Self-Assessment for Microteaching Lesson

Observation of your teaching activity. (How did you introduce the lesson? How did you develop the
lesson? How did you conclude the lesson?) If you followed the plan you submitted very closely, then be
brief in this section. If you deviated from your plan, then include that in this section.

My lesson was on the set of homophones; there, their, and they’re. When organizing my lesson plan, I
planned out my time to ensure that my video was ten minutes in length because it seemed like an
appropriate amount of time for everything that I wanted to discuss. I gave myself two minutes for the
introduction of my topic and two minutes for my conclusion. I was then left with six minutes for my
development portion where I planned on talking about each word and provide skills on how to
recognize which word to use along with some examples. I divided up my time spent on each word in my
development portion equally giving myself two minutes to talk about each word. When I was simply
writing out my lesson plan, two minutes seemed like ample time, perhaps not even enough time. But
once I began recording my lesson, I found myself zooming through sections, unable to talk for the full
two minutes if I just kept recording without taking any breaks. I then switched methods in order to
combat this issue and recorded shorter sections of about thirty seconds and thread them together in
iMovie. In addition to implementing the new recording method, I also created a short fill in the blank
activity to do in my development because my lesson did not feel complete without doing so. I then
concluded my lesson with a webpage designed by Merriam-Webster which explained the differences
between each ‘there’ which I used to design my lesson because it encapsulates a lot of what I talked
about. I also decided to include a worksheet for students to do.

Analysis of the activity. (Did you meet your intended learning outcomes? What parts of the lesson
went well? What parts of the activity did not go as well as you hoped? Was the feedback provided by
the team members informative and helpful to you? Did it align with your own assessment?)

When I first began recording my lesson, I felt like there was something missing which was holding me
back from achieving my learning outcome. Because my lesson felt incomplete, I decided to include a
somewhat interactive activity that could help me determine whether or not my audience understood
the lesson. The feedback that I got from my team members allowed me to see that the activity was a
good addition to the lesson. All of my team members agreed that my lesson could have been made
better if I implemented more visuals and kept the homophone that I was talking about up on the screen
during its whole description to remind students what word we are talking about. Once hearing this, I
definitely agreed because the contents of the lesson is geared more towards younger students but how I
taught it may be difficult for younger students to follow. It was nice to hear what they suggest I could do
in order to better suit my lesson for elementary school students because that was something I was
struggling to do.

Reflection. (What things did you do, use or say that contributed to your success? What things did you
do, use or say or not do, use or say that contributed to less success in some areas?)

In order to combat the issue that I was having with not being able to talk the full allotted time that I had
given myself for the topic, I decided to record short sections of about thirty seconds each and thread
them together in iMovie. I soon found that if I recorded shorter sections, I did not talk as fast and zoom
through the section. This did make my video look choppier but that was a risk that I was willing to take
in order to avoid talking as fast or forgetting to include certain information. Even after making this
correction, I was still not able to reach my goal of ten minutes for my video, so I decided to include a
small fill in the blank activity in my development. I think that doing so actually made my lesson better
because it ensures that the audience learned the difference between each word. In an in-person
classroom setting, I would call on students to decide which ‘there’ they think fits in the sentence.
Including the activity not only made my lesson longer but better as well. Although this lesson was
supposed to be geared more towards younger students, I don’t think that my teaching style in the
microteaching lesson reflected that. If I am not able to determine how to make a lesson like this one
more suitable for younger children, I will not be able to succeed as a teacher in an elementary school
classroom.

Identify Areas of Success and Areas for Improvement. Set a specific improvement goal. (This can
be specific to your topic coverage, planning, organization, etc. or may related to a more broad-based
teaching skill.)

Although I have expressed more of an interest in teaching secondary school students, I would like to
make my teaching style more versatile. I found myself struggling a lot with how to deliver a lesson to
younger students, something that I want to get better at because even though I would currently prefer
teaching secondary students, that may change once I complete my practicum. As my Education 2500
instructor has mentioned in the past, it is possible that you may realize that you really like to teach the
younger ones once you are in your practicum. Which is why I want to be prepared to change my course
delivery and how I teach to suit younger students once the opportunity arises.

Identify specific improvement strategies. (What specifically might you try to do differently that will
help you meet your improvement goals?)

Of course, I have barely even started my journey of becoming a teacher and have not even been in a
practicum environment. That being said, I believe that my ability to teach younger kids will get better
once I gain more exposure to an elementary school environment. At least one of my three Professional
Semesters will be spent in an elementary classroom where I will have the opportunity to observe how
the teacher interacts with their class. I will also have the chance to develop relationships with the
students at that school, giving me more experience interacting with younger students and the time to
pay attention to details like my tone of voice with these students, and the words that I use to explain
concepts. I think that when it comes to teaching and how it differs in a secondary and elementary school
environment, word choice and tone of voice are drastically different in each environment. I can
definitely work on these two skills to make my lesson delivery better suited for an elementary student,
which is only the first step. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, I have also been able to find videos of
teachers explaining how they teach their virtual classes on YouTube. Although these videos specifically
focus on an online classroom environment, lots of the tips and tricks that they have to offer can easily
be implemented in an in-person class. This has been a really useful tool for me as I am able to see how
these teachers talk to their students and how they instruct them to do a task. Throughout the
microteaching lesson process, I struggled most with finding my voice as a teacher, especially in an
elementary school environment. With the videos that I have been able to find online as well as the
opportunities that I will have in the future to observe elementary classrooms, I believe that finding this
voice and learning how to teach younger students will become easier for me. At the end of the day, the
more classroom environments that I am exposed to, the better I will hopefully get at lesson delivery.