Week 6: Lesson Study

When we began the lesson study I never knew how beneficial it would truly be. I knew it would be a great learning experience to teach in front of my peers and also observe them teach. I did not realize how much I would learn from the debriefing and rethinking our lesson though.

            Jordan and I taught the first week of our lesson study. After the lesson, we thought it went well, as did the rest of our team. When we got to the debriefing, it was a slow start and at first we all agreed that all went well. But, by the end of those 45 minutes, we had a whole new idea for our lesson. It would be the same topic and use a few of the same materials, but the activity and objective of our lesson had changed. None of us expected our lesson to change s much as it did. When it was taught for week 2 though, we saw how much better it was! We were all amazed!

            I have taught lessons before and reflected on them, but I have never been given the opportunity to teach a lesson, reflect, make changes, and then get to implement these changes in a class again. I think this is where the most learning takes place. We actually get to see if our new ideas and changes are for the better and how they affect student learning.

            From week two to week three, we did not have to make as many changes as we did the previous week, but we did still make a few improvements that I believe will help the flow of the lesson as well as help transitions in the lesson.

While reading I came across this statement, “In the face of evidence that we would fare better if we exercised more, we often assert that we simply don't have the time. Faced with the need to save for a rainy day, many of us declare that there simply is no margin in our budgets. Presented with evidence that student-focused teaching has multiple benefits for students and teachers, many teachers have a ready and substantial list of "yes, but …" statements.” (Tomlinson &Imbeau) This stood out to m because we may push things that take up time away, but just by taking 45 minutes together we completely transformed a lesson and transformed it to help students be more successful. To me, if it can help benefit the students, it is worth those 45 minutes.

            I am excited to see our lesson change week to week and to see how it turns out in the end. I know it will help us all grow and teachers and learners.

Week 5: Inquiry

           Last week I began thinking about behavior management techniques that could be used for whole class time and to help with talking and on task behavior. I then began to think more about something that could be done for one student in specific. I wonder if a star chart or some kind of behavior management technique could improve one student’s on task behavior.

            I have noticed this one student is constantly moving around and not paying attention. She is defiant when asked to stop doing something or to pay attention. I thought she was just an off-task student who pushed buttons, but then I noticed something strange. Ten minutes after I witnessed her moving around, talking during a lesson, being off-task, and not wanting to listen or do her work, she was working hard at a literacy station. This confused me. I began to wonder if she was only off-task in whole group lessons and could work better on her own? Or maybe it was just reading aloud in class that she did not like and this is what caused her to be so off task. I was really intrigued by this and plan to look more into it to try and see what can be done to help improve her behavior since I know she is capable of completing her work and following directions.

            I also wonder if some form of positive reinforcement will help improve her on task behavior and build her confidence in subjects she may loose attentiveness in because she is scared of participating or of failing. I had thought about some little star chart on her desk or a more specified behavior system than the clips used in the class. I just really want to get her to work to her full potential.

            While a lot of the reading suggested taking field notes while inquiring, I worry about time. I know I plan to jot down when I see her off task of why I think she may be off task, but I know I will not have time for everything. A bonus to working in the classroom is that “classrooms naturally generate a tremendous paper trial that captures much of the daily classroom activity.” (p. 81) I plan to start looking at her work as she completes it in different group settings, different times of the day, and in different subjects. I had never thought about that until reading, but I believe it could give me more insight onto what causes her behavior outbursts and how I can help.

Week 4: Lessons

The schedule in our class is really becoming more of a routine. This makes it easier on us as pre-interns and on the students as well. The students can start expecting that we will be teaching lessons to them. We are now teaching a lesson each day we are there. I really like this because I feel like I am doing more than observing and supporting, I am actually teaching. Our mentor teacher is also allowing us to teach a variety of subjects. In the past, majority of what we have taught was reading lessons, but we hardly ever got experience teaching other subjects. I want to become more confident in other subjects and know I can only do so by practicing.

            We have also been doing a lot of little extra things on our class for some of our own assignments. We have given a class survey, taught our first pathwise lesson plan, and began planning for our lesson study and for our unit study.

To prepare for our unit study, we needed to think of a way to collect our students’ background knowledge on what we were going to teach. Our unit will fall into black history month and is focusing on black history through the arts. We decided to use a survey to find out what our students’ already know on this topic. “Surveys can give students a space to share their thoughts and opinions about a teaching technique or strategy, a unit, or their knowledge about a particular subject matter.” (Dana & Yendol-Hoppey. p. 92).  We were sure to emphasize that it was okay if they did not know but that they should try their best and guess if they thought they had any idea what the answer could be. I noticed that it was hard for a lot of the students to leave an answer blank, especially if they noticed a classmate was writing and had an answer. When I started to see wandering eyes, I told them that I wanted to know what they knew, not what their neighbor knew and that it was not a grade. We ended up with a variety of answers and know now what we need to focus on as we tech our unit.

As we teach more lessons. The students are beginning to get more comfortable with us being their teachers. I have noticed that the students are often whispering to their neighbors while we teach though. If it is brought up to stop talking the students will stop, but there are one or two who will continue to push it and keep talking. This is one of my pet peeves because I know that they are not only distracting me from my teaching, but are also distracting their peers from learning. I wonder if a no talking chart, or some kind of reward system for not talking while the teaching is talking would encourage students to stay quiet throughout a lesson?

Week 3: Lessons

As we begin teaching more and more lessons in the classroom, I am beginning to get a little more comfortable. At first, the class could seem a little overwhelming. From day one we learned that there was a child with hearing loss, a child with vision loss, a child that will not speak, and a child with Down syndrome in our class. I have learned that it does not have to be so overwhelming when you can easily accommodate for all of these children. There are simple things like placement in the room or assignment changes that can help students to feel more comfortable or be successful in the class.

I learned this from not only the actions of my mentor teacher, but also the students in the class. They do not see any of the kids in the class as having disabilities, they are just other kids. No one questions the microphone, or if we need to pause to fix a hearing aide. No one asks why one student is allowed to sit on the ground if he cannot see the board. The students have come to accept the fact that one student may not always participate or use her words. And having a paraprofessional in the room with their best buddy is a fun thing for them. I love the innocence in children, and wonder where it went in adults. They all love each other and do not judge each other in any way, shape, or form. This was one of the key things I found in effective differentiation. Yes, there can be accommodations for learning styles and needs, but when “students learn to respect and support one another as learners” (Tomlinson & Imbea) that is when true differentiation is successful to me.

When it comes to lesson planning, it can be kind of hard as a pre-intern in a classroom. It is not our class so we do not know the plans ahead of time. We have been learning how to appropriately plan for situations like this and how to plan lessons our teacher asks us to teach. It can be tricky to do a “review” lesson when you did not ever see the introduction lesson and do not truly know what to go off of. After something like that happened, or we forgot a few things we were supposed to do in a lesson, we learned we needed to take more notes and have better communication with our mentor teacher about the lesson we were to teach to help it run smoothly. Things are starting to slowly fall in place and I know it is all part of the learning experience.