EDE 4090: Supervisor Observation #1

1. What aspects of your lesson were implemented differently than you planned? Why did that happen?

The aspects of my lesson that were implemented differently than what I had planned are how frequently I paused the video and how I chose to get my students attention. I only planned on pausing it and explaining things three different times, but I ended up pausing it about 7-8 times. I noticed certain looks on my students faces throughout the video that made me stop and expand on what the video was saying (8:42). Usually my classroom management techniques are very straight forward, I use my words to convey how I am feeling and what the students are supposed to be doing so I could build more of a personal connection with my students. I started to realize though that sometimes I would have to raise my voice to get their attention I did not like that. Since I have established that connection with my students, I thought about trying my CT’s bicycle horn to get their attention instead of raising my voice and I was not disappointed. At the beginning of the lesson, students were trying to correct something that I was saying by calling out over each other without raising their hand. I reached for the horn, honked it, and the kids immediately quieted down (9:02). This helped me remind them of our classroom rule of raising their hand before talking and I believed this helped with the structure of the rest of our lesson.

2. If you were going to teach this lesson to the same group of students, what would you do differently? Why? What would you do the same? Why?

If I was going to teach this lesson to the same group of students, I would group them differently, make sure I have students repeat back what their fellow classmates said to ensure their understanding, and not pick up their papers until all of them are finished. When starting the game, I started to get a vibe that the back right table was going to have some issues. The seating arrangement in are classroom are based off of mixed ability and this is exactly what I wanted for the groups of my game. Shortly after starting I realized that the student’s personalities began to clash, quarrelling with each other constantly (24:27-36:46). If I were to have grouped the kids myself instead of keeping them at their normal table groups I know I would not have had this problem. For my next lesson, I will make sure I take students personalities into account when grouping them for activities. Throughout my lesson, the students had a lot of great answers that were beneficial to the whole class but watching the video back I am unsure if all the students were paying attention (10:06, 12:23, 14:17, & 18:35). Instead of repeating the information back myself, I believe that calling on another student to repeat will be more impactful and draw in the day dreamers because they will want to make sure they know that is going on in case I call on them. Lastly, I would wait until all students are done to pick up the pre and post assessment. I noticed that when I went around and were picking up the ones who were done, it started to get louder and rushed the other students who needed extra time (4:46-5:35 & 44:54-47:02). I want to make sure all my students feel comfortable and have the time to put forth their best effort on all assessments. One thing that I would do the same is having the students watch the video and take notes. These notes were beneficial when it came to building on this lesson and then reviewing the content before taking the unit test. Students love watching videos and I know that it’s a great way for them to understand the information before hearing it again from me and then also from their classmates.

3. What surprised you in your lesson?

Something that surprised me in my lesson was how some students were picking up on their classmate’s misconceptions and helping them understand why they were wrong during the game. I could here at least one person from each group explaining how they solved the problem or what was wrong with their friends answer throughout the game (27:14, 29:03, 33:53, & 36:41). It was so refreshing to hear because it tells me that the students are listening, they are grasping the content, and they care about their friend and their understanding. I know that I can lecture until I am blue in the face but that is not beneficial to these students in the slightest. Seeing them more comfortable to share and help each other excites me for the rest of the school year and the growth that they will all make together.

4. Identify an individual or group of students who had difficulty in today’s lesson. How do you account for this performance? How will you help this (these) student(s) achieve the learning objectives?

The group of students that had a difficult time in the lesson was the back right group during the white board game. They were having a hard time working together which led to little quarrels and not enjoying the game like they should have (29:57 & 31:22). Even though they had one person in their group willing to help everyone out, this was not enough to keep the majority from shutting down and giving up on the game. I believe that the personalities in the group clashed too much and they could not recover. In the future, I will help these students achieve the learning objectives and understand the content by not placing them all together again and allowing them to learn with different classmates.

5. Identify an individual or group of students who did especially well in this lesson today. How do you account for this performance?

An individual who did especially well with this lesson was MC. She is one of my students with an IEP that usually struggles when new things are taught. It is not due from a lack of effort, she always tries to do her best. She was a part the group of students who were not working well together but that did not stop her from trying her best (26:44) and grasping the content quicker than I was expecting. When it was her turn to be the main brain, she was answering questions all by herself and when she was not, she was supporting her classmates and helping them find the right answer (32:04). She had been struggling for the last couple days, so it was so refreshing to see the lesson come so quickly to her. I look forward to placing her in a group next lesson that will appreciate her work ethic and her helpful spirit.

6. Based on what happened in this lesson, what are the next steps? What do you plan to teach next to this class? Be sure to explain how you will use information from this evaluation in future lesson planning.

Based on what happened in this lesson, the next steps would be to continue challenging students with higher order thinking questions and have them do more group discussions. The higher order thinking questions that I asked really prompted the discussion, but I feel like the students can be given more and pushed to think outside of the box (7:12). Some ideas that I have for next time are allowing students to think-pair-share instead of starting whole group, so everybody has a chance to explain what they think and then we come together and discuss it whole group. I have a lot of shy students that would never raise their hand and I refuse to call on them to make them uncomfortable, so I believe that this will be a happy medium when it comes to higher order thinking questions and discussions.

7. What FEAPs did you accomplish throughout this lesson?

The FEAPs that I accomplished during this observation are 1b, 1c, 3b, 4a, and 4b. I accomplished 1b by teaching this lesson, the next one in the sequence, helping students build off their prior knowledge of multiplying whole number by fraction, fraction by fraction, and now mixed number by fraction. I accomplished 1c by designing a lesson that challenged students to successfully achieve mastery of the content. The students went from not knowing how to successfully solve the problems to doing it on their own the next day. I accomplished 3b by using the proper vocabulary and having the students use their words to explain how to solve mathematical problems. If they are able to explain, they will be able successfully work through hard problems and help each other. I accomplished 4a by taking the formative assessment from this lesson to design lessons that would help the students understand the content and make better learning gains. This proved to be effective after looking at the students exit tickets and grades on their unit tests at the end of the week. Lastly, I accomplished 4b by designing my exit ticket and the questions after the learning objectives and what will be found on the unit test. This helped the students understand the importance how the learning objectives and how it reflects what they need to know to be successful learners.

#FEAP1b #FEAP1c #FEAP3b #FEAP4a #FEAP4b