Sorry I am a little late on the post, but I was so preoccupied with my lesson and getting it done before spring break that is caused me to neglect my blog!
I decided to incorporate my teacher's smart board while teaching my lesson on Paul Revere. The whole lesson went better than I expected. The children all volunteered to read parts of the poem out loud and also had great follow up discussion. Some times in the conversation the students got a little off topic or you could say creative. When I asked the students how Paul Revere's message would be spread, many students went into great discussion about cell phone ringers and how they thought there would be a ringer that said "the British are coming!" I had to bring the class back after this but at least they were being creative!
I kept note that every child participated in either reading out loud or responding in discussion. I did notice however that boys participated several times. Many wanted to explain their knowledge of the muskets the British used or the details of the boats that they used. I am not sure if this is because stereotypically boys are more interested in these topics or if this is just my typical class. I noticed also for the assessment, boys had written longer responses then the girls. This is something that i will continue to keep in mind and evaluate throughout my future teaching.
While teaching a lesson based on discussion I realized the most difficult part for me was how to respond to the students. I never wanted to portray to them that there is a right or wrong answer but I also wanted them to know I appreciated and valued their response. When asking my CT about this he suggested responding with, "I see you are really thinking about this question" or "that is a thoughtful response." Another suggestion my teacher had was showing the students a model of the type of assessment I want them to complete. I struggled with this idea because I do not want to limit the student's creativity or for them to simply mimic how I completed the assessment. Overall I am very pleased with my discussion based lesson. I am very appreciative of the helpful responses to my blog that helped make my lesson more successful!
1 comment:
Overall it seems like your lesson went really well. I am jealous that you had the opportunity to use a smartboard in your classroom. I have never seen anything more than one computer and a overhead projector in any of my placements. The smartboard seems like it really added to your lesson because of the great website you found. It also seems like you are getting a lot of great advice from your CT.
I have found that you and I have a similar thing we are working on in teaching. I worry about some of the same things a you in my lesson. I am really trying to train myself to not give evaluating comments when listening to students. I find it really hard not to say "good" or "right" to students. It is really hard to break out of repeating what your teachers have said to you. I have been working on saying things like "how do you know that?" and "can you tell me more" and finally saying "I see". These comments don't make it obvious to students that I either agree or disagree with what they are saying. Right now it seems that I have to consciously think about what to say and I hope it gets easier in the future.
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