Reflections

=Lesson Reflections=

The first lesson I taught to my fourth grade class at Millstone River was a social studies lesson about the Boston Tea Party. I began by getting a feel for what the students already knew about the Boston Tea Party, asking if they had heard of the event before or if they knew what "no taxation without representation" meant. After listening to student responses, I read a few passages from a book that included factual knowledge, as well as pictures. After learning about the Boston Tea Party, we made a list of the main players on the white board. Once I knew that the students had a grasp on the Boston Tea Party, I introduced what they would be doing on their own. I told them that they would all be writing a letter to someone from the perspective of a loyalist or a patriot. To make things easier, I assigned the boys to be loyalists and the girls to be patriots. Underneath the list of main players on the white board, I wrote out student definitions of loyalist and patriot. After asking if students had any questions, I sent them back to their seats to begin writing. I circulated around the room and once they were finished, I asked for volunteers to read their letters out loud to close the lesson. Overall, I was happy with the way the lesson went. The students grasped the concept and were able to successfully write letters from the perspective of a loyalist or a patriot. Of course, this was also a learning experience. Writing on the white board seemed to waste some time and while my back was turned, I was certain students would get distracted. Furthermore, students seemed to be more concerned about who they were supposed to write their letter to, rather than what they were supposed to be writing about. This showed me that I need to work on my classroom management skills, as well as being able to expand explanations. I also questioned if I could have chosen a better independent practice so that the students could better understand the concept I was trying to get across. I made sure to ask my cooperating teacher for comments and she seemed to think everything went well. I took note of everything I wanted to improve and made sure to think about all these things for my next lesson.
 * Boston Tea Party Lesson**

The next lessons I was given the opportunity to teach were an interactive read aloud and a readers workshop lesson. I began by reading __When Jessie Came Across the Sea__ by Amy Hest. I planned to stop at important parts of the story to ask questions and for the students to make predictions. After reading the story, I discussed internal and external characteristics on the board. I wrote student definitions of these two types of traits on the white board. Afterwards, I asked them about their experience creating character webs. To practice, we made two character webs on the board: one for internal traits and one for external traits. The character webs were about Jessie's grandmother. The students were successfully able to name several internal and external traits to complete the character webs. After completing this guided practice, I sent the students back to their seats to complete internal and external character webs about Jessie, the story's main character. Once the students were finished creating their character webs, I asked for volunteers to come up to the big white board and write internal and external traits that they included in their own character webs. I felt that this lesson went better than my first lesson on the Boston Tea Party. I felt that I had more control over the classroom, which is due to the fact that I felt more comfortable with the students. Since I had been in the classroom longer, I knew more of what to expect and how to manage the classroom more successfully. The students seemed to understand the concept of making character webs better than the letter I had them write in my first lesson. I made sure to explain the independent practice more and I felt as though my guided practice was more involved. This helped to guide the students and understand what I expected of them. This lesson ended up teaching me something, too. I learned that teaching is about learning and improving my craft. I can constantly learn by making mistakes, taking note of them, and making sure to improve on them with every lesson I teach. This lesson made me feel more confident about my ability to effectively teach children, while still keeping in mind that I have much more to learn.
 * Interactive Read Aloud/Readers Workshop Lesson Reflection**