Lesson Reflection

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Lesson Reflection
This semester I have been fortunate to be placed in a school
that exudes positivity and puts students first. My mentor teacher
has been amazing and I have been forming relationships with both
staff and students at Timothy Road Elementary. Tamika Brown is
the 4 th grade teacher I have been observing.
I am working with students who are struggling with the
curriculum in 4 th grade throughout the day. During the time of my
recorded lesson, it was during social studies. The students are
learning about the Revolutionary war and some key figures during
that time frame.
I chose to do this particular lesson so the students could
expand their knowledge on who some of the key players were
during the Revolutionary War to meet and exceed their knowledge
within the given standards. In the beginning of this semester, I
asked my students the kinds of activities they would like to
participate in during our time together. I learned, I have a very
creative group. Collectively, one of their ideas was to create a
poster. My idea originated from an activity I participated in while
attending my first graduate school class with Dr. Cheryl. We
worked on a class project where every student was encouraged
to walk up to the board and write something. Participating in this
activity gave me the confidence to effectively implement this
during the key portion of my lesson. This poster was created by
the students during the middle meat part of my lesson.
Some prior knowledge from the students was required. The
students had previously read the book George Versus George.
In quick summary, this book describes the different points of
view between the British and the Americans before and during the
Revolutionary War. My lesson encourages the students to dive
deeper in their knowledge of this time frame.
The lesson takes into account the 4 th grade standards
(Georgia Performance Standards of Excellacne) requiring the
students to know about the Revolutionary War and its key figures,
but goes more in depth allowing the students to seek information
they want to know about Indivduals we may or may not have
discussed during this era. My essential questions were: What
else can we learn about the Revolutionary War? and Who are
some key figures? My goal for this lesson was to encourage
research in a positive environment where the kids would be
excited to share gained knowledge from our activity.
A little background on these students, they have Lexile
scores in the 40s. In 4 th grade, the range is typically 500-800.
Thus, these students struggle with their reading skills, making
most lessons they encounter more difficult for them than other
typical 4 th grade peers. This weakness hinders their learning in
all subject areas. My goal with this lesson is to have them
research (allowing them to read material they found online),
summarize what they learn and apply it towards a final project
that allows me to assess their ability to interpret the research
and formalize it (a skill they are working on improving).
I think the lesson went well. For example, the students came
up with lots of information to share with each other. One student
picked a different person no one else picked so that allowed us to
further our learning about figures during this time frame. The
lesson did go as planned, but we did have two girls from another
class come join us during a period of time. The visitors were
super interested in the research and helped the students I had
been with during the whole lesson with the research process.
This delighted me. I did not make any modifications, but looking
back I feel working in the hallway allowed for distractions that
occurred at times. This lesson, I feel would have been better
suited to have taken place inside a classroom or more quiet area
like the library for instance.
The student reaction to my lesson was somewhat expected.
I knew they would be excited to make the poster, especially
within a student inquiry based lesson. Im so glad I was able to
capture what the students learned on camera. Going back and

watching the unedited version helps me as a teacher see where
the students were going with their ideas and is a great
assessment tool I can use. I also like that the students appeared
to enjoy the lesson and liked not having the anxiety of sitting
down and taking a unit test.
During the lesson, the students struggled mostly with the
research aspect. I was glad that peers came up unexpectedly and
were able to assist my group in the research process. This really
helped my students learn from each other and really goes along
with my favorite theory of learning is a group process.
In my practicum classroom, I have never seen the students
have the opportunity to work together on an assignment or
project. To me, this is something I do not agree with. As a
teacher, I plan to do almost everything in a group setting,
whether it is large or small group based lessons. I value each
child in my classroom and know that each of them brings
something to the table. Learning from each other in a community
that values teamwork is where I see the most success. Getting to
see the students help each other during this lesson is proof of
that.
I would do a few things differently if doing this exact lesson
next time. I would select a different location where distractions
were not as common. I feel as though I talked too much when
giving the directions for the assignment, especially with the goal
and intended intentions for this to be somewhat of a choice type
of assignment. Also, one of the kids was typing while the other
was sharing and I thought they were all engaged in the sharing
process as I was. I did not realize this occurred until I sat down
to critique my video. Noticing this, I feel I should have had them
close their computers after finishing their research and reiterate
the importance of being respectful to other classmates as they
are sharing. I learned specifically from watching myself that I
make a lot of hand gestures and tend to blabber on when giving

directions. I need to move less and be more concise.
Overall, I think this was a nice lesson where the goals
intended were met. I like how I used open ended questions in the
opening to refresh our memories of the book read on a previous
day. I like the ample amount of time I gave students to research. I
loved having successfully constructed a lesson that allowed the
students to expand their research skills through opportunity and
choice. I am also a fan of having the students share with each
other, especially this particular group of students who rarely
volunteer in the classroom because they are self-conscious about
their reading ability. What I like most about this lesson was
building a positive and safe atmosphere that instilled confidence
to the point where students felt comfortable enough to share with
each other and me.

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capture what the students learned on camera. Going back and

make a lot of hand gestures and tend to blabber on when giving

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