Running head: UNIT REFLECTION

Unit Reflection
Brooke Lambert
University of La Verne

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2
Unit Reflection

Writing a lesson and teaching a lesson are two totally different things. One writes
a lesson with this idea of how it will turn out when it is taught. However, there are always
so many things that need to be taken into consideration during the design process. I
struggled with this at the beginning, but then I slowly started to figure it out. I was
creating lessons that I thought would be fun and exciting, but I forgot to think about the
students I would be teaching it to. The classroom I am in this year is rowdy, so I needed
to design the groups in a way that would benefit them and still allow the lesson to run
smoothly. I figured this out quickly after I taught my first lesson. I was a little
discouraged at first because I knew that it did not go as I had originally planned. But then
I thought, lessons never go as one has originally planned. It is a learning process for
everyone, and I was able to take what I had learned and apply it to my succeeding
lessons. The next two lessons went much better and I was satisfied, even though there are
things I still need to continue to work on. I am learning to get over this idea of perfection,
and realizing that life is a learning process, and I will never know everything. What
matters is that I am able to take my mistakes and better them for the future.
Classroom Lessons
Inquiry
The first lesson I taught was inquiry. The overall objective of the lesson was that
the students would be able to identify at least three reasons why an ecosystems
population might rise or fall. The students were organized into groups of four, while some
students were in groups of three because of the class size. I began the lesson by giving the
students an overview of different resources that are necessary for survival, and then I

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provided them with the question: In a pond ecosystem, suppose the population of
raccoons rises. What do you think will happen to the population of wood frogs and other
predators of wood frogs? Right away, I noticed I should have designed the groups
instead of allowing the students to choose. This caused problems from the beginning
because the students could not decide who they wanted in their group. Once the groups
were arranged, there were some groups who could not stop arguing. I kept thinking to
myself, I should have prearranged the groups before beginning this lesson.
Other than the issues with the groups, the lesson went pretty well. The students
were working hard on finding answers to the question. They were using the technology
around them, as well as their peers to answer the question. Once the students were asked
to present their findings, we ran into some problems again. The children were arguing
about who would do the presenting, and some were complaining that they did not work
together as a group. Therefore, the presentations did not run as I had planned. I should
have been clearer in how I wanted them to present their findings. I was too focused on the
inquiry part of the lesson and trying not to provide the students with too much
information, that I ended up not providing them with enough information. All in all, it
was a great learning experience and I was able to take notes on what worked well and
what not to do for future lessons.
Cooperative Learning
The next lesson I taught was cooperative. The objective of this lesson was that the
students would be able to identify the components of a food web by creating their own.
Based upon my findings during the previous lesson, I went into this one knowing that I
was going to prearrange the groups. I did this by placing students according to their skill

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levels, making sure to not place the high students with high students and the low students
with low students. By placing the students in their assigned groups, the lesson went a lot
smoother than my previous one did. They did not complain about their groups, and there
were no arguments between group members.
The very first thing I did for this lesson was review the vocabulary. This was
essential in helping me determine how ready they would be for the content of the lesson.
The students loved the canned questions activity. They sighed the second I told them we
had run through all the questions. It made me wish I had made more! Once I had
explained to the students what was expected of them, I placed them in their groups. They
got right to work and were deep in thought for about twenty minutes. The assigned
groups worked extremely well together and I knew from here on out, I would be
responsible for assigning groups whenever I developed lessons that involved cooperative
learning. The group presentations went well. I told the students beforehand that they
would need to choose a speaker for their group. There were some groups who could not
decide on a speaker, so I had them choose a number one through ten, and whoever was
closest to my number, was the speaker. I had absolutely no arguments. However, I should
have assigned the speakers and a time keeper before going into this lesson. It would have
made things easier for me and more understandable for the students. Once again, though,
I was able to take key learnings from this lesson and apply it to my future lessons.
Direct Instruction
The last lesson I taught was direct instruction. It was not my original plan to teach
a direct instruction lesson last, but it worked out this way. This was by far the best lesson
that I taught of the three. I began the lesson by giving the students an overview of the

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goals so they knew what would be expected of them. Then we did a vocabulary review
activity. Instead of giving the students the vocabulary words directly, I asked them
questions and then they had to respond. They loved this review activity. I had one student
tell me how great it was and that he really enjoyed doing it.
After the review activity, we watched a Brain POP video on food chains, food
webs, and their ecosystems. This class absolutely loves Brain POP, so I made sure to
include it in my lesson. Once the video was over, we discussed food webs some more and
I showed them different examples on the document camera. The students are experts in
this content area because they have been discussing it for a few weeks now. Plus, this
lesson built off of my previous lesson on food webs. Once we were finished with the
discussion, I had an activity sheet for the students to complete. I wanted to be sure they
understood the concept before we went into the final activity. I made sure to go over the
activity sheet before moving on.
Lastly, I had the students create their own food webs based upon an ecosystem of
their choosing. I originally planned for this activity to be done independently, but I
received a lot of questions at first, so I changed it to a partner activity. The students had
the option to use their table partners or work independently. This changed the entire
dynamic of the class. They were all talking and interacting together. It was awesome!
Because of time constraints, I did not have the students present their food webs. I
collected them and did a final wrap up where I asked them key questions about the
content material.
Overall, I was very satisfied with this lesson. I was happen with the way things
ran and the students seemed to really enjoy it. There were points throughout the lesson

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where I felt a little tongue tied, but that is something that I will need to work on over
time. I am satisfied in seeing my improvement throughout the lessons that I have taught
this semester.
Key Learnings
My Students
The very first thing I did when I began my fieldwork was provide the students
with a multiple intelligence inventory. I wanted to start off by getting to know my
students on a different level and see where they were at in regards to the way they learn
best. The results to the inventory were interesting to say the least. The students were all
over the place with way they learn. The majority of the students had more than one top
multiple intelligence. The most common was interpersonal and verbal/linguistic, meaning
they enjoy working with others and being social. I learned quickly that these students
enjoy interacting with each other. My master teacher has an extremely difficult time
keeping them quiet. The low of the multiple intelligences was intrapersonal, so my
students do not enjoy working individually. Logical/mathematical was half and half. I had
assumed it would be this way before I gave the survey because Mrs. Garcias students are
torn down the middle when it comes to math. She has some really high learners, learners
who are right on track, and learners who are at the bottom. Having learned these key
findings about my students from the survey, I was able to design lessons based upon their
strengths and build on their weaknesses.
Master Teacher
I have learned a lot from my master teacher during the course of my fieldwork.
She is one of those teachers that always goes above and beyond what is being asked of

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her. She is in the classroom early in the morning and stays well after the students are
released to go home. She develops lessons that fit the diversity of her students and makes
sure to differentiate instruction in order to fit her low, middle, and high learners. She
constantly uses pictures in all of her instructional materials, especially when she is
overviewing the vocabulary for a lesson. I really like how she puts the word, definition,
part of speech, and picture on a slide for the students to view. She shows the students
these words the entire week in which she teaches material. She gives homework based
upon the students ability levels, meaning not all of the students receive the same
assignment. She does this to benefit her students even though it creates more work for
her. She is always thinking about what would be best for them and this is definitely what
I admire most about her.
Assessment
My master teacher assesses the students at then end of each week. She tests them
on all of the weeks content to determine how well they understood the material. The
majority of these assessments includes paper and pencil tests. However, she informally
assesses the students throughout the week on the day's material. She does this by walking
around the classroom and observing their interactions. She also asks the students
questions about the material and is constantly checking for understanding. Mrs. Garcia
gives homework every single night of the week and also grades the previous nights
homework everyday to check to see what their struggles might be. This gives her an idea
of whether or not she needs to reiterate what has already been taught or if she can move
on to new material.
Technology

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My master teacher uses technology for everything she does. She constantly has
her projector on showing the students PowerPoints, videos, etc., and she also uses the
document camera. The document camera is her best friend when she is teaching math
lessons. She uses it so the students can follow along with the lesson. She also aids these
lessons with an interactive video. This video encourages the students to follow along and
requires them to answer questions throughout. My master teacher makes sure to take the
students to the computer lab at least once a week where they can do accelerated math,
vocabulary word games, and other activities that relate to the content of the class. The
students also use the computers and the iPad to take accelerated reading quizzes in which
she monitors daily to see how well the students are improving. In all, technology is more
than prominent in my master teachers classroom.
Classroom Management
My master teacher uses a very simple form of classroom management to run her
classroom. She has the students organized into color teams in which she awards points to
depending on their cleanliness, ability to answer questions, respectfulness, etc. The team
in the lead is allowed to go to lunch five minutes early. She also assigns students jobs
every week. These jobs include: Line leader, line monitor, pencil sharpener, librarian, and
recycler. Although this form of classroom management worked really well with her
students from last year, I think it is too simple for her students this year. This years class
is larger in size and is extremely chatty. I feel they need a more structured form of
classroom management in order to help the days run smoother. I also think that there
should be more jobs assigned to the students each week. She has a class of thirty-six
students in which only eight are assigned jobs on a weekly basis.

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9
The Experience

Overall, my fieldwork experience was great. I have learned a tremendous amount

of information from my master teacher over the course of these past few semesters I have
been with her. Mrs. Garcia is extremely knowledgeable when it comes to designing
lessons that fit the diversity of her students. I admire her ability to run a classroom that is
conducive to all of her students learning needs. She always goes the extra mile to make
sure her lessons are informative, yet exciting for her students.
If I am being completely honest, I think I have learned the most from physically
being in the classroom. It is one thing to learn through constant studying, but it is an
entirely different thing to be physically involved in the experience. Seeing a teacher run a
classroom first hand, is one of the most rewarding experiences. I have seen both the good
and the bad of teaching, and I have realized that not everything will ever go as planned.
We, as future teachers, need to learn how to adjust ourselves accordingly and remember
that life always goes on.