S00140426 Thomas Nguyen

Critical Reflection of Maths Lesson for Year 10 A

(08/04/14)

Assessment of Learning Outcomes
The Majority of the students in the classroom were able to meet the
outlined objectives placed into the lesson plan. Alex and Myself planned the
lesson together for this Year 10A maths class with high expectations, and given
our Supervising teachers Julie Ntoumbos class schedule, trigonometric ratios and
Pythagoras theorem was already assumed knowledge. During the lesson and
even towards the end of the lesson, most of the students were able to meet the
following outcomes as seen in the board of studies syllabus (2014). The printout
protractors I provided also helped a little.
- Recognise directions given as SSW, NE
- Solve simple problems involving 3 figure bearings
Also to a certain extent students were somewhat able to meet these outcomes
- Interpret directions given as bearings
- Draw and use diagrams to solve word problems.
If you note in the appendix included, students did not progress far into the
word problems, but this is expected, as they are more difficult.
Also during the lesson Alex, Ms Ntoumbos and myself noticed that students still
had some issues with interpreting directions. Further evidence of the students
understanding or lack thereof was discussed with Ms Ntoumbos, she evaluated
that certain students had not met all the outcomes from her perspective.

The end of this lesson concluded the students topic in trigonometry for the
term and they will be moving onto consumer arithmetic as their next topic. But
had the students finished the work in class Ms. Ntoumbos had provided an extra
worksheet on her classes Google drive.

Evaluation of Teaching
When Alex and I were planning this lesson we both acknowledged that
preparation was key especially with us being complete novices when it comes to
teaching a classroom.

As a student teacher (and as a novice teacher in the early years of your
teaching career) you should not expect to be able to teach well if you do no plan
thoroughly (Killen & Konza et al., 2014, p60)

Alex and I came into the lesson full of nerves confidant in our lesson plan
but as we found out even with our plan we did not put enough preparation into it
and there were holes within our lesson which will be outlined when teaching
strategies or lack thereof are identified.

In chapter 5 of Killen & Konza et al., (2014) it goes through a number of
teaching strategies that Alex and I effectively used and some was not so
effective. What we found that was effective, and I think that all math teachers
can attest to this is Demonstration. I personally used it to show students what is
to be done (Killen & Konza et al.,2014, chapter 5). As a Maths major myself, a
teacher demonstrating step by step while explaining a maths problem, provides a
template for students to follow. Alex and I spent a good fraction of the lesson
going through some worked equations on the board. In Killen & Konza et al.
(2014) the same chapter it also stresses the importance of being prepared for
demonstrations that which I was. Before the lessons I had done all the homework
that was set out for the students myself, to be better able to explain it. It was
clear, properly presented, step-by-step and important points were repeated.
S00140426 Thomas Nguyen

I had hoped that after the demonstrations would assists in students application
of the content of bearings.
Discussion and Questioning I feel go hand in hand and were surprisingly
effective strategies in getting students motivated about Maths. I was always
probing, paraphrasing and elaborating on students answers, especially those who
were on the cusp of grasping the concepts but not quite there. For example a
student would say that true bearings go from the right, and I would probe until
he would get the correct terminology

Questions are used for a variety of reason in a lesson. In the first instance
questions may draw attention and interest of students to the topic to be taught.
(Killen & konza et al., 2014, page 99)

Alex and I used question precisely for that reason. Questions such as,
where do you guys think Bearings could be applied in life? How would you guys
answer this question? I feel that asking for input to help solve worded maths
problems can lead to a mathematics class differing away from traditional closed
questioning. I also thought of a clever process during discussions by getting
students who were calling out to demonstrate their process on the whiteboard in
front of their peers. Students were very motivated during this period of
discussion, as they wanted to participate, maybe for recognition from their
teachers and peers and praise.

Since Alex and I taught the lesson together to be each others moral
support, which worked in a way, but there was certain complications. There was a
lack of chemistry between Alex and I, which can be seen in the lesson and
pointed out by Ms Ntoumbos; there wasnt clear communication between us, as
we hadnt practiced our lesson beforehand. Also a large misstep on our part was
we didnt deliver our lesson plan accordingly and consequently there was a little
confusion. Because of the lack of room on the whiteboard (there was a
smartboard taking up room) Alex and I both forgot to put the exact definitions on
the board but rather use that space to do examples. A way around this was to
dictate the definitions to students to write into their books, which I did at the very
end of the lesson, instead of the beginning. So that was not very effective.

Our Timing in our lesson was very much in tune as we got through all of
definitions and examples but the students were not able to do as much of the
worksheet as we had hoped. If the appendix is referred to on average only about
50 precent of the work was done.

Since this was a higher class a 5.2, 5.3 maths class there was little we had
to manage in terms of behaviour as Alex and I were able to command respect
despite our lack of experience. Like I said before I was able to curb the calling out
by pointing those students to partake in examples on the whiteboard.

I think I can find the most improvement is to plan better and keep to my
lesson plan and do not diverge from it or digress into other things. I also found
that Alex was a little timid in his delivery during his part of the lesson, so he can
improve on that to motivate students. It may sound a bit corny but I feel that
when the students were able to grasp the concepts I found that to be the most
satisfying part of that morning.






Thomas Nguyen 21/5/14 2:37 AM
Comment [8]: 3.3 Use teaching
strategies

In this reflection, different strategies were
discussed
S00140426 Thomas Nguyen

References
Board of Studies. (2014). Mathematics K10 :: Stage 5.2 :: Right-Angled
Triangles (Trigonometry) !. [online] Retrieved from:
http://syllabus.bos.nsw.edu.au/mathematics/mathematics-
k10/content/777/ [Accessed: 15 Apr 2014].
Kalra, A. & Stamell, J. eds. (2005). Connections Maths 102.
Killen, R., Konza, D., Grainger, J., Ewing, R., Le Cornu, R., Brennan, M.,
Mithcell, J., Mcfadden, M., Munns, G., Whitton, D., Barker, K.,
Noswothy, M., Sinclair, C. & Nanlohy, P. eds. (2014).EDFD270
Teaching and managing Learning Envinronments.
Thinkzone.wlonk.com. (2014). Protractor. [online] Retrieved from:
http://thinkzone.wlonk.com/MathFun/Protractor.htm [Accessed: 15 Apr
2014].