I kept these reflections on a word document so I could post them together. That way they would be easy to find.
Pre- reflection –
This lesson is about fractured fairy tales. The teacher will read aloud to the class a fractured fairy tale The Three Little Wolves and the Big Bad Pig by Eugene Trivizas, illustrated by Helen Oxenbury. Once the reading is done, the class will participate in a story arc which will retell the story and important elements from the story. Finally the students will create their own book or journal to free write their own story or fractured fairy tale. I am excited about the lesson, it should be a lot of fun, and the students should enjoy the story and creating the book/journal.
Post-reflection –
The lesson went fairly well. The students enjoyed the book and they were engaged and participated with questions and comments regarding story. The story arc was more challenging than I had anticipated. It was the first time I had done a story arc, and I was a little nervous. I think I need more practice with this element of the lesson. Finally, the students took much longer to make the book/journal than anticipated. It is a free write journal/book so they can write at home. I think overall this is a good lesson, and I would repeat it in the future.
Post editing –
This video gives a brief overview of my lesson and illustrated how reading aloud helps students with fluency and vocabulary, how the story arc draws on the student’s knowledge from the story to recall key elements from the story and the journal/book is for the students to free write. My site based teacher came back from a workshop and explained to me that even though the kids practice writing, the workshop explained that a good activity to promote writing for younger students is a free write. Free writes are not for a grade and instills confidence in the student to get over their fear or hesitation of writing.
Monday, May 3, 2010
Sunday, May 2, 2010
Final Reflection
This will be the final reflection for my teaching experiences for this semester. Even though my time was cut short by the birth of my little girl, I learned a great deal from my second rotation site based teacher and the students in her class.
I had always believed I wanted to teach the early elementary students. I had been apprehensive about teaching the upper elementary students because I knew their curriculum was so heavily influenced by the TAKS tests and I did not think it would be as fun to teach. How wrong I was, for my second rotation I was assigned to fourth grade. I found these students to be independent, creative, funny, and easy to motivate. Since four grade was course specific this year, the entire fourth grade would rotate to the various classrooms for the different curriculum instruction. Teaching lessons to these students gave me the opportunity to broaden the scope of my lesson plans to include more creative tasks as well as the opportunity to critique and perfect my lessons.
Over all my experiences teaching this semester has been very rewarding. When working in small groups, I have seen students who want to understand and just need a little extra clarification from the teacher. I have also experienced students who have bad days and take their frustrations out in the classroom. The teacher’s ability to help and handle these outbursts appropriately can help the students readjust focus to the classroom activities, as well as maintaining the focus of the classroom. Finally, working with the independent students, who work on their studies and finish early need extra lessons or activities so they do not become board.
My second rotation site based teacher was very easy to talk to and gave me the confidence to put at ease my hesitation for teaching the older students. Through our discussions I learned about the TAKS testing and review, and feel more confident about my ability to reflect on my lessons, my methods of instructions and ability to work with the grade level teachers to create lessons. I look forward to my QUEST 3 experience and teaching second grade.
I had always believed I wanted to teach the early elementary students. I had been apprehensive about teaching the upper elementary students because I knew their curriculum was so heavily influenced by the TAKS tests and I did not think it would be as fun to teach. How wrong I was, for my second rotation I was assigned to fourth grade. I found these students to be independent, creative, funny, and easy to motivate. Since four grade was course specific this year, the entire fourth grade would rotate to the various classrooms for the different curriculum instruction. Teaching lessons to these students gave me the opportunity to broaden the scope of my lesson plans to include more creative tasks as well as the opportunity to critique and perfect my lessons.
Over all my experiences teaching this semester has been very rewarding. When working in small groups, I have seen students who want to understand and just need a little extra clarification from the teacher. I have also experienced students who have bad days and take their frustrations out in the classroom. The teacher’s ability to help and handle these outbursts appropriately can help the students readjust focus to the classroom activities, as well as maintaining the focus of the classroom. Finally, working with the independent students, who work on their studies and finish early need extra lessons or activities so they do not become board.
My second rotation site based teacher was very easy to talk to and gave me the confidence to put at ease my hesitation for teaching the older students. Through our discussions I learned about the TAKS testing and review, and feel more confident about my ability to reflect on my lessons, my methods of instructions and ability to work with the grade level teachers to create lessons. I look forward to my QUEST 3 experience and teaching second grade.
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