Reflection On A Lesson Plan Taught

Reflection on a Lesson Plan Taught
Virginia Teachers for Tomorrow

Intern Name: Samantha Sherman
Topic/Subject of Lesson: English (Comparing and Contrasting with Venn
Diagrams, and Quotation Marks)
Grade: 6th, 7th, and 8th grade Special Ed.
Date of Lesson Taught: 5/9 5/11
Cooperating Teacher: Mrs. Townsend
Cooperating School: Kempsville Middle School
Time of Day: Afternoon (Roughly 2:40-3:20)
1. What steps did you go through to create this lesson? With whom did
you talk, discuss, or edit your lesson?
To create my lesson, I first consulted with my cooperating teacher, Mrs.
Townsend. She gave me lots of freedom when it came to choosing the
topic of the lesson I would be teaching the kids, but she recommended
that I use the website she pulls her books from called Reading A-Z.
Once I found the book I would be basing my lessons off of, I was able to
decide which topics to teach. The website I used provided tons of
resources, some of which I used, but I also created some handouts of
my own that would help my students more than the available ones.
After I created my three-day lesson plan, my aunt who is a special
education teacher at a nearby elementary school looked over them
although Mrs. Townsend had the final stamp of approval.
2. How did the SOLs and Objectives help focus your instruction?
Because my students are in the special ed. system I followed the
Virginia Alternate Assessment Program instead of the Standards of
Learning. The objectives that came from the VAAP were not extremely
specific, but were somewhat helpful in focusing my instruction.
3. What parts of the instructional plan worked as you anticipated?

The instructional time I had planned for each day went much better
than I anticipated. I never know what kind of mood my students will be
in when I arrive, but they were very well-behaved and were being
active learners which I was thankful for.
4. What, if any, adjustments needed to be made once you began?
I realized being a teacher is all about flexibility. One of my students
left and did not come back from the bathroom until fifteen minutes
later. I allowed the other students to color their books while we waited
for her to return. I think I handled the interruptions from the teacher
assistants and the forever rotating door well even though I was
extremely nervous.
5. How well did you anticipate the materials needed?
The first day I was teaching I completely blanked on how many
students were in the classroom so I didnt make enough copies of the
book for each student, thankfully one of the teacher assistants was
able to run out and make another copy for the student during the
introduction. Luckily, I made an extra copy of all the worksheets and I
realized double checking the number of students is a must.
6. How effective was the assessment you chose to use? (If no assessment
was used, what will the future assessment be and how will you gauge
its effectiveness?)
Both the formal and informal assessments I chose to use really helped
me gage where the students were after each lesson had been taught. I
think it is important to assess students in a variety of ways not only to
reduce the stress that quizzes/tests seem to bring, but also to clarify
that the material is being understood by each student. If one
assessment style doesnt work as well for a particular kid, there is
another way to assess the same thing that might work better for him
or her. A monkey should not be tested to see how well he can swim,
instead let him climb a tree to show how successful he can be.
7. To what degree do you feel that this lesson was a success? What
evidence do you have for the success of the lesson? (Hint: Student
learning is the key to a lessons success!)
For the first day, the students took a comprehension quiz after we read
the book as a class and reviewed the new vocabulary words. Since all
the students passed I would say that the first day was successful. The
second day the students did not take a formal assessment, but they
did work in small groups so I was able to look around and see how well
each individual kid was grasping the concept of the Venn Diagram
while they picked out the similarities and differences between two
common objects. I found that by breaking up the class into smaller
groups allows each student to voice his or her input more comfortably
and it has a greater effect in the smaller group as opposed to the
whole class. By the end of class on the third day the students could
raise their hand during the class activity and tell me where to put the
quotation marks in each sentence, it was a very rewarding moment
knowing that something I taught them stuck with them.
8. How did the time spent preparing for your lesson contribute to its
success?
I spent countless hours preparing for my three-day lesson plan. I took
the time to create fun and engaging activities so that I could appeal to
all three learning styles. I also created most of my own handouts and a
few posters to help tie together the lesson plan. Putting in the extra
time in the preparation stage made all the difference when it came
time to deliver the lesson to the kids.
9. If you could do this lesson again with the same students, would you
do anything differently? If so, what?
If I could go back I would tell myself not to be as nervous the first day I
taught my lesson. Other than that I think everything went well thanks to the
enthusiasm my students brought to the table and the advice from Mrs.
Townsend and my Aunt Shannon who have had plenty of experience.

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Virginia Teachers for Tomorrow

3. What parts of the instructional plan worked as you anticipated?

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