Reflection: Lesson Plan 5 (Positional Phrases)

Section 1: Whole Class

Overall the students participated well in this lesson and were engaged throughout. The students really enjoy movement and songs, so using the Shape Hokey Pokey really engaged the students and gave them good practice using the positional phrases. I didnt end up making any modifications as I taught the lesson. The lesson went as I expected as we read the story, acted out the positional phrases, sang the Shape Hokey Pokey, and created our scarecrows. The students really enjoyed creating the scarecrows, and it went along well with the other fall activities they had been doing. If I were going to do this lesson again I would have the students create something non-representational. I feel that this would better assess their ability to follow directions and use positional phrases. As the students began creating the scarecrows they began to pick up on the fact that they were creating a face. This helped them in following directions, and therefore some of the students may have gotten it right because they picked up on the fact that it was a face rather than because they truly knew how to use the positional phrases. It would be easier to create directions for the activity if the students were creating nonrepresentational art, and I could use more positional phrases because I wouldnt be limited to the directions needed to create a face.

Section 2: Analysis of Three Students Below Average Student

When I pre-assessed Israel before the lesson, Israel was able to identify the square and the circle, but he was unable to use the two shapes to show me above, below, or beside. Israel was absent the day of the lesson so I have no further data on Israel from this lesson.

Average Student
Sam was able to complete the pre-assessment with ease. When Sam showed me above and below, he placed the circle on top for above and the circle under for below. Sam followed the directions in order to complete the scarecrow activity. I think that Sam did well during this lesson because he enjoys art activities, and he was excited to complete this activity. He also seemed to know the content decently well prior to the lesson so the activity may have been somewhat easy for him to complete.

Above Average Student

Caitlin completed the pre-assessment without any trouble. During the lesson she participated and seemed to find the content very easy. She followed the directions perfectly to complete her scarecrow. I think that Caitlin does really well following directions and listening so this helped her to complete the scarecrow activity.

Section 3: Reflection

The students really enjoy movement and being given the opportunity to participate. After the story, Mr. Scarecrow the students had the chance to participate and come up to the front to demonstrate different positional phrases. After the demonstration I taught the students a song where they were able to move to show different positional phrases, and they seemed to enjoy the movements. The students also enjoy creating, and therefore they enjoyed creating the scarecrow faces. I utilized whole-group instruction, a student demonstration, a read aloud, and a song with movements. The students were actively involved throughout the lesson. At the beginning they listened to a short read-aloud, and as I read the story the students demonstrated the positional words. After the read-aloud the students had the opportunity to come to the front and show the rest of the class the positional phrases. Then, the whole class got to participate in the Shape Hokey Pokey. After the Shape Hokey Pokey the students worked at their tables to create their scarecrows using shape cut-outs. The students had the opportunity to learn positional phrases through various means as they listened, acted out, sang, and created. As the lesson went along they were required to demonstrate their knowledge of positional phrases and following directions in more difficult ways. At first they listened to the read-aloud and demonstrated as we went along. Then, they had the chance to demonstrate positional phrases with guidance from me. Next, they demonstrated their knowledge of the positional phrases through movements to a song, and they followed my lead as we did the movements. At the end the students created their scarecrows with very little help from me. The materials for this lesson were effective, and the means by which it was taught provided a variety of hands-on learning experiences. After this lesson, the teacher could relate this content to the lives of the students by having them use shapes to create more art or by having them locate shapes in the classroom by using positional phrases to identify them. During this lesson I was very careful to make sure I kept the students attention during the activity where they created the scarecrows. The students were each given a bag with all the shapes that they needed to create the scarecrows. In order to prevent the students from losing their shapes or getting their shapes mixed up with someone elses I had them only pull out one shape at a time and glue it down. I also gave the students time to find the shape before I began giving instructions for where to place the shape. Carrying out the lesson this way also kept the students from going ahead and placing the items as they wanted. The students did a great job stopping and waiting after they finished. After each shape I had the students do an action to keep their attention on me and see who else was still working. Each of the students were given a student copy of the book Mr. Scarecrow and a letter explaining to their parents that we had read this book in class. The letter asked them to have their child read it to him, and practice using positional phrases when talking about items in their houses.

Reflection for Professional Development

From my experiences in this clinical I need to work on classroom management and time management.