Reflection on Instruction and Student Learning
Teacher
Robert Stone
Subject/Course Algebra 1
School
Dreher High School
Grade level(s)
Lesson
topic
Introduction to quadratics
Date of
observation
9th
3/3/15
Instructions to the teacher candidate: Please reflect on the teaching and
learning that occurred while you were being observed and respond to each of the
following prompts prior to attending the post-observation conference. Attach
a copy of your lesson plan, if available.
1. This lesson was a part of which unit? Did this lesson fall near the beginning,
middle, or end of the unit?
The lesson was part of a unit on quadratics and fell near the beginning
of the unit
2. What were the objectives? How well do you think your students understood
the overall purpose and relevance of the instruction?
The objective was to understand how the values of a,b, and c affect the
graph of f(x) = ax2+bx+c. The students understood the overall relevance
and purpose of this lesson once they got into graphing quadratics on
their own at the end of the lesson.
3. What effect did your teaching strategies have in terms of promoting student
learning and keeping your students meaningfully engaged?
The use of technology and grouping had a great effect on promoting
student learning.
This was because the technology helped the
students visualize the concept. The grouping required them to explain
the concept to other group members which kept them engaged in the
concept.
4. How did you assess student learning during the lesson? What were the
results?
I informally assessed the students during the lesson first by making
sure they could set up the technology and functions of the technology
correctly. Next I informally assessed them by having them explain their
concept to other students and observing to see if they could correctly
explain it. Finally I formally assessed the students on their overall
knowledge of the concepts by having them create a function that went
through three specified points.
5. What types of feedback did or will you provide to the students regarding their
performance, and why?
I gave the students immediate feedback by cheering them on if they got
answers correct or guiding them in the right directions if they made a
mistake or answered something wrong.
Adapted from the SAFE-T Pilot Project
6. In what way(s) and to what extent did the classroom environment impact your
instruction, either positively or negatively?
The positive attitude and personal connections I have with my students
impacted how smoothly the working in groups and as a class together a
points positively.
7. What decisions did you make regarding subsequent instruction for these
students, and why?
Since the students understood most of the concept except for
determining y-intercept I chose to move on to the next lesson in the unit
while reinforcing the y-intercept concepts in things such as warm-ups
and review questions.
8. If and when you teach this lesson again, what changes, if any, will you make,
and why?
If I teach this lesson again one change I would make is to make sure we
had GeoGebra on all the computers because we had a few issues where
the program wasn’t on a computer and students had to work in pairs. I
would also change aspects of the group work, such as size and makeup of groups, if I had a class that couldn’t handle group work was well
as this class did.
9. What did you learn as a result of teaching this lesson?
I learned from a result of teaching this lesson is if done correctly
implementing technology in a lesson makes a big impact in
understanding a concept. I also learned having a good connection with
my students made a positive impact on the instruction. It made it go
extremely smooth when doing a method of instruction outside of our
normal method of instruction.
To be completed following the post-observation conference:
10. Review the recommendations and suggestions provided by your coaching
teacher or supervisor during the post-observation conference. How will these
influence your planning and teaching of other lessons?
The recommendations provided from my coaching teacher dealt mainly
with maintaining engagement up to the bell. So for my teaching in the
future I will plan to have a bit more practice prepared for my students so
they can get extra practice in and continue learning up to the bell.
Adapted from the SAFE-T Pilot Project