BIG PICTURE

Grade Level: 8

Date of Lesson: March 1

Lesson Objective:
Be able to convert between scientific notation and standard notation

How does this lesson fit into the unit? (What comes before it and after it? What are the
big goals of the unit? Etc.):
Before this, they have learned what scientific notation is. After they will start using it in word
problems and real life applications
Assessment (How will you know what they have learned? Can be formative or
summative):
Ask for them to rate themselves (fist to five) throughout the lesson
While circulating during the worksheet and card sorts, listen to them and watch them to see if
they are getting it

LESSON PLAN (general format on the right hand side. Feel free to modify.)
Segment
What will teacher do? What will students do?
Description
and slide
number
2 homework
check

3 Intro

4 worksheet

5 Answers

Answer any
homework questions
Ask how
they felt about the
homework problems
Introduce
lesson and objective
Tell joke of
the day

Guide class
through sample
problems
Give out
worksheet
Circulate,
help those who need it
Reveal

answers when kids are

done

Materials
Needed

Check answers to
homework

One will read lesson

objective out loud

Watch demo, then do

worksheet

Compare answers
Ask about problems they
did not understand

orksheet

1.

Ask how
they feel about it (fist
to five)
Go over
difficult ones

Ca

Give them
cards to sort, give
them instructions

7 answers

Show
answers to card sort

8 Homework

Tell them

what the homework is

rd sort

Sort cards (scientific

notation matched with standard
notation)
Compare answers
Ask questions
Write down homework, use
any extra class time (should be 5
minutes max though) to get started

REFLECTION (do this after the lesson):

1. EVALUATING SUCCESS: Based on your assessment of student's learning,

how successful was your lesson? What were the strengths and the
challenges?

As I walked around during the card sort, most of what I did was
encourage the whole table group to get engaged because there were a
few kids who weren't, but a lot of them started matching correct cards
as soon as they got involved, so it seemed to be more an issue of not
wanting to talk to their group. There was also one kids who kept telling
me that he didn't know how to do it, but then when he reluctantly
started grabbing cards he totally did know. This lesson was their
technical introduction to converting between scientific notation and
standard form, but they had done a lot of it before in little bits of
previous lessons, so this lesson was more review than it seemed. A lot of
the work we did seemed to be more with confidence and working
together.
Ms. Nelson had the biggest smile when I was done, and a few of the
kids at the beginning said "you're teaching the whole class today? Yay!"
So judging by people's reactions it was a successful first lesson.

2. FORMULATING TAKEAWAYS: What are your takeaways from this

experience? What would you try next time? If you received feedback, what
were the most useful pieces of feedback you received? How might you apply
this feedback in the future?

Although my kids are angels and never give me (or Ms. Nelson or the
student teacher) a problem with being rude or off-task, I still had a hard
time pulling them back together after an activity. It wasn't because they
wanted to be rude but they didn't know right away that I wanted their

Cards

attention and I realized that I really need to develop a way to do that. So

Ms. Nelson and I are going to work on that.
BIG PICTURE
Grade Level: 8

Date of Lesson: March 21

Lesson Objective:
Understand how polynomials are used in geometry

How does this lesson fit into the unit? (What comes before it and after it? What are the
big goals of the unit? Etc.):

They have been using polynomials during this unit, but have not applied it to other concepts such
as geometry until today.
Assessment (How will you know what they have learned? Can be formative or
summative):
Students' ratings of themselves
Amount of students who volunteer answers
Answers of students who do work on the board

LESSON PLAN (general format on the right hand side. Feel free to modify.)
Segment Description What will teacher do?
What will students do?
Homework check

Answer any
questions or model confusing
problems

Compare their answers

Intro

Tell joke of the day

One will read aloud the

lesson objective

Warm up

Ask students for

answers, review with them how

to find volume and surface area

Review what they know

about geometry by finding some
volumes and surface areas

Worksheet on volume
and surface areas of
polynomials

Model first problem

on the board
Ask them to rate
themselves

After table group work

time, individual students will solve
problems on the board
Assess their own
understanding
Ask about any ones tha
are unclear

Word problem

Go over problem
when they're done

Apply polynomials in
geometry to a word problem abou
sandbox, working in table groups.

Volunteer answers
Ask any questions

REFLECTION (do this after the lesson):

1. EVALUATING SUCCESS: Based on your assessment of student's learning,

how successful was your lesson? What were the strengths and the
challenges?

Kids who wrote answers on the board seemed to know what they were
doing
When I asked them to rate themselves partway through the lesson, all
of them said 3 or above, even though at the beginning they were
extremely confused

2. FORMULATING TAKEAWAYS: What are your takeaways from this

experience? What would you try next time? If you received feedback, what
were the most useful pieces of feedback you received? How might you apply
this feedback in the future?

My mentor teacher said I did a successful job of checking in with the

kids at certain points during the lesson, and that helped me because I
have been wondering where to draw the line between not monitoring
your kids and checking in so much that it's annoying. So the biggest
thing that this lesson helped me with was getting a better sense of how
much to check in.

I also got more practice than before with this lesson on working
through complex problems as a whole class.
BIG PICTURE
Grade Level: 8

Date of Lesson: April 18

Lesson Objective:
Factoring - understanding prime factorization, then finding GCFs of polynomials
How does this lesson fit into the unit? (What comes before it and after it? What are
the big goals of the unit? Etc.):
Later in the unit they will use this knowledge to factor polynomials that are in standard form.
Assessment (How will you know what they have learned? Can be formative or
summative):
Students ratings of themselves, as well as what we see when circulating

LESSON PLAN (general format on the right hand side. Feel free to modify.)
I do not have a lesson plan because this lesson was completely spontaneous. Ms.
Nelson made the slideshow; I read through it before class, and that was it.
REFLECTION (do this after the lesson):

1. EVALUATING SUCCESS: Based on your assessment of student's learning,

how successful was your lesson? What were the strengths and the
challenges?

Strengths:
o
I did not know I was teaching today until I walked into the
classroom and Ms. Nelson asked "Want to teach with me?" we
alternated between who was talking, but I didn't really have any
prior planning, and it still went well.

Challenges:
o
I was running the kids' Kahoot game, and the whole time Ms.
Nelson was really engaged with them, and getting them excited
about who was winning and everything, and I didn't have the same
effect on them. So I tried to observe how she did it to get ideas, but
I would say that running it was still a challenge for me.
2. FORMULATING TAKEAWAYS: What are your takeaways from this
experience? What would you try next time? If you received feedback, what
were the most useful pieces of feedback you received? How might you apply
this feedback in the future?

This was my first time teaching at the same time as my mentor

teacher was, so I experienced a new kind of dynamic and that was really
valuable.

This was also my first spontaneous lesson (my first two lessons
involved planning for them days before) so I got an idea of what it was
like to teach without planning everything in detail.
BIG PICTURE
Grade Level: 8

Date of Lesson: 5/20/16

Lesson Objective:
Review for the test
How does this lesson fit into the unit? (What comes before it and after it? What are
the big goals of the unit? Etc.):
It is a review of everything in the unit. Goals are to get questions answered and
practice skills.
Assessment (How will you know what they have learned? Can be formative or

summative):

Ask them periodically how they feel about things (every concept)
Students who volunteer know what they're doing
Many students, not just a few, volunteer

LESSON PLAN (general format on the right hand side. Feel free to modify.)
Minutes
Segment Description What will teacher do?
What will students do?
for
segment
3-5 min (2
Prime factorization
for working)

3-6 min (2
GCF practice
for working)

2 min

Factor binomials

1-3 min

Factor trinomials - sign

reviews

5-12 min

Factor polynomials

Go over them
afterward

Ask if they agree

with each other
Ask them how they

feel

Warm-up wh
each group is responsi
for finding prime
factorization of one
number
Afterward, e
group writes their answ
on the board

First look at

coefficients, then xs, then

powers of xs
Ask them if they
agree with each other
If necessary, ask to
review what process they
went through

Same group
work process as before

Point out how

similar it is to finding the GCF

of two terms "What happens if
we take away the plus sign?"
Write it on the
board

Raise hands

Go over it as a

group, ask them to shout out

signs, ask some of them why,
ask for fist to 5 at the end

Yell

Have the little

parentheses outline thing on
the board
Determine
negatives and positives first
Use box method
and other method

One as a class and the re

not

1-2 min

8 min

6-8 min

Ask them to
reassemble one that is
already in the box (first factor
it further)

Perfect squares or
difference of two
squares - which is the
perfect square

Ask them why

Review what the
difference is

Factoring perfect
squares + differences
between two squares

Ask them to rate

their understanding

Multiplying polynomials

Ask them to shout

it out

Tell them when to

switch the pen
Review finished
problems with them and ask if
they agree

Yell
Tell me why

Work on the
own

Write answe
on board one at a time
explain to class how th
got it

One student
solves part of problem
board, they hand off pe
in the middle

REFLECTION (do this after the lesson):

1. EVALUATING SUCCESS: Based on your assessment of student's learning,

how successful was your lesson? What were the strengths and the
challenges?

It seemed moderately successful. When I invited the class to shout out

answers, lots of voices did so at once, and they mostly agreed.
Participation increased as the lesson went on, and it seemed like that
was because they were more confident.
One especially strong part was the factoring polynomials slide that only
asked them to determine the signs, and already had the numbers filled
in. It seemed to give them more confidence leading into full-on
factoring.
The biggest issue seemed to be with understanding the instructions.
Sometimes they would factor when they were just asked for the GCF, or
they would look at a trinomial and say "We've never done that before"
but then once I said the word parentheses they yelled "oh!"

2. FORMULATING TAKEAWAYS: What are your takeaways from this

experience? What would you try next time? If you received feedback, what

were the most useful pieces of feedback you received? How might you apply
this feedback in the future?

It was useful to see how breaking problems down into smaller steps
helped to tackle bigger ones, even in a review which happens after they
have learned all of this. Breaking problems down seems like common
sense but it was different to see it in action.

As I put the lesson together, my biggest challenge was deciding how to

have them go about doing problems. Group work? Coach-athlete
strategy? As a class? Ms. Nelson helped me figure this out and I learned
more about her thought process through that. She always likes to have
them do more group work because so many of them process verbally.
BIG PICTURE
Grade Level: 8

Date of Lesson: 6/6/16

Lesson Objective:
Understand how to graph polynomials

How does this lesson fit into the unit? (What comes before it and after it? What are the
big goals of the unit? Etc.):
In order to know what to graph, they use points they have learned to find earlier in the unit such
as the vertex and intercepts.
Assessment (How will you know what they have learned? Can be formative or
summative):
Students' ratings of themselves
I will ask a lot if they have questions
Whether kids volunteer or not, and if so, if it is the same kids or a variety
Whether everyone in each table group can explain to me what they did on the worksheet

LESSON PLAN (general format on the right hand side. Feel free to modify.)
Segment
What will teacher do?
What will students do?
Description
9-2 Practice

Do the first problem in each

section with them

Work in their groups

One students solves each problem
on the board

Graphing quadratic Go through example on the

equations
board with entire class

Give answers and ask questions

Graphing practice

Give them worksheets

Give stickers when they're
done

Work in groups on their

worksheets

Graphing practice
answers

Lead them through answers

Check answers, ask questions

Materials
needed

More practice

Have Ms. Nelson put it in Work independently or with their

the OneNote
group, whichever they want

REFLECTION (do this after the lesson):

1. EVALUATING SUCCESS: Based on your assessment of student's learning,

how successful was your lesson? What were the strengths and the
challenges?

Students seemed very confused, however they also said I was clear,
and it was a brand new concept. When I was circulating the room during
work time, they had extensive questions, and it was difficult not to
accidentally spend the whole time with one student; to keep moving was
something I had to remind myself of. They did seem to get better
throughout the class period, and to know more than they think they did
(I heard a lot of "I don't know anything, I don't understand this at all"
followed immediately by a correct answer from the same student).

2. FORMULATING TAKEAWAYS: What are your takeaways from this

experience? What would you try next time? If you received feedback, what
were the most useful pieces of feedback you received? How might you apply
this feedback in the future?

One piece of feedback Ms. Nelson gave me was that I was going too
fast towards the end. This surprised me because I had expected her to
say instead that I was going too slow towards the beginning. I asked
about that and she told me how it's always important to go slower than
you think you need to, and it is usually not bad to slow down. She said I
didn't need to worry about going too slow, and explained how checking
in with students (asking them to rate their understanding) is the best
way to tell whether your speed is working

Another useful piece of feedback was that Ms. Nelson said that as she
was circulating during work time (both of us were) students said that
they understood my explanations a lot. This surprised me because they
had seemed so confused. I am starting now to realize that even if
students are confused, it doesn't mean you are not clear; it is part of the
learning process.