1st Lesson In Clinical

This is a reflection of a lesson I recently implemented in my second grade clinical classroom. It was a social studies lesson. I wanted to share my experience with my fellow bloggers so we all can learn from each other.

Social Studies Post Reflection

           

Going into this experience I was very nervous. I was nervous for writing the lesson correctly and for implementing it to my clinical classroom. My CT and I talked a few weeks before my lesson regarding what they have been talking about and what chapter they will be on in their social studies book the week I do my lesson. The lesson topic was on goods, businesses, and consumers.

I started off by looking at the standards and deciding which standard would correspond with the topic I was teaching. I was then able to come up with my objective for the lesson. The final objective I used was: students will be able to sort businesses in our community based on the types of goods that are sold there and will then be able to write about their own business using vocabulary words in the correct way. I decided on this objective based off the activities I wanted to complete during my lesson. Those activities included a sort of businesses around our community and a writing activity where they come up with their own business. After I planned for the activity I decided which informal and formal assessments I wanted to use during the lesson. I decided on turn and talks, responses by raising their hands, and a checklist at the end of the lesson. The day of the lesson I taught the students an attention getter I wanted to use during my lesson. We practiced it earlier in the day and they did great using it during the lesson. I used the, “Holy Moly, Guacamole,” attention getter. The students were so excited every time I used this.

I started off my lesson by bringing in real objects from home to get the students’ attention. I wanted the students to make the connection that all these objects are considered goods. I felt this went really well. The students started off engaged right from the bat, from what I noticed. I then linked their reading from their social studies book to access their previous knowledge. I had the students turn and talk about what they read about, the transportation of goods and the goods the book talked about. I felt they did a great job turning and talking with a neighbor without any problems. I was kind of afraid of how this will go without assigning partners, but it turned out great in my opinion. As we continued through the lesson of going over new vocabulary of what a business is, what a consumer is, and what a good is, I used student friendly language. We did another turn and talk about businesses, which also went smoothly. I noticed I forgot to mention the purpose of why I was teaching these things and why the students needed to learn this topic. I noticed that fact after my lesson was already over.

As the activity continued I used a variety of instructional strategies and materials to keep the children engaged. During the sorting activity I liked how interested the students were in the business they got on their card. My CT gave me the idea to sort the cards in the pocket chart rather than taping them on the Smart Board because it made it easier for the students to do that. It worked out really well and the students stayed engaged when they talked about their business and put it into the correct category in the pocket chart. I liked this activity with the students because I felt they enjoyed it and were getting the content. I do however wish I had the students explain why they put their business into a certain category instead of me, as the teacher, explaining it to the other students.

I then transitioned the students to the ending activity by modeling on the Smart Board what they would be doing at their desks. Instead of coming up with my own business I used one of the businesses we used during the sorting activity. I’m not positive if the modeling helped the students or not for preparing them for the activity. I was trying to demonstrate how to use the vocabulary when writing because I encouraged the students to use the three new words we discussed during the activity when they were writing about their business. I transitioned the students by rows so it wasn’t chaotic and too loud. Once they got to their desks I had writing and drawing paper waiting for them, so I didn’t have to take up more time passing papers out. That shows how prepared I was when it came to the lesson. I also had the vocabulary words written on the board for the students to reference. I do wish however I had some sort of prompt at the top of the writing paper showing how to use the vocabulary words and make it known it is required to use them. As the students wrote and drew their pictures I walked around and answered any questions that the students had and I started my checklist. My checklist was determining if the students used the vocabulary words in the correct ways. I’m not sure if I chose the best summative assessment tool for this activity because it was hard to get around to every student and determine if they used the vocabulary correctly or not. I did however collect the papers and a lot of students did a great job of using the words. At one point during the writing activity, two of the students came in late because of their RTI groups. I immediately walked over to those students and explained what we were doing and what the words meant. I tried my best for not knowing when they were coming in, but I felt I did a good job with that.  

Overall, I feel my lesson went well. I think using the turn and talks was a great way for me to see which students knew what. I felt I was trying my best to hear various conversations and answers. I also think I had a great presence and enthusiasm with the students, which made them feel excited on their end. I tried managing behavior problems the best way I know how and I think the students did a great job of listening to me when I told them to stop doing something. There is always room for improvements and I can see that now that I have completed this lesson. I took ownership of my mistakes, but I am still learning. In the future I know now that I should have planned notecards with little phrases to remind me to include or say something important. I also should make sure the students understand the main focus of the activity because I was constantly unsure if all the students understood everything. I also want to get more practice with using assessments so I know how and when to use them during a lesson. I do think that the majority of the class met the objective through the activities.