 3) attended to. My cooperating teacher followed a practice piece with a quick improvised quiz that all students did well on. However the quiz did not assess the skills that the 3 students were missing. I felt that I had really dropped the ball with these kids. If I had included differentiated worksheets with a more challenging level for the more advanced kids to work on, then I could have used the time better for remediation with the kids who needed it.... instead of having bored kids with nothing to do! Now I have to figure out how to play catch up....
ReplyDeleteThe portion of the CCI would be: the teacher monitors student understanding and adjusts instruction when necessary....I believe....(or is it developing the lesson to promote achievement?)
Oops - I cited the CCI. On the CCT it's a laundry list of lapses for me...
ReplyDelete3.2 developing and organizing...learning tasks that build on students' prior knowledge.
3.3 anticipating students' content misconceptions
3.8 designing opportunities that appropriately challenge students
etc. etc.!
Post by Ayileru
ReplyDeleteI was having a difficult time motivating my students and so I called on the doctor (just kidding). My first group activity was a disaster; the kids did not want to be bothered. My second one was still nothing to write home about. I asked Mr. E for help and he gave me some ideas – I implemented them and it made all the difference. My third group activity was such a success; I was scared that the kids were now too motivated-if such a thing exists. What made the difference was using a “rubric”, and written instructions for the activity. One of the students even made a comment that made my day; she told me that I made the lesson fun- I was encouraged by that.
I made a mistake on the first day of class, I asked a student to share her answer before I confirmed she had the right answer only to realize it was wrong. A teacher during the CORE presentation advised us against that. Let’s just say it is a lesson learned.
From Randy:
ReplyDeleteAyileru is a SPONGE - soaking up tons of stuff we tell her. I could say dye your hair pink because it will help and I think she would. She has given me permission to share her do now/initiation from her observation and I will have copies or an email. She broke the task down well and pushed a lot of the steps to the do now.
Rachelle and Chandan, as Jaf stated his first two years were all about what not to do as a teacher. I make mistakes to this day. People learn by doing and doing means mistakes.
Catherine, I don't see you identifying THE primary problem - ASSESSMENT! The tast analysis could help you identify measuring with the protractor as a step and you could conduct a pretest or have them use a protractor in the do now and offer help then.
From Brenda:
ReplyDeleteI did an assessment for my class, but it was too late in the lesson. When there was about 5 minutes left I had a student come up to me and I was trying to close the class and give homework instructions. I noticed that he clearly had the wrong answer and now he would go home frustrated. Monday I will spend time with him because he was asking for help but I didn't have the time to give. I will also do the assessment earlier in the class to make sure they understand the FOUNDATION before the actual lesson.
Another lesson learned was when I did an initiation, but made it too detailed. I should have introduced the idea, and come back to the example instead of taking the students through solving the problem I had for initiation.
The list could go on and on about lessons learned this week so overall I think student teaching is really helping me work out kinks and ideas.
Brenda again
ReplyDeleteCCI IIIA 11B
One lesson that did not go well in my first week of student teaching was my lesson on proving lines parallel. It was very similar to the previous day’s lesson, but the students were still not getting it, as evidenced by their assessment. I think that my task analysis was not detailed enough, and because I didn’t break down the concepts and scaffold, the students were having trouble. This is related to the CCT indicator 3.3, about promoting conceptual understanding and anticipating students’ content misconceptions. This will inform my future teaching because I will put more attention and effort into breaking down the concepts in my task analysis.
ReplyDeleteCCT Domain 1, 1.1
ReplyDeleteI was teaching a lesson on compound inequalities and the final portion of the lesson was absolute value inequalities. I was working through a problem on the board, and, when I “solved” the problem, I put the result in an “AND” format. Unfortunately, the answer appeared as something like 4 < x < -4 - obviously not correct for an “AND” statement. I had informed the students that you cannot determine if it’s an AND or OR statement until you have isolated the variable. What I should have told them is that you make the judgment once you have isolated the absolute value. I was able to “save face” by saying that the solution obviously isn’t correct because of the result we achieved, and with a bit of help from the cooperating teacher, we cleared it up for the kids. This “mistake” in the classroom has stuck with me, and I now realize how important it is to make sure you have worked through each problem you are going to present if you are not absolutely sure of the material.
To comment on Ayileru's post - I have only done one group activity, and it was last Thursday. I think if I had done it during the field observation week or early the second week, it would not have gone as well. The reason is that all the students in my class come from different schools and did not know one another. Doing an activity such as "round the clock" early in the class would have created a much better social environment, but that didn't happen, so it has taken a bit of time for the students to feel comfortable with each other.
ReplyDeleteWe were reviewing some basic algebra in the 10th grade geometry class. For the do-now I assigned what I thought were 2 fairly basic equation word problems that would prompt prior knowledge and certainly they'd be able to handle. Well, #1 went fine but I was dead wrong with #2. I used the popular Facebook question given a total number of friends between 2 people where one of them is x and the other x +or- a number depending on how you choose to set it up. A lot of them wanted to introduce a new variable y while others were just plain stumped how to even start. Only 4 of 23 knew how to do it.
ReplyDeleteIt was only the 2nd day of full instruction and I didn't have anything to go off of in terms of prior knowledge. I also had no relationship with these kids, so I was basically guessing on where they'd be level-wise. When I ran the questions past my cooperating teacher he said, "These are good questions, but let's see how they do."
This scenario relates to CCT 3.1 and 5.1. In addressing student's prior knowledge using a do-now, I think it's best to shoot low in terms of the level of questions asked. The goal is activate prior knowledge AND build confidence as we move into the lesson. I included 5.1 only because my exercise would've been a far better assessment tool than a do-now.
During this week I had two problems. First, I had to give half of my time, 50 minutes, to allow a teacher to show her teaching method to my class in order to potentially be hired. She used educational computer games to teach students two step equations. Kids were very excited to play basketball and were involved in her lesson, but they were quite loud. After she left I had to do an overview for a test. Kids were still hyperactive, thinking about the basketball game they played with that teacher, and scientific notation after the basketball obviously did not seem fun to them. Some of them started throwing paper “balls” to the basket, and I did not want to create a contrast: good teacher- mean teacher, so instead of punishing them I would joke “Oh, you missed, probably you will need to practice after class”. I felt that the situation was getting out of hand and remembered Mr. Ewart’s phrase that the situation has to be taken under control before it gets out of hand. I felt that I could not regain control over my class. It was 1B, teacher maintains appropriate standards of behavior.
ReplyDeleteSecond, in my Algebra 1 class I have a student who finishes her work in a few minutes and then starts talking. I moved her to a different seat, but it did not work out. As soon as she was done with the task she would find somebody to talk with. I found out that she did not fail her Algebra 1 class, and that her mother did not want her to be on Hartford streets without supervision. That is why she sent her to summer school. It was obvious that this girl needs more difficult tasks. I spoke to her and one boy about more complicated tasks and they did not mind. As long as this girl has an exercise to complete, she is a perfect student. This is a good opportunity for me to practice differentiation, and to use acceleration and/or compounding strategies. This corresponds to p. 3.8 designing opportunities that appropriately challenge students.
One of my lessons from the past week involved identifying triangles using there sides and angles as well as finding the missing angle(s) of a triangle. The DO NOW of this lesson was intended to engage the students interest in triangles. I had them work in pairs to complete an activity using Pascal's Triangle. The students were not that interested in the activity which was evident by their verbal comments (i.e.- "Why are we doing this?"). The mistake I made in structuring this lesson plan was underestimating their prior knowledge. Most of the students understood very quickly how to identify triangles by the sides as well as by the angles. Finding the missing angles of triangles was more of a challenge for them, but they still learned relatively quick how to do this. Even though I had students engaged in the sense that they participated, did all the classwork and had minimal behavioral problems, I did not effectively plan for active learning. This corresponds to Domain 3, more specifically 3.1, 3.2, 3.5, 3.6 and 3.8. This lesson was on the first day I student taught. I recognize it is tough to properly distinguish what students prior knowledge is in summer school, but I needed to do a better job figuring that out. After this lesson, I knew I could teach lessons that were a bit more advanced, and the students responded better to them. I need to remember to always teach the appropriate level of subject matter for the students in my class. This will help in having higher level, active learning in my classroom.
ReplyDeleteSlight Revision:
ReplyDeleteI think that the CCT covers this in Section II, Item number 7.
Should have been Domain 5, Item 5.7
My first day of teaching systems of linear inequalities. I spoke to the cooperating teacher in regards to prior knowledge since I was not part of her class for observations. All the students were " supposed to know" basic inequalities from previous chapters. My Do Now at the beginning of class tested that basic knowledge. I realized after the do now that my lesson plan would not be to effective if the class did not know that -3<= -2. This was an algebra II class. Under 3.1 and 3.2 of Domain 3 of the CCt, I assumed that the problems given would be easy for them to solve. Thus I had to revert back to teaching how to simplify equations and combining like terms. After we did a quick review of that and intriducing the new material , I relaized the lesson would have been more effective if I had more colored dry erase markers to shade each region , which I did not have in the classroom. I quickly rectified that afternoon at lunch break where I ran to staples to buy different colored dry erase markers. The teacher wanted me to cover that material before their exam that day so the material was a bit rushed.
ReplyDeletePost by Ayileru
ReplyDeleteI forgot to identify the CCT indicator;
3.2 Developing and organizing coherent and relevant units, lessons and learning tasks that build on students’ prior knowledge, skills and interests and engage students in the work of the discipline;
3.6 Integrating learning activities that make real-world, career or global connections, and promote
interdisciplinary connections whenever possible
Posted by Len
ReplyDeleteLots of learning opportunities from the first week… a few examples below:
1. Not having enough planned to go bell to bell. On the third day of my Algebra I class we went through the lesson plan much faster than I thought it would and with fifteen minutes left in the class I found myself at closure. I had to wing a few minutes of discussion but the students quickly picked up that I was off script and I started to lose a few of them. Lesson learned – I have tweaked my planning so that the activities in the lesson plan can be pared down or beefed up depending on the pace of that class. (2.5)
2. I had similar problem as the one that Shaun brought up when I worked a second example of slope intercept formula that wasn’t in my lesson because one of the students asked to see another example. Because I had not planned this example problem (and therefore not worked it out in my lesson plan) I accidentally chose one with an unnecessarily complex solution (fractions in the answer) when it was way too early in the learning process to add that (walk before run comes to mind). Now I make sure that I take an extra moment to think through whatever I am about to put on the board – especially if it is not out of my lesson plan. (3.2)
3. When DP said you can’t “out-energy” your kids I wasn’t sure agreed with him. And I still feel I can out energy a class. But, and this is the learning point, I can’t do it every class every day as I found out the hard way when I did out energy my Algebra II class only to find myself out of energy and struggling through the later Algebra I class. (General 6 and 2)
Post by Ayileru
ReplyDeleteResponding to Shaun
I agree with you, working through problems prior to,and planning helps. One thing I have also done is to let them know that it is very easy to make mistakes in Math so we have to be very careful - I make mistakes too. By doing this I hope to encourage those who are afraid to answer questions because they do not want to give the wrong answer...
Adam...
ReplyDeleteCCT 4.2
In my statistics class I have been working the last few days with a group of data sets. The data sets were 21 and 16 points and I would really liked to have used technology such as an overhead or projector to display the data. However since I feel already overwhelmed as it is, I just work the data on the board. This got the point across however I could have used the time it took me to write that for further instruction. I need more practice at getting comfortable using several types of resources in the classroom throughout the lesson and to have a smooth transition between them.
I apologize for the late post. I've been struggling a bit as you heard today in class. To catch Randy up, I'm having discipline problems in my classes. They start out all right, with everyone working the do now, but go off track eventually. Thinking about that, maybe it's the long periods (we go 100 minutes in each class, and I have 2). The first 50 minutes goes smoother than the second 50 minutes in each class.
ReplyDeleteI did two things tonight. The first is that I called everyone's parents. The ones that are doing well and not causing trouble, I just told their parents that. But the rest of the parents I told that some of the kids are disruptive, and asked them to talk to their kids. Every parent I spoke to was very nice and wanted to help.
The second was to make a seating chart. I had tried to adjust things last week by pulling some of the chairs closer to my desk, but it only had a short term effect (and one boy keeps skootching his chair back when I'm not watching - and hilarity ensues). I've mixed the kids up a bit, and I've put the boy with the 101 average who giggles a lot next to the boy with the 40 average. I'm going to ask him to see if he can help the other boy out a bit.
When I spoke to the parents of the three poorest performers in the classes, I offered extra help after school tomorrow afternoon. If the Moms have anything to say about it, they will all be there.
This falls under 2.4 Fostering appropriate standards of behavior that support a productive learning environment for all students
Ayileru and Shaun, thanks for the reminder to point out how easy mistakes are to make when I make them instead of standing there and feeling like an idiot.
ReplyDeleteAdam, I do the same thing. We have a Smart Board in my classroom but I have been working out my lessons on the old fashioned chalk board. There is not enough space and it is creating problems for me. I downloaded the Smart Notebook software and hopefully will have some time to work something up for some of my lessons.
ReplyDelete