Ms.

Tracie Coyne
Long Cane Primary School
1st Grade: Ms. Donaldson
April 2017

8. Reflection, Self-Evaluation, & Professional Development (LO 4.2 & 4.3)(APS 2, 3, 10)

A. Whole Class

My first showcase lesson is a math lesson about subtracting groups of ten.

My learning objective for this lesson is After reviewing base ten blocks, skip

counting and subtracting, and working practice problems with the teacher,

students will be able to subtract 10 from multiples of 10 ranging between 10

and 90 with 100% accuracy. This lesson reviewed previously learned

knowledge and built upon that knowledge with new information. For this lesson, I

used verbal response for the pre-assessment and a leaflet for the during and post-assessments.

For the pre-assessment, I asked the students to verbally identify base ten blocks and name their values

class. Then the students were asked to skip subtract from 90 to 10. This part of the lesson got a bit loud as

the kids were screaming out the answers rather than just saying it. As this was my first lesson I was

concerned with being too much of a strict teacher. I was still unsure as to what I could and could not do in

my classroom.

For the during-assessment I used the Elmo through the Smartboard to teach the lesson. My

cooperating teacher had to instruct me how to use the Elmo so that the students can see the image

projected in the best possible way. If I was to teach this lesson again I would have practiced working the

classroom technology so that I would know how to use it when I taught the lesson. Half way through I

realized that I was running out of time and so I tried to speed up the pace more.

For the post-assessments students continued completing the leaflet individually. Once completed, I

used the Elmo to go over the answers. My cooperating teacher uses this technique to ensure all students

are on the same page. After completion, I took up the leaflets for grading.

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 If I were to teach this lesson again I would spend more time learning better ways to teach it

rather than studying what I wrote for my lesson plan. I spent most of the day before studying the lesson

plan I wrote. I found throughout the lesson that my students would not give me both answers that the

leaflet asked for without prompting from me. This discouraged me a little when I had to do this for every

question, but I did my best to continue. I would also be stricter with my classroom management.

B. Individual Student

As stated in my first TWS 6 I had high, average and low achieving students in my class. Below is

the chart of grades for those three individual students.

Pre-Assessment During-Assessment Post-Assessment

* = Average achieving Student

+ = High achieving Student

The grade for the pre-assessment was based on a review.

All students received a 4 for their grades during this part of the lesson.

Student 18 was the high achieving student for this math lesson. The student met the learning

objective for this lesson. This student was very vocal during the pre-assessment and answered all

questions correctly for the during assessment and post-assessment. This student scored a 4 in both the

during and post-assessments. These numbers refer to how many questions the child got correct out of 4

during each assessment. This child thoroughly enjoys math and excels at it regularly. This student has no

trouble when subtraction multiple digit numbers. He is always one of the first to raise his hand when

answering questions posed by the teacher.

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 Student 1 is the low achieving student for this math lesson. This student did not meet the learning

objective for this lesson. The student was very vocal during the pre-assessment but did not meet the

learning objective for the during or post-assessments. This student scored a 1 on the during-assessment

and a 2 on the post-assessment. These numbers refer to how many questions the child got correct out of 4

during each assessment. This indicates that the student needs more practice on subtracting groups of ten.

If this student has trouble subtracting groups of ten (90-80=10) then they will have trouble when it comes

to subtracting two digit numbers or higher. This student seems interested in math during class time, but

also finds math difficult to complete. I believe that he struggled with this lesson because he finds math

difficult and he has a difficult time staying focused in class. This student most benefited from the class

work for the during assessment and going over the answers for the post-assessment. This student would

benefit more from one-on-one instruction. If I had spent more time with this student during the lesson I

believe his grades would have improved.

Student 4 is the average achieving for this math lesson. This student did not meet the learning

objective for this lesson. This student was very vocal during the pre-assessment but did not meet the

learning objective for the during or post-assessment. This student scored a 2 on the during-assessment and

a 3 on the post-assessment. These numbers refer to how many questions the child got correct out of 4

during each assessment. This indicates that the student needs more practice, but does grasp the concept.

This child may have trouble subtracting numbers with two or more digits. This student enjoys math, but

had trouble connecting the concepts during this lesson. I believe this student struggled some in this lesson

due to lack of focus. This student mostly stays on task, but there are times when she is not on task or

following directions as they are given. This student most benefited from the class work for the during

assessment and going over the answers during the post-assessment. I believe more time reminding this

student to focus would have benefited greatly with this lesson.

The during and post assessments called for student to answer problems in two ways. If the answer

was 80-60=20 the students were also to fill in the blanks for 8 tens 6 tens = 2 tens. Several of the

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students had difficulty answering both ways. When prompted by me they could answer it, but they would

not give how many tens there were the first time asked. This happened with multiple students and I found

that if I modified the questions I was asking to include both answers or ask the question in a different way

the students would give me the answer that the problem would call for.

C. Reflection on additional 2-4 lessons.

Lesson 3:

For this lesson, I taught community helpers. I made the decision to use multiple forms of

technology during this lesson. I used a BrainPopJr. video to introduce the topic. I then used a

PowerPoint that I created to ask students to determine what career was by looking at the

animated picture. During this lesson, all students were actively involved. Everyone wanted to

answer the questions when asked. To finish the lesson students completed a worksheet about

what they wanted to be when they grew up and why. Throughout the lesson many students made

connections between the different community jobs and how they help in the community. Before I

had gotten to the slide on the PowerPoint showing a teacher, one student exclaimed that teachers

are community because they help teach the children who live in our community. Later that week

while my cooperating teacher was teaching a blending words lesson, some of the words that

came up were names of jobs. One of the girls in the class raised her hand to say thats a

community helper just like Ms. Coyne taught us. Many other students immediately chimed in

with choruses of agreement.

Lesson 4:

For this lesson, I taught science with the parts of a plant. I chose to use multiple forms of

engagement during this less. I brought in a real plant, used student guided worksheets, and small

group emphasis. First I had to modify the plant I used. I wanted to bring in a small potted plant,

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but could not find one. Therefore, I decided to buy a small bouquet of flowers. These flowers

showed the different parts of a plant; flower, stem, leaves, and seeds. The only part it does not

show is the roots, but my students comprehended without the visual representation. The pre-

assessment for this lesson went very well. The class was actively participating and making

connections beyond what I was asking. The during-assessment took a lot longer than anticipated.

Although the students had completed student guided activities before, they took longer copying it

down during this lesson. The next assessment was my post-assessment. For this assessment, I

chose to split the class up. Half the class was to stay at their desks to complete the back of the

worksheet and the other half was to join me on the carpet. The student that joined me on the

carpet got a better look at the flowers I brought to the class. While showing them the flowers the

students were to point out the different parts of the plants and some of the functions. This group

took longer than the second group because one student got upset when his peers continuously

talked over him and would not let him speak. When I finished with one group, they switched off

with the other group. After the small groups, I went over the worksheet with the students. If I

were to teach this lesson again I would not go over the last worksheet with them.

Lesson 5:

For this lesson, I read a poem with the students instructing them to pick out the rhyming

words at the ends of the sentences and to illustrate the poem by stanza. My teacher does this once

every few weeks if not every week with the class. Because of this, the lesson would have been

very short. I modified the lesson to include the rhyming words and a differentiation of framing

the words they know to make the lesson long enough to fit the outline that we must write for our

lesson plans. During the lesson, I had to clarify what I meant by rhyming words by saying at the

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end of the sentences because the students wanted to pick out any rhyming word or make up

their own to tell me. I made sure to tell them that I appreciated their efforts, but that they needed

to stick to answering the question I asked. If I were to complete this lesson again I would make it

shorter to fit what my teacher usually does than to deviate from that. The students went with

what I asked them to do as I explained that we were going to do the poem a little different than

usual, but they were still a bit confused at parts.

D. Reflection on possibilities for Professional Development.

Goal One:

My first professional development goal is better classroom management.

Though I know my class management developed throughout the time in this

classroom I know there is still more room to grow. I had a very talkative class for my

placement. They are all mostly well behaved students, but they always wanted to

talk. During my first lesson, I did not want to be the extremely strict teacher who

called the students out on everything. However, I learned throughout the time in my

placement that I need to be strict in some cases.

Goal Two:

My second professional development goal is to limit my timing. Four out of

five of my lessons too longer than expected. When I voiced my concerns to my

cooperating teacher she told me that the importance is not on how short or long the

lesson is but the quality of the lesson. Still, I felt as though all my lessons are too

long. Throughout my lessons I use multiple forms of teaching to engage the

students. As I know the attention span of younger is shorter and that we as teachers

should limit the lessons to about 15 minutes, but I use multiple forms of teaching to

keep the students actively engaged without losing their attention.

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