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Reflection of Lesson on Patterns

Hannah-Rose Mabe

Regent University

UED 496: Field Experience E-Portfolio

Dr. Flannagan

February 21, 2022

Reflection of Lesson Plan on Patterns

One key element to seeing every student succeed lies in differentiated instruction. Being

in a class where almost half of my students have IEPs, it is very important to think about how to

meet their needs in every lesson. According to Pozas, Letzel, and Schneider state that

“differentiated instruction is a well-known and practice-proven approach that responds

effectively to the diverse students’ needs” (2020). This lesson was started by giving each table

group a visual to help them create instant connections to what they already know about patterns.

I pre-planned which table group would get each pattern paper. I created this plan based off what I

knew students would be able to understand when looking at the pattern. Therefore, this

anticipatory set had a scaffold for students based on readiness. Almost as soon as each group of

students got their paper, they were able to recognize the shapes were repeating or the numbers

were growing. It was important to start students out with this activity because it helped them to

activate knowledge they already had on patterns. Activating prior knowledge is important

because “new learning is constructed on prior knowledge” (Wenk, 2017). Giving students the

opportunity to look at the pages and see the patterns helped them think of the things they already

knew about patterns. Once we had established what they already knew, I was able to go in and

give them the academic vocabulary to help them describe the different types of patterns and how

they behave. They were then given the opportunity to reinforce what they know, along with the

academic vocabulary, by filling out some guided notes to go in their math notebooks and refer

back to. Many of my students do not have the fine motor skills necessary to take detailed notes,

so I have found guided notes to be helpful in allowing students to get all the information they

need recorded. Research has also shown that “effective note taking is often problematic for many

students because it requires the application and coordination of several complex skills, including
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listening, short-term memory, prioritizing, and transcribing for later use” (2011). Guided notes

help ensure students get all the information they need and give the student the opportunity to

look back at the notes later for reference. To make sure students were able to keep up with these

notes, they glued the guided notes into their math notebooks.

In small groups, the main way I differentiated my lesson was based on the amount of

teacher support I gave to my students. I use this form of scaffolding because research shows

“contingent support is effective in fostering student learning” (Pol et al., 2018). For my students

who are at a higher-level math and grasp concepts quickly, I provided a little support for

question one of our worksheet and then let students do the rest on their own. Once everyone in

the group was finished, we reviewed by letting each student talk about how they answered the

questions. If students answered it differently, they were able to explain their thinking and use

peer discussion to come to the correct answer. As an extension/extra push for this group of

students, I had them create their own pattern and write the rule it followed. They then gave the

pattern they created to a partner who had to extend the pattern. They enjoy having activities

where they get to use what they know about what we are learning and create their own problem

for it. As a teacher, it is nice to include this piece because it helps me see if they fully understand

what we are learning. The one thing I would change about what I did with this group was

creating a worksheet that had some more complex problems for them. They completed these

problems very quickly and I believe they would have benefitted from the extra push of having

some more complex patterns to work with. With my on grade-level group, I give them a little

more teacher support. I walked through the first two problems with them on their worksheet. As

students came up on patterns they struggled to identify, I encouraged them to look back at their

guided notes. Once students finished, I again lead a conversation on what the students answered
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for each question. Having them explain their thinking when the groups answers did not match.

They used this group discussion to help them agree on the correct answer. In my below grade

level small group, I had the students bring their math manipulative bags to my table. All of the

students in this group have IEPs and have an accommodation to allow them to use manipulatives,

where possible, to help them gain understanding of what we are learning. By using math

manipulatives, I was able to help meet the needs of my students with IEPs. In this small group, I

started by writing the numeric pattern “3, 6, 9, 12, ___, 18, 21” on the table. I asked students to

get their hundreds chart out and use a marker to circle each number they saw on the pattern I

wrote on my table. We had a conversation about how you get from one number to the next

(adding 3), and how we can use this information to figure out the rule our pattern follows, the

missing term, as well as the next term. I also talked to the students about the type of pattern we

were observing. After we had a discussion on this, we were able to walk through the problems on

the worksheet. This small group benefitted from starting off with the hundreds chart strategy

because it helped them visualize how each numeric pattern was changing. Math manipulatives

are very important with this group because they “help make abstract ideas concrete” and

“manipulatives help them construct an understanding of ideas that they can then connect to

mathematical vocabulary and symbols” (Scholastic, 2012). In the future, I would include a

hands-on manipulative for all groups to be able to use so they could compare growing and

repeating numeric patterns. Based on their conversations and their worksheets, students were

able to meet the objectives for the day. However, they struggled to recognize the difference in

growing patterns and repeating patterns specifically when it came to looking at numeric patterns.

To help them understand the difference in these, I think they all would have benefitted from a

hands-on numeric growing pattern and repeating pattern to compare.

Through the anticipatory set, the guided notes, scaffolding of teacher support, and hands-

on manipulatives for my students with IEPs I was able to meet the diverse learner needs of the

students in my classroom. Through this lesson, I was also able to see where I had areas to grow

in ways that I could meet student needs and was able to use what I saw to adjust for my lessons

and small groups the next day. I am able to push my students in every lesson because I have

formed positive relationships with them, which lines up with my teaching philosophy. I also do

my best to meet students where they are at and then push them to do the best they can and excel

academically. This can be seen throughout my lesson plan and is also in line with my teaching

philosophy.
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References

Haydon, T., Mancil, G. R., Kroeger, S. D., McLeskey, J., & Lin, W.-Y. J. (2011). A review of

the effectiveness of guided notes for students who struggle learning academic content:

Semantic scholar. Research Gate. Retrieved February 20, 2022, from

https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/A-Review-of-the-Effectiveness-of-Guided-Notes-

for-Haydon-Mancil/b5e6ed3b0c03c716009b2288ad43d2843fbbc27d

Pol, J. van de, Mercer, N., & Volman, M. (2018, November 16). Scaffolding student

understanding in small-group work: Students' uptake of teacher support in subsequent

small-group interaction. Journal of the Learning Sciences. Retrieved February 20, 2022,

from https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10508406.2018.1522258

Pozas, M., Letzel, V., & Schneider, C. (2019). Teachers and differentiated instruction: Exploring

differentiation practices to address student diversity. Journal of Research in Special

Educational Needs, 20(3), 217–230. https://doi.org/10.1111/1471-3802.12481

Scholastic. (2012, November 6). How Math Manipulatives Can Help kids Learn. Scholastic.

Retrieved February 20, 2022, from

https://www.scholastic.com/parents/school-success/homework-help/more-homework-

help/math-manipulatives.html#:~:text=Ideas%20exist%20in%20children's%20minds,test

%20and%20confirm%20their%20reasoning.

Wenk, L. (2017, September 14). The importance of engaging prior knowledge. Center for

Teaching and Learning. Retrieved February 20, 2022, from

https://sites.hampshire.edu/ctl/2017/09/14/the-importance-of-engaging-prior-knowledge/