Pam Miller Filmed 10/2/13 Lesson Objective Sum up the learning objective for this lesson.

What were you trying to accomplish? The learning objective was Students will be able to complete a table to how many small polygons fit into larger polygons. The ability to manipulate objects in space is an important skill in geometry. I wanted to students to begin seeing how certain shapes (like an equilateral triangle) can be rotated to fill larger polygons, like a regular hexagon. Lesson Content 1. Describe your introduction to the lesson. What evidence did you see that students understood the purpose of the lesson? How does this inform your planning as you move forward? I read a story to the students about shapes that tied into the content of the lesson. Im not sure that students made the connection between the story and the lesson, but this is not a concern. My main objective for starting with a story was to give the students time to calm their bodies after free choice time and help them get ready to learn. After the story, I told the students that we would be filling in a chart, much like they did the year before, which is posted in 118. I also reminded them of the past few lessons that weve been looking at 2D and 3D shapes. This seemed to help students activate prior knowledge and begin thinking about what was to come in the lesson. 2. Describe the engagement of the students throughout the lesson. What strategies did you use to actively engage students in the learning tasks? Comment on the pacing of the lesson and how it impacted engagement. How does this observation inform your future planning? During direct instruction, when I was talking or when I asked a question, students were engaged. Evidence of this was that they were looking at the Promethean Board and that at least half of the class raised their hands to respond to the questions that I posed. Students were not engaged when another student was speaking, especially if that student was talking to me with his or her back toward the rest of the class. When this happened, I repeated what that student said so that the rest of the class could hear and process those ideas. I worked well to have students show the number of shapes on their fingers. I hadnt originally planned to do this, but it helped them stay engaged and participating in the lesson. As I was teaching, the pacing of this section felt like it was a bit long, especially near the end. When watching the video, students brought their attention back to me and the board when I talked after another student explained or showed the example, so I would keep this part the same. Giving instructions on how to do the worksheet ran a bit

too long for many of the students and they were becoming disengaged. If I teach this lesson again, I will think of a way to give instructions that does not take as long. 3. Describe your strategies for eliciting student thinking. How successful were they? After asking students how many shapes fill another shape, I called on a student and asked How do you know? This was successful in eliciting students metacognition, because it prompted them to explain and/or demonstrate their thinking. 4. Describe your lesson closure. What did it look like? How does this inform your planning as you move forward? The closure consisted of showing students examples of ways they filled the shape. Sadly, many of the students were not engaged. We typically do not have a whole group closure, so we probably need to practice and set expectations for that routine. This content was not very good for showing different examples and discussing them. If there was one in particular that students struggled with, that would have been better to show and share strategies than to show four correct examples. Materials and Lesson Organization 1. Describe your organization and management of materials. What evidence did you see that you were prepared and organized, and had all the materials you needed to teach the lesson? Would you make any changes and what would they be? Adjusting the technology did not happen as fast as I would have liked. Most of the time, students are good about staying calm and being ready to listen and learn as the projector warms up. I also could have planned a short activity for students to do, such as a song or a game (e.g. I Spy). Planned well, this time does not need to be wasted. I would have like to be better organized for the closure. I did not have much time to plan which pieces of student work to display as examples. Next lesson, I will be more aware of looking for examples for this section of the lesson. 2. Describe the transitioning of children during the lesson. Would you make any changes and what would they be? The transition from direct instruction to work time went well. As it was happening, it felt a little chaotic, because at the end, several students crowded around me, which is always difficult to navigate. On the video, it was a fairly smooth transition. It worked well to have the manipulatives in the trays and hand out trays and worksheets to two table members. This kept the flow going around me and around the pencil station. Oftentimes, this area gets clogged during transitions. Clean up took longer than I would have liked. Since students know the routine when the clean up song is played, I will try to play that song or another next time during clean up.

3. What evidence did you see of co-teaching methods? Please comment on the effectiveness of the strategies you used. I used the One Teach, One Assist model. This helped with managing the group during direct instruction and during work time. It is hard to manage disengaged students when trying to listen to one who is talking at the same time. Having another adult watching for a chatty crowd helped. This lesson, as all of the math lessons, was long. I was tired after reading a book and spending 15-20 minutes on direct instruction. By the time the closure came around, I was ready to move on. (Side note: And if I felt that way, I can only imagine what some of these little learners are feeling. I will remember this when planning transitions, breaks, and activities.) If I had used the co-teaching model and only led the section with the chart (and not the story and closure), I would have been able to focus and process better during work time and the transition out of math. Teacher Qualities 1. Describe your affect and body language while teaching the lesson. Are you satisfied with what you saw? Are there things you would like to change or improve? When students were talking, I looked at them and nodded or said Yes to show that I was listening. During direct instruction, I looked a bit hunched over. I think this had a lot to do with the chair. It was one of the shorter ones in the classroom. Using a taller chair could help with this problem. I tried and mostly succeeded at having a neutral face and tone when responding to one of the students answer or when their worksheet done incorrectly. This was difficult to do this lesson especially, because there were many students who did not follow the directions. 2. Critique your teacher voice and your language. Are you satisfied with your tone, grammar, vocabulary and questions? Are there things you would like to improve? One time during clean up, I used my teacher voice, and it was effective in stopping the problem. I would have liked to have used it during transitions and when getting students attention, but I did not. This was not as evident in the video, but Ive noticed that I have reverted back to giving commands and requests as questions. Primary students are not as susceptible to confusing directions posed as questions (Will you put that pencil away? is not really a question, its a directive.) as younger children are, but I could improve in this area. This would be helpful when clean up seems to be taking a long time or students are standing around not knowing what they should be doing. 3. Critique your guidance strategies. What strategies did you use? How well did they work? Were there times children needed guidance or assistance but did not get it? How does this observation inform you as you move forward?

During direct instruction, I asked a few students to move away from the person they were chatting with. This was effective with the ones that I saw, but there were several students (two groups in particular) that I did not notice that should have been asked to separate. In future lessons, I will try to notice if these students by each other in the group and ask them to separate before the lesson beings. Also, if there are opportunities to sit in a circle and teach without the use of technology, I will try that arrangement. In a circle, students are only next to two people and who those two people are is easier to manage than when students sit in a clump. Student Learning 1. What evidence did you see that you met your objectives for the lesson, and those you had for individual students? Reflect on the student learning of concepts and academic language. The students were successful in helping me fill the table, which showed they were able to think about ways that shapes can fit into larger shapes. This was also evident in the ways they filled the shape on the worksheet. At the time, I did not recall if the academic language objective was met. On the video, I noticed a few examples of the academic language objective being met. I did not plan a specific assessment for the language objective. In my next math lesson as well as other subjects, I could add an informal or formal assessment that relates to the academic language objective in addition to the assessment for the content objective. Summary Are there any other ways you would change or improve the quality of your teaching based on what you saw in the film? In the morning, when students first arrive, students have math to work on during this time. Later in the year, we introduce literacy activities for students to do during the time as well. If students finish quickly, I usually ask them to help another student in the room. I did not do that for this lesson, so when a few students finished early (and had already finished the challenge), they were reading books. This is not necessarily a bad use of their time, but I could have asked them to help other students. Also, these quickworking students could be introduced to a few long-term projects that they could work on when the finish with their daily work.