Reflection
Assessing Prior Knowledge
a. It is interesting how the original idea we had for assessing prior knowledge turned into a center activity. It became an activity that assesses their knowledge, but not necessarily their prior knowledge. Later we changed our prior knowledge assessment to a KWL chart. Although, this assessment wasn't appropriate for the lesson because our lesson was an end of unit lesson. A KWL chart is an effective and popular prior knowledge assessment on the first day of a new unit. For our lesson, the prior knowledge assessment would be more of review.
b. Based on my experiences, I learned that the prior knowledge assessment needs to match the purpose of the lesson and allow for time to build background knowledge if the prior knowledge is not there. It is also important that the assessment is done before to the activities, so as to adjust the lesson if needed. What the students know and need to know should be the basis for the content and delivery.
Planning Instruction
a. This is the one category where are group received high feedback remarks. It was evident that we planned ahead and worked hard to make sure everything was ready. However, all our planning was to ensure everything would run smoothly. What happens if it doesn't...despite all the planning? I believe an effective teacher will plan for things to run smoothly AND anticipate potential problems. Planning also needs to be worth the time and realistic. We spent too much time on planning...well, I am not sure if there is such a thing as too much planning, but in our case the input did not match the output.
b. One thing we failed to do during our planning was to "try it out". We might have been able to anticipate potential problems if we had run through it once or twice. A motto to implement: Plan and Practice.
Designing Instruction:
a. Previously, I might have used the terms planning and designing interchangeably. Although, they are not necessarily the same. My experiences helped me realize this. I feel that the lesson design is (or should be) closely tied to the prior knowledge of the students. When you know what the students know then you can design a lesson that best suits them. The planning aspect seems a little more administrative.
b. Reflecting back on the experience, it was a bit of a challenge to design a lesson that was appropriate for 4th grade students, yet challenging enough to engage college students for 50 minutes. An example modification to our lesson is the use of blind folds. Not all students were comfortable wearing the blindfolds and this did not take into consideration individual needs. Most of the modifications we made to our lesson were on instruction and delivery; AKA, the design.
Planning Assessment
a. I often find that planning assessments is one of the hardest parts of designing a lesson. My in class experiences continue to support this thought process. Rubrics take time to build and short answer worksheets need not be too easy or too hard. Knowing the students is key to planning these assessments. Otherwise it becomes a "one size fits all" and we all know that this isn't the case.
b. The assessments we prepared were based on our objectives and aligned to those objectives well. However, during instruction I came to understand two things. First, if the students are being graded on something, it is important for them to know before hand. Second, while there are times when it is appropriate to give groups grades, there are also times when it is essential to assess individual understanding. Given that this was to be an end of unit lesson, this would be the optimal time to assess students individually. This is a refinement area and modification for our lesson.
Instructional Decisions/Teaching
a. Personal experience is a great teacher in this category. Being able to handle hiccups and modify instruction during the lesson takes skill and practice. While we stated the learning objectives at the beginning of the lesson, it is important to keep going back to them and reminding myself what the goals are for the students and evaluating if the students are meeting those goals.
b. For future lessons, I need to remember that the students learning the material is more important than completing the lesson. For example, when all the teams were struggling with the compass activity, we should have noticed the problem and modified our lesson by taking the time to stop and model it instead of just plugging along or ignoring it.
Assessment of Learning
a. Assessing student learning is vital to effective teaching, but requires a firm level of fairness and non bias grading. I have learned that this is not as easy as it seems. In fact, I am still not sure where the line is drawn. Part of being a good teacher is being flexible and understanding of students. Another part is, by grading fair and professionally by not letting personal feeling guide grading. This can be a challenge.
b. What I will take from this experience, is that students should not be penalized for poor lesson design and that students like to know what they are being graded on and how.
