Reflection, Self-Evaluation, & Professional Development (LO 4.2 & 4.

3) (APS 2, 3, 10) Whole Class Reflection on Showcase Lesson I taught my December 5, 2013. I had a full class attendance teaching 24 high level 8th grade South Carolina History students, none of which have an IEP, just different styles of learning. In the beginning of my clinical I learned that the diverse learning styles ranged from visual representations, lecture, skits, taking notes, doing hands on activities, and critical thinking high level challenging activities. As a result, I made sure to implement these learning styles when I created my lessons. For example, in my showcases lesson The Causes of the Civil War, the objective was for students to be able to students to be able to understand and explain the major causes of the Civil War that led to South Carolinas secession from the Union and explain the significance of the Compromise of 1850, the Kansas-Nebraska Act, and the Dred Scott decision that all played a vital role in igniting the Civil War. This lesson was taught by having students take effective notes from a PowerPoint presentation that I lectured and included a video that related to the content. In the end students were given the chance to illustrate their understanding of the content they had learned and critically think. They were to illustrate their opposition or acceptance of slavery in whichever cause of the Civil War they chose and draw and use content area words to convey their understanding on a poster. I implemented these in the lessons in regards to the students learning styles and to make learning both fun, effective, and creative. This lesson proved to be effective with the different activities I used because 97% of the students learned and did well on their post-assessment quiz and posters they created which conveyed they understood the content and it was presented to them effectively. If I were to teach this lesson again, in the end to facilitate a higher level of critical thinking, instead of letting the students choose if they opposed or accepted slavery and choose whichever cause they wanted to illustrate from that perspective, I would rather give it to them randomly at the end. This should facilitate higher learning and have students think from the perspective and how people during that era felt or thought regarding the issue of slavery in each cause. Individual Reflection: The high performing student in this class is student number 22. Student 22 performed at the highest level possible on all 2 out of 3 of the assessments. Student 22 participated extremely well during class. The pre-assessment showed that the student had a lot of prior knowledge

regarding the Causes of the Civil War, as they answered four out of the five questions correctly. During the lesson, they took effective notes and when called upon to answer who proposed the Compromise of 1850 they responded, The Compromise of 1850 was created by Senator of Kentucky Henry Clay. This student gave high level answers and received the maximum points during this assessment. During the post-assessment quiz, the student answered every question the same from the pre-test, but question number 2 the student left blank, he answered and received a 100 on the post-quiz and the creation of the poster. This student had the motivation and drives to learn and succeed. Student 23 was an average student, they were attentive but did not go over and beyond with answering questions on the quiz effectively to score the maximum points. On the preassessment Student 23 received three out of five points as they showed to have a moderate prior knowledge of this content. They were average and did enough to learn and score higher on the post-assessment to show they learned from the content. Student 23 participated enough during the class to improve during the post-assessments. The pre-assessment showed that the student had a little prior knowledge regarding the Causes of the Civil War, as they answered three out of the five questions correctly. During the lesson, they took effective notes and when called upon to answer what was popular sovereignty they responded, When people move to new lands and have the choice to vote on whether or not they want slavery or not. This student did not answer this on the pre-test, but when I called on them specifically to answer this question, and they did effectively, it showed that the student was following along and learning the content. This student gave high level answers and received the maximum points during this assessment. During the post-assessment quiz, the student answered four out of five of the questions, improving one point from the pre-test. Again the student left number two blank, and when I asked to make sure they understood the content, they replied they did not know how to word it. On the creation of the poster in the post-assessment this student received a 100 and illustrated their understanding of the content effectively. Student 24 was a low performing student, they were not attentive, did not answer any of the questions on the pre-test, during-assessment, nor took notes, only answered one question during the post-assessment quiz, and did not complete the poster. On the pre-assessment Student 24 received zero out of five points as they showed to have no knowledge of the content at all and just left the test blank. Although Student 24 was not disruptive during class, they showed no

signs that they wanted to learn or cared to do any work regarding this topic. I continuously stopped by to wake the student up and let them know I had high expectations for them and believed that if they tried they would do well and told them if they needed any help outside of class or during the post-assessments I could help guide them, but the students responded, Im good I dont need any help. During the pre-test I was not expecting students to answer all the questions or no them, but I was expecting them to critically think to create questions that connected to what we had previously learned. During the pre-test, this student answered none of the questions. During the lesson as I called on students to answer questions and I called upon this student, they shrugged and put their head back down, and did not take notes, receiving a zero for the during assessment as well. The post assessment did show a small improvement as the student answered one question on the post-assessment quiz receiving one point out of five, but scored a zero for not trying to create a poster. Reflections on 4 Additional Lessons In my first lesson, Bullying, the learning objectives of this lesson discusses the ability of students to be able to define bullying, identify the three types, become knowledgeable of any policies or repercussions for the act, and ways they can help report or prevent it by viewing an extensive PowerPoint presentation with a related video, answering content questions when called upon, and performing a skit at the end of the type of bullying they received. This lesson went extremely well and students seem to enjoy one anothers performance skit at the end to convey their understanding of the content. If I were to teach this lesson again, I would use these same methods of teaching because they were extremely effective and made learning both fun and effective. The second lesson titled, The Articles of Confederation, the learning objectives of this lesson discusses the ability of students to be able to explain the economic state of South Carolina after the Revolutionary War, identify the type of government South Carolina created, the transition to a new capital, and identify and describe the major problems and achievements of the Articles of Confederation by taking effective notes as they are presented an extensive PowerPoint presentation and complete a handout in the end to show what they have learned. The students performed well and improved from the pre-test. If I were to teach this lesson again I would maybe get copies of the Articles of Confederation as a primary source and have students

read and analyze this document and come up with ideas and the importance of this document to facilitate higher thinking. The third lesson, The Antebellum Period in South Carolina, learning objectives discussed the ability of students to be able to explain their understanding of South Carolina, one of the United States during the antebellum period and the importance of agriculture in South Carolina, including plantation life, slavery, and the impact of the cotton gin by taking effective notes from the PowerPoint presentation they will receive and completing a handout in the end in their cooperative learning groups. This lesson was effective and students learning were improved, but if I teach this again I would incorporate a more challenging activity that has students do their own research on this topic and examine the different perspectives of this era. The fourth lesson, Denmark Vesey Plot, the objective of this lesson was for students to be able to understand and explain the significance of the Denmark Vesey Plot, how it related to slavery in the South, Denmarks beliefs in his movement, and what the State did to protect white Americans from slave revolts by taking effective notes from the PowerPoint presentation they will receive and to create a poster or comic strip that illustrates the Denmark Vesey Plot using content phrases and drawings. This lesson was effective in achieving student learning and if I was to teach this lesson again I would use the same teaching methods because this class was fun and viewing students illustrations and having them present their work and discuss to the class their understanding of the content. The fifth lesson, my showcase lesson, The Causes of the Civil War, the objective of this lesson was for students to be able to understand and explain the major causes of the Civil War that led to South Carolinas secession from the Union. Students should be able to explain the significance of the Compromise of 1850, the Kansas-Nebraska Act, and the Dred Scott decision that all played a vital role in igniting the Civil War. By the end of the lesson students should be able to identify the issue of slavery in each cause of the Civil War by taking effective notes from the PowerPoint presentation they will receive and by having students illustrate a poster that shows their support or opposition for slavery during that era. This lesson was extremely fun and effective facilitating student learning. If I had to change anything about this lesson it would be in the end to not let students choose which perspective and cause they want to illustrate, but randomly distribute them to increase higher level thinking, and see what students come up with.