Elizabeth Chapman

Live SIOP Lesson Reflection

For our SIOP lesson, we had both language and content objectives.
Our language objective was that students would be able to explain the
characteristics that they used to identify and classify different kinds of
triangles. Our content objective was that students would classify triangles
based on side lengths and angle measures using the six vocabulary words
taught during the lesson. I do think that we achieved our objectives. Taralyn
had some background knowledge on classifying triangles, and she was able
to explain how to classify them without too much difficulty. We assessed this
through asking her questions orally and also through the worksheets that she
completed. She also fulfilled our content objective and successfully reviewed
the vocabulary words she already knew (obtuse, acute, right) as well as
picked up the meanings of words that were new to her (isosceles, scalene,
equilateral).
I think that we successfully challenged vocabulary and language
development. We began our lesson by reviewing three types of angles:
acute, obtuse, and right. After ensuring that students understood this
concept, we applied this to triangles. This concept was easier to grasp than
classifying triangles by side length because of the background knowledge of
these characteristics in angles. The challenge definitely came in with
classifying triangles by side length. The vocabulary words that we explained
were definitely not simple words. Isosceles, equilateral, and scalene are

difficult vocabulary words to pronounce and to grasp the meaning of. They
were difficult for Taralyn to pronounce at first, but through practice she was
able to understand these new vocabulary words.
During the lesson, we realized that activities we had planned did not
take as long as we anticipated. We probably could have added another form
of practice with classifying triangles. Realistically, it would have taken an
entire class a longer period of time to complete everything than it took
Taralyn alone, so our lesson probably would still fit an entire period. The
Smart board review that we included was relatively easy, but I think that it
was still a good form of extra practice. It also served as another method of
practice besides worksheets and verbally going over questions. If I were to
do this lesson again, I probably would add more activities to the Smart board
lesson.
If we repeated this lesson with an ELL student, we would definitely
need to focus more on the vocabulary. We gave the student a sheet with
drawings and descriptions of the different types of triangles where they filled
in the name of the type of triangle. For an ELL student, I would still use this,
but I would add another form of practice. Similar to one of the slides on the
Smart board, I would have the student draw and write the name of each type
of triangle. I think that extra practice with this vocabulary would be
extremely beneficial to ELL students. Even before doing this, an ELL student
may not have a firm understanding of different types of angles. I would work

one-on-one with the student to ensure that he or she understood how to

measure and classify angles, and then how to apply this to triangles.
Overall, I think that our lesson went well. Taralyn was obviously a very
engaged and dedicated student. It would not be easy to teach this lesson to
all students, particularly ELL students. I think that an ELL student would
definitely need more one-on-one attention to successfully master the skill of
classifying triangles, but I think that this lesson is effectively designed to
teach a class with ELL students.