Lesson Reflection

This lesson was very enjoyable to implement from my side of things because I had been

working informally with both the classes I taught for several weeks. They were in the midst of a

joint project coordinated by Ms. Meier and their 10th grade English teacher, Ms. Powell to write a

research paper on a social justice issue. I worked with both Ms. Meier and Ms. Powell to plan

how we would introduce the class to the concept of social justice through the United Nation’s

Declaration of Human Rights. Then I interacted one on one with the students as they found

books and websites on their topics and begin looking a “big picture” facts that they could use to

narrow their focus to what they really wanted to talk about in their papers. This lesson was

supposed to transition students from looking at their topics broadly to developing specific

research questions that they would use to drive their research as they went forward on the

project.

I think that this lesson did a fairly good job in serving its purpose. It is based off a

PowerPoint that Ms. Meier has used before for a variety of classes, though I developed a

worksheet specifically tailored for this project to use along with it. It got students to think about

their papers as an end product, not just at their topics as interesting bits of information that were

out there in the ether. However, while we stressed narrowing topics down to a range that would

be suitable to fit a 5 to 7 page paper and we gave various examples of topics that were narrowed

down too far, not enough, or just the right amount, students still struggled with this concept.

They wanted to have wider research question than we recommended because they were

convinced that would make their topic easier to write on. After all, they had only been doing

“wide” research so far and we put a lot of emphasis on the fact that they should be able to use all

their found sources in their final paper. We worked with students in one of one conferences until
we were satisfied with their research questions, but I think we could have done a better job of

showing them that a narrower research question will produce a better, more easier written paper

than a wider one.

When planning this lesson, I definitely experienced collaboration on a fast, school-

determined time-table. Ms. Powell and I decided students were ready for this lesson two days

before I taught it. The morning of she came to me with an extra example-giving activity that we

could use with the PowerPoint lecture and worksheet. We integrated this activity as best we

could and absolutely did a better job with her 4th period class than with her 3rd period when we

were still figuring out exactly what to do. While this collaboration was rushed and things could

have run smoother if we had had more time, I never felt like I was in over my head because of

the extensive work we had done together before planning this specific lesson. We spent so much

time planning the entire unit, that that plan kept us together and in sync and we did not need to

spend quite as much time hammering out the details of the lesson itself.

As far as implementation goes, I was very glad that I got two chances to tape and teach

this lesson, once for Ms. Powell’s 3rd period and once for her 4th period class. The first time

around, I spent more time looking at the PowerPoint slides for references than I needed to. I

rushed through the examples because I was worried about running out of time for the worksheet

and interactive portions of the lessons. I was more worried with getting through the exact

wording of what was on the PowerPoint that Ms. Meier had left me than I was with really

checking student retention and learning. More noticeably, Ms. Powell and I weren’t sure where

to insert her example activity into my planned lesson and we just kind of did it without much

prelude before we passed out the worksheet for students to work on, but after we explained how

to do the worksheet. This created a cognitive disconnect. After this first lesson, I was able to
meet with Ms. Powell who gave me notes about slowing down and repeating myself more. We

could then decide when it was best to work the examples in with the students. That is where you

see this video stop. This gave me a big confidence boost for my second presentation. I felt like I

knew what I was doing. I looked more at the students than at my notes. I had a better idea of

what kind of student responses I would get to opened ended questions. I definitely spoke more

slowly and clearly, focusing on student knowledge rather than vocabulary with added experience

as to which parts of the lecture the previous class had experienced difficulty understanding. Ms.

Powell said that this was a normal teaching experience; beginning teacher rarely felt like they got

a lesson “down pat” until they taught it at least three times. I’m glad I got to experience that first

hand.