My actual lesson plan was well written and easy to follow. Throughout the teaching of the lesson, I always knew where I was and where I was going due to how my plan was formatted.
The materials/equipment needed were listed right away at the beginning of the lesson. This was helpful so I wouldn’t forget what the students needed and so anyone else teaching from my lesson plan would know what was needed.
There were two objectives for my lesson and both were stated clearly and concisely in the lesson plan.
In the introduction of my lesson plan, I included some real life situations where area and perimeter are actually used so students could see the connections of the topic to real life right away. I also presented the class with a problem/situation for them to be pondering while we learned the basics of area and perimeter. I pretty much wrote out what I was going to say for my introduction.
In the body of my lesson plan, I wrote out all definitions, formulas, diagrams, and examples that I was going to present to the class. I also included a section in the body where I would spark the interest of the students by introducing to them that there are ways to find area and perimeter of absolutely any shape of any size! These concepts don’t just relate to rectangles or similar shapes. The rest of the body included the procedure I would follow during the group activity I had the class participate in. In the lesson plan I originally had the students get in groups of four and work in pairs from there, but instead I had them just get in pairs right away. I also made sure to note in the body what I would be doing as the students worked, how long I would allow them to work, and what we would do as a class to go over the activity.
My conclusion didn’t go entirely as planned in my lesson. This was mostly due to the time because the entire class completed the activity a lot quicker then I estimated. I did ask for volunteers to share the results of their activity on the overhead. This allowed the students an opportunity to get up in front of their classmates and share what they learned. This is the highest level of learning! I also stated in the lesson that Mr. Maijala (the cooperating teacher) would be expanding more on area and perimeter; I was simply introducing them to the concepts. This was simply an overview so the students knew where they were heading!
My assessment was very well organized and effective. I assisted students during the activity when necessary. There were a lot of questions so I was busy! I also encouraged students to help out their group members if they werestruggling. I assigned a short assignment as well and most students finished this during class. My assessment was successful!
My overall lesson was very organized and flowed smoothly. Although throughout the class period there were several changes that were made to the plan. I hadn’t planned a warm-up to open class with so I made one up quickly before class started for students to find the area and perimeter of two different sized rectangles.
After asking students to share their answers for the warm-up exercises, we moved directly into the introduction where I introduced them to real life situations and scenarios where area and perimeter are actually used.
I transitioned right into a few class notes. All students followed along and were engaged in taking notes. I made sure to use a combination of the overhead projector and the chalkboard on the other side of the room. This was helpful for those students who are tired of staring at the overhead all the time.
I had the worksheet and materials for the group activity prepared and ready to go. So transitioning into the activity went fairly smooth. I could have handed out the items earlier or had someone help hand them out so it didn’t delay or distract from me giving the directions for the activity.
I was comfortable with the activity so I was able to assist students when needed. For the activity we were doing, there was a variety of ways to find the greatest possible perimeter so I encouraged students as I walked around to try situating the tiles in a variety of ways to make sure you’re finding the largest perimeter.
My wrap-up didn’t go as planned but it ended up going smoothly in the end. They finished the activity and the homework assignment a lot sooner then I had planned so we had about 20 minutes to spare. However, this worked well because the students were able to review and ask questions on some previous worksheets they had for homework. Some of the problems were very challenging so I allowed them time to ask questions and asked for volunteers who knew how to do a particular problem to show the class on the overhead. This was helpful for the students who were having a rough time and helpful for the student presenting in reviewing the material.
I started the lesson with a couple warm-up problems on the overhead. This was beneficial in that it was good review for the class.
Instead of me simply going over the warm-up exercises for them, I asked the students to share their results. This allowed students an opportunity to get involved in the discussion. I was surprised that the majority of the class got involved right away and shared their answers. The choral response technique worked wonderfully! I noticed the ratio of boy/girl responses to be fairly even.
I then transitioned into sharing some real life situations where area and perimeter are used. I made sure to include some scenarios that 7th graders would be more interested in. For example, I included one scenario about building a bonus room large enough to fit a pool table in it and one scenario about building a garage big enough to fit 2 cars, a conversion van, a boat, and two snowmobiles. The students seemed very interested and were very focused during the introduction.
All transitions throughout the lesson went fairly smoothly. Getting the class started was not a problem. I made sure they were all focused and working on the warm-up right away. I was neat because they were so excited I was teaching they were so interested and focused right away. I think students like a change every once in awhile.
Moving both from the warm-up to the introduction and from the introduction to the class notes went very smoothly. Students seemed to follow the transitions perfectly.
Moving from the class notes to the activity was a little more challenging. I explained what we’d be doing in the activity first, so that was good. However then the transition into the activity was a little rough. I was handing out items and answering any questions they had all while they were moving into their group and getting situated. I am sure the transition went smoother then it seemed because I am just not used to being around that many 7th graders all moving around and getting situated at the same time.
The transitions after the activity throughout the rest of the class period were kind of up in the air, although it did go smoothly. All groups finished the activity at different times. So transitioning into working on the homework assignment was more of an individual thing for each student depending on where they were.
We eventually transitioned into going over questions on the current and/or previous homework assignments. It was not entirely a smooth transition because not all the students were at the same place. Because some were working at faster paces then others, it was hard to keep them all at the same place.
I feel like I did a good job of questioning the students. I started out by asking the class as a whole for the answers to the warm-up exercises. I don’t know if this is the best technique to use very often. It would either be easy for the more reserved, quieter students to get left out and not participate or maybe they would be more willing to participate because they are not getting called on individually which can be more intimidating.
Throughout the class activity, the questions I asked the students were mostly individual questions to either one student or one student and their partner. They were mostly stimulating questions to get them thinking and even challenge them somewhat.
During the end of the class period while we were going over difficult problems, I was mostly asking for volunteers or asking them what questions they have. I also asked several questions throughout the class period making sure they all understood and were on track with the concepts they were learning.
The classroom management went very smoothly. I had the lesson plan laid out step by step so we were always doing something. There wasn’t really “free time” for students to get distracted or goof around. Even when I technically finished what I had prepared, we moved right into something else so we were always doing something productive.
All the students were very interested in the activity, which allowed them to be more focused and less distracted. One reason for their interest is that they found the lesson/activity easy because they had already somewhat learnedit. I found out the day I was going to teach my lesson that my cooperating teacher had already kind of introduced the material to the class. The worksheets they were given previously were a lot more difficult then the activity I had them do. At first this kind of frustrated me, but I know it was still good review and something different for the students to do.
Walking around the room is a very effective classroom management technique. I noticed especially throughout the introduction and the activity work time that my movement around the room encouraged the students to behave and focus.
The second half of the class period was a little more difficult to manage the classroom. This was due to the fact that the majority of the students completed all the activity and homework. We still did some problems together as a class, but I could tell that because I hadn’t specifically prepared that part of the lesson and it wasn’t as organized that the students were getting anxious.
As I engaged the students in opening the class period, I moved around the room greeting individual students and helping them all get focused on the warm-up. I felt this brought a sense of community and warmth into the classroom.
Especially throughout the introduction and group activity, I was moving throughout the room the majority of the time. However during the notes I was mostly stationed at either the front or the back of the room, at either the overhead or the chalkboard.
As I answered and asked questions during the class activity, I made sure to not hunch over the student, but get down to their level. I feel this is important so that in the students’ eyes they don’t think I’m “better” or “more intelligent” then they are. I like to relate to students at the level they are at.
My lesson closure did not go as planned according to my actual lesson plan. Due to the students finishing the group activity and homework assignment 20 minutes earlier then I had anticipated, I had some extra time to be creative in how I would keep the students engaged.
As kind of a close to the activity and lesson for the day, I made sure all the students correctly completed the activity and assignment by going over them as a class. We did this by having students volunteer to show their results on the overhead. This also helped in assessing to know that the students learned what they were intended to learn.
As a close to the actual class period, we spent the last 10 minutes or so going over some more challenging problems from a previous assignment they had from Mr. Maijala. Instead of me simply going over them, I again had volunteers come up and share their results. My cooperating teacher greatly stresses the student involvement and allowing them opportunities to get up in front of the class.
Throughout the majority of the lesson, I made sure to include both a verbal explanation and a concrete/written explanation for examples, definitions, notes, etc to allow students to expand their verbal/linguistic intelligence.
One of the objectives from the lesson was for students to discover the greatest possible perimeter for a given area. They were concretely given the chance to do this hands-on during the group activity. This allowed them to play around with the paper square tiles, which in turn allowed the students to be engaged in special/bodily kinesthetic intelligence.
The students’ working in pairs was a perfect example of students engaging in interpersonal intelligence.
Everything the students were learning throughout the entire class period is an example of logical/mathematical intelligence. This was especially evident in the volunteers getting up in front of the class and showing how to do a particular problem.
I was very excited to teach this lesson, but also somewhat nervous because it was my very first real lesson! I was especially excited to be doing an activity with the students instead of just lecturing and giving them notes. I knew this would be more fun for the students and myself.
I knew the material very well so I was very comfortable teaching it. I was also confident in that I would be able to answer any of the questions the students may have had.
I think doing a group activity captures students’ attention right away. Students’ are so used to just listening to a lecture and taking notes that doing anything else seems to spark their interest.
One thing I noticed that was somewhat frustrating is that because I was teaching this lesson at my apprenticeship sight that I only go to once a week, I didn’t know exactly where the students were at on the material I was teaching. I didn’t know that my cooperating teacher had previously already introduced the material I was going to teach. I don’t think he intended it to be that way, but it definitely did require me to make some changes during the lesson and use the remaining time creatively.
I learned that all students learn at completely different rates. It was interesting to monitor the activity and notice the different paces all the students were working at. I think this will definitely be one of the most challenging aspects of teaching is making sure all your students are on the same page. I feel the lesson went smoothly, but it was difficult keeping students working at somewhat of an equal pace. You don’t want students to feel rushed or bored so you need to be able to find a happy medium.
I also learned that you would be able to know where each student stands when they are actually our students. It was difficult to know what was easy and what was hard for the students because I don’t teach them regularly.
Organization is critical, especially in a more learner-centered lesson. Having so much student interaction and involvement requires the teacher to be organized and be aware of what’s going on at all times.