- What strength(s) did you notice in the teaching and learning process?
I am proudest of the classroom environment in which students feel comfortable sharing their math ideas and questions with each other. Often this leads to extended conversations which sometimes eat up valuable class time, but I feel that these conversations are worth the extra time.
- What evidence(s) of students' learning did you observe?
Students are asking great questions. I know it is difficult to hear the exact questions but hopefully I rephrase their questions enough to get the gist.
- To what degree were all learners engaged?
Sometimes I do wonder to what degree other students benefit from questions asked by one student, but most often, when I am answering a student's question I hear a informed "oooooh" from a good portion of the rest of the class.
- What evidences of addressing varied abilities did you observe?
I think the think pare share process that I use is a good way of addressing varied abilities. Not only does it encourage students to help each other, but it also allows me to walk the class and do in-depth check for understanding with individual students while the other students are engaged in conversation.
- What was the your role in supporting learning?
During the video I play several roles. One lecturing, one questioning, and one guiding.
- Describe one challenge you observed.
The biggest challenge on this particular day was that it was a shortened day with only a 30 minute class time. Subtract time to answer questions about the homework and there was barely enough time to fit in what I wanted. During a normal class I am usually able to give time for students to work on their homework, but during this class I felt that the questions I was receiving and the conversation it was generating was more important.
- Based on the above responses, how might you revise or tweak this instructional routine?
I would try to give more time for homework. I would have preferred to do this lesson in a full 50 minute class instead, but due to the timing of the term the lesson needed to be done.
SUPERB effort, Ben. I enjoyed travelling with you through your presentation. Let's state it again ... One, Two, ...
ReplyDeleteAppreciated the thorough responses to your essential questions.
What strength(s) did you notice in the teaching and learning process?
ReplyDeleteYour strengths were getting students to participate by pairing them with a partner so everyone was participating. You also did a good job of moving around the room.
What evidence(s) of students' learning did you observe?
Student participation is where you observed learning. Many students were getting correct answers when working on the problems or having discussions.
To what degree were all learners engaged?
I think that everyone was engaged. I couldn't see them all, but it looked and sounded like everyone was participating.
What evidences of addressing varied abilities did you observe?
I guess the only evidence I saw was you walking around the room and helping students. This is something I struggle with. Individual help is usually my go to.
What was the your role in suppo0rting learning?
Your role was leading discussions and getting everyone to participate. You did such a good job getting everyone involved in the discussion.
Describe one challenge you observed.
One challenge was the time restriction. I have taught this lesson too and it isn't easy to do in ten minutes. Flipping the negative exponent was a hard concept for my high schoolers to get. That was about the only challenge I observed.
Based on the above responses, how might you revise or tweak this instructional routine?
Maybe having another class period to work on this more or having a longer time to work on some problems and the lesson. The thing I hate most about teaching so far is that we feel so restricted by the pacing of the classes that we sometimes are not able to spend as much time as needed on certain things and have to move on when not everyone has a firm grasp on the concepts.