This lesson was geared to teach my third
grade class about two different kinds of roots; fibrous and taproots. The
students were showed multiple different plants that had both taproots and
fibrous roots. We talked about their differences, the parts of a plant, and the
job of roots. As a class, small groups, and individuals we made observations
about each type of root.
I believe that this lesson had a good
amount of strengths. One of my biggest
strengths that my CT pointed out as well was that I was feeling more
comfortable in front of the class. Throughout the semester I have been
progressing in my clinical goal of teaching with ease in the front of the
entire room. I could feel the difference
between the start of the year when I taught my literacy and my social studies
lesson plans. I could feel that the
students were respecting me and listening to my directions as the lesson went
on. A sub strength in this area was my ability to ensure that I was checking
for understanding throughout the whole lesson. I was sure to ask during each
section of the lesson “Is there any questions about that?” or “Is that clear?”
Questions of that nature allowed for students to ask questions as we progressed
through the lesson.
Another strength that was presented in my
lesson was my classroom management skills.
As hands-on science tends to get the students very excited my students
had certain times throughout the lesson that they were very excited and hitting
a noise level that I was uncomfortable with. I was worried at this time that
they students would become engrossed in the plants at their table and it would
become to difficult to regain their attention.
I was able to get the class’ attention by using the “class clap”
multiple times during the lesson.
The last strength was that I made sure to
walk around the room while the students drew their pictures and record their
observations. Instead of sitting at my
desk while the students worked quietly I made sure that I made my way around
the room several times. I also ensured the students that if they had problems
or questions during this time they could and should raise their hands and I
would be more than happy to come and help them to clarify any issues that they
may have.
Although I may feel that I have several
strengths there are several different weaknesses or areas of growth. As my cooperating teacher noted in this
section she thinks that an area of growth I needed to work on for this lesson
was to include a visual to help the students see the growth of a taproot, such
as a carrot or beet. My cooperating
teacher and I talked this over and we agreed that the next time that I would
implement this lesson plan I should use one of the several videos that we found
together that shows these growths. As
for a plan of action I will make sure that this is taken into consideration in
every single lesson plan that I write from now on. A visual would never hurt in
a lesson plan so it would always be beneficial to put in.
Being so nervous, as usual, I completely forgot to set expectations for
my students before we started this lesson. This was the first lesson that my
cooperating teacher was observing my teaching formally, as the other two
lessons she was not at school coincidentally.
Examples that we talked about would be explaining to the students at the
beginning of the lesson their expected voice levels and behaviors. I wish that
I would have remembered to do this because this would have made behavioral
management that much easier. A plan of
action I will take to resolve this would be to go over my lesson plan several
times before I implement it. I might also make a section in the lesson plan
addressing the behavioral management plans of this lesson. This section would
include what I might say or do before the lesson to set expectations as well as
what I might say or do if problems came about.
One last area of growth that I feel that
I could work on would be ability to not become flustered by the amount of
questions the students have. The students had many question during the teaching
and several had questions during the independent practice time. I became overwhelmed because I was worried
that I wouldn’t be able to answer all the students’ questions in ample time.
When I started to receive multiple of the same questions I made sure to address
these questions and their answers to the whole class. As I am a new teacher I
know that this will fade with time I would like to see what sorts of practices
I can find in order to help me out. A plan of action to assist me in working on
this area of growth would be to do breathing exercises before the lesson to
help myself relax. Another strategy would be to take my time answering the
questions and as I did today, and address the whole class if it is a common
question. This will potentially weed out many of the raised hands.
I was able to discuss with the students
the jobs of roots. I was very impressed, as the students already knew that
roots help take in nutrients and water. I furthered that topic by explaining to
them that the roots help spread the appropriate amount of nutrients to the stem
and all other parts of the plant. The
students needed to be introduced to a diagram.
I explained to them that this is a picture that will help show us what a
plant looks like from then ground up. I also explained how they would need to
label the parts of the plant that we talked about.
We unfortunately had to omit several
parts of this lesson due to time restrictions. The omitted parts include the
digging up plants as well as the plotting the root sprouts. My cooperating teacher and I discussed
omitting these parts and decided that it would be for the best. If time was not an issue then I would have
been more than willing to do these activities with the students. Though and
through I could see that my students understood the content as I checked for
understanding with questions about the roots and with asking if the students
had any questions. I can also see which students understood the concept by
looking at their drawings and observations in their science notebooks. Also, as
I walked around the room while the students made observations about the roots I
was able to hear all the great observations and questions the students had for
each other.
Overall, I feel that this lesson went
very well. There was some areas that I could work on for sure. But there are also some very strong points
that I have. I will take this lesson and the constructive criticism of my
cooperating teacher when planning and implementing the next of my lesson plans.
The most important thing to take away is the constructive criticism and to use
it to my advantage during the rest of this semester and during my last semester
as well.
Exceeds: I exceeded the word count for the
reflection and added books that I could use in case the lesson gets done to
early or that the students were having trouble grasping the concept.
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