Teaching practice - Conducted lessons (3)
 |
| source: own presentation |
On Monday, 11.04 I conducted my fifth and final lesson. As in previous days, there was a fellow student observing my class alongside my mentor teacher. It made me a little bit more stressed than usual, though I then managed to focus on the lesson. Remembering how just a few days prior it actually helped to have more adults while supervising the group work, I’ve decided to use it to my advantage. I was excited about this lesson, as it was going to be the first time I was conducting a math lesson, and it was in English.
What was the lesson about?
The topic of this lesson was connected to practicing addition up to 100 and solving mathematical tasks. Lesson aims included:
What was the lesson about?
The topic of this lesson was connected to practicing addition up to 100 and solving mathematical tasks. Lesson aims included:
- revision of the structure I have …
- asking and answering How many … ? questions
- revision of the vocabulary: fruits (strawberry, watermelon, orange, banana) and vegetables (pumpkin, cucumber, onion, tomato)
- revision of mathematical vocabulary: addition, plus sign, equals sign, answer
- categorizing words as fruits and vegetables
- solving mathematical tasks
- writing mathematical tasks, using given vocabulary and structures
What I planned?
I planned a few stages of the lesson:
I planned a few stages of the lesson:
- warm-up - TPR to instructions
- revision of the vocabulary - presenting the words, choral and individual repetition, categorizing them into fruits and vegetables
- revision of mathematical knowledge - elicitation of the knowledge about addition, possible use for it, revising the names of signs: +, =
- practice of mathematical tasks solving - reading and solving the tasks orally
- group work - writing the tasks based on the instructions and using given words and previously practiced structures
- materials prepared by me - a presentation with pictures to present and tasks to solve, worksheets for group work
- classroom furnishing - the computer, interactive whiteboard, the whiteboard and chalk
What worked and why?
What surprised me, dividing students into groups went quite smoothly. I expected it to be chaotic and the students to get lost. It turned out to be true for a few of them, but in majority, they understood the rule. I wanted to make sure they divided themselves well, so I asked each of the groups to check their members and for pupils with a given number to raise their hands and check if they’re in the correct place.
Students were prepared to solve the tasks and had no difficulties remembering the words presented on slides. I feel like I was able to activate their prior knowledge and engage them in the lesson. I tried utilizing those pupils who weren’t interested in it and gave them a chance to solve some equations. Depending on their level of mathematical skills, I wanted each of them to be aware of their abilities and be able to solve it.
What didn’t work and why?
The thing that definitely didn’t work as I planned was group work. I chose to divide the students randomly, and had limited knowledge on who’s friends with who. It was a deliberate choice, to compare it to group work with pupils dividing themselves. As it turned out, five out of six groups worked just fine, but the sixth group wasn’t able to communicate. There were two boys and two girls and they were constantly fighting about the division of the tasks. I think the mistake was not naming the team leaders, which I’ll definitely try out next time.
I think I made a mistake not making sure they remember the numbers from 1-100. Based on the conversation with my mentor teacher and my observations, I assumed they knew them and were ready to name them looking at the numbers written on the screen. Most of them struggled with differentiating forty and fourteen, as well as thirty and forty. A few students needed some time to remember the correct words and I feel like we should’ve revised them before.
What could have been done better?
What surprised me, dividing students into groups went quite smoothly. I expected it to be chaotic and the students to get lost. It turned out to be true for a few of them, but in majority, they understood the rule. I wanted to make sure they divided themselves well, so I asked each of the groups to check their members and for pupils with a given number to raise their hands and check if they’re in the correct place.
Students were prepared to solve the tasks and had no difficulties remembering the words presented on slides. I feel like I was able to activate their prior knowledge and engage them in the lesson. I tried utilizing those pupils who weren’t interested in it and gave them a chance to solve some equations. Depending on their level of mathematical skills, I wanted each of them to be aware of their abilities and be able to solve it.
What didn’t work and why?
The thing that definitely didn’t work as I planned was group work. I chose to divide the students randomly, and had limited knowledge on who’s friends with who. It was a deliberate choice, to compare it to group work with pupils dividing themselves. As it turned out, five out of six groups worked just fine, but the sixth group wasn’t able to communicate. There were two boys and two girls and they were constantly fighting about the division of the tasks. I think the mistake was not naming the team leaders, which I’ll definitely try out next time.
I think I made a mistake not making sure they remember the numbers from 1-100. Based on the conversation with my mentor teacher and my observations, I assumed they knew them and were ready to name them looking at the numbers written on the screen. Most of them struggled with differentiating forty and fourteen, as well as thirty and forty. A few students needed some time to remember the correct words and I feel like we should’ve revised them before.
What could have been done better?
The chaos in one of the groups helped me see the importance of choosing a group leader. It may have been done by a choice made by the teacher or allowing pupils to do it themselves. From what I observed, the other groups managed to unconsciously do it and allow one of them to make decisions. In this group, there were two quite shy and more obedient students and the other two were confrontational and seemed unfriendly in relation to each other. In result, two of them decided to fill-in the worksheet and the girls disconnected from the group. For the next time, I will make sure to name group leaders and make them responsible for task division and navigating the conversation between group members.
With the numbers, my mentor teacher suggested some games that I could’ve used, but while preparing the lesson I had to cut something off as there wasn’t enough time. I wasn’t so far off with my predictions, because the group work is time consuming no matter how challenging and complex the task is. Apart from the issues mentioned above, this lesson went quite well. For the next time, I’ll make sure to remember those conclusions and use the elicitation to revise the previously learned content.
Below are some of the tasks prepared by the students in groups:
Comments
Post a Comment