Thursday, May 23

Today I taught another math lesson.  There are a number of comments I'd like to make, and I think it will be easiest to go through the lesson chronologically.  My one main concern throughout the lesson was timing, which I continue to work on.  This was only the second time I've used grouping in one of my lessons, and I found that my getting the feel for timing with groups is much different than with the whole group.  

I grouped the students carefully before the lesson, and this helped that transition run smoothly.  They were grouped primarily for behavior management purposes, as that has been my main focus throughout this placement.  I made sure to split up the students by academic level as well, and purposely had an even variety within each group.  In a few of the groups, I was going to place certain students by one another.  This didn't end up mattering much when students were with me, but did at the middle table.  In one specific case, I had a low student sitting next to a high one.  It only took a simple suggestion for them to work together for both to have something meaningful to work on throughout the group rotation.  I would love trying a lot of different grouping.  This was an early experience with is, and I am know there are a lot of great instructional opportunities based on thoughtful grouping in my future.

I spent a little too long on the math message I think, but I thought it was great for the students to come up and write the answers themselves.  To shorten the activity, I think I should have chosen fewer numbers to have them write.  

In the beginning of the lesson, I felt I did well with explaining congruency.  When the one student at the middle table didn't understand and wasn't able to articulate, I think I made the right decision to let the class move on, then work with him individually.  I also thought my decision to have students who finished earlier than others draw another congruent square in a different direction was a good one.  As students finished, I also told some of them to use another shape.  I didn't want them to use their templates because it takes less thought to create a congruent shape (it is already the same size and shape).  On both of these points, I found out in the moment that Mrs. Lance disagreed.  This was a little misstep and I'm not really sure how to have fixed it--I think it was just something that is bound to happen when working with a host or cooperating teacher.  All in all, it was a small glitch and didn't affect students beyond a small confusion.  

One other reason timing was pressed was that I'd thought the students were able to write decimals already.  This was supposed to be a review activity for them, but it seemed like I was teaching something new.  Another strength I thought I had was when I was explaining this concept, especially with checking for understanding.  I almost felt that I took too long with it, but I wanted to make sure everyone was on the same page because they weren't able to work directly with a teacher in that group.  

Another strength I felt I had was giving students directions for transitions.  The first transition from the carpet to their tables went well--getting called by table is a routine they are used to.  I was pretty nervous for the second major one, from their table spots to their group spots.  They did quite well though, and I think part of that was because I had them stand in certain places before sitting down.  I am sure there are more efficient ways to do a transition like this that I will continue to learn, however I felt it went smoothly in this instance.  The second transition when we switched groups was a little less smooth.  I should have given a clearer step-by-step instructions and slowed these down.  Even so, they were able to get to where they needed to go, didn’t get unruly, and did it in a timely manner.

During the first group rotation, I thought I did well having the students go through the activity, especially at the end when we should have switched groups.  I was expecting to switch earlier and ran out of things ‘planned’ by Everyday Math.  I had ideas for extensions though, and gave these to the students, which kept them working right up to the end.  One thing I should have done differently was stopping the whole small group and giving them directions together.  I only ended up saying the directions twice, but in the future I’d like to keep everyone on the same page.  This might have worked better in this instance as I had students finishing at different times.  I think grouping by level of proficiency would help this in the future.  I had discussed moving on with Mrs. Lance a little earlier than we did, although she needed a few more minutes.  Because I wasn't sure of when she wanted to switch, I didn't get in the wrap-up I'd wanted, but I was able to do that better in the following rotations.  Because of timing, our last group was shortened.  The students had a chance to do the activity, but I chose to cut out a few parts of it.  It was much shorter than the rest.  

I also felt that I did well monitoring the middle group during my group work.  This was not at the front of my brain as I started my activity, but once I remembered, I was able to keep track of them while my group worked.  I made sure to check on them consistently throughout the rest of the lesson, knowing no teacher was handy to ask questions to when they arose.  The students did well at this group, and only a few were struggling with the decimals. 

As I mentioned earlier, this is only the second time I've used groups.  It was overall a good experience, especially because I had Mrs. Lance to run another group.  It made it easy to plan knowing I had another teacher to run one of the groups.  

Question of the day: How do you set up routines at the beginning of the year that last throughout the school year?

Mrs. L. and the school follow the responsive classroom model.  The first few weeks of school have time and activities for building these things written into the curriculum.  She also has a classroom handbook that she goes over with students.  She mentioned a few things that she finds really helpful within the responsive classroom activities.  The one she focused most on was creating Y charts.  In these, the students come up with what a certain lesson or type of activity should look, sound, and feel like.  These are posted in the classroom all year long, and Mrs. L. visits them when she feels students are forgetting.