Prompt for ED 201 Lesson Self-Assessment

Name: Amanda Rake

Lesson Topic: Area and perimeter
Date Observed: April 10, 2014
School/Grade Level/Number of Students Taught: four students @ Manitoba
Cooperating Teacher Name: D. Wirth
Planning and Preparation:
How did your lesson design reflect what actually happened in the lesson? What
did/would you have changed? Were you able to teach the lesson in the allotted time? Why
or why not? Were your lesson objectives clearly stated and describe what your students
actually learned?
- My lesson design reflected what actually happened for the most part very clearly.
During my lesson I went with the flow and decided to have the students chose between
the grid paper (which was the more challenging route) or the geo board to practice and
make up their own shapes. I taught the lesson in the lunch room without a clear visual of
a clock and was right at the thirty minute marker. I found that I did not have to spend as
much time on demonstration as I thought I would have had to.. because the students
jumped right in and really worked together. Yes the students learned from what I had
originally put in my learning objective section.
Learning Environment:
How did you encourage student participation and elicit responses from all students? What
strategies did you use to manage and monitor student behavior? How did you engage
them in responding to you and each other?
- I encouraged student participation from every student- even the ones who didn't want to
try and do the shapes. I did not want anyone to give up and take the easy way out. I
encouraged students to share their answers and when someone got an answer wrong (or
right) I asked them to explain. I chose students but students also were eager to share their
examples and ways to solve the problem. I chose to sit next to students that needed
someone to guide them. I did not make a scene while doing so because I wanted to keep a
positive environment. I engaged them to responding by giving them time to first think
about the problem (and solve if needed) and then I asked them individual questions as
well as group questions. I also asked questions throughout the lesson that talked about
real like times when it would be useful to use area and perimeter.
Classroom Instruction:
What strategies and/or procedures did you use to assist students in learning the lesson
content? How effective were those strategies/procedures in helping students learn? What
changes or adjustments did you need to make during the lesson?
- A couple strategies that I used to assist students in learning were talking as a whole
group about the lesson and the importance of the topic, I helped students who seem to

need assistance and allowed students who wanted to challenge themselves to do so. I also
gave my students options of challenging themselves in which I found it very useful
because I got a better knowledge of who knew the material and who wanted to "play it
safe" and who were the slackers. I believe that my strategies worked great. I did not want
to allow students to give up and I did not want to give them the answer.
Assessment:
How did you know if the students learned what you taught them? What did you learn
from listening to student responses, examining their work or observing their interactions?
How well did your assessments connect to the lesson objectives?
- I knew if the students learned what I taught them by sharing their own examples. I
looked over their sheets and listened to them. To say the least I observed them informally
and formally. I learned a lot from letting them work and observing their results and how
they shared their answers. I saw who wanted a challenge and those who did not want to
"think". My assessments were head on with the objective and I believe that I could build
on to the lesson in many different ways.
Professional Responsibilities:
How did you seek feedback from your cooperating teacher? What did you learn from
his/her feedback and how did you apply it to your lesson?
- I seek feedback from my cooperating teacher by showing her what my plans were on
what I was going to use and what I was going to teach them. I learned that using my
given materials were a good choice and I actually added more thought into it and got
many activity sheets that corresponded to what I was teaching.
Reflection:
What did you learn about teaching, student learning and assessing from this lesson? How
would you use what you learned for future instructional experiences? Based on this
lesson, what Wisconsin Teaching Standard represents your area of greatest growth this
semester? What standard represents an area of further development for you? Why?
- I learned a lot!! From watching my first lesson and critiquing myself I learned that a
little practice and "re-tweaking" goes a long way. I feel like I had to think outside the box
and think worse case scenario (just incase). Using food the first time was a bit distractive
so I stopped myself from jumping ahead and using food as the main activity because on a
test or in real life they weren't going to have cheese its to help find the area of the
backyard! I will use the set up that I did for my lesson plan. I bold the worksheets and
capitalized the questions that I wanted to ask. I found that highlighting important key
points helped me stay on task and make sure that the lesson came to its fullest potential
allowing the students to apply themselves. Based on this lesson the Wisconsin Teaching
Standard that represents my area for greatest growth this semester would be Standard #3
which is the teacher understands how students differ in their approaches to learning and
creates instructional opportunities that are adapted to diverse learners. I believe that afar
my lessons and working with the students I can design instruction that assist with

students' strengths, and I can challenge them when needed. I want to help students and
have the belief that all students can learn. I understand that students come from a variety
of cultures and families however I can understand their skills, talents and backgrounds to
help me assist them when needed. I chose this standard because while doing this lesson
in particular I valued the long-term and short I want to develop the standard more of
standard #4 which is the teacher understands and uses variety of instructional strategies to
encourage students development of critical thinking, problem solving and performance
skills. I want to be able to understand how the cognitive process is associated with
various kinds of learning and how they can stimulated. Although every class is different I
would like to learn how to capture this characteristic. With the help of other teachers and
Pinterest I have the ability to develop learning with a wide use of materials but I would
like to be able to try my own ways and find resources easier and be able to use them.