Southern Methodist University

Center for Teacher Education

Intern:

Lauren Johnson

Mentor Teacher:

Irene Barraza

School:

Sam Tasby Middle School

University Supervisor:

Sandra Meredith

Reflection Form
(Complete this form as soon as possible after delivery of the lesson and give to the observer.)

Name:

Lauren Johnson

Date of Lesson:

January 29, 2016

Grade:

7th

Subject:

Approximate Length of Lesson:

History
45 min.

GENERAL REFLECTION
Overall, how successful was this lesson?
I believe the lesson was pretty successful. I am always unsure of how my lessons really affect my 6th
period class because they are my largest group. It is difficult to check for understanding when we typically
run behind every lesson. Looking back, the students do understand and can explain the concepts from the
lesson, so my objective was met.
GOALS/OBJECTIVES
In what ways were your goals/objectives appropriate for your students?
The objective was for students to explain the issues occurring during Reconstruction in Texas. This
objective is straight from the TEKS standards and was appropriate for their comprehension of the subject.
In what ways were they not appropriate?
I dont think there were any inappropriate goals/objectives for my students. In some cases, the level of
achievement and rigor of the objective can be a stretch for my ELLs. That might be the exception.
ASSESSMENT
How effective were your assessment strategies in measuring student achievement of the learning goals/

objectives for this lesson?

I typically use DOLs such as fill in the blank paragraphs and matching as my assessment strategies. Those
strategies are a simple, but effective way for my students to engage in the content, use their vocabulary to
answer questions.
Would you make any changes to the assessments strategies you used? What changes would you make and
why?
I know that I have not reached the level of academic rigor I have been striving for all year with the
students. The changes I would like to make in the future include creating more difficult and
comprehensive informal and formal assessments for my students. My team teacher and I have been
working on intensifying our interim assessments so the students have a better understanding of what is
being asked of them during their district exams. We have filtered that into our informal assessments at the
end of class and are trying to raise the level of vocabulary used.

Southern Methodist University

Center for Teacher Education
Intern:

Lauren Johnson

Mentor Teacher:

Irene Barraza

School:

Sam Tasby Middle School

University Supervisor:

Sandra Meredith

ALTERATIONS
Did you depart in any way from your plan? If so, how? Why?
I added more explanation between video pauses as the day went on. I realized that the video was slow and
could potentially be boring from some. Furthermore, when my students are being introduced to a topic,
they usually need supplemental background knowledge to understand the connection the content has to
real life situations.
INSTRUCTIONAL DELIVERY Respond to these questions for each aspect.
Were the following aspects of your What would you do differently to
instructional delivery effective for all improve the lesson?
students? Why or why not?

Instructional
Strategies

The lesson seemed to be

effective for most of my

Sandra suggested adding a

word bank to the board

students. A few of my ELLs

struggle with responding to
questions with their own
words and I am working on
improving that aspect of
my teaching.

during situations like this

so the students can create
responses using the
academic language were
expecting. Im definitely
using that in the future.

Student
Grouping

Grouping and pairing has

been a struggle for me all
year. This period especially
needs extra attention
when it comes to keeping
them focused.

I generally pair the

students with people they
enjoy sitting next to. But
this leads to a lot of talking
and distractions. This class
in particular has shown
they improve academically
when sitting next to people
who arent their friends, so
that will be changing this
week.

Student
Activities

The videos have had a

large impact on learning
and have saved my voice
this year. The students
respond well to images and
videos because many
struggle with
understanding concepts of
the past.

I want to expand the

videos and find more
student friendly clips. I
would also like to make my
MRSmore entertaining
and thorough to keep the
students involved.

I have strayed from

printing out the questions
for the students lately
because our school is
trying to save paper and
copy ink. But I think it
would be effective to turn
the video handouts into a
study guide to be used
later.

I bought speakers this

weekend to make the
sound louder for my large
classes. Working on finding
more entertaining videos
and preparing further in
advance to create
handouts for the videos.

Materials, Resources,
and Technology