Wightman, Ben

LAI 574 FA 2015

Lesson Reflection

What went well?

-The "aha" moment between 22:30 and 24:00 was very satisfying.
-The students were willing, and often eager to participate. I was able to spend most of the lesson
conversing with them, instead of talking at them.
-The structure I added to the guided practice process helped the students focus more specifically
on the authority and bias of the sites. The first time I taught the lesson I noticed students were
inclined to evaluate the content, rather than the author and publisher. While that is an important
part of the evaluation process, it is beyond the scope of this lesson.
-I think my questioning strategies, and the way I handled the students' answers cleared up
misconceptions and helped the students focus on the main points of the lesson.
-The students were motivated volunteers. There were no behavior problems.
What could be improved?
-I ran out of time for the independent practice, which was supposed to be my primary summative
assessment. I think I was correct to allow the students to articulate their thoughts and develop
their thinking at a natural pace, but it means the original lesson was too ambitious. The
input/modeling/guided practice and independent practice sections should probably be split into
two separate lessons, with an intermediate individual assessment (such as an exit slip) at the end
of the first day.
-Since the students didn't make it to the independent practice they never had anything concrete in
front of them. The first time I taught the lesson I handed out hard copies of the two key
questions, but most of them went straight to the recycling bin without ever being consulted.
Accordingly, for this revision I cut the printout in favor of an expanded digital form, which the
students would have seen if they had started the independent practice. If the
input/modeling/guided practice and independent practice stay separate, I would consider
reinstating the hard copy, because it would allow me to say "now look at your paper and answer
the two questions about this website."
-From my verbal questioning I got the sense that my student with a disability understood how to
evaluate authority and bias within the structure of the lesson, but not when and how to evaluate
those characteristics while conducting his own research.
-I'd like to improve my physical presence. I don't know if the rocking distracted any other
viewers, but it distracted me when I reviewed the video. In general my hands tend to wander in
weird ways when I'm teaching in open space, so I like to stay close to something I can touch, like
a table or a lectern. I would have circulated around the room if we'd had time for any activities
that did not require me to teach directly.
-Some of my classmates said I need to ensure more equal participation. That is a valid suggestion
I also heard when I was student teaching as an undergraduate. I'm very shy about putting
students on the spot, so I generally call the most on students who volunteer the most. However, I

Wightman, Ben

LAI 574 FA 2015

Lesson Reflection

didn't think that was as significant a problem for this lesson. Some students did speak more than
most, but all five had multiple opportunities to speak, and during the third round of guided
practice I did prompt a couple of the quieter ones to share their thoughts (although, to be fair,
that part of the lesson was not one of the clips I suggested the class watch). I'm curious if some
people didn't realize the five students in the wide angle view were the only ones in the
classroom.
What did you learn from this experience and how will it impact your teaching in the
future?
Since I have substitute teaching experience I didn't learn anything new per se, but the lesson
reminded me of a couple important realities. First, lessons are constantly evolving with practice.
There are significant differences between this video and the one I taped last spring, and I'm sure
there would be additional changes if I taped it a third time. Teachers should always be applying
their observations of what worked or didn't work in a previous session to the subsequent session
of that lesson. This especially applies to high school teachers, who may teach the same lesson
several times a year to different sections of a class.
Second, even the best laid plans can go awry. Although the connection between the video and
written plan is clear, there are points when the actual lesson deviates substantially from the
script of the plan. When I plan I try to anticipate what will happen during a lesson in detail, but
sometimes students respond in unexpected ways, and all I can do is run with it.
In this case the lesson was designed for about 25 relatively quiet students (the group I had last
spring was on pins and needles around the camera), and I ended up with 5 who were much less
shy about participating in a small group setting. As a result the anticipatory set and modeling
portions of the plan were elongated, while the independent practice (steps 10-14 in the plan)
ended up being cut out.
I was also reminded that its sometimes difficult in the spotlight to remember all the points to
cover. For example, at the beginning of the vocabulary instruction I paraphrased the essential
questions on the blackboard, but forgot to explain to the students (and cameras) that I was doing
so. I also forgot to verbally review the agenda displayed next to the essential questions (although
I did preview that information with the students off camera as I was picking them up from study
hall).