ST LESSON PLAN 1 REFLECTION 1

Lesson Plan One Reflection

Janelle Rasch

University of Nevada, Las Vegas

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Lesson Plan One Reflection

With school returning to normal and students being allowed back in the classroom

full-time, teaching this lesson was a much different experience than all my prior experiences

throughout the course of my degree. I finally got to experience interacting with students in the

same room, and it is very different from online teaching. This lesson in particular, I think, went

over much better in person than it would have in an online classroom. The students were

engaged with each other, and seeing them interact with each other was exactly how I wanted my

first lesson to be.

Using Knowledge of Students to Inform Teaching and Learning

I decided to do this lesson based on the planning that Ms. Fall and I did during our PLC

meetings with the other English 12 teachers. Because our students are seniors and they are on the

road to graduation and their futures, we know it is important that they know how to work

together within their communities - regardless of what community they belong to. This lesson

was one of several aimed at building relationships within their communities. Knowing that

collaboration and communication are important parts in everyone’s lives, this lesson was

designed to help the students work on their communication, listening, and reading

comprehension skills - all important skills that they will use throughout the rest of their lives.

Examining Curriculum Context

The larger scheme of the curriculum involves the students previous knowledge and skills

of speaking and listening, as well as reading comprehension. This lesson fits into the larger unit

of community building by requiring the students to work together and create an agreed-upon list

of survival items they would all need to survive on an island together. By having the students
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communicate their opinions and ideas with each other, and create a cohesive presentation, they

were able to practice the skills set out in the objectives of the lesson. The objectives of this

lesson were: first, to participate in collaborative small group discussions where they would share

their ideas and opinions with their group members; second, they would be able to present and

explain their ideas, as a group, to the rest of the class; and finally, they would be able to

effectively use Google Slides to present their ideas to the class. By participating in this activity,

the students were able to do all of those things.

Building a Conducive Learning Environment to Support Student Learning

The learning environment is important for all students to succeed, so for this particular

activity, instead of assigning students to random groups, like we had done with the previous

activity, we let the students choose their groups. By allowing them some freedom in choosing

their group mates, students were able to go into the activity a little more comfortably. Each group

was also allowed to pick the area of the room that they wanted to work together in. I created the

time for them to work together by first allowing them to create their groups and get into their

spaces before explaining what they would be doing. By giving them one task at a time, the

overall activity became less overwhelming and confusing for them. I was fortunate enough not to

have to discipline many students; most groups worked productively, and I circulated the room

and spoke to each group about their progress as I went. This seemed to keep everyone on track.

Supporting Students to Understand and Achieve Learning Objectives

I communicated the learning objectives to the students in the early part of my video and

lesson. As stated above, the objectives were broken into single tasks so as to not seem so

overwhelming. I started by telling the students that they would be working in groups of their
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choosing, telling them the maximum number of group members they could have, then letting

them sort themselves into their groups and work areas. Once everyone was settled, I explained

their task while showing them the presentation they would all be using. I also told them to be

prepared to share their presentations before the end of class. The evidence that I have from my

video that they understood their tasks is that they were all able to complete their presentations

and successfully present them to their peers. Each group had completed their assignment, and all

members spoke at least once during their presentation. There is also evidence in the video of

each group working collaboratively and talking amongst themselves prior to their presentations. I

communicated the link between the objectives of this lesson and the assessment of learning by

closing the lesson with a summary of what they accomplished and how it ties into their everyday

lives and their futures. Their assessment consisted of working together to solve clues and open a

box with several locks on it; this activity helped prepare them for that.

Content

The central focus, or concept, of this lesson was collaboration and how that ties into

community building. I supported student learning by giving detailed instructions, repeating those

instructions, and circulating the room to discuss thoughts and answer questions as necessary. I

checked for student understanding by asking individual groups questions about their choices, and

by listening to each group present at the end of class.

Using Assessment to Inform Teaching

In my video, I helped students achieve the learning objectives by circulating the room

and talking with them about their presentations and how they were doing. I was also able to

answer questions as I went, and students were able to talk with their peers for answers as well.
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Using the presentations that were given at the end of class, I found that I was able to help most

students achieve the learning objectives. All group members took turns speaking during their

presentations, and all group members were responsible for selecting at least one item to present,

along with an explanation of why. By assessing them based on their presentation, I was able to

see how effectively they used Google slides, and how well they explained their reasoning for the

item(s) they each picked. While some students had much better explanations than others, they all

came up with valid reasons why they would choose a particular item in this exercise.

I can use the assessment information to inform future instruction by having my students

be more explicit in their descriptions, and by requiring a bit more from them in terms of rigor

and what they are expected to present. I do believe that this was a good start-of-term assessment,

and it gave me a good baseline for what to expect from each student moving forward.

Using Reflection to Transform Teaching

I was able to teach this lesson to six different classes, two of which I recorded. While I

have only submitted a single piece of one of my recordings, what I would modify in future

instruction actually came from teaching periods one through three. By the end of period three, I

had found a rhythm, and the remaining three classes actually went very smoothly. During the

first two classes of the day, I found myself standing in the front of the class and explaining

everything I wanted them to do from start to finish. Ms. Fall pointed out to me that this was a lot

of instructions and left a majority of the class confused as to what to do, which led to me

repeating myself more than I should have had to and running out of time for presentations and

closing the lesson. After receiving that feedback, I adjusted course and that is what can be seen

in the video submission. Instead of giving every instruction in the beginning, I started class by
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giving them a general idea of what we would be doing, then letting them break into their groups.

Only after they were separated into groups did I continue with more detailed instruction of their

task and objectives. I found that this modification helped greatly, and I was able to save time

because I did not have to repeat myself to a confused class. This simple adjustment allowed more

time for presentations and a quick closing discussion at the end of class.

That simple adjustment was a huge eye-opener for me and how my future instruction can

be done. I recognize now that I don’t have to give all my instructions at once; by chunking things

out for my students, they are able to grasp concepts more easily and we are able to accomplish

more within the same amount of time. In short, this lesson taught me to simplify my instruction.