Reflection Analysis Reflection Showcase Lesson: After observing my show case lesson I noticed several intriguing results that

I was able to derive from my analysis that both impacted my assessment positively and negatively. Preassessment question 1 gave me the most reliable data. The responses to these questions allowed me to come up with the conclusion that most students did not know the meaning of sectionalism in the United States Pre-Civil War which was the topic of discussion in class that day. It allowed me to foresee the importance of how important that days lecture was to the class. Questions 2 and 3 provided me with an understanding that the students were familiar with the content from past lessons. Although they were efficient in doing this, I should have asked more open ended questions in my pre assessment that related to that days lesson. My pre-assessment may have been more efficient if I had asked a question like How do you think slaves were treated in the South before the Civil War? A question like this would have helped get more data for my topic that I taught that day in class. The post assessment lesson provided the students with an opportune time to use their creativeness and construct historical thinking. I asked the students to pretend they were a citizen in South Carolina during the time period and explain how sectionalism is affecting their lives and to use information from the lecture to support the answer. There were significant gains in the understanding of the content in my post assessment exercise but I believe that the exercise was affected too much by the other two factors that I used to grade the assessment, grammar and readability/creativity. At first, I thought that this would be beneficial to the students, but after observing the data I realized that I put too much weight in this area of the assessment. I should have condensed the topics together and grade creativity separately. This would have helped student performance. I should have also posted the rubric on

the board as well for the exercise with the prompt in order to effectively communicate with the students. But with the way I designed the assessment, I could explain to my fellow teachers in the future that our students need to improve their reading and writing skills if more data reflected the same results. With the implementation of Common Core in the future, reading and writing skills need to be assessed more and practiced amongst the students. Personally, I thought that my learning objective was accomplished by a majority of the class. See Lesson 4 for learning objective. I thought that even though Post-Assessment scores were lower than I expected, I feel that it was more to with the rubric for grading the assessments than it was for not accomplishing the objectives. I used a variety of primary sources and artifacts to help supplement the learning objective. I feel that anytime a teacher uses these types of supplements it strikes an emotion into the content for the students. Students are able to dig into the content more and rid themselves of possibly wrong assumptions that they might have had before the lesson. I would have also liked to implement technology better in my lessons. The students at my school are able to use their smartphones, tablets, and laptops in class to take notes. In the future, I need to become more familiar with applying exercises that take advantage of this element. Due to my insecurity on this issue, I tried to use as little technology as possible. Individual Performance Reflection Student 6 was the most successful learner during my lesson. This student was well informed on the content because this era of history was interesting. The students have the ability to look and see the upcoming lessons in the class. Students can choose to do earlier research on a topic if they chose to do so. Student 6 exhibited these behaviors judging by his performance on

the assessments and participation in class. I was thoroughly impressed with the students efforts to be ready to learn and participate in every class that I observed and taught. Student 11 is a low performer in the class. Despite teaching a STEMS history class (refer to Contextual Factors for more information about STEMS), this student normally does not perform well in class. This assumption was supported by my assessment data. Student 11 often exhibits discipline problems in class. The student does not seem to adhere the information being taught. The student is not shy and tries to participate but responses are often irrelevant to the topic of discussion. I believe that this student needs to participate in more group assessments or assessments that require students to effectively collaborate better. I think that if Student 11s strengths as a student were exploited then higher scores the student would receive. The students attitude toward the content varies from time to time as well. I believe that by practicing more exercises that are favorable to the students needs then results would also go up as well. Student 15 is an average performer in the class. Student 15 is often shy and reluctant to participate in certain active learning exercises in class. I believe that my assessment data supports that this student does better on individual activities and exercises when groups are not required to complete the exercise. The students did very well on my exercise scoring almost perfect on it. The exercise appealed to the student because it did require him or her to participate aloud or within a group. I think that Students 15 capabilities are unique and should be exploited, but to make the student better as a teacher I need to build the confidence in the student to be able to effectively communicate the students opinion with others. I need to come up with exercises that embrace the students strengths in a group setting in order to facilitate student improvement for the future.

Reflections on Lessons 1,2,3, and 5 I structured each lesson similar to the format of my cooperating teacher. I believe that rhythm and patterns are key elements to students learning. Breaking this rhythm, by trying a new format of presentation or teaching could affect student achievement that day. I structured each lesson with Focus questions as a bell ringer, emotional link question related to that days content that appealed to the students senses, essential questions that the students wrote down at the beginning of class each day and answered at the end of class, proceeded with my lecture that included a primary source activity, and then a post assessment exercise that varied from lesson to lesson. I formatted most of my lectures like this because I was able to keep the students on schedule with the plans that the teacher had implemented in the classroom. I vary rarely went away from this lesson format because I wanted to stay on task and not fall behind. In future lessons, I will make sure that I try to accommodate assessments to all students. I will try to include a variety of assessments in my lessons that appeal to auditory, visual, and kinesthetic learners. I believe that by appealing to all the students strengths as much as possible will benefit the success and student achievement in my future lessons. I will also try to focus more on primary sources. Primary sources can be used to effectively tell the story of history if applied correctly. They also allow the students to practice their critical thinking and problem solving skills as they are implemented. Technology will also become a huge benefactor for student success. The more practice students have with technology and relating it with content the more efficient the students results will be. I need to become more knowledgeable in this area so that I can apply it to my future lessons.

Throughout these lessons, I engaged my students with primary source activities from the era of study. I also used artifacts from the era as well. For example, I used replicas of restraints that slaves were sometimes forced to use such as neck restraints and handcuffs to explain how slaves were sometimes punished. I used a variety of learning methods during my lecture as well. I used lecture, group and individual exercises, and demonstration in almost every lesson to assure that the students had the chance to respond to the lesson in a variety of ways. I believe that I used the standard technology well. PowerPoint presentations and computers were used thoroughly throughout my lessons. I needed improvement on the use of ipads and iphone application that students are now allowed to use in the classroom, but I am eager to learn more about these types of practices. Students were both actively and passively involved in my lessons. They were actively involved through group work and primary source analysis and passively through the lecture portion of my lessons. I thought the resources and materials were extremely beneficial in my class. The artifacts particularly were because the students got to feel explore them. The pictures and political cartoons were too because they appealed to the students senses as well. Each emotional link question that I had on the board everyday related to the lives of the students. Students could depict how they would feel if they were put in a certain situation in their present lives and relate it to the historical content that was taught that day. To maintain discipline, I constantly roamed the room, stood in the back of the room, and called on kids that were being distracting. I thought these methods were effective because I suffered few disruptions within the class. I felt that I interacted with the students on a professional, unbiased, and respectful basis. I kept a professional relationship and exhibited respect throughout my clinical tenure among the students and their opinions. I was able to effectively summarize all lessons but two. Lessons 3 and 5 were difficult to sum up efficiently because the content was to be continued the next day. I

felt that I have not yet had enough practice as a teacher to be able to stop in the middle of lesson and conclude it, but I know with more experience I will be able to overcome this small obstacle. I designed most of my lessons to fit into an hour to hour and fifteen minute time frame and I was able to achieve this most lessons. In one of my first lessons I ended up about ten minutes short of the bell but I was prepared with a reading assignment for the students to complete if we finished early. Two professional goals that emerged from my experiences this semester are organization and time management. This clinical semester has taught me that these two goals are essential to master in order to become an effective teacher. Organization is important because if the students since that you are not in control of the room and not prepared they will try to exploit this weakness in you by misbehaving and not listening to directions. In order to accomplish this goal, a teacher must be constantly prepared for anything and any question that comes his or her way. The only way to do this is through effective planning and time management. Time management is essential to make sure that the teacher is organized and prepared. Teachers have to use their time wisely off the clock and effectively plan ahead to insure that their lessons and classrooms will run smoothly week by week. To improve my time management skills and organizational skills, I believe that there are two critical steps that I must take and practice in order to see these goals attained. The first step is to be willing to sacrifice. Being a teacher has a responsibility that can be overwhelming sometimes As a future teacher, I must be willing to give up a larger portion of my personal time in order to know that I am well prepared for class. This means staying at school late or working on the weekends if need be. The next step in attaining these goals is to lead by example. I think it is critical for a teacher to lead by example. Teachers are often looked upon for guidance and

direction by their students. To be an effective teacher, I believe that one must exhibit and hold a high standard of respect and ethics to become an efficient in the classroom.