Ms.

Tracie Coyne
Long Cane Primary School
1st Grade: Ms. Donaldson
April 2017

8. Reflection, Self-Evaluation, & Professional Development (LO 4.2 & 4.3)(APS 2, 3, 10)

A. Whole Class
My second showcase lesson was an SSCA lesson on bullying. My learning objective for this

lesson is After turning and talking about what bullying is the students will learn the effects of what

bullying and saying or doing hurtful things can do to someone else and understand why they should not

do those things with 100% accuracy. This lesson used student knowledge to complete the paper heart

activity.

For the pre-assessment, students completed a whisper turn and talk activity and then came back to

the whole group to explain what they believe bullying is. As this is first grade many of the student did not

know what bullying is. Instead they gave examples of being mean or saying something hurtful.

All students during this assessment completed it with highest of marks.

For the during-assessment, students completed the paper heart activity. This activity was

completed in two steps. The first step was to give an example of something hurtful you could say to

someone of bullying. When writing this lesson plan, I modified the bullying aspect to include having

them answer something that would hurt someone. I assumed that many of the students would not have

been in bullying situations, but that they could think of something hurtful. Each time a student gave an

example of bullying/ something hurtful they would give the red paper heart I provided, one fold. I

demonstrated this activity first so that they could visually see and understand what was expected of them.

This went well through most of the students. However, by the time the heart got to the last few students it

was too small to fold anymore. Instead the students took it upon themselves to try crumpling it up more. I

found this to be an exciting teaching moment because they figured out how to problem-solve without me

having to instruct them. If I had needed to instruct them I would have told them to do what they did. After

the heart returned to me I asked some of the student to raise their hands and tell me how the heart looked

1
before we started and how it looks now. This taught students that what they say leaves scars on the hearts

of others. Some students struggled during this part of the lesson because many had never been bullied or

had something mean said to them. Many could not think of an example right off. During this part of the

lesson I had to ask students in different ways to answer the question because they could not think of an

example. The second part of the during-assessment included doing the opposite of the first part. Students

were to give an example of how to fix the situation or give an example of something nice to say. As the

students completed this task they were to unfold the heart one time. However, like before when it got to

the last couple of students the heart was already unfolded. At this point I modified and asked the students

to flatten out the wrinkles in the paper. Then I asked students to raise their hands to explain to the class

why the heart was wrinkled. The students understood that the heart is no longer perfectly shaped

because saying something hurtful to someone else leaves scares on their hearts.

For the post-assessment of this lesson students were to give an example of how to prevent

bullying. I modified this during the lesson to include what they could do if they were in a bullying

situation. After they all gave examples, students repeated a pledge after me that they would do their best

not to bully, say or do hurtful things to others. To finish the lesson the student placed band-aids on the

wrinkled heart that had a smaller heart glued on reading Before you speak think and be smart. Its hard

to fix a wrinkled heart. The students enjoyed this part of the lesson the most.

If I were to teach this lesson again I would spend more time demonstrating how to fold the paper

heart. The hardest part of the lesson, that I could have controlled, was the folding demonstrations. If I had

showed them a smaller fold, I believe there would have been enough for all eighteen of my students to

fold and then later unfold. The next hardest part of the lesson I found was getting the students to give an

example of bullying/ something mean or hurtful. However, I feel I could not control this part of the lesson

because it was based on their knowledge or imagination. I tried asking the question in different ways, but

still some of the students could not easily give me examples.

2
 B. Individual Student

As stated in my first TWS 6 I had high, average and low achieving students in my class. Below is

the chart of grades for those three individual students.

Pre-Assessment During-Assessment Post-Assessment

Student 3 - 2 1 2 = 1.5 1
Student 14 * 2 1 2 = 1.5 2
Student 8 + 2 2 2 =2 2
- = Low achieving Student

* = Average achieving Student

+ = High achieving Student

All students received a 4 for their grades during this part of the lesson.

Student 8 was the high achieving student for this bullying lesson. The student met the learning

objective for this lesson. This student scored a 2 in the pre-, during and post-assessments. These numbers

refer to whether or not the child answered without hesitation and listened actively to peers. The during

assessment score is the mean of the two questions asked. This student responded without hesitation to any

of the questions. This student has good organization of their thought process during this lesson. This

student benefited from the turn and talks as well as the multiple answers from their classmates.

Student 3 was the low achieving student for this bullying lesson. This student did not meet the

learning objective for this lesson. This student scored a 2 on the pre-assessment, 1.5 for the during-

assessment and a 1 on the post-assessment. These numbers refer to whether or not the child answered

without hesitation and listened actively to peers. The during assessment score is the mean of the two

questions asked. This indicates that the student needs more time to process and articulate an answer back

to the teacher. The teacher will need to work with the child on how to organize their thoughts in order to

3
respond easier. This student struggled some when providing an example of bullying. This student most

benefited from turn and talks as well as the multiple answers from their classmates.

Student 18 was the average achieving student for this bullying lesson. This student did not meet

the learning objective for this lesson. This student scored a 2 on the pre-assessment, 1.5 on the during-

assessment and a 2 on the post-assessment. These numbers refer to whether or not the child answered

without hesitation and listened actively to peers. The during assessment score is the mean of the two

questions asked. This student is having some difficulty responding without hesitation, but improved

between the during and post-assessment. This student could still use some work with the help of the

teacher to organize their though process. This student struggled with providing an answer of bullying and

how to prevent bullying. This student most benefited from turn and talks as well as the multiple answers

from their classmates.

C. Reflection on additional 2-4 lessons.

Lesson 3:

For this lesson, I taught community helpers. I made the decision to use multiple forms of

technology during this lesson. I used a BrainPopJr. video to introduce the topic. I then used a

PowerPoint that I created to ask students to determine what career was by looking at the

animated picture. During this lesson, all students were actively involved. Everyone wanted to

answer the questions when asked. To finish the lesson students completed a worksheet about

what they wanted to be when they grew up and why. Throughout the lesson many students made

connections between the different community jobs and how they help in the community. Before I

had gotten to the slide on the PowerPoint showing a teacher, one student exclaimed that teachers

are community because they help teach the children who live in our community. Later that week

while my cooperating teacher was teaching a blending words lesson, some of the words that

came up were names of jobs. One of the girls in the class raised her hand to say thats a

4
community helper just like Ms. Coyne taught us. Many other students immediately chimed in

with choruses of agreement.

Lesson 4:

For this lesson, I taught science with the parts of a plant. I chose to use multiple forms of

engagement during this less. I brought in a real plant, used student guided worksheets, and small

group emphasis. First I had to modify the plant I used. I wanted to bring in a small potted plant,

but could not find one. Therefore, I decided to buy a small bouquet of flowers. These flowers

showed the different parts of a plant; flower, stem, leaves, and seeds. The only part it does not

show is the roots, but my students comprehended without the visual representation. The pre-

assessment for this lesson went very well. The class was actively participating and making

connections beyond what I was asking. The during-assessment took a lot longer than anticipated.

Although the students had completed student guided activities before, they took longer copying it

down during this lesson. The next assessment was my post-assessment. For this assessment, I

chose to split the class up. Half the class was to stay at their desks to complete the back of the

worksheet and the other half was to join me on the carpet. The student that joined me on the

carpet got a better look at the flowers I brought to the class. While showing them the flowers the

students were to point out the different parts of the plants and some of the functions. This group

took longer than the second group because one student got upset when his peers continuously

talked over him and would not let him speak. When I finished with one group, they switched off

with the other group. After the small groups, I went over the worksheet with the students. If I

were to teach this lesson again I would not go over the last worksheet with them.

Lesson 5:

5
 For this lesson, I read a poem with the students instructing them to pick out the rhyming

words at the ends of the sentences and to illustrate the poem by stanza. My teacher does this once

every few weeks if not every week with the class. Because of this, the lesson would have been

very short. I modified the lesson to include the rhyming words and a differentiation of framing

the words they know to make the lesson long enough to fit the outline that we must write for our

lesson plans. During the lesson, I had to clarify what I meant by rhyming words by saying at the

end of the sentences because the students wanted to pick out any rhyming word or make up

their own to tell me. I made sure to tell them that I appreciated their efforts, but that they needed

to stick to answering the question I asked. If I were to complete this lesson again I would make it

shorter to fit what my teacher usually does than to deviate from that. The students went with

what I asked them to do as I explained that we were going to do the poem a little different than

usual, but they were still a bit confused at parts.

D. Reflection on possibilities for Professional Development.

Goal One:

My first professional development goal is better classroom management.

Though I know my class management developed throughout the time in this

classroom I know there is still more room to grow. I had a very talkative class for my

placement. They are all mostly well behaved students, but they always wanted to

talk. During my first lesson, I did not want to be the extremely strict teacher who

called the students out on everything. However, I learned throughout the time in my

placement that I need to be strict in some cases.

Goal Two:

6
 My second professional development goal is to limit my timing. Four out of

five of my lessons too longer than expected. When I voiced my concerns to my

cooperating teacher she told me that the importance is not on how short or long the

lesson is but the quality of the lesson. Still, I felt as though all my lessons are too

long. Throughout my lessons I use multiple forms of teaching to engage the

students. As I know the attention span of younger is shorter and that we as teachers

should limit the lessons to about 15 minutes, but I use multiple forms of teaching to

keep the students actively engaged without losing their attention.