Reflection – Pre Assessment

Today was our first day with the Lincoln students. Prior to teaching, we spent a few hours
preparing the pre assessment that we would be giving today. We prepared a few activities that would help
us collect data for the student’s current levels of performance in 6th grade geometry. As the students began
to arrive and sign in, we had them color a manila folder with their name and a few things that they enjoy.
This was a good activity to help them stay busy as everyone arrived. It would have been more beneficial
if we had them draw things they have learned about the topics we would assess, as an extra source of data.
The activities we used to assess our students went well. We were able to see that most of our
students are familiar with the parts of shapes in relation to finding their area. We had our students make a
robot from a pre-determined set of area’s for each body part. The students excelled in doing this and it
showed us that they know that the area of a shape is the space inside of the shape. It was great that all of
their robots were different shapes and we will use this information to teach about area in the coming days.
We also gave the students a sheet of paper with the area formulas for different shapes. This is a valuable
piece of data and helped us see that their understanding of the formulas are very basic.
There is room for improvement in our co teaching. We didn’t discuss what roles we would fulfill
as co teachers while planning the lesson. As it began, my personality and natural tendency to dominate
took over. I usually take the lead in lessons if the role has not been discussed and do not back down
unless someone points out to me that I am not co teaching. Planning a co teaching strategy would direct
our efforts to best benefit the learning of our students. This lesson lacked trust between teachers and there
were often questions and looks of confirmation between teachers during the lesson due to the lack of a
plan. As we continue to teach our students, all will benefit from a planned co teaching strategy.
Looking back at our student’s abilities, we can see that they are more advanced than we planned for. 5/6
of the students were able to complete over half of our pre-assessment goals successfully. It was quite a
wake up call to see that these students area truly advanced and that we must differentiate instruction to
meet their educational needs.

Reflection – Lesson Plan 1

Today was our second day teaching our students. R came one day late so K gave him the pre
assessment while I began our lesson with the other five students. We started by playing a computer game
that require the students to create shapes with pre determined area and perimeter. All of the students were
engaged in finding the strategy for completing the game. At the end of the lesson, we gave them the
choice between two games and they all decided to go back to this game except for H, who wanted to
create figures by rolling dice.
Our co teaching was briefly discussed the night before we taught the lesson. We did ok at this but
were unable to identify a strategy to use. I just taught the lesson until K finished the pre-assessment with
R. When she finished, she taught about trapezoids. In our future lessons, we have planned to use the
station teaching strategy for our students learning benefit. I believe that as we do this, we will be able to
trust each other and collaborate with how students performed in different teaching situations.
The activities that we planned for our students went well. They were all coming up with different
ways to make a trapezoid into a rectangle. They taught each other how they completed this which resulted
in each student learning at least one new way to transform the shape to find its area. The student's
thinking was stretched when they had to draw a rhombus with a specific area. This was a great activity
because they stretched their thinking but did not become frustrated with the activity and their knowledge.
We did notice however that the students were bored with the activities so we plan to make more engaging
activities for the students to participate in. We also realized that some students learn well with other
students in the group and others do not. We plan to make groups where students can learn the best with
who they are learning near.

Reflection- Lesson Plan 2

Today was our third day teaching our students, we planned to use station teaching as our co
teaching strategy. K and I each planned our own stations and taught two students at a time. We paired H
and J because they seem to be close in their education level. We also know that these two help each other
well and are patient with each other. We paired H and C together in a partnership and C was able to help
H with the simple tasks he struggled with. Lastly, C and R were paired so C could help R because they
are at different academic levels.
At my station, we found the area of triangle sugar cookies. The students were supposed to find
the cookie with the area of 12 in^2. The students seemed eager to find the areas of the cookies so they
could decorate and eat one. All of the students were able to complete the activity and eat their cookie in
the designated amount of time. I did notice that H used the right formula but forgot to divide his answers
by two. I also noticed that R didn’t really know how to apply the formula in real life. The three girls
worked independently and every student chose the correct cookie.
All students seemed more engaged today than they did last time we taught. All students
participated and stretched their math skills to help them learn and grow. I watched J struggle multiplying
sides with .5 inches and she multiplied them with some struggles. She didn’t give up and was able to still
get the correct answers with more time. All students struggled a bit to brainstorm ideas for other real-life
applications. C came up with the idea of using the area of a triangle to cut cake slices. R had the idea of
the pool ball collector. Other students needed prompting to brainstorm ideas.

Reflection – Lesson Plan 3

Teaching today went very well. We did station teaching again because that seemed to be an
effective approach. C wasn’t here today so we did two groups instead of three. I taught the station oh the
formula of polygons. I started by having the students try to recall the formula of a polygon from memory.
H was the only student that was able to do this completely on his own. All of the other students struggled
to even know where to start. After this, I showed them the correct formula and had them write it down.
This was effective to help them be able to memorize the formula. Then each student drew a polygon with
more than four sides. I showed them how the formula is derived in the shape with smaller triangles. This
was very successful for every student. They were all able to count triangles in their shapes to find “n”.
We used peg boards to create polygons that we could find the area of. Most students struggled
with this, especially C and H. R was the only student that made the shape in a short amount of time. He
made an octagon. He then helped the other people in his group make one. After the shapes were made,
they were asked to find the area using the formula. The peg boards had equal squares to measure with but
the sides of the polygons were not all the same length. This made it hard to find the actual area so we had
to find an area that was closest to the correct area.
All students but R found the area with the formula. Once I checked their work, I noticed that the
students did not measure the correct length for the base. They were counting pegs instead of the inches
between the pegs. This made all of their answers wrong at first but once they fixed them, it was easier.
The students responded to instruction very well and liked the interactive peg boards.
Final Reflection
Reflection
Not only was this a learning experience for our students, but K and I learned so much through this
experience. I was very surprised that our students did so well on the pre-assessment. They understood so
much which helped us to see their levels of performance. A new their parents said they were Advanced
but I didn't know most of them for a grade ahead in math. It was such a great experience to be able to plan
how to teach those above and below grade level in the same setting. It stretched us to plan differentiated
instruction and actually implemented. I learned that it's one thing to prepare for it and another to apply it
to teaching situations. It didn't go very smoothly at first but the more we practice to the more I got the
hang of it. Our students did an incredible job throughout their whole learning experience. Not only were
they polite and intelligent children, but they were willing to learn which made all the difference. They
engaged in activities and we were able to see them grow throughout the weeks. I was incredibly
impressed with H and how he opened up throughout the experience as well.
I learned a lot about my own teaching abilities. I learned that I'm really hard to co-teach with,
and that I have a lot of pride when it comes to teaching. At times it was really hard for me to plan an
activity that wasn't exciting for me to participate in. K taught me that it doesn't always have to be the most
fun activity but it needs to be engaging. There's a difference between those two and we need to find the
happy medium. Not only did I learn more about my teaching skills, but I also learned the importance of
keeping up on the information you are teaching. I struggled a lot to know about the geometry topics we
would be teaching. I had to relearn some of the things and ask K for clarification on a few topics. As a
teacher, it will be so important to prepare and know the content you are teaching so that your students do
not suffer from your ignorance.
There are some things that I would change for the future. Something that I realized that is very
important in this whole lesson planning process is the actual way that you plan for differentiated
instruction. This was kind of hard to do and I didn't see much benefit from it other than when H finished
he wasn't bugging the rest of the students. It's something that I need to work on and that I would take
more time to plan in the future. I would also end the lesson by checking for understanding. We didn't
usually have time at the end of our lessons because we were rushing to get through everything that we had
planned. I think it would be very beneficial to assess knowledge at the end of every lesson so that we can
plan our next lesson around that knowledge.
In the future, I would use the same co-teaching strategies. Lesson planning with these strategies
became so much easier when we knew exactly how we would teach together. We were able to give each
other ideas and ultimately it helped us to be on the same page. I would also give assignments right when
the students arrive. This was very helpful when all of the students were arriving at different times and we
wanted them to be able to practice the skills that they had previously learned. It was also a great way to
collect data since we didn't check for understanding at the end of lessons.