Math Lesson Reflection

                                                                                                                                                                                      Lesson Topic:

Place Value

Students will use base ten blocks to learn the concepts of place value in the ones, tens, and hundreds place depending on their level of instruction.  Some students will also learn how to write two or three digit numbers in expanded form while others learn to exchange ten units for a rod.                                                                                                                                                                                                                    


Date Taught:

Monday, July 13th, 2015 from 8:45 to 9:15 am

What went well:

Initially, I felt nervous about teaching this lesson given the various instructional levels of the students and my lack of teaching experience, however, when I realized learning was occurring with my students, my nerves subsided.  From this moment, I felt my lesson went smoothly and learning was occurring.  One of the reasons for my success was in the way I structured the lesson and broke the learning tasks into digestible units that built upon each other.  This was achieved by using the 5E learning cycle.  Another reason my lesson was successful was because I designed it to be multisensory.  This played to the strengths of each of my students while engaging them in a meaningful way.   Lastly, my lesson was beneficial to me as well as the students, because it allowed me to gain valuable insight into their mathematical ability that had not been evident up until this point.  I discovered I had to go back and reteach basic foundational skills to develop their number sense for half of my students.

What did not go as planned:

I learned that with this population of students who have been diagnosed with learning disabilities and/or emotional behavioral disorders, processing time is slower and needs to be adhered to.  I was too quick to offer additional assistance and model for them.   I need to work on using appropriate vocabulary when teaching this group of students.   Lastly, I learned I need to break goals down into smaller elements so that I can appreciate the progress their making. 

How to change for subsequent lessons:

I will work on the problems I identified above.  I have been able to strategically differentiate my math instruction this week in order to help my students build skills appropriate needs and abilities. 

Comments from university supervisor:

·       Break instructions into small digestible pieces, one task at a time

·       Use developmentally appropriate language and vocabulary to ensure it is not over the students’   head. 

·       Enjoyed my use of compliments to the children.

·       Effective use of questioning and modeling for students.

·       Used a word wall and anchor charts for the students to reference throughout the lesson. 

·       Differentiated instruction for the various students based on their learning needs and goals. 

·       Lesson was multisensory and students enjoyed the use of manipulatives.  The students learned how to move from concrete objects to symbolic representation then finally to numeric form.