Lesson Week Reflection

ELA:

Social Studies:
 Math:

Science:
1.) For the ELA assessment I had good results. The majority of the students got four out of five

or five out of five comprehension questions correct. Every student got at least two out of the five

questions correct. Then for the SS assessment I also had great results which showed me that the

students listened to book and understood what resources are about. I expected these results

because I talked with my mentor teacher before teaching the lesson, and he said the students

have been improving with comprehension. After the lesson was taught, I discussed the results

with my mentor teacher and all the students have been showing great signs of understanding the

concept. That said, I believe my students are doing well with comprehension, so I will use these

results in the next lesson by taking the next step forward which is being able to find the answer

and write it down, not just say it. Research studies have shown that writing out your answers can

help you remember them more. According to the article Memorization Strategies, “Writing

appears to help us more deeply encode information that we’re trying to learn because there is a

direct connection between our hand and our brain. Try writing your notes by hand during a

lecture or rewriting and reorganizing notes or information by hand after a lecture”. I would start
by splitting the students into small groups and give them the article and questions. I would go

around to assist and see how students are doing with this concept and go from there.

As for the math assessment, I also expected the results to be high. This was a review

lesson and assessment for the students. For the most part, the majority of the students earned an

85% or higher. After discussing with my mentor teacher about the results with all students he

said he was impressed. From there I would use the results I gathered from the math problems and

know that my students are ready to move onto new strategies. Since this assessment was over

breaking apart the 100s place and regrouping in the ones place, the next step would be showing

the students how to regroup in the tens and hundreds place. I know the students are ready for this

challenge because of not only the results, but the confidence I saw when the students were

working on the problems. According to the article Encouraging Mathematical Confidence, “As

teachers, we need to reinforce a growth mindset in our students. Mathematical confidence

reflects a growth mindset and includes a willingness to persevere, a positive attitude toward

mistakes, a willingness to take risks, and self-reliance". Doing this review lesson and assessment

really helped boost the students confidence about their knowledge of these subtraction strategies.

Reviewing improved their results and helped prepare them to move forward with their

subtraction.

As for the science assessment, I also had good results. Out of the twelve questions the

lowest score was question ten and there were still 12/16 students who got it correct. After talking

with my mentor teacher, I was confident the students would do well. I would say I expected good

results, but these results were great. The students grasped the concept quickly and did very well.

With the results that I received I would take the next step forward during our next lesson. Instead

of having the students only sort out pictures of push and pull. This time they will have to explain
either in written or verbal form why that action is either a push or a pull. According to the article

Why Does Explaining to Others Help Us Understand, “Verbally explaining a concept really does

help you to better grasp it, according to work by psychologists at the University of California at

Berkeley. That's because we all have an intuitive sense of what makes a thorough explanation,

but we often neglect to generate one for ourselves”. Having the students explain their thinking

about why that is the answer will help them further understand the topic of push and pull forces.

Overall, I think the students did their best on these assessments, and the results showed it.

2.) I feel that the feedback I gave to the students did effectively provide them with insight into

their learning about the content. This is because I made sure to not only give constructive

feedback but also mentioned what the students were doing correctly, and I believe that really

helped each student stay positive and understand that they can do the work. I made sure to give

both oral and written feedback to the whole class and each of my students. I would provide oral

feedback to the whole class while going over assignments, and I would also take the time to call

my students and other students over individually to discuss strengths they had while completing

the assignments and also mention areas of improvement and give them examples of what that

would look like. I would then provide those examples in written form on their papers for the

students to take with them to go over. The students seemed to respond well to feedback and

wanted to understand their errors and how to fix them for next time.

3.) I had many different ideas of concrete ways to help the students remember the feedback given

to them. One big factor that I think really helped the students understand common mistakes they

made was putting the corrected version, with explanations, on a big poster board and hanging it

up in the classroom for the students to look at. If I needed to give a correction to one of my

students individually something that seemed helpful to them was putting the correction on a
sticky note and taping it to their desk. This was so they would see it all day long and I believe it

helped them remember their corrections better. As for oral feedback I think stopping and taking

the time to really go over the problem and talk about what they did wrong helped them

understand and grasp the issue better than just telling them they did this wrong. All these tricks

and tools helped guide the students into understanding how to correct and fix mistakes for their

future assignments.

4.) From being in the classroom and watching my mentor teacher teach lessons, teaching lessons

myself, and watching students learn from them, I felt like I could learn a lot about the importance

of assessments and feedback. Giving an assessment is a crucial part for the teacher and the

student. It is important for the teacher because it gives them information on how well and

effective their lessons are. While for students it gages what all they have learned and lets them

know where they should be at. According to the article, Kompanions Revisualizing Education “A

year-round assessment provides information about whether the learning and instructional targets

were met or not”. This is beneficial because giving these assessments tells both the teacher and

the student if the goals were met or not and what needs to be worked on. As for feedback, it is

important that teachers understand feedback needs to be given in two forms, oral and written. It

must be presented so that the students can grasp the information. Students also need to be given

both positive and constructive feedback for improvements. Positive feedback can be something

as simple as telling a student “Good job” on a problem and pointing out parts of an assignment

that they did correctly to boost their confidence. As for constructive feedback, according to the

article, The Importance of Feedback “Feedback achieves great results especially when students

make errors or demonstrate a lack of understanding, presenting an opportunity for deeper

learning and positive growth”. Feedback is how students learn to grow with their learning.
 Giving students constructive feedback and explaining to them how to fix their errors is how they

will learn and improve.

5.) Something I would have done differently during lesson week is prepare assigned groups

before starting the lesson. For me science and math lessons there was group and partner group

involved. I did not have groups picked out and found it difficult to pick groups on the spot. I

wanted to make sure I had groups that would help and benefit all students. Trying to assign

groups on the spot caused unwanted behavior and talking out. The students were getting restless

and lost focus. There were also students who got upset because they did not want to work with a

certain student. For my future lessons, I will create all the groups and partners before starting.

This way when it comes time to work in groups, I already know who is with who and it should

go a lot smoother. Overall, the lesson did go very well, and I am excited to start to teach the

students more.

References

Audet, L. (n.d.). Encouraging mathematical confidence. Encouraging Mathematical Confidence.

https://blog.heinemann.com/thinking-together-encouraging-mathematical-confidence

Holl, R. (2019, August 1). The importance of feedback: Learning A. Z. https://www.learninga-

z.com/site/resources/breakroom-blog/importance-of-feedback

Importance of assessment in early childhood education. KOMPANIONS. (n.d.).

https://www.kompanions.com/blog/importance-of-assessment/
Memorization strategies. Learning Center. (2024, February 19). https://learningcenter.unc.edu/tips-and-

tools/enhancing-your-

memory/#:~:text=Write%20it%20out.,by%20hand%20after%20a%20lecture.

Wolchover, N. (2012, June 15). Why does explaining to others helps us understand?. LiveScience.

https://www.livescience.com/34000-explaining-helps-understand.html