Reflection of my lesson

How did you (and your partner) prepare?
My partner and I had many ideas of how we wanted to go about the lesson. We each shared our ideas and throughout the time we had to view others’ lessons, we modified our ideas. The day before our lesson, Monday, we got together and discussed exactly what we would do the next day. We spoke about the seating arrangement, who couldn’t sit next to who was important in that aspect. We also decided I would read the book and Jessenya would explain the project. The “students” would sit in a circle on the floor as I read the book. Early morning on the day of teaching the lesson, we met up in the computer lab and printed out all the material such as the questions and the extra time coloring pages. We also decided on a token economy type of reinforcement and a set of rules for the class.

Explain the objective and assessment measures of your lesson
The objective of our lesson was for the students to identify the three main clouds: circus, cumulus, and stratus. Our means of assessment was informally done by walking around and looking over the students as they wrote a sentence about one of the three main clouds and made their cloud out of cotton. Formally, we assessed their work by having the students read their sentence and show their clouds to the class.

Was your lesson plan executed exactly as it was written?
For the most part, I would say my partner and I performed our lesson as written. I believe we only added in the part during which the students would present their clouds and read their sentence to the class.

What was the most important thing you tried to teach your students?
The most important aspect , which was our lesson’s objective, was having the students identify the three main clouds.

How do you think it went?
This was successful because the students understood that there were three main clouds. However, had they made each of the three clouds out of cotton and written a sentence about each, they would have been able to really understand them, versus concentrating on the cloud they were told to make.

What did I learn from your students?
I learned a lot from my students. For one thing, I am glad my partner and I did not give the students the glue themselves because this would have just caused chaos. The students also showed me that they would have learned about the three clouds more effectively by making all three types of clouds. Moreover, the students taught me that hands on helps them learn better, seeing as all the students who made their clouds did so exactly as we expected. I also learned that this book was a bit too long. By the middle of it they seemed somewhat bored.

What would you have done differently?
Rather than have the students just make one type of cloud, have the students make all three main clouds on a bigger construction paper. I would have also divided the book into two days so the students would not get bored because the objective of that lesson only really called for the beginning information about clouds.

How could you have made the lesson even more effective?
Like I mentioned in the previous question, creating all three clouds versus just one would have assessed the objective more effectively. In addition, having the students use the smart board, such as having them come up and point and name a cloud.

What do you think you need to improve or do differently?
Personally, I think I should be stricter, even though I felt that I was both nice but also firm. I am not the type of person that would want my students too feel afraid to express themselves, I want them to feel comfortable in my classroom but also have respect for me as their teacher and for their peers. Therefore, being more strict might aid them in not joking around so much.