Reflection
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1. What Social Studies concepts were you trying to teach? What were the main ideas you were trying to get across? How did you structure the lesson to allow students to understand these points?
My social studies lesson was an introduction to the North Carolina mountain region. Since the students had been studying the coastal region in their previous unit, I used their prior knowledge to compare and contrast activities that they are familiar with (skiing, hiking, fishing, building sandcastles) as a way of identifying the characteristics of the mountain region. Building on their personal experience and prior knowledge helped them to see how the mountain region was different than the coastal region. The students used the information they gained from this lesson to build a large travel brochure that identified the climate, recreation and activities, a description of the mountain region.
2. Were the students actively engaged/interested in the content of your lesson? How do you know?
Students were very engaged in the lesson and eager to share their connections to the mountain region. During guided practice the students were interested in what activities or places of interest I was going to share. When I was observing the activity that the students were creating, I was very impressed with how well they were doing. I observed some students finding activities that did not belong in the mountain region and listened to the group discussion as they decided whether they could use the activity for their project. The think aloud that I modeled for guided practice was repeated within the groups as they put together their brochures.
3. Did the children understand/learn what you were teaching? How do you know? What evidence do you have that the objectives of the lesson were met? You should examine student work products and determine how many students met the criteria you set for mastery and how many didn’t from the assessment section of your lesson plan.
Based on my assessment of the brochures that the students created, all of the students met the objective. Each project had the correct headings with information that was specific to the mountain region. I was able to talk to members of each group while they were creating the brochures and ask them questions about the pictures they were including or text that they had written. The students understood the difference between the coastal region, that they had studied prior to my visit, and the mountain region. The students were also able to make connections between the piedmont region and the mountain region to gain knowledge of how the mountain region was different than the area they were most familiar with. They could identify differences in altitude, location, and climate as differences.
4. What kinds of questions did you ask? Did you ask any higher level questions? How did students respond to these questions? What kinds of questions did your students ask?
I asked students to compare and contrast the coastal region with the mountain region. They were able to identify activities that could be done in one region but not in the other.
Some activities could be done in both regions, and I asked students to explain how these activities would be different if you were to do them on the coast or in the mountains.
Example: Me: "What kinds of activities could we do on the coast that we could not do in the mountains?"
Student: "You can fish on the coast."
Me: " I agree that you can fish on the coast, can you also fish in the mountains?"
Student 2: " You can fish on the coast and in the mountains."
Me: "How would fishing on the coast be different from fishing on the mountain?"
Student 3: "On the coast you could fish for sharks because they live in the salt water and that is what is on the coast because the ocean is salt water. In the mountain there aren't any sharks. Like in Lake Norman, you can't catch sharks. But in the mountains they have lakes and those have fish like catfish. "
Teacher: "So we have found an activity that you can enjoy in the coastal region and in the mountain region. You can fish in both regions, but you don't catch the same kinds of fish. "
Students asked questions about specific places that they had visited. They wanted to know if a particular place was in the mountain region. I asked them to describe things that they saw or did when they visited and then we found them on the map whenever possible.
5. How was your classroom management? Any problems arise? If yes, how did you handle them? If not, why do you think there were no management problems?
My lesson started late because the morning meeting ran longer than scheduled. The independent practice could not be completed in the time that we had left, so it had to be completed during free choice time later in the week. I think that this is realistic of how classrooms work, and I felt that I handled it well. If it were my classroom, I would have more to say about when we finished the practice (later in the week vs. right after the enhancement lesson) and would have had the students finish it when they returned to the classroom so that they could remember what they had planned.
I attribute the lack of issues that arose to a combination of good time management on my part, as well as a class that works very well in group activities. We completed guided practice in large group, and the independent practice in small groups. These students spend most of their time working in groups and are very cooperative and stay on task.
6. Overall, how do you think the lesson went? Did the lesson go as you had planned and envisioned it? Were there any surprises during the lesson? What things were really successful? What would you change or do differently if you taught this lesson again?
I believe this lesson went very well. The students were interested, and they met the objective. If I were to teach this lesson again, I would assign roles within the group to help manage time. Most of the groups did not finish before we needed to leave for another lesson, but were able to come back and finish it later. I would also like to have used more technology. This school does not have smart boards, and there is only one computer in the classroom. I would like to have included digital images, and maybe an aerial video of the mountain region as part of the introduction. The students could have created this project digitally as well using a resource like posterous.
7. If you were to teach a similar lesson to older or younger students, what adjustments would you have to make?
If I taught this lesson to older students, I would assign a particular location in the mountain region for them to create the project about. I think that using the internet to research the area and creating a website would be more appropriate for older students. The project could go more in depth and include history and geographic descriptions.
If I were to teach younger students, I would have the pictures ready with Velcro attached. I would provide examples and non-examples in the pictures and let them decide if the picture did or did not belong to the mountain region. We would discuss the pictures and write about where we wanted to visit and why.
8. What aspects of your teaching do you most want to improve? How will you go about doing so? Be specific here – do not simply say through more experience. Think about specific action steps you will take to improve.
I would like to improve my ability to call students back together. I did not like using the echo call that my cooperating teacher used because it felt unnatural. I did see that some of the other teachers used wind chimes and bells to call student attention, and I will experiment with other things as I have more time in the classroom.
I want to improve my ability to create a community in my classroom. I have read about it, and talked about it, but I don’t have any experience doing it. I will continue to research, through books and videos, methods of classroom management that can help me to be successful in my classroom.
My social studies lesson was an introduction to the North Carolina mountain region. Since the students had been studying the coastal region in their previous unit, I used their prior knowledge to compare and contrast activities that they are familiar with (skiing, hiking, fishing, building sandcastles) as a way of identifying the characteristics of the mountain region. Building on their personal experience and prior knowledge helped them to see how the mountain region was different than the coastal region. The students used the information they gained from this lesson to build a large travel brochure that identified the climate, recreation and activities, a description of the mountain region.
2. Were the students actively engaged/interested in the content of your lesson? How do you know?
Students were very engaged in the lesson and eager to share their connections to the mountain region. During guided practice the students were interested in what activities or places of interest I was going to share. When I was observing the activity that the students were creating, I was very impressed with how well they were doing. I observed some students finding activities that did not belong in the mountain region and listened to the group discussion as they decided whether they could use the activity for their project. The think aloud that I modeled for guided practice was repeated within the groups as they put together their brochures.
3. Did the children understand/learn what you were teaching? How do you know? What evidence do you have that the objectives of the lesson were met? You should examine student work products and determine how many students met the criteria you set for mastery and how many didn’t from the assessment section of your lesson plan.
Based on my assessment of the brochures that the students created, all of the students met the objective. Each project had the correct headings with information that was specific to the mountain region. I was able to talk to members of each group while they were creating the brochures and ask them questions about the pictures they were including or text that they had written. The students understood the difference between the coastal region, that they had studied prior to my visit, and the mountain region. The students were also able to make connections between the piedmont region and the mountain region to gain knowledge of how the mountain region was different than the area they were most familiar with. They could identify differences in altitude, location, and climate as differences.
4. What kinds of questions did you ask? Did you ask any higher level questions? How did students respond to these questions? What kinds of questions did your students ask?
I asked students to compare and contrast the coastal region with the mountain region. They were able to identify activities that could be done in one region but not in the other.
Some activities could be done in both regions, and I asked students to explain how these activities would be different if you were to do them on the coast or in the mountains.
Example: Me: "What kinds of activities could we do on the coast that we could not do in the mountains?"
Student: "You can fish on the coast."
Me: " I agree that you can fish on the coast, can you also fish in the mountains?"
Student 2: " You can fish on the coast and in the mountains."
Me: "How would fishing on the coast be different from fishing on the mountain?"
Student 3: "On the coast you could fish for sharks because they live in the salt water and that is what is on the coast because the ocean is salt water. In the mountain there aren't any sharks. Like in Lake Norman, you can't catch sharks. But in the mountains they have lakes and those have fish like catfish. "
Teacher: "So we have found an activity that you can enjoy in the coastal region and in the mountain region. You can fish in both regions, but you don't catch the same kinds of fish. "
Students asked questions about specific places that they had visited. They wanted to know if a particular place was in the mountain region. I asked them to describe things that they saw or did when they visited and then we found them on the map whenever possible.
5. How was your classroom management? Any problems arise? If yes, how did you handle them? If not, why do you think there were no management problems?
My lesson started late because the morning meeting ran longer than scheduled. The independent practice could not be completed in the time that we had left, so it had to be completed during free choice time later in the week. I think that this is realistic of how classrooms work, and I felt that I handled it well. If it were my classroom, I would have more to say about when we finished the practice (later in the week vs. right after the enhancement lesson) and would have had the students finish it when they returned to the classroom so that they could remember what they had planned.
I attribute the lack of issues that arose to a combination of good time management on my part, as well as a class that works very well in group activities. We completed guided practice in large group, and the independent practice in small groups. These students spend most of their time working in groups and are very cooperative and stay on task.
6. Overall, how do you think the lesson went? Did the lesson go as you had planned and envisioned it? Were there any surprises during the lesson? What things were really successful? What would you change or do differently if you taught this lesson again?
I believe this lesson went very well. The students were interested, and they met the objective. If I were to teach this lesson again, I would assign roles within the group to help manage time. Most of the groups did not finish before we needed to leave for another lesson, but were able to come back and finish it later. I would also like to have used more technology. This school does not have smart boards, and there is only one computer in the classroom. I would like to have included digital images, and maybe an aerial video of the mountain region as part of the introduction. The students could have created this project digitally as well using a resource like posterous.
7. If you were to teach a similar lesson to older or younger students, what adjustments would you have to make?
If I taught this lesson to older students, I would assign a particular location in the mountain region for them to create the project about. I think that using the internet to research the area and creating a website would be more appropriate for older students. The project could go more in depth and include history and geographic descriptions.
If I were to teach younger students, I would have the pictures ready with Velcro attached. I would provide examples and non-examples in the pictures and let them decide if the picture did or did not belong to the mountain region. We would discuss the pictures and write about where we wanted to visit and why.
8. What aspects of your teaching do you most want to improve? How will you go about doing so? Be specific here – do not simply say through more experience. Think about specific action steps you will take to improve.
I would like to improve my ability to call students back together. I did not like using the echo call that my cooperating teacher used because it felt unnatural. I did see that some of the other teachers used wind chimes and bells to call student attention, and I will experiment with other things as I have more time in the classroom.
I want to improve my ability to create a community in my classroom. I have read about it, and talked about it, but I don’t have any experience doing it. I will continue to research, through books and videos, methods of classroom management that can help me to be successful in my classroom.