Sarah White

Full Lesson A Reflection

10/11/2017

Category 1- Lesson Objectives and Student Outcomes- Exceeds Standards

In this category, I scored this lesson as meeting standards. I provided appropriate, clear,

and measurable state and national standards for this lesson. Throughout this lesson, students

were able to meet the standards and objectives required, but would need further practice in the

future.

Category 2-Design of Lesson and Pedagogy-Meets Standards

The lesson was designed in such a way to present small amounts of information to

students, have them practice, then provide more information, practice, and end with a final

review of the material covered during class. In this way students were able to build upon their

skills in small steps. This also increased student interest and engagement in the lesson by

breaking up the lecture portion of the lesson with varying activities.

Category 3- Content Knowledge-Meets Standards

Prior to this lesson, students researched various career options, chose a career, and had to

develop a resume, cover letter, and application for the job. Students also had to work in their

simulation programs to learn about promotions and horizontal and vertical job changes.

Throughout the lesson, I frequently asked students to consider the salary of their selected career

and how that would impact their own personal budgets. The activities used during the lesson

appropriately aligned to standards and objectives. This lesson also acted as a starting point for
students to learn about specific calculations for items within a budget such as a house/car

payment.

Category 4-Understands Characteristics of Students-Meets Standards

This lesson was designed to motivate, engage, and help students realize the importance of

having a budget in their own lives. It was developmentally appropriate for the students in this

class and applied different learning approaches. Students learned through presentation, lecture,

practice, and working in pairs. However, this lesson was not necessarily tailored for every

students learning style and could have used improvement in that area.

Category 5-Assessment-Meets Standards

Diagnostic assessment was used at the start of class with a sponge that encouraged

students thought on budgeting and money management. This sponge aligned with the national

standard III managing finances and budgeting and demonstrated to students the importance of

learning and applying these skills to their own lives. Initially, students seemed confused by the

question, but with the explanation of the quote, students understood the purpose of the sponge.

Formative assessment was used throughout the lecture portion of lesson in form of question and

answer, discussion, and practice activities. Summative assessment was used at the close of the

lesson to assess student understanding of material presented during the lesson. This was

completed in a short quiz format.

Category 6-Management of Classroom Time-Exceeds Standards

In managing this classroom, one of my greatest concerns was time. This group of

students is very self-motivated and hardworking and I thought each activity would be completed

too fast. However, as students contributed to discussions and took a genuine interest in the
material, time was not a problem. One assignment had to be removed due to the lack of time

during the class period.

Category 7-Technology-Meets Standards

During this lesson, technology was primarily used by the teacher to present students with

information. Students used calculators on their phones or on computers to complete

computations. This technology usage was appropriate for the students as well as the lesson and

aligned with WV Next Generation Standards and ISTE standards. A poor use of technology in

this lesson was presenting information to students in a PowerPoint, without the use of a clicker.

Having a clicker would have allowed me to instruct students while walking around the

classroom. I believe this change would have encouraged uninterested students to become more

involved.

Category 8-Data Analysis-Meets Standards

The use of sponge for diagnostic purposes did not create the discussion I intended. There

was very little response to the question as well as the quote. In the future, I would probably use a

video to introduce students to the topic and initiate thinking.

Formative assessment was used throughout the lecture. Students had to categorize fixed

and variable expenses and calculate gross and net pay for practice and application. Student

responses in these instances indicated whether further elaboration was needed on certain topics.

When categorizing fixed and variable expenses, most students responded with accuracy, but a

few misunderstood and over analyzed the activity. For example, most students correctly

identified a cell phone bill as fixed, but a few students considered instances where they had

exceeded their data limit and had a greater than normal cell phone bill and labeled the item as a
variable expense. For this reason, I went into greater detail, and explained that labeling an

expense is not an exact science, and should be approached with some subjectivity in mind. We

also discussed where utility bills should be placed, since the price changes based on usage, but it

is a recurring expense. When presenting information on calculating gross and net pay some

students would frequently respond to questions and others would never respond or give any

indication of understanding. Rather than showing and demonstrating example problems on the

board, I should have had a partner or group activity for students to practice calculations together.

Initially the summative assessment I planned on using included four multiple choice

questions, one labeling problem, and one computational problem. After receiving feedback and

further evaluation, I realized the multiple choice questions did not accurately assess students

knowledge and did not have a useful purpose. I revised the assessment to include two

computation problems and one problem multi-step problem where students filled in a budget and

performed multiple calculations. Of the 23 students, only four students incorrectly calculated the

gross and net pay and tax deductions in the first problem. One student did not complete the

problem, and the other three made multiplication or subtraction errors. Since these problems are

dealing with money, I incorrectly assumed students would naturally round answers to the nearest

penny. This created slight variations in what I considered correct or incorrect, because I did not

state that in the directions. On the second problem, which included placing items in a budget and

determining if there was a deficit or surplus, only nine students completed each part correctly.

Of the 14 students that did not correctly answer each part, five students accurately calculated

total income and expenses, but did not determine if there was a surplus or deficit or made

subtraction errors in their answers. Seven students correctly calculated either total income or

total expenses correctly, but miscalculated on the other portion which affected whether they had
a surplus or deficit. The remaining two students copied the figures incorrectly onto their budget

or miscalculated each section. From this data it is very clear that the majority of the class

understood calculating gross and net pay and tax deductions. It is also very clear that the

majority of the class lacked understanding in calculating the different sections of a budget and

identifying what those sections are. These results accurately reflect the amount of time I spent

on each concept. I thought calculating net and gross pay would be more difficult for student to

understand so I spent more time and provided a greater amount of examples in that area. I would

reteach the budget part of this lesson based on the data from this assessment.

Category 9-Reflection-Meets Standards

Each section had a score assigned with explanation and reason behind scoring. Each section also

included areas that could be improved or changed to provide students with more effective

teaching.

Category 10-Professional Practice-Meets Standards

This lesson plan was submitted on time, contained the necessary components, and followed the

lesson plan format. There were a few errors in spelling or grammar on the first draft of the lesson

plan.