Scott Coderre 10/15/13 Lesson 4/4 Tennis - Backhand Jamie Podworski Agawam High School A. Teaching Behaviors: 1.

Planning/ Preparation: Going into this lesson, I was a little nervous knowing that I hadnt had a lot of experience in tennis. However, I did my research and came up with about 8-10 skill cues for demonstrating the backhand. I really got to know a few of them to make sure I could give specific feedback during the lesson. I was told the lesson should be somewhat elementary because most of the students had never played before. I decided to transition from easy to more difficult throughout the lesson. The research and studying skill cues benefited me the most because I was able to take what I learned and apply it to the lesson. 2. Lesson Content: The last lesson I wrote didnt call for much content since it was a tournament day. However this backhand lesson was just the start of the unit, so I knew I needed a lot of detail. I wrote the lesson a little longer than usual and was sure to add a ton of skill cues. I thought I added the skill cues and incorporated them into the activities to ensure students learning. I could have had more diagrams to help understand in my lesson plan, but I thought the descriptions were explained well. The content could have been a little more focused on the backhand, but I tried to incorporate it into an activity that would be fun. 3. Transition/ Classroom Management: I knew that this lesson would call for a few more transitions than usual because I did 3 separate activities. When I transitioned from the first activity to the second I had the students stay where they were to save time on the transition. I simply projected my voice and had them put equipment down. However, I should have reinforced the equipment down rule after the second activity. I felt that I had much better classroom than the past 3 lessons. I thought I had control of the class and had their

attention most of the time. However there was one time in the introduction I should have addressed the students that were talking to make sure everyone heard me and understood.

4. Content Delivery: After writing a decently detailed lesson, I thought I delivered the skill cues very well. However, I can still work on giving specific feedback to everyone. For the most part I seemed to work with the less skilled students. I didnt have much to say to the students who seemed to understand the task and activity. However, I learned that I need to make sure the ENTIRE class is always on task and understanding. No one in the class had a perfect backhand, so I should work with everyone.

5. Feedback to the Students: For this particular lesson, my feedback was mostly directed to the students will less skill and understanding. I had a lot of positive feedback as I went around from group to group during the 3 activities. I still need to work on giving feedback to everyone and make sure the entire class as a whole can hear it. This way the students can learn from themselves and others.

6. Feedback from Cooperating Teacher: Jamie gave me some great feedback after my fourth and final lesson. He mentioned that I improved, but still have small things to work on. He addressed the fact that I let the more skilled students move on from the first activity a little too soon. I noticed they had moved on but let them go because they seemed to understand. However he pointed out that they still do not have perfect backhands, so they need to practice just as much as the others. He also brought up that I need to slow down my demonstration. Its great that I want a ton of activity time, but I need to slow down and not feel rushed. He did mention that he liked my checking for understanding; it just needs to happen a little more. B. Important Takeaways:

This lesson was great because it taught me a little more about tennis and how to teach different types of lessons. This lesson showed me how to teach the beginning part of a unit, while the last lesson I did was the last day of the unit. I was fortunate enough to have a variety of lessons at the high school level and I took away a lot of great things. I learned that every class is different, but I need find a way to always keep students on task. This particular lesson taught me that even though students may have different skill levels, I need to spend the same amount of time giving feedback to everyone.