Alicia Lockhart Reflective Practice Assignment Please answer the following questions as they relate to ONE lesson you taught during your 10 days of teaching in your placement. Your responses should be in a reflective narrative format which means you may have to give your reader some context to the lesson you are writing about. Please post this to your University Supervisor's wiki page and then take some time to read and respond to at least three other student ’s posting. If you see that more students than others are receiving responses please take the time to give equal time and feedback to each person in the group.
What was your original intent or goal for this lesson? I did a lesson on ideas in which I was trying to help students learn how to be more specific with their ideas. In a previous lesson, I tried to show students models of paragraphs with lots of specific details and examples, but they did not receive that lesson well. They still did not understand how to elaborate ideas. So, I decided to do something basic; just so they could get the idea (no pun intended). In this lesson, students had to sort words or phrases into three categories: main idea (blue), supporting detail (red), or further explanation (GREEN). For example, take the words: story, short story, and A Retrieved Reformation. Story would be the main idea because it is relatively general. Then, short story would be a supporting detail because it adds a little bit more detail about the initial main idea word, story. Then, of course, A Retrieved Reformation would go in the further explanation category because it is most specific. It further explains a little bit about the short story by giving the actual name of the short story.
Were you successful in reaching that goal? How? No, not at first because students made the activity a lot harder than what it was. However, after some heavy re-explaining and guiding students finally came to an understanding. Eventually, they received the lesson well and ended up sorting the words in almost all the right categories.
What specifically went well with your lesson? The students actually working together and trying to distinguish the main ideas from the supporting details and vice versa with the further explanations. Students were really engaged and challenged. They were excited to highlight those words with the correct color.
What did not go well with your lesson? Why? My first pitch of the lesson did not go well; I guess I was not clear enough or it just took a little time for the simplicity of the assignment to kick in to them. At any rate, I had to re-explain several times.
What adjustments will you make or did you make during the course of your day to replicate the lesson? I just explained at a slower pace and did a few “sortings” together as a class the next time I taught this lesson.
How does this lesson find its way into your unit and how well does this lesson scaffold and/or integrate into the next lesson? This lesson was sort of a remediation. I was trying to give students a basic understanding of “Ideas” so that when they actually started writing paragraphs they would understand how to go about writing a good body paragraph. They needed to thoroughly understand main ideas, supporting details, and specific details and examples before they could incorporate them effectively in their paragraphs.
What theoretical principle and/or project did you tie to this lesson from your coursework? I did not tie a theoretical principle or project to this lesson. if I did, I cannot think of it right now.
Will you use this lesson again? Why or why not? Yes, of course! Not only did it help students understand Ideas better, but it was also fun and a great way to get students engaged in team work.
Jim has fallen asleep and his snores are distracting.
In class: First, I would apologize to the students and let them know that I know that Jim's snoring is distracting, but try to focus as best you can. Then, I would wake Jim up and encourage him to complete his work. I would warn Jim that if he tries to fall asleep again I will make him stand up and complete his work. I would not say much to Jim in front of the other students because I do not know his situation. If the other students are getting off task because of the situation I would tell them to settle down and get back to work because now Jim is awake and they do not have an accuse(sp. excuse) to be off task. I would go up to Jim and quietly inform him that I need to speak with him after class. After class I would tell Jim that he cannot fall asleep in class because it is distracting and not fair to his classmates or me. I would also stress to Jim that school is for learning not sleeping. Lastly, I would advise Jim to go to bed at a decent time, so that he will not be tired and prompted to fall asleep in class again. If this is the first time Jim has fallen asleep I would let him know that if it happens again I am going to email his parents. However, if Jim has fallen asleep a few times before, then I would ask Jim is there anything serious preventing him from going to bed at night?
Depending on his response I would contact either the counselor or his parents or both.
If this is Jim's first time falling asleep, I would just wake him up and then just go on with the class without comment to class because then some students will feel the need to comment to each other. If she sleeping continues then you need to ask Jim (in private) why he is so sleepy in your class. If you get a response that sounds like he may have a problem (like working late, insomnia or trouble at home), then you need to talk with the counselor and/or parents. Jim may have problems and he does not need class to be aware of his sleeping. A less obvious way of waking him up is to stand by his desk and tap it; don't touch Jim as too many court cases have been brought against teachers lately. (CK)
The same two or three students try to answer all questions you ask.
I chose this scenario because this has happened to me numerous (of) times in my current placement. It is very hard to get all students to contribute, especially middle school students. However, I would tell those two or three students, “I know that you always know all the answers and I am glad that you do; however, I want you guys to give someone else a chance to answer because Ms. Lockhart wants to see what everybody knows, not just what you three know.” I would make sure they understand that I am not reprimanding them and that I appreciate how much they contribute to the class. Then, to the entire class I would say, “To those students that never raise their hand or never wants to participate, I need to start hearing from you or else I’m going to think that you do not understand or you have not completed your work. It is not fair that the same three people raise their hands to answer all the questions because I know that more than three people know the material and the answers. If everyone does not start participating I am going to start taking away some of our fun privileges because if not a lot of you understand then we need to spend more time going over lessons rather than doing fun things.”
More than likely this whole scenario would prompt me to implement the use of Popsicle sticks. I would make students grab a Popsicle stick out of a tin can (at the beginning of every class) and by the end of each class period each student’s Popsicle stick should end up back in the can. When a student raises their hand to participate by way of contributing to a discussion or answering any questions I may ask correctly, then they may get up and place their Popsicle stick back in the tin can because they have participated for the day. Students will have their name on their Popsicle stick to help me keep up with who has participated and who has not participated. All students that use their Popsicle stick by the end of class will receive 1 bonus point and all students that do not use their popsicle stick by the end of class will lose 3 bonus points.
Although I would encourage all students to participate in class, I am hesitant to give rewards and punishments, and I would inform the entire class that I am not calling on students with their hands up at all. Then I would call on some of the students who do not participate and wait patiently as they get their thoughts together while not allowing them to "pass" on to another student until the student called upon at least tried to supply and answer. (CK)
Alicia Lockhart
Reflective Practice Assignment
Please answer the following questions as they relate to ONE lesson you taught during your 10 days of teaching in your placement. Your responses should be in a reflective narrative format which means you may have to give your reader some context to the lesson you are writing about. Please post this to your University Supervisor's wiki page and then take some time to read and respond to at least three other student ’s posting. If you see that more students than others are receiving responses please take the time to give equal time and feedback to each person in the group.
Jim has fallen asleep and his snores are distracting.
In class: First, I would apologize to the students and let them know that I know that Jim's snoring is distracting, but try to focus as best you can. Then, I would wake Jim up and encourage him to complete his work. I would warn Jim that if he tries to fall asleep again I will make him stand up and complete his work. I would not say much to Jim in front of the other students because I do not know his situation. If the other students are getting off task because of the situation I would tell them to settle down and get back to work because now Jim is awake and they do not have an accuse(sp. excuse) to be off task. I would go up to Jim and quietly inform him that I need to speak with him after class. After class I would tell Jim that he cannot fall asleep in class because it is distracting and not fair to his classmates or me. I would also stress to Jim that school is for learning not sleeping. Lastly, I would advise Jim to go to bed at a decent time, so that he will not be tired and prompted to fall asleep in class again. If this is the first time Jim has fallen asleep I would let him know that if it happens again I am going to email his parents. However, if Jim has fallen asleep a few times before, then I would ask Jim is there anything serious preventing him from going to bed at night?
Depending on his response I would contact either the counselor or his parents or both.
If this is Jim's first time falling asleep, I would just wake him up and then just go on with the class without comment to class because then some students will feel the need to comment to each other. If she sleeping continues then you need to ask Jim (in private) why he is so sleepy in your class. If you get a response that sounds like he may have a problem (like working late, insomnia or trouble at home), then you need to talk with the counselor and/or parents. Jim may have problems and he does not need class to be aware of his sleeping. A less obvious way of waking him up is to stand by his desk and tap it; don't touch Jim as too many court cases have been brought against teachers lately. (CK)
The same two or three students try to answer all questions you ask.
I chose this scenario because this has happened to me numerous (of) times in my current placement. It is very hard to get all students to contribute, especially middle school students. However, I would tell those two or three students, “I know that you always know all the answers and I am glad that you do; however, I want you guys to give someone else a chance to answer because Ms. Lockhart wants to see what everybody knows, not just what you three know.” I would make sure they understand that I am not reprimanding them and that I appreciate how much they contribute to the class. Then, to the entire class I would say, “To those students that never raise their hand or never wants to participate, I need to start hearing from you or else I’m going to think that you do not understand or you have not completed your work. It is not fair that the same three people raise their hands to answer all the questions because I know that more than three people know the material and the answers. If everyone does not start participating I am going to start taking away some of our fun privileges because if not a lot of you understand then we need to spend more time going over lessons rather than doing fun things.”
More than likely this whole scenario would prompt me to implement the use of Popsicle sticks. I would make students grab a Popsicle stick out of a tin can (at the beginning of every class) and by the end of each class period each student’s Popsicle stick should end up back in the can. When a student raises their hand to participate by way of contributing to a discussion or answering any questions I may ask correctly, then they may get up and place their Popsicle stick back in the tin can because they have participated for the day. Students will have their name on their Popsicle stick to help me keep up with who has participated and who has not participated. All students that use their Popsicle stick by the end of class will receive 1 bonus point and all students that do not use their popsicle stick by the end of class will lose 3 bonus points.
Although I would encourage all students to participate in class, I am hesitant to give rewards and punishments, and I would inform the entire class that I am not calling on students with their hands up at all. Then I would call on some of the students who do not participate and wait patiently as they get their thoughts together while not allowing them to "pass" on to another student until the student called upon at least tried to supply and answer. (CK)