Reflection

What went well? How do you

know?
For this lesson, two of my colleagues came to observe me. I believe
what went well was student engagement. Students were smiling and
they seemed to enjoy the Mnemonic contest. I also noticed that
students were working together and discussing answers. This is very
important because they can learn from each other and hopefully make
new meanings for the vocabulary words together.
What didnt go as planned? My written instructions for activity one were too long and too
confusing, as stated by my colleague and my students. In addition, I
realized I moved through the Mnemonic activity to fast. Students who
are more outspoken were signaling to me when they were ready to
move on. Yet, students who are shy did not express if they were ready
to move on to the next photo or activity and I simply assumed they
were ready to move on. Another major learning point is that some
words cannot be separated. Some words cannot be broken down into
morphemes because separating them does not help with interpretation
of meaning and simply because they do not contain smaller units.
What contingency plan did
you employ?
To deal with instructional confusion I walked around the classroom
checking in with students to make sure they understand what to do. In
addition, when I noticed any patterns of confusion I addressed the
whole class giving more examples on the marker board. For the word
separations, I simply clarified with my students that I made a mistake
and pointed out the words that cannot be broken down.
What would you do
differently next time?
Net time I want to create instructions that are more concise and that are
easy to read. My observing colleagues suggest that I separate examples
and descriptions with bullets and other visual features that can help
students distinguish between prefix + base words and compound
words. In addition, next time I need to make sure the words used in this
activity are only words that can be separated into morphemes.
Did your students meet the
purpose and objectives for this
lesson? How do you know?
My students were able to separate most words despite the instructional
confusion and the technical problems. I was able to identify this when I
collected the data. In addition, another goal for this activity is that
students could form new meanings of the vocabulary words by
considering the root words or prefixes found within them and the data
collected revealed that students were able to interpret meaning.
What do your students need
next? How do you know?
My students need opportunities to produce language. Therefore in my
ext lesson I would like implement activities where they get to learn in
context rich environments and where they can practice using the
language through a productive activity.
What did you learn about your
glows and grows as a teacher?
What can you do to work on
your areas needing growth?
I learned that I need more practice giving verbal instructions and in
organizing my written instructions. In addition, I learned that student
like associating images with vocabulary words, but next time the
images should be selected by the students since some of the selected
images where confusing to my students.