Current Events Lesson Reflection

Lesson Reflection

1. Instructional Decisions/Teaching (Intask Standard #9): Discuss the implementation process and describe...

• What went well and what didn't go well during the implementation of your lesson?

• Overall, I feel as though my lesson went very well.  Throughout the lesson, I was given the feedback that my "students" were pleased with how I stopped and asked if there were any questions throughout the lesson.  The other part of my lesson that I believe went the best was my timing.  Everything flowed smoothly with transitions and the students were given plenty of time to finish and bring us to the 25 minutes perfectly.  In my opinion, none of my students seemed to feel rushed during the lesson.  Obviously if I was doing this with a class of more than four students, we have a much larger varying number of paces between students.  Therefore I think I would have needed to give an example of the activity in it's entirety so that students could move at their own pace.  I would also include my extensions right away so the students who finish extremely fast would have no down time to fool around on the computer.

• I think that the only thing that didn't go well during my lesson is that I had written it the week before so when it came time to teach it, I needed to refer to my lesson plans quite often because I couldn't remember exactly what I had written down to happen in which order.  I would have liked to be better prepared and only have to refer to my plan once or twice during the lesson, and preferably not at all.  I felt like it was a bad example to my students when I couldn't remember exactly what I had done.

• How well was the alignment to objectives and standards maintained.

• My standards were: 

PO 1. Describe current events using information from class discussions and various resources (e.g., newspapers, magazines, television, Internet, books, maps).PO 2. Discuss the connections between current events and historical events and issues from contentstudied in Strand 1 using information from class discussions and various resources (e.g., newspapers,magazines, television, Internet, books, maps).

• My objective was:

Objectives: SWBAT compare and contrast a current event to a previous event in history using a Venn Diagram.

• My objective and my standards aligned very well throughout my lesson.  We defined what a current event was in the beginning of my lesson and gave a few examples before leading into the next standard of comparing and contrasting a current event and a historical event.  We then used a Venn Diagram to display our comparisons as it says in my objective.  Throughout the entire lesson, I stuck by both these standards and the objective.

• Describe any modifications made during the implementation of the lesson.

• During my lesson I was going to give my students the opportunity to pull up my blog post and then from there choose the website they wanted to find a current event on.  When we actually did the lesson, I ended up just posting the names of the websites on the SmartBoard so they could see the options.  However, once they made a decision on which website they wanted to visit, their opportunity to go to another website was limited because the SmartBoard went dark and they didn't know what their other options were.

• Also, I hadn't originally planned to use the SmartBoard and then decided that I couldn't just talk about the steps to do the assignment, but instead needed to demonstrate the directions where all the students would be able to see.

2. Mechanics:

• What technologies did I use (for the teacher and the learner)?  How were the technologies used (by whom and in what manner)?

• In the beginning of my lesson, I used the SmartBoard to demonstrate what we would be doing so my students could visually see what we would be doing.  Next, the students pulled up their browser and went to one of the three websites I listed to allow them to do research on their current event.  Once they did their research and read their article, they pulled up the Kidsperation program to take the notes on their article and create their Venn Diagram.

• My lesson was within the correct time frame because...

• My lesson was within the correct time frame because we were able to keep together with plenty of time without feeling too rushed.  Each of my students completed all the parts of the assignment and we had time to share with our partners.  If I had more time, we would have had time for an extension and if we had run out of time, I also could have taken some parts of the activity out.  The lesson went exactly how I had planned it.

3. Assessment of Learning (InTask Standard #6): Refer to Assessing Student Learning

• Include at least 2 digital artifacts that demonstrate what you or your students (peers) have created as a result of your lesson.

• Venn Diagrams my students created to demonstrate the similarities and differences between a current event and a historical event.

• Describe your students' level of success in achieving the standards and objectives for your lesson based on your assessment.

• My students were very successful on their assessment achievement.  I am very pleased with how their Venn Diagrams came out and they seemed to understand the difference between a current event and a historical event very well.

• Describe the level of success you had in teaching the lesson.

• I believe that my lesson was very successful.  I received positive feedback from my peers about the lesson and had all 5's in every category except for one 4 on catering to the needs of all students.  Based on their feedback, and my own reflection, I think I will ensure that I am better prepared for my lesson and make sure that I help with any accommodations my students need.  Other than that, I believe my lesson was extremely successful and I'm happy with how it turned out!