Daphnie Peterson EDSE 327 Methods in Mathematics 5/5/13

Self-Reflection

Description: The lesson I had planned to teach was to a small group of third grade students who are having problems with telling time. Specifically, telling time in 5 minute intervals. When the time came to teach this lesson that wasnt at all the student group I was allowed to have. Instead the two main students I was allowed to have were 2 fifth grade students; one male (Nate) and one female (Laura) both have Down syndrome. Nate is very low cognitive and has behavior issues. Laura is a transfer student from Columbia so her English is very limited and her cognitive level is also low. As I started the lesson, another male student, significantly higher than the other two, but still receiving services sat down at our table. So instead of him becoming a distraction I had him join into the lesson. Thank goodness for that since he was about the level the lesson was geared towards. My lesson wasnt focused on the objective to teach special education

students how to tell time. So without Owen being incorporated into the group, my lesson would have had no connection with any of the students and would have bombed even bigger than it already had. Impact: As I had started the lesson, I had asked Laura and Nate if they knew any songs that had any connection with telling time. They had no idea what I was talking about. Nate said he liked to rap. So, I went with it and began saying the words to Hickory Dickory Doc and Nate would come back saying the words but in a rap style. After singing the song we discussed activities that happen during the day and during the night. Specifically the times in which these activities take place (e.g. waking up, going to bed, eating breakfast, eating dinner). From the beginning of the lesson to the end it was a disaster. The pre-test and the post-test were both too high for Nate and Laura to take, however, Owen was able to take the post test. The activities I had planned to do with the original group we still did, but again the main idea was a loss with the exception of Owen. What did go well was what I learned something about myself. The lesson I taught myself was that I have a concrete ability to

adapt to situations that do arise. I always knew this about myself, but in different situations outside of the classroom. I did the best I could do in the amount of time I was given to change my mind set of the lesson. And to try to fit the lesson to the students I was allowed to teach, and the materials I had to teach with. I would have changed a lot of this lesson if I had been given the time in which to make those changes occur. The objectives I had would have been less and the directions kept to a few. My lesson outcome would have been much better. As I feel the outcomes of this lesson I taught was nothing. Intent: This lesson would have been extremely different if I had the ability to teach it to the group of students I had originally planned on teaching it to. Circumstances being what they were

the lesson went ok. In a perfect world I would have been better prepared to teach this group of students. What I mean by this is the lesson objective may have been to teach them the names of the parts of a clock or what the numbers on the clock represent. I would have never expected them to reach the goal objectives stated on the lesson plan I had originally constructed. The classroom environment would have been much different as well. When I was presenting the lesson there was so much background noise that I could barely hear myself talking. So if

I couldnt hear myself I am sure Nate, Laura and Owen couldnt hear me as well. I felt I had so many things that went poorly my words cannot even begin to explain them all. However, even though this lesson went horribly wrong, I learned a lot from the experience. I have a better understanding about the effect of extra talking in the classroom from the Paras and the other students. I learned that you need to be ready for anything and everything. The biggest lesson I learned that day was that a teacher needs to be flexible in their teaching.