Reflective Analysis A: General Analysis

Learning Situation:
This analysis will take place on 2/18/16. It will be with my current Spanish level two
class. Most of the students have had me as their teacher for over one and a half years and this
will be roughly the twenty-second week that they have had the current level of Spanish. The
class will take place in my normal classroom and is comprised of twenty-four students. Overall,
this class has responded very well during class and, as a class, typically scores six to eight
percent higher on assessments than the other level two class. Also, it is important to note that this
class has six (of twenty-four) students that are on accommodations or have been on
accommodations in the past.
Goals/Objectives/Purpose of this Lesson:
The purpose of this lesson is threefold. First, students have spent the last two weeks
focusing on vocabulary related to shopping and artesanas. Although it is not the main goal of
the lesson, one objective is for students to continue reviewing this vocabulary. Second, most
recently students have been acquiring and utilizing select irregular preterite verbs as well as
using hace as a form of time. A second goal is for students to review this material along with
vocabulary. Finally, the main purpose of this lesson is for students to be presented with select
stem-chaning ir verbs in the preterite tense.
Outline of Class:
-

Warm-up:
o Students will interpersonally communicate to fill in the blanks of a warm-up
exercise utilizing unit vocabulary and irregular preterite verbs. The warm-up
exercise will ask students both to fill in the blank AND to translate the sentence to
the students L1.

Review:
o The teacher will review the acquired irregular preterites with students utilizing the
SmartBoard
Students will help the teacher fill in the chart to match irregular preterite
conjugations with their subject pronouns
Students will look at a text (in textbook) and identify where irregular
preterite verbs are located and in which person they are conjugated.
o The teacher will review hace as a form of time
The teacher will use the SmartBoard to review and then give students
discussion questions to talk about both interpersonally and then present to
the class as a whole.

Assessment:
o Students will take a short quiz over irregular preterites and hace as a form of
time
o Teacher will go over the quiz with students after

New Material:
o To introduce new material, the teacher will show students a picture of a person
and what the person is wearing Monday through Friday. Students will see that the
individual wears the same clothes on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday and then
wears different clothes on Wednesday and Friday.
**Note: This experience strategy is being used in agreement with a
school wide initiative in vertical alignment and critical thinking (see
journal).
o After student discussion, on the similarities/differences of the pictures, the teacher
will transition to introducing ir stem-changing preterite verbs
The teacher will use the SmartBoard to model the first ir verb being
introduced and then will ask for student input on the verbs following

Activity 1:
o To practice memorization of Spanish verbs, the teacher will have students make
flashcards and then students will quiz each other over the newly introduced
verbs.
Students will say what the verb means, then they will conjugate the verb.
o The teacher will call on several students to present the newly acquired material.

Activity 2:
o The teacher will have students work interpersonally to create two sentences.
Sentence 1:
Students may choose one of the newly acquired verbs and will
create a sentence using either 1st or 2nd person along with one other
vocabulary word from this unit. F
Sentence 2:

Students will follow the same pattern as sentence one. However,

they must use a different stem-changing verb and must use 3rd
person (singular or plural).
o Once students have finished their sentences, the teacher will collect them and then
have volunteers come to the front and act sentences out.
The teacher will display the sentence on the SmartBoard and, as a class
review, will leave the conjugated stem-changer out of the sentence in order
for the whole class to practice correct conjugations.
-

If time permits:
o Activity 1:
The teacher will direct students to work, interpersonally, on an assigned
activity in their textbook.
The activity requires students to use vocabulary from this unit
along with stem-changing ir verbs.
It is a speaking exercise.
o Activity 2:
The teacher will play recordings of native speakers and ask students to
identify ir preterite stem-changing verbs

Assessment:
o To conclude the class, the teacher will display the assigned homework where
students will be required to fill in the blank with correct conjugations of ir
preterite stem-changers in context of a letter being written from one adolescent to
another.
o The teacher will model the first sentence for students.

Addressing Elements:
To review this analysis, I will write my post-teaching/pre-viewing recounting of the
lesson during my planning period (an hour and a half after completing the lesson). Then, while
watching the video, I will compare how my planning compared to the lesson that unfolded
during the class. To address the specific element of spatial aspects of the class, I will use the
video recording to track room setup, student positions and teacher movements. I will also use the
video to track student participation and questions asked.

Reflection while I view:

- In general, this lesson went very close to
the lesson plan that I prepared before the
class and I think the lesson was beneficial.
Looking at the first few minutes, I see that
students were very engaged in the warm-up
activity. This included students that, at
times, I have issues keeping on task. One
thing I did notice was that some students
finished earlier than others and seemed to
sit waiting for a while. I could have either
given less time as a review, or given a
quick alternative for students that finished
early
Another thing I noticed, that I didnt not
write on my pre-viewing reflection, is the
variety of students I was able to get to
participate. I called on many different
students and almost all of the students
seemed prepared to answer questions in
front of the class. One exception was the
girl sitting in the back corner of the room. I
should have called on her more to keep her
more engaged in the class.
One thing became extremely evident to
me that I would have not gathered unless I
watched the video afterward. I explained
that my students struggled with stating
what some of the verbs meant went
conjugated in the preterite. The video gave
me a big clue. Students knew the infinitive
of the verbs because that is how we
reviewed it before the quiz. I asked
students what estar meantnot what
estuve meant, for example. This makes
much more sense to me now as to why
students were getting confused on the quiz.
If I did this review over, I would take note
to practice exactly how I am asking
students to perform. This will make the
assessment a more fair assessment for the
students.

Post-Teaching, Pre-Viewing Reflection:

- Overall, I would say that this lesson was a
success. To start out, we reviewed two of
the grammatical points that students should
have already been prepared to be assessed.
Overall, they did very well on the
assessment but I noticed the difficulty that
some of them had with meanings of verbs.
They knew estar was to be but when
they conjugated the verb in the preterite,
the suddenly had trouble.
As I stated in the lesson outline, I tried
something that is being encouraged school
wide and created an experience (or
visual) before going over ir stemchanging preterite verbs. I think that it
went well. But, at times, I felt like the
students were losing the comparison of the
shirt colors and the stem-changers. I also,
through questions and answers, noticed that
we will need more time to use these verbs
in context. However, the homework I
assigned should help with this practice.
Benefits to this lesson were that students
strengthened their use of irregular preterites
and using hace as a form of time. They
also received a good foundation to stemchangers and, in my opinion, the majority
are grasping the concept.
I did have to make some modifications
during the lesson. One example was when
going over hace as a form of time.
Because I wanted to assess the students
ability to form a question based on the
statement given, I needed to add that to my
review slide. Thus, I added two sentences,
as practice, by writing them on the board. I
think this helped students before taking the
short assessment.
The timing of this lesson was exactly
where I wanted it to be. We finished with
the last thing that I wanted to cover and it

Finally, I noticed that today my pace

was good (if not a little fast). I could have
stopped a little more to check for
understanding from more students. I did
have students speak to each other
(interpersonal communication) as much as
I had planned in my lesson plan. I also did
a good job of moving around the room to
check in with students to make sure they
were on task during interpersonal
communication.

gave me a couple of minutes to go over the

expectations of the homework assigned to
the class for the next meeting time. I did
not use my activities if time permitted
and can use those in the following class as
a form of review/warm-up to start the class
period.

Reflection on Experience
I had no idea that this experience would make me as nervous as it did. Even though I
knew that I would be the only one watching the video (and possibly Dra. Carracelas-Junal), I
think that the thought of critiquing myself made me a little nervous. After a little while, I
completely forgot the camera was taping and was able to teach how I normally would on any
given day. I also had some trouble with positioning the camera. Unfortunately, I was not able to
record the three tables in the back of the room. I would have liked to have seen the entire room
of students and will try to reposition the camera for the next time. In addition, the camera was
unable to pick up the majority of slides that were on the projector because of the lighting. This
would have helped so that I could have seen the question students were being asked to answer.
However, I can go back and see the slides that I created.
One thing that did work out well was the sound. I am able to hear myself clearly and can
also hear the responses by all of my students. During times of interpersonal communication,
there is not much I can understand as far as sound. However, I can still hear myself, at times,
talking to groups as I check with them for understanding.
This reflection called for a focus on spatial aspects of my interactions around the class.
Although I have not mapped it out yet, I can see just how much I move around in my classroom.
I always try to make this a priority. However, the video really showed just how much I move.
Even when standing in front of the class, I constantly move from one side of the class to the
other. Part of this is due to the fact that my computer is on one side of the class while my

projector is toward the other side. At times, I can be seen changing a slide and then moving over
toward the projector to point certain pieces of information out.
When I am checking on students, I can see from the video that my classroom is setup to
where I can move pretty freely. I am able to access any table in the class. However, to move from
one side of the room to the other, I have to return to the front, cross sides and then go to the back
of the room. It seems that all students were able to view the projector with ease. This includes the
tables to are perpendicular with the board instead of parallel. I try to slightly angle those tables
and, because of that, it didnt look like anyone was having trouble viewing the projected
material. However, the camera did not get a view of the back three tables, which are all situated
parallel to the board.
In addition, I was very pleased with my voice level. It was loud enough for all students to
understand. I also noticed my use of the L1 and L2 in class. I always try to use as much of the L2
as possible. After viewing the video, I think I could be using the target language more. There are
certain things that I say in the students L1 that they could easily understand in the L2. When
using commands in the classroom, I almost always stayed in the students L2. But, other
explanations could have been done in the L2 as well.
My speech was a lot slower than I thought it was. I have always been told that I speak
slowly. But, after viewing the tape, I better realize how slow it is. I think that this may be a
benefit to the students listening. However, it brought to my attention the need to constantly bring
authentic materials into the classroom so that students are used to a faster paced Spanish. Part of
this slower paced is, in my opinion, because I am aware that I am teachingnot speaking to a
friend. My speech changes a lot when Im teaching. But, overall it is still a slower pace than
many people.

I always tell my students that I see whenever they are on their phones and I know when
they are not paying attention. This video showed me that, even though I think I catch most
distractions in the classroom, I still miss some. As I stated earlier, a big thing that I noticed (and
need to find a way to change) is that some of the students that have an easier time with the target
language are finishing earlier. I noticed that, when they had nothing to do, they would turn
around and distract another group that was struggling with the task. In one circumstance, I saw a
student who typically does well and his partner who does not typically do well. The one who
struggles, typically, copied down some of his partners answers and then began to distract the
group behind him. I need to work on this so that he is receiving both the practice and feedback
that he needs to improve.
Without a doubt, this viewing was very beneficial. One of the biggest things I cannot do
as a teacher is assume I taught something so all of the students should know it. Like I stated in
my response to watching the video, I was frustrated that several students did not follow
directions on their quiz. I asked that they write the meaning of the conjugated preterite verb and
many of them gave me the infinitive. Typically, I would not understand why they would do that
and a normal response would be to say that they were simply not following directions. However,
I see first hand that it was my poor explanation during the review session that we had before the
quiz. I reviewed one way with the class and then expected something different from them on the
assessment. This, among the other things I reflected on, was hugely beneficial as I continue to
grow as a teacher.

Diagram of Spatial Aspects

Reflection on Diagram
As I reflect on the diagram above, several things came to my attention than before I
created it. First, the way the tables are aligned creates a good environment for learning. In one
aspect, students (as stated before) are all able to see the projector with relative ease. From
another aspect, the outside tables create an atmosphere with students facing each other and not
all students facing frontward. In addition, students each have a partner at their table. This is key
as I want to foster an environment that stimulates conversation in the target language.

Looking at both student initiated interaction along with teacher initiated interaction, I was
able to have almost all of the class participate rather frequently. However, what really stood out
to me was one of the students in the front row (directly in front of myself most of the class) and
another student on the side of the classroom. I did not call on these students and they did not
initiate any conversation with me during the forty minutes of my videotaping. To me, anything
short of one hundred percent participation is unacceptable. I need everyone fully engaged in the
lesson.
In terms of gender distribution, I did not realize that I only had eight females in my class
of twenty-four (33%). I also noticed that I might not initiate as much questions with the females
as I do the males. However, it is evident that three of the males spoke more than everybody else
in terms of student initiated conversation. The three of these males were all in the same area of
the seating chart and I wonder if that directed me to that general area more than other area (i.e.
where the females sat). Also, females sat with females and males sat with males. Sometimes, this
is intentional for me. In this case, I want students to feel very comfortable with the partner at
their table to that it stimulates conversation and practice. Students need to feel like they can
make mistakes.
The last two things that really stood out to me from my diagram were the kinesics of the
class along with the choral response. First, students did not get up from their chairs at all. Even
though they repeated went from partner work to group work, they remained stationary and I
failed to get them moving during the forty minutes of class. Second, I had a much larger amount
of choral response in my class than written and interpersonal communication. I did not realize
this until I made my chart and I need to consider this as far as a learning environment. With
choral response, the most confused students tend to stay quiet and the teacher may not realize it.

Therefore, if eighty percent of the class (for example) gives a response, the teacher may assume
that one hundred percent of the class understands a concept. This can also be shown with the
student-initiated responses. Some students gave several responses while others gave no initiative
and may not have been called on by myself very frequently. Moving forward, I need to find ways
to better assess all of my students on new concepts taught in class.