Amanda Iacono

EDUC 359
Live Lesson Relfection

Throughout our lesson on the Pythagorean Theorem, we had a few objectives that we had aimed

for the student to obtain by the end of the activity. We attempted for the student to be able to

achieve solving the length of missing sides in right triangles. Additionally, we aimed to have

students demonstrate comprehension of square roots of small perfect squares by using square

root symbols to represent solutions to equations through writing simple mathematical sentences.

By the end of this lesson, the student was able to put together mathematical sentences and use

them to find the side of a missing triangle. Although he still needed some slight guidance when

it came time to solve his last problem, a simple answer to his questions was able to guide him in

the right direction of solving to find the missing length. The student understood the concept and

would be able to complete more of the problems without guidance of one of the teachers. With

more time and more practice problems, the student would have been able to solve for any of the

missing lengths of the triangle without help from either teacher.

Throughout our lesson, the student was most definitely challenged in regard to

vocabulary development. He learned new material within this lesson that is generally a

prerequisite of the entire lesson itself. For example, the student learned to square a number and

take the square root of a number in order to fill in and solve the algebraic statement. The

theorem was based around learning what equation should be used to use to solve for a missing

variable, rather than how to actually solve for it. The student was unfamiliar with the entire

concept and a few of the smaller components that went into it, making it clear that he was

challenged with his vocabulary development. Once the concepts were explained to him, he

easily understood the strategy and was able to solve the algebraic equation using prior

knowledge of solving equations and new knowledge of squaring and taking square roots.
 I believe nearly every component of this lesson was a challenge that was not difficult

enough to achieve by the end of the lesson. None of the components were difficult enough for

the student to not be able to comprehend. Similarly, they were not easy enough to make the

lesson boring or simple to get through. Although I believe there was an ideal amount of

challenge in the lesson, the fun and engaging hands-on activity using starbursts that was meant to

prove the theorem did not work as efficiently as planned. The point of the activity was to prove

to the student that the first leg squared added to the second leg squared would ultimately equal

the exact number in the hypotenuse squared. Since there was only one practice problem that was

small enough to prove this with starbursts, it was only completely efficient in the beginning of

the lesson. The other problems had numbers that required over three hundred starbursts, so we

could only show a portion of the proof in a different way. The modified version of the proof still

got the meaning across, but not as efficiently as it could have if we had smaller numbers or more

time and more starbursts. If I were to do this lesson again and attempt to have this proof work, I

would only have students complete the activity for a small amount of problems, and each of the

problems would have small numbers so the proof could be easily constructed.

Although communication was simple with this student in particular, several adjustments

would need to be made in order to effectively portray the concepts of this lesson to an ELL

student. First, the opening video would not be effective or engaging, as the student would be

very unlikely to understand the concept being addressed in a short movie clip. There would need

to be a different form of introduction to the lesson that would still get students engaged even if

they did were unfamiliar with the language. Additionally, many more explanation examples

must be provided before asking the student to work through guided practice. The student would

need to watch several explanations and practice problems to grasp the idea of the concept before
attempting to complete it themselves. More time would also need to be put into explaining how

to square and take the square root of a number. This concept was easily understood because the

student was an English speaker, but if the student had only basic understanding of the language,

the more details and examples of just this basic strategy would need to be provided before

students would be able to solve for variables within an equation. Overall, this lesson would need

more adjustments if provided to students who were not proficient with the English language, but

in regard to the mathematical concepts, it would provide the same amount of challenge to

another student of the same age while providing enjoyable hands-on activities that help get the

idea of the concept across.