Lesson Week!

Individual Lesson Assessment Reflection

Background Information:

Note: 2 Observed Students:  (more detail in observation logs)

Child 1: in the process of getting on a 504 plan/IEP; has autism spectrum diagnosis from preschool being looked into

Child 2: on a behavior plan 

Language Arts/Social Studies:

Learning Objective: In the process of learning about story elements, the students will be able to identify the main idea, characters, and setting of a read aloud story by participating in teacher-led discussion and a learning activity using the SMART board (with prompting and support).

Pre-Assessment: During the week prior to this lesson, I will begin discussing story elements during read aloud time and briefly questioning the students to see what they already know, and what they still have to learn. This information will be observed carefully and noted for my lesson. I will also have students participating in SMART board touch activities during centers throughout the week before to get them all familiar with using the SMART board while also making sure they are comfortable with this technology. 

Formative Assessment Scoring Guide: This checklist will be completed immediately following this lesson to see if students were able to identify the appropriate story elements, use the SMART board, and participate in discussion.

Individualized Assessment/Scoring Guide for 2 Observed Students:

Math:

Learning Objective: Given appropriate materials, the students will be able to create their own number racks by counting to the number of objects (1-10) one by one.

Pre-Assessment: The students will be introduced to these materials in the weeks before this lesson to simply explore and manipulate using them. They will also be using other strategies such as cubes on ten frames to solve simple addition and subtraction problems. We will be combining the two during my lesson. The teacher will be assessing their knowledge and use of materials in the weeks before to gauge an idea of where each student is at. The lesson will be taught and adjusted accordingly.

Formative Assessment Scoring Guide: This checklist will be used to assess the students on their use of materials during the lesson as well as their counting, adding, and subtracting abilities by moving beads correctly. 

Individualized Assessment/Scoring Guide for 2 Observed Students: No individualized assessment is needed for these 2 students as neither of them struggle with math and using manipulatives during lessons. Their questioning throughout the lesson, however, will be more geared for their knowledge.

Science:

Learning Objective: Given appropriate materials and instruction, the students will be able to demonstrate knowledge of why leaves change color in fall by participating in a science experiment and recording their observations.

Pre-Assessment: Because the student's do not participate in much science based on their curriculum, I will be taking them on a nature walk around the school grounds outside during the week before this lesson is taught. I will be questioning students about the weather and leaves they observe during this walk. I will observe them carefully during this time while also getting their minds ready to learn science in the upcoming week!

Formative Assessment Scoring Guide: This checklist will be used following the completion of this lesson to formatively assess student's understanding of why leaves change color and recording observations in science. 

Individualized Assessment/Scoring Guide for 2 Observed Students:

Reflection in Action: 

For all 3 of my lessons taught during unit week, most of my students got check marks in each column for understanding the material being taught. Because they are so used to Bridges math curriculum and it is set up in almost the same way each day, my students performed best in math. Some students struggled using the SMART board during my ELA/SS lesson, whereas for others, it was very easy and natural to them. About half the class is still trying to understand the meanings of different story elements. This was expected because this was an introductory lesson to this concept, and they had never worked with story elements in the past. For science, my students responded a lot better than I expected to the learning concepts. Every single student was able to correctly sort leaves by color. They all completed an experiment of their own and made some kind of attempt to record an observation of their experiment afterwards. They were very attentive throughout the entire lesson and responded to my discussion questions. For future lessons, I will definitely continue to keep the content fun and interesting while keeping the students on their feet. This was my approach to teaching science, which they responded so well to. I will also have a backup plan when using technology as not every student is familiar with it, and technology can fail on the spot. The SMART board acted a bit touchy throughout my activity giving some students trouble with dragging objects. Based on my math lesson, I will continue to keep my teaching approaches consistent. The students responded very well to the consistency of my teaching in math. I am happy to say that most of my students responded well and learned effectively during all 3 of my lesson week lessons.

Math:

I provided the students with verbal feedback throughout thie whole group instructional process of this lesson. The students were questioned about math concepts during the teaching and given immediate verbal feedback based on their responses. I also walked around the room while students built their number racks and provided specific learners with praised, verbal feedback, and reinforcment as needed. At the end of the lesson, the entire class was given positive feedback for building their number racks and participating in discussion.

Student 1: Child 1 was given lots of one step directions, which were often broken down from multi step directions, as he responds better this way. He needed lots of extra verbal feedback throughout the lesson and during his building process. Extra written feedback will be noted on his portion of the checklist and shared with my RT and his intervention specialists. 

Student 2: Child 2 needed lots of verbal reminders and reinforcements throughout this lesson. She was given extra feedback during whole group instruction, but did fine during the building process of the lesson. Extra written feedback was written on her portion of the checklist to be added to her behavior chart and shared with her parents. 

The students will be encouraged to use the feedback from their newly built number racks to solve simple addition and subtraction problems in future lessons. In this lesson, they were taught how to use the number racks by moving beads across the pipecleaners to count, add, and subtract. They will continue to be encouraged to use these as assistive tools in days to come.

Science:

I provided the students with verbal feedback during the read aloud, whole group discussion, and expermintation process. Students will also be given written feedback on their completed observation pages based on their use of drawings and labels to record what they saw happening in their experiments. 

Student 1: Child 1 was given extra step by step verbal feedback throughout the entire experimentation process. His observation sheet will also have extra written feedback on it to be shared with his specialists and my RT. Written feedback will also be provided on his individualized assessment. 

Student 2: Child 2 was given extra verbal feedback throughout the entire experimentation process as she struggled staying on task a bit. She will also be given written feedback on her observation sheet and individualized assessment to be shared with my RT, her parents, and specialists she is working with. 

The students will be encouraged to use their recording sheets from the day of the experiment to make another observation the following day based on what happened to their leaf experiments. Their observation sheets will have a day 2 column, in which they are to observe and record a new drawing of what happened over night. They will be given positive reinforcement and verbal feedback to complete this process.

ELA/SS:

I provided the students with verbal feedback throughout this lesson in whole group discussion, read aloud, and during the SMART board activity. The students were also provided with written feedback on their completed story illustration pages where they were to identify the main idea of our read aloud through drawings and writing.

Student 1: Child 1 will be given different written feedback on his individualized assessment based on his needs. He will also be provided with extra verbal feedback in one step sequences throughout the entire lesson.

Student 2: Child 2 will also be given different written feedback on her individualized assessment. She will be given extra verbal feedback on an as needed basis throughout the lesson, but is not expected to need it based on her needs.

The students will be  encouraged to use their newly learned information on story elements to identify those same elements during the following day's read aloud, as storytime is a daily thing in our classroom. They will also be continuously encouraged to use the SMART board for more writing activities during centers, such as, practicing writing names, sight words, etc. 

Based on my teaching during lesson week, I learned the importance of feedback in the learning process. Without it, students will lack the ability to understand how to fix mistakes, reflect on learning, extend on ideas, and so much more. Feedback needs to be purposeful, appropriate to the student's needs, and in good timing. Verbal feedback should be given almost immediately in order for students to understand exactly what concept they are discussing. Written feedback should be more detailed, meaningful, and given within the next day or two following the teaching, if possible. For young learners, attention spans are short and many things are forgotten day by day if they are not reinforced often. Because of this, the time feedback is given is crucial to it's effectiveness. 

While students responded well to my teaching during lesson week and we all had a lot of fun, there are some things I feel I could have done differently or more effectively. As I reflected on my teaching, I feel I did not give students enough time to respond to some of my questioning throughout read alouds and other discussion. I am not sure if I was just nervous and trying to rush, as this was completely unintentional, but looking back, I realized the importance of that wait time for young learners. If I had given them some extra silent seconds to think, I may have realized they knew more than I gave them credit for. During my math lesson, I feel I kept the students sitting in the same spots on the carpet for too long, as they are in kindergarten. If I could go back, I would do a quick brain break movement somewhere in the middle of that lesson. It would not only get them up and moving, but it would also give them some energy and help their attention spans during the teaching. Lastly, I want to continue being alert, ready to pick up and change things on the spot, and flexible during my teaching experienes. During my ELA lesson, our classroom SMART board began to act up, and some students had a lot of difficulty dragging pictures into columns. I felt myself somewhat freeze up and knew I had nothing else planned if this activity failed. In the future, I would like to have backup activities planned and ready to go when using technology. If not that, then I want to keep working at being flexible and understanding that these things happen. I hope this will come with time. Overall, my first teaching experiences in Struthers kindergarten went very well and I am excited to keep growing and learning as a preclinical teacher in this classroom.