Seventh Week

This week was another short week.  We were only in the classroom for two days.  However, this was also the week that we got to do our first lesson for lesson study.  We were in a a 5th grade class and taught our lesson on making inferences.  I was observing the first lesson.  The lesson was interesting.  We certainly have a lot of room for improvement, which is perfect because that is exactly why we are doing a lesson study.  The fifth grade team was able to meet up later in the day and debrief.  We did not have the input of any administrators, however, the teacher whose class we did the lesson study in was more than helpful.  She actually provided us with great input that we are using to fix up the lesson.

The first issue that was apparent was that we ran out of time.  The stories that we have picked out were way too long.  We decided that we would cut these up and shorten them for the second lesson.  We like the idea of having students read mystery stories so we wanted to keep that genre.  Next, we decided, with the teacher's input, to switch up our pre-assessment.  We originally had a worksheet that students were given right before the lesson.  There were a few multiple choice questions on the worksheet about inference.  However, this was dry and boring for the kids.  It did not get them excited or talking.  We decided to change up the way we assess them and go with something more exciting.  For the second lesson, we will be doing skits at the beginning of the class, where one of the teachers actually acts our a scenario and students are asked to infer what is happening.  This is a more interactive and fun way to see what they might already know and to activate their prior knowledge.  Lastly, we decided to change the way we present.  We had an anchor chart for the first lesson.  The second the interns taped the chart to the board, I noticed that it was impossible to read and see from way back in the room.  Most of the students were sitting in the back! After talking with the teacher, she suggested that we use the overhead projector and make some type of a presentation.  This is what we have decided to do for the second lesson.  We will be making a PowerPoint presentation with all the necessary information so all of the students can see.  With the technology we are also easily able to interact with the information and transition quicker.

We look forward to teaching our second lesson next Thursday!