Writing Lesson Reflection

                                                                                                                                                                                                Jamie Gougarty

Date Taught:

Tuesday, July 21^st, 2015 from 10:45 to 11:15 am

Lesson Topic:  Writing Complete Sentences

Students will use the sentence buddy template as a visual guide to create a sentence that has correct punctuation and capitalization.   The advanced learners will review nouns and verbs as well as make a compound sentence using conjunctions such as “because” as it relates to cause and effect taught in reading.                                                                                                                                                                                                               

What went well:

My lesson plan was written in a way to include an assessment of the information I was teaching.  My goal for the lesson was to have the students learn and retain the components of a complete sentence (a beginning capital letter, a complete thought, and an ending punctuation.  Also, my lesson was written using a multi-sensory approach.  The lesson included a song, movements, and a visual aide to help the students understand the concept of a complete sentence using a Sentence Buddy.  All six of the participating students showed mastery in writing a complete sentence. 

What did not go as planned:

This lesson did not go as smoothly as my last lesson, because I tried to incorporate too many activities for the allotted time of the observation.  I should have allowed two class periods for the material I presented.  This caused me to rush through the lesson, which did not allow the children enough time to absorb all the information that I taught.  Also, with the time constraint, I did not give students enough time to process the task well enough to do it independently during the whole-group instruction. I was impulsive in that I completed the task for them.   I need to learn to self-regulate my instructional pace.  

How to change for subsequent lessons:

I will work on having more realistic time stamps and fewer activities in a given lesson.  However, this lesson helped me identify areas of written expression that I will address in future lessons.

Comments from university supervisor:

Room for improvement:

·      Break lesson into two lessons.  Too many activities for a 35 minute lesson block. 

·      Still working on using developmentally appropriate language and vocabulary to ensure it is not over the students’ head. 

·      I need to learn ways to slow my instructional pace.  For example, take a deep breath or have a signal given by a co-teacher.

Positive Compliments:

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

·      Lesson was multisensory and students enjoyed the use of manipulatives.

·      Be careful not to complete tasks for my students when they need time to process.  This may hinder their desire to volunteer.

·      Effective use of questioning for students and classroom management.

Enjoyed my use of compliments to the children