Phase 3 Comprehensive Reflection

Phase 3

Describe (a) how your understandings for each the categories listed below changed based on your experiences (Both your teaching and assessing others' teaching) this semester and (b) describe how this might impact your future teaching experiences.

Assessing Prior Knowledge

 I always knew that learning about the students prior knowledge about the lesson content was important I just didn’t relate that to giving the students a pretest before the start of the lesson.  I knew that before each unit it would be good to test the students’ knowledge about the subject yet to give the students a pretest for each lesson seems a lot for just one lesson.  I can see having a discussion with the students to determine what the students’ prior knowledge is.  I like the idea of giving the students a pretest on certain lesson plans just not every lesson.  When I was looking at my classmates’ lesson plans I could pick out which lesson plans the teacher and students would benefit in a pretest and other lessons that probably do not need a pretest to determine the students’ prior knowledge. 

Planning Instruction

My thinking about planning a lesson plan has not changed because I know that the standards and the objective are important thing to think about when planning a lesson.  The objective, standards and assessment all need to relate to one another and are appropriate for the grade level.  Throughout this semester, I think in everyone’s lesson plan they thought about what grade and standard they wanted to focus on and how the students were going to meet the standards through the objective and assessment of the lesson.

Designing Instruction

When I design a lesson plan, I write out how I would present it in a classroom.  I want other teachers to be able to read my lesson plan and use it in their classroom as well.  I want the transitions to flow smoothly and not have the students going from the carpet to their seats back to the carpet again in one lesson.  I am learning how to write objectives where Bloom’s Taxonomy can be incorporated into the lesson plan to target the students’ higher order thinking skills.  I do try to incorporate technology in my lessons if it is related to the lesson content.  I think I will be using YouTube a lot in my classroom because the website does have some good videos that would be helpful to the students.  This class has also showed me different websites that you be helpful to the students as well.  When I do use the different websites I will have to make sure, I talk to the students about being careful when they are online as well. 

Planning Assessment

Planning assessment is important when planning a lesson plan because you want the assessment to see if the students met the objective and understood what they were learning.  It is also hard because there can be many ways to assess the students knowledge.  It is also good to think about all the different ways that students learn and how to incorporate them into your lesson plan.  THE lesson plans that I saw this semester had this with their technology because not all students learn the same way and if the teacher had a video for the students to understand the information this was meeting the students needs. 

Instructional Decisions/Teaching

I am already used to presenting a lesson in front of students because of the practicum’s I had so far and also teaching to adult pretending to be students as well and I think it is harder to teach in front of adults that children.  When you teach to adults, you expect them to already know the stuff in your lesson plan and it can become silly at times as well.  This does help when you are in front of students because we are able to see what kind of mistakes we should not make.  This can help in the future to have your peers/colleagues to watch you perform a lesson to see where you need to improve of what you have done well.

Assessment of Learning

The peer survey was helpful because we were able to receive anonymous feedback on our lesson on what went well and what areas we still need to improve. It was constructive criticism that will help us when we are making a lesson plan or presenting in front of the students.  This is the first time that we did a peer survey to get feedback from our peers.  I think peer feedback is something that I would like to get from my fellow teachers in the future.   

Phase 2 Lesson Plan 2

Phase 2

Instruction Decisions/Teaching

I think when I teach this lesson it will be fun and education for the students because the students are going to watching a video, listening to the teacher read and then taste fruit and do a worksheet to assess their knowledge.  I learned that students need to have a variety in the lesson plan instead of sitting in their seats doing worksheets.  The objectives were maintained throughout the lesson plan and in the assessment.  The lesson plan appeals to the different learning standards through the video song, reading the book, doing the hands on activity and then the worksheet. 

Assessment of Learning

The worksheet that the students do will see if they know which body part relates to the senses.  I feel that teachers would really like this lesson plan because of the different parts that make the lesson plan different, creative and educational.  The feedback that I got from my classmates was that they liked the lesson plan and it was grade appropriate as well as the technology used in the lesson plan.

Phase 1 Lesson plan 2 (Senses)

Phase 1

Assessing Prior Knowledge

To get the students prior knowledge for this lesson plan I would ask the students what they know about their senses.  I would ask the students to describe an object and by the students describing the object I can get the lesson on senses started because the students would know that they are using their senses to describe the object.  By knowing the students prior knowledge I would be able to determine what the students actually know about the five senses.

Plans Instruction

My objective for this lesson plan is for the students to know and identity the five senses and the body parts that relate to them.  The standards that I choose is for a Kindergarten classroom and the objective relate to the standard and is appropriate for the students. 

Designing Instruction

This lesson plan is one out of five because all week the students are going to be learning in depth about the five senses this lesson is only on the sense of taste.  The teacher is going to have the students watch the “5 Senses” song by Hi-5 everyday of the week to help the students remember the five senses.  This will get the students a chance to be introduced to the five senses and to the website YouTube if they have not already.  The teacher will then read the book to the students about taste.   The lesson plan moves from the teacher reading the book to the student doing an activity about tricking your taste.  The students will see if smell and sight can affect their taste.  The students are then going to do a worksheet to see if they can identify what parts of the senses go with which body part and then drawing out four things that they taste.  The YouTube video is just right for this grade level because they are used to using the smart board in the classroom.  The students are working on the Understanding level of Bloom’s Taxonomy.  The lesson goes from watching the video then to listening to the teacher read and then having the students do hands on activity by exploring with taste then finally the students are going to do a worksheet to see if they understood the senses and the parts of the body related to the senses. 

Planning Assessment

The worksheet will test to see it the students were able to understand the five senses and which body parts they relate too. This does relate to the objective and standards of the lesson plan.  The assessment works on the first level of Bloom’s Taxonomy where the students are understanding and identifying the five senses.    

Phase 2 for Lesson Plan 1

Phase 2

Instructional Decisions/ Teaching

When I taught this lesson the too group of mock students, which were adults in my technology class, I had the students do a pretest to see if they knew the name of the different parts of a plant.  I gave students timed to get some answers on the paper and then I told the students they needed to focus on the teacher now.  Since the students were third graders, I had a song for the students to sing to help them remember the parts of a plant and what they do.  The students and I sang the song so the other teachers in my class were able to see how this song could be used to help the students in their future classroom.  Then I passed out the worksheet that went along with the website. The students were starting at different places but that was my fault because I did not go through the instruction.   I should of read through the instructions for my students even though this was a mock classroom I should have read it even though my class would be third graders and I hoped that they students would read the instruction before doing the worksheet.  The worksheet had the students going through three different parts on the website.  The students were to watch three video to see how light and water affect the growth of a plant, put together a flower and label the different parts and then see the different types of seed dispersion.  The website and worksheet help the students learn about the part of a plant, which was the objective of the lesson.  I would have ELL students paired up with students that spoke both English and Spanish to help translate.

Assessment of Learning

 The student were able to name part of the flower because of the posttest I had the student retake after the lesson and the students were able to answer some more because of the website.  The feedback that I received from by classmates that the lesson and website were appropriate for the grade level and learning content the only thing that I need to improve on for this lesson is to show more examples of the parts of the plant.  My classmates liked how the lesson was presented and that the website was informative to the students. 

Phase 1 for lesson plan 1 (Plants)

Phase 1

Assessing Prior Knowledge

The students’ prior experiences with plants and flowers would start with a conversation with the students to see what they know.  This will help the teacher to determine what the students know about plants and flowers.  Then the teacher will give the students a worksheet that will act as a pre-assessment on the parts of the flower.  By assessing the students’ prior knowledge I can tell what the students know and what I need to teach them.  This information is very helpful because it lets the teacher know what the teacher needs to focus on in the lesson. 

Plan Instructions

The lesson objectives are appropriate for the grade level and are stated in a way that a substitute teacher can read and understand the lesson.  My goal for the lesson is for the students to know the different parts of the plant and the importance of water and light are to the growth of a plant. 

Designing Instruction

The lesson is designed so that the students are at their seats in the beginning of the lesson working on the pretest.   The students then move to the computers to do their assignment and the main portion of the lesson.  The website that the students go to is at their grade level in that the vocabulary is easy for the students to understand.  The website the students use is safe for the students to look at, legal and all the information is ethical. 

Planning Assessment

The assessment for the lesson plan gives the teacher a chance to see if the students were able to grasp the names of the parts of the plant and where they are located on the plant.  The website also hits all the objectives and standards the students need to learn.  This lesson plan only has the students working with the Understanding level of Bloom’s Taxonomy.  The students individual needs are meet because they are able to work either alone or with partners and they are getting a visual help with the website.