Reflection Supervisor Observation
If you were going to teach this lesson to the same group of students, what would you do differently? Why?
There are many small changes I would make if I was ever going to teach this lesson to the same group of students. The first thing I would change would be to use the ELMO so that all students can see the pictures and words in the book I am reading. At the beginning of my lesson, when I was going over the paper for them to circle the words (3:50), I should have asked one of the students to repeat the directions for me. This would have shown me that they understood my directions. I also should have asked the students to tell me the words over again since they are all beginning to read and they may not have remembered what they words were. I was told that it is ok to stop in the middle and remind students of the words or ask them what they should be circling on their paper. The last thing I would do differently is during the actually writing. I noticed while watching my video that from minute 12:32 to 16:12, I did not get up from the chair. If I teach this lesson again or any lesson, I will get up more often and walk around the room. This will show me what students may need me to slow down because they are not understanding. Also while they were writing, I noticed that some were writing both bird and pig. This could have been prevented if I had gotten up and walked around. Another way this could have been prevented is if I had said, “All of you who have a pig, please pick up your pencil,” and then “All of you who have a bird now you may pick up your pencil.”
What surprised you in your lesson?
After analyzing the data collected from the formative assessment I noticed that all but one student circled to word school as a verb. I believe the reason for this is because I was not clear with the directions at the beginning of the lesson. All the words on the paper were found in the book and I feel that the students got confused and circled the word school. This could have been prevented in a few ways. One way is that I could have asked for a volunteer to repeat the directions to me. This way I could have seen if the students understood my directions. I could have also shown the book up on the ELMO so that the students could have seen better. This is something that was suggested by my Collaborating Teacher (CT) because I said to the students at minute 3:50 in the video that I would give them a hint, “All the verbs are a different color in the book.” It would have been easy for the students in the front two rows to see but the back two rows would have had hard time seeing them. Putting the book up so it projected onto a bigger screen would have made it easier for the students to see. This is something I plan on doing if I ever teach this lesson again. After watching my video again, I realized that once in the middle of the reading and again at the end of the reading I said, “remember we are only circling the verbs (5:45 and 6:36).”
Describe an instance or particular encounter that comes to mind. Why did you pick that instance? What is so perplexing about that particular moment?
The part of my lesson that sticks out the most to me is when I asked the students to predict what word I was going to use next in my sentence and the one student I called on gave me an “off the wall” answer. The reason this sticks out so much to me is because the student I chose is very bright. This question should have been really easy for him (in the video this happens between minute 16 and 17). Another reason this moment sticks out to me is that I feel I should have given him another chance to answer the question instead of just saying, “No” and moving on to another student. I could have repeated the question so that he had another chance to give me the correct answer since most of the class was yelling the correct answer out. This is something I would have normally done because I feel that all students should be given a chance to say the correct answer, even if I have to talk to their table groups to come up with the answer.
Analysis
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, my next step, is to revisit verbs again. According to my CT, verbs are something that they revisit about once every three weeks because it is a hard concept for some Kindergarteners. I will use the information from the formative assessment to see which students are beginning to understand verbs and which ones are going to need more help. According to the data, most of the students are beginning to understand that words such as jump, dance and sleeping are verbs. All the students in the class circled the word sleeping as a verb and I am wondering if that is because of the -ing at the end. I noticed that when introducing verbs, a lot of times myself or my CT added the -ing to words like running, jumping or sleeping. This most likely confused the students that in order to be a verb, it the word must contain -ing. This is something that in the next lesson I plan to teach about verbs, I will remind students that they words do not have to contain -ing to be considered a verb.
How will you use that assessment to make further instructional plans?
I used the papers that they circled the words on as a formative assessment. This gave me a good idea about which students understood verbs and which ones may need more help. Below, is the data analysis sheet I made from the formative assessment. It shows me that all students need a little more help with verbs. Verbs are something that they are going to revisit about once every three weeks until the end of the school year. Myself and my CT will use this assessment to help plan different activities to reintroduce verbs to the students. Depending on the student’s learning style, we may need to find different activities so the students can be more hands on with verbs, for example, allowing the students to act out different verbs they use every day in the classroom like walking in a line or running out on the playground.