Cassie McLemore, Kara Villalobos & Aritz Cardenas

MIAA 370
Dr. Sylvia Turner
8 June 2014
Reflection of 7
nd
Grade Lesson Study
When going into someone elses classroom and trying not to disrupt their pacing by
teaching something that should be taught on that day in sequence for students, its difficult to be
as creative as we would have like to be. Our lesson did not begin until 10 to 15 minutes into a 48
minute periods, because we needed to debrief the lesson from yesterday by taking homework
questions and doing a warm-up designed to check for understanding. In the first classroom, this
process went well and we moved into our lesson fairly quickly, but we actually performed one of
the homework questions incorrectly. The engage portion of our lesson was appropriately timed
and very effective in getting most students engaged and excited about what we were going to
teach. We kept students actively listening by asking them to complete an I noticed, I
wondered worksheet. It was very nice to have students share out what they noticed that they
already knew about what we were going to do and it gave us a gauge of what students also did
not know so we knew what we needed to spend more time covering.
The actual lesson that we designed was appropriate for the time frame had we had then
entire period to teach it. I was the one delivering the lesson and I was ill prepared for the
homework questions that were asked. I should have spent some time making sure that I know
how to solve all of the questions from the previous days homework or told the classroom teacher
that we would not be able to perform that function of her regular routine. One thing that was
evidently clear was that knowing your students and delivering lesson to them everyday gives you
a gage that someone just stepping in to do a lesson cannot hope to equal. I realized immediately
that just the simple fact of not knowing students names was a handicap. A lot of thing went
wrong in this lesson, but with some fine tuning it would be a great lesson. I feel that more time
is needed with students in one setting to achieve the 5 Es (Engage, Explore, Explain, Extend and
Evaluate)(Jobrack. 2011). With the common core we will need more time for true discussion to
occur.


















Cassie McLemore, Kara Villalobos & Aritz Cardenas
MIAA 370
Dr. Sylvia Turner
8 June 2014
Reflection of 2
nd
Grade Lesson Study
Going into a classroom of students that you know nothing about and trying to gage
students understanding while teaching a lesson you designed without that knowledge was
difficult. Having only taught 7
th
grade and above, we were unclear about the language level 2nd
graders were operating at. In the upper grades, directions do not necessarily need to be read
verbatim and students very rarely echo read direction, however this is a staple in the lower
grades. It was great to have the classroom teacher in with us during out lesson, because she
made notes of what we did wrong and needed to correct for the next lesson. As with the seventh
grade lesson we began with a refresher activity to gage students current understanding of what
we were planning to teacher. Students were not fluent in what was learned yesterday and we
spend a good amount of time going over what the different coins were and their worth. One
thing that we were hyper aware of was the need for academic language and using the words
greater and less when establishing the relationships between coins.
Another issue we had was with sequencing. One of the standard classroom routines was
to start with a video for the new lesson (this actually did a lot of the refreshing we covered in the
beginning lessons) and have students follow along in their workbook. One of thing that we were
surprised by is the enthusiasm of the students when answering questions. Everyone wanted to
participate, even before they had an answer they would raise their hands. In teaching this lesson
we learned a lot about then language richness of math at this level and the need for teaching
reading in all subject areas. It would be very easy at this level to teach multiple subjects within
the same lesson to accommodate the common core state standards.










































Cassie McLemore, Kara Villalobos & Aritz Cardenas
MIAA 370
Dr. Sylvia Turner
8 June 2014
Reflection of Algebra Lesson Study
Algebra is my favorite subject to teach. I was very excited when we were given the
opportunity to teach this lesson because I did not teach algebra this year. The lesson gave our
team a chance to plan a lesson on something that none of us were teaching. We found it difficult
in finding hands on lesson on solving radical expression. We were uncertain on how to apply
solving radicals to an everyday situation. However the lesson we designed was a productive
lesson.
The first time we taught this lesson it went smoothly, the students were on task and
attentive the lesson was very valuable. The second time we taught the lesson did not go as
smoothly but over all it was just as effective. The only change made to the lesson was to do two
of the radical sorts with the students instead of one. However, after teaching the lessons these
two times I think that I would make an additional change if I have the opportunity to teach it
again. Another aspect that we feel would be beneficial to student learning is to have some
incorrect steps in the lesson strips. The students would have to identify them, explain why they
were incorrect and how to correct them.