Anne Barrett Mayfield

EDU 412
Dr. Enfield
10/10/16
Reflection on Co-Taught Lesson
For this particular lesson, my CT and I co-taught a Math lesson on
word problem solving strategies and using key words to determine
appropriate operations. My CT planned this lesson herself, so I did not
feel like I was in my own element as much. She typically uses
worksheets in her lessons because she believes her students respond
to those better. The lesson she planned with these worksheets is not
necessarily how I would have gone about introducing the students to
word problems.
She did not really have an opener for the lesson that activated
the students prior knowledge or reviewed in any way; she just jumped
in to lecturing them. When she started to model the word problem
solving strategies with the class, she sat on a very low stool at the
front of the room using the document camera the entire time. When I
started my part of the lesson, solving my word problem with the class
under the document camera, I noticed how the place she sits in the
room while teaching only really is visible to one student specifically.
When I sat there at first, I felt like I was only talking to that one
student. For this reason, I made it a point to stand up frequently to

check in on the students and call on many other students- specifically

in the back- to try to engage the entire class.
I also felt that a few of the word problems we modeled were
unusual and not aligned with what the students were supposed to be
learning. However, the cards in the activity at the end had much better
problems that were aligned and clear for the students to understand.
While I walked around listening to the students discussing the problem
with their partner, they seemed to understand and use the four-step
strategy accurately and efficiently.
The activity at the end was much more engaging for the students
because they were able to pick a student that they do not normally get
to work with and get up out of their desks to move around the room. A
lot of the problems also had the students names represented in them
which made it fun for them. The problems also included a variety of
concepts they have been working on as well as many different key
words that challenged them to think twice about the operation being
used. Many of the students corrected themselves and pointed out that
the problems were trying to trick them, which is a good skill for them
to have when taking the EOGs.
Overall, the students seemed to develop a good understanding
from the lesson on solving word problems. However, I was not a fan of
the teacher-guided part of the lesson and it did not coincide with my
preferred method of teaching. Although it did allow me to figure out

what works and does not work for the students when considering other
lessons. I noticed that it important to make sure you are engaging
every student while teaching the material or else many of them will
zone out and then go into independent work without knowing anything.
These are good observations to use when I am teaching mini lessons
on my own as well as teaching my unit.