Goal: Social Studies, Standard A: Geography Performance Standards - Grade 8.8.

1 Use a variety of geographic representations, such as political, physical, and topographic maps, a globe, aerial photographs, and satellite images, to gather and compare information about a place Objective: Students will work together in groups, using maps and reading from their text, to teach classmates about East Asian landforms Instructional Procedures ! ! Materials Needed: ! ! Text book, Large Paper, Markers, Pull-down Map ! ! ! ! 1. ! Time Needed: Approximately 50 minutes: 5 minute introduction, 35 minute steps for instruction, 10 minute closure Procedures Introduction: Students will each randomly select a card from a deck. The deck will contain cards evenly numbered 1-5. Students will then divide into teams based on group number. Developing the Lesson Each group will read a selected passage from the text. They will work together to find key concepts and main ideas. Students will then create a simple visual based on what they have read. Students will have 15 minutes to work together in their groups. The class will then come back together and groups will present what they have learned. While presenting, students should explain their visuals and point out the country or region they studied on the pull-down map. Presentations will take 20 minutes.

2.

3.!

Closure

! Students will be given 5 minutes to copy vocabulary off the board. While the ! students work, the physical geography of East Asia will be summarized. The last ! 5 minutes will be spent explaining the homework for next class and dismissing ! students. ! Assessment ! ! Students will answer in writing numbers 3 and 4 in the section review of chapter 1, section 1 p. 12.

Prompt for ED 201 Lesson Self-Assessment Name: Stephanie Rudnicki Lesson Topic: East Asian Landforms Date Observed: 11/30/09 School/Grade Level/Number of Students Taught: Prairie/ 6th/ 20 Cooperating Teacher Name: Planning and Preparation:
How did your lesson design reflect what actually happened in the lesson? What did/would you have changed? Were you able to teach the lesson in the allotted time? Why or why not? Were your lesson objectives clearly stated and describe what your students actually learned? My lesson plan reflected very accurately what happened in the lesson. There were a few places where I needed further development. My goals were not extremely specific to what I wanted the students to learn. However, I did clarify to the students while presenting the lesson what important ideas they would need to find. My lesson plan also was 10 minutes shorter than I expected this to be. I remained flexible and allowed the students to effectively use the remaining time by beginning homework. However, I could have avoided extra time at the end had I extended the time given for students to work together in creating their media presentation, something the students would have appreciated. Learning Environment: How did you encourage student participation and elicit responses from all students? What strategies did you use to manage and monitor student behavior? How did you engage them in responding to you and each other? I encouraged students participation by having them work in groups. If students seemed quiet and did not have any questions for the group presenting, I would ask the students what they liked about the presentation. This not only caused students to participate but also provided the groups with peer feedback. To manage and monitor student behavior, I walked around the room and looked at the progress of students work and their behavior/interaction with each other. At one point I noticed one group was arguing about how to present the topic and, because of the disagreement, had fallen quite behind. I approached the students and clarified my expectations and offered them a compromise solution so that the work would be completed within the time frame. One area I need to improve on in student management is getting the students attention within a reasonable amount of time. Because of the group work atmosphere, the groups were talking and the volume level in the room was quite loud. When trying to get the students to listen, it took more time than I would have liked. However, I believe this skill can be better established when I have more time to work with one group of students. Classroom Instruction: What strategies and/or procedures did you use to assist students in learning the lesson content? How effective were those strategies/procedures in helping students learn? What changes or adjustments did you need to make during the lesson? The students worked together in groups to find important key concepts within the lesson. Each group then presented this information to the other students. I believe that the independent nature of the work and group conversations let the students become experts in the section which they

studied. However, had I provided a chart or graph for students to take notes on other presentations, they may have had a better understanding of the topics which they did not cover. At the end of the lesson, I was able to pull the group together with a short discussion which connected the concepts and sections each group covered and I believe benefited the students.

Assessment: How did you know if the students learned what you taught them? What did you learn from listening to student responses, examining their work or observing their interactions? How well did your assessments connect to the lesson objectives? In my lesson plan, I said that the students would be assessed on their homework. However, as Scott pointed out, I was also informally assessing as I monitored the student behavior and listened to their presentations, which were not graded. Through my assessment of the presentations, I could tell that the students had completed the objectives for the sections which they studied. I was able to connect the sections of each group at a short class discussion at the end of the lesson. However, had I had a chart or graph for students to fill in as a class at the end, the material may have been better connected and easier for students to fully understand the relationships.

Professional Responsibilities: How did you seek feedback from your cooperating teacher? What did you learn from his/her feedback and how did you apply it to your lesson? At the end of the first lesson that I taught with the 5th graders, I asked my cooperating teacher how he thought the lesson went. He responded that he thought it went very well despite falling short on time and recommended that I work on that. When making my lesson for the 6th graders that would be observed, I tried to manage my time better. When my lesson fell short, I realized that I had underestimated the writing levels of the 6th graders. I stayed afterwards to discuss the 6th grade lesson with my cooperating teacher. He thought that my lesson with the 6th graders was much better than my lesson with the 5th graders and only then mentioned that I had tried giving the 5th graders too much information. Reflection: What did you learn about teaching, student learning and assessing from this lesson? How would you use what you learned for future instructional experiences? Based on this lesson, what Wisconsin Teaching Standard represents your area of greatest growth this semester? What standard represents an area of further development for you? Why? In this lesson, I learned that the development of students can change drastically, even when the grades are just one level apart. These differences in development can affect the length of the lesson and the amount of time it takes for students to process information. As I work more in fields and with children, I hope to gain a better understanding of the capabilities of students at different grade levels. Standard #4, The teacher understands and uses a variety of instructional strategies to encourage students' development of critical thinking, problem solving, and performance skills, represents the area of greatest growth this semester. I was able to develop my teaching philosophy which encourages a progressivism approach. By allowing the students to have creativity in creating their media presentation and having them independently research, I fostered critical thinking skills while allowing them to present information in the ways that they learn best. Standard #2, the teacher understands how children learn and develop, and can provide learning opportunities that support their intellectual, social, and personal development, presents

an area where I need further development. As I stated earlier in my reflection, my lesson made me realize how the development of children can affect the outcome of a lesson plan. As I progress through my courses, I must be able to better gage where students are developmentally to make learning most effective.