My microteaching lesson was on similes and metaphors, and I had my students create their own similes and metaphors in pairs and individually. I realized that timing is an extremely important aspect of teaching a lesson, and I know that I need to practice my lesson multiple times before I teach the it, to ensure that my timing is good. At the same time, it is impossible to predict how long groups will work, or how quickly the students will grasp the information. My group of four students easily grasped the ideas and quickly created their own similes and metaphors. If I were to teach the lesson again, I would have them write more similes and metaphors and maybe have them switch partners a couple of times.
Another challenge that I faced was cutting the lesson too close to the end of the class period. I was practically half way through me lesson when another class had to use the room. At first I was stressed out, but then I remembered how many times this happened in my own school experience. There were a number of times where my teachers taught after the bell rang, or had to cut the lesson because of fire drills or an assembly. Without trying to, I learned an important lesson which is to expect the unexpected. Sometimes you won't be able to teach the lesson as planned, and you just have to roll with it and do what you can.
Catherine Wagner November 1, 2013 at 3:42 PM
ReplyDeleteJessica,
(I know this isn't your microteaching reflection, but I am going to lose my internet soon so I need to post this now). Unfortunately, your lesson was cut short which is truly a shame because I was enjoying it, but also because it makes it a little harder to give you feedback. Nonetheless, I will do the best that I can. I think one of the strongest points of your lesson was the fact that you explained WHY it was that we were learning what we were. When I was in high school knowing why I had to learn something affected the way I learned. If the teacher told me why I needed something and how I would apply it to the real world, I was far more likely to pay attention because I viewed it as important. I think the same can be said for other students. Thus, explaining the point of your lesson made it more effective in my opinion. Another strong point of your lesson was your explanation of the material. You were sure to really take us through the explanations and examples step by step. As a result, I felt that I totally understood what you were talking about 100% of the time. This will undoubtedly help your future students understand as well. The last strong point of your lesson that I wanted to mention was how you let us express ourselves in different ways. For example, for one of the activities you had us write a sentence, but for the next one, you had us draw a picture. I thought that was great because allowing students to respond in different ways helps them become more interested and show their skills off.
As for areas of improvement, this is a hard one for me. I honestly thought you did a really fantastic job. The only minor thing that I noticed was that you could have talked when you were pulling up the examples on the website. Instead, you just kind of let us sit there waiting. This kind of inactivity on the students’ part could be a gateway for disruption. In the future, if you talk to students about something topic related while you are pulling up examples or getting material, the chances of disruption could decrease. Other than that, I thought you did wonderful. Thanks for your time; I’m sorry you did not get a chance to finish. -Catherine
I thought you did a really great job with your lesson. You were clearly very knowledgeable on the topic, and your class activities were very effective and engaging. I actually thought the strongest part of your lesson was the activity where we worked with a partner and used notecards to make sentences together, and then draw a picture to represent what we wrote. That activity forced us to use our own ideas, and our partner's ideas to come up with a final product together. Then, by having us draw the picture, we had to use our imagination and really think about what our sentence was saying. This activity was very engaging and helpful in getting us to understand the topic better. The one suggestion I have is very similar to Catherine's. When your link didn't open right away, you seemed a little surprised and not prepared for it. Like you said in your post, "expect the unexpected." Maybe in the future, have something to talk about or explain stored in your back pocket ready to go, just incase something like that happens. However, that was a very minor thing, and your lesson overall was very well executed. Unfortunately, you weren't able to finish, but I'm very confident that if that didn't happen, you're lesson would have continued to go well and you would have finished very strong, just like you started. Great job!
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ReplyDeleteHi Jessica!
ReplyDeleteI'm so sorry that your lesson got cut short and caused you a bit of stress. I think that you handled the unexpected situation incredibly well. You were smooth. :) I also loved your topic. I thought it was fun, relevant, and useful for future high school English endeavors that your students might encounter. I especially loved the activity when we got to draw pictures of our metaphor. :) We did that activity in high school and I remember really enjoying it. I'm sorry that you weren't able to finish your lesson...I'm sure it would have been great. Your first half was perfect. You seemed very confident and comfortable teaching. Well done! :)
Jessica,
ReplyDeleteIt was too bad that your lesson got cut short, and I feel bad that I was so distracted while you were teaching! I know that I missed some things while talking to the incoming teacher and going to find Dr. Kraus, but the fact that I was able to jump back in was due to the fact that you were thorough in explaining what we were learning and why it was important. I like how you pointed out in your post that, as teachers, we will have expect the unexpected because we never know when our lessons may get interrupted by something completely out of our control! That is an excellent point, and I think you handled the disruption well. I enjoyed the activity with the index cards, because it reinforced the concept in a fun and creative way. And maybe exchanging with more partners or in circles, as you suggested, would add to the experience. It was a very relevant lesson and I think you taught with confidence -- I wish I could have seen how you finished it up! :) Great job!