Nicholas Plourde

Summary Reflection Paper

East Longmeadow High School
Kevin Magee & Alicia Harlow
PHED 239- Module 4: High School
Dr. Mangano
5/5/14






















The area for where I have noticeably grown as a teacher since the start of this
module is my instruction. This has always been an aspect of my pedagogical presentation
for which I have struggled with in the past. My biggest problem with this teaching
component is that my delivery of content to the students was too wordy, which made the
amount of time spent in these lesson segments be much greater than which it should be.
The main adjustment I made to my introduction of concepts was to just focus on the
general qualities that make them up, rather than going into their specifics. I found this was
a useful approach compared to what I was originally doing. When I first tried to explain
every detail of a particular skill, strategy, or tactic, the information was not particularly
relevant to the students based on the less competitive setting I was demonstrating them in.
One example of this was during my teaching of pass patterns in my second lesson; I told the
class the exact number of yards they would need to run before making their next move.
Looking back, this information was not necessary to explain because I only needed to focus
on whether they could perform the motion or not. After realizing this, I changed my
instruction so that I focused on the fundamentals as opposed to the minor details. Upon
making this alteration, I was able to establish clear, yet concise instruction in which the
learners could better interpret.
At the beginning of this module, my pedagogy skills were mostly geared to
accommodate that of younger level learners. But after working with high school students, I
learned the best way to communicate with these older individuals is to challenge them
through critical thinking of concepts in focus. In my first few lessons teaching this age
group, I would present content to them as if they had never seen or heard it before,
explaining the very basic material. But this did not prove to be effective because I noticed
they would just get bored, and, as a result, engage in off-task behavior. To prevent this from
happening again, I decided to pose checking for understanding questions to them so I
could gauge how much they already knew on the subject matter. I would then use that
information to rework my plan of instruction to build better momentum in my succeeding
lessons. During my last teaching episode, in particular, I had several football players in my
class. When presenting different trick plays to the students, I informally quizzed them on if
they were familiar with the schemes. When the athletes said they possessed prior
knowledge of the concepts, I had them demonstrate this content to their other classmates,
while I verbally analyzed their execution. This was helpful in limiting my delivery of the
material, and in turn, gave the learners more opportunities to respond from being provided
with greater activity time. I found this method was a better fit for teaching high school
students based on the fact many of them already have an advanced grasp of the material,
unlike the younger students who still need to learn simple skills, strategies, and tactics,
requiring more instruction.
Another aspect vital to teaching high school students is to make them aware of the
format in how they are going to compete against one another for any tournament setup. By
informing them of this in my lessons, I noticed the learners were more motivated to work
harder in an effort to win in light of how the competition aspect makes the class more
meaningful. During my first teaching episode, I had the students take part in a bracket-style
badminton tournament. However, I never posted the arrangement for the competition, so it
was unclear to the class. This led them to engage in actions that they were not supposed to.
As a whole, the learners did not meet the goals that I had set before the lesson, leading to
an unproductive teaching. Because high schoolers already have the basic concepts down,
they want to be able to put their skills into action through real-life applications. If the
organization in how they are going to perform these actions is not distinctly expressed to
them, they will not be driven to take part in the tasks. That is why it is essential to plan and
prepare these configurations for gameplay with this level of learners.
Another essential concept to keep in mind when teaching high school students is
that clear behavioral expectations need to be outlined at the start of every lesson. I found
that this is critical because of how difficult it can be to get them to fully participate in the
lesson. In my second teaching episode, I did not present the learners with these regulations
and they, in turn, were consistently off-task throughout the entire class period. Although I
would inform them about my displeasure of their misconduct, including desisting
misbehavior, they would continue to partake in these acts right after I walked away from
them. Perhaps if I stopped the teaching and brought everybody together to go over class
rules, it may have made the students feel more accountable for their actions. High school
students are known to test higher authority figures, so in doing that would likely have
gotten them to cooperate with the task at hand.
The most important lesson I learned from teaching in this module is how significant
it is to display a sense of enthusiasm to your students when giving them guidance. In
addition, I discovered by illustrating this emotion, it has the power to influence their
success in the material introduced. It was in my third teaching episode when I decided to
exhibit this excitement towards a student. This person, as a result, displayed an increased
effort. Afterward, others in the class took note of the recognition, and instantaneously put
forth more energy into their performance in order to capture my attention as well. It is
quite clear that learners like getting positive feedback due to the fact it assures they are
completing any given task correctly. I plan to continue assimilating this technique into my
pedagogical skill set for the future because it is proven to keep students engaged in content,
which leads to heightened academic learning time.