5.

PROFESSIONAL RESPONSIBILITY: Teacher Reflection

Participation was good in most hours, but great in third hour. The students did well at
supporting their answers when prompted. I believe I did a good job at supporting
them with follow up questions and listening to their answers. My mentor teacher is
good at being encouraging when students give an incorrect answer, so I have picked
that up from him. The students gave positive feedback of their understanding,
indicating that most of them paid attention and understood the lesson. Originally, I
had planned to have each group talk for thirty seconds to a minute about where
dependent clauses and phrases could be placed in a sentence. First hour, the
students did not understand what I was asking, so I dropped that part and just kept
them saying the acronym. I also was asked what an acronym was during second
hour, so I added in asking the students what it meant for the later classes. Because
the class has so many ELLs, it would be a good idea to try and tie English grammar
into Arabic grammar. Next time I might try asking something along the lines of how
does this work in Arabic? to engage students and get them thinking/making
connections. If I ran this class myself, I would invest a little more time in grammar
because these students struggle with it and could use more guidance. The time
limits imposed by only using grammar as bell work make it harder to draw out these
typesof connections. On one occasion I failed to push a student to explain their
answer. The next time I will try to be more consistent and push every student to
explain. Near the end, I gave a time warning that could make students anxious. Next
time I will likely try saying something more neutral like finish up your sentences
now. Transitions are a difficulty for me, and this class reflected that. I did pause, but
didnt wait long enough for every student to stop talking. I need to get over the
awkwardness and wanting to get moving in order to make sure the class is entirely
silent. Students self-assessed their understanding of dependent clauses, phrases,
and subordinating conjunctions as mostly thumbs up or in the middle, which is a
good

indication of meeting the outcome for an introduction to a unit. The sentences they
wrote were also good; out of 5 hours and about 30 groups total, I only had 3
incorrect sentences.
Since the assessment reflected the outcome positively, the unit will be continued as
planned in the independent work, then review/correct format. If it had showed they
still did not understand, I would add in another lesson and/or switch to a more
guided learning system.
After my lesson plan, you stayed and watched me set up the AOWs. They did have
a much better result this time with students completing the work and doing it
correctly. About 5 students per hour still did not turn one in by Monday, but that
seems to be pretty standard with every assignment. Those who turned it in did much
better, but Jake wants to review how we have them approach it again so it doesnt
have to be a two-week process. Right now we are thinking of making sure the article
is no longer than a page, and adjusting the annotations (what we had them do the
first week) so that they are a little less time consuming.