PS1 Goals U of L Faculty of Ed.

Fall 2012 James Loach

GOAL 1 To improve my classroom time management and timing of lessons Strategies 1. 2. 3. 4. Keep an eye on the clock while moving around the room and monitoring student activity. Outline rough plans for timing in each part of the lesson. Be aware of parts of the lesson where I can change pacing to make-up time. Be aware of bell times in order to finish the lesson on time and not have students scrambling to pack up when the bell rings.

Indicators of Success 1. Students have a few minutes to work at the end of every period. 2. Students are ready to pack up at bell-time. 3. Lessons proceed in the time allotted. Outcomes 1. Students do not feel rushed in lessons or at the end of lessons. 2. Pacing of individual lessons will ensure that units and the whole curriculum are delivered in a timely and effective fashion. Timeline 1. PS1 Practicum (Nov 7 Dec 11, 2012) Reflections At the beginning of my practicum, this was definitely a weakness that I had identified through ED2500 and microteaching opportunities. During my first few weeks I struggled with my time management, often missing parts of lessons and being surprised by the bell. Throughout my practicum I worked to be more aware of time throughout my lessons by checking the clock frequently and knowing when my lesson was supposed to end. Having estimated times for each learning activity helped me stay on track time-wise. Classes ran much smoother when I was more aware of time and I was able to alter pacing of my lessons in order to give students more instructional time on difficult topics while increasing my pace through concepts that they grasped in order to promote engagement and a higher level of learning.

GOAL 2 Be able to successfully demonstrate theoretical practices of formative assessment in the classroom Strategies 1. Have specific formative assessment strategies written into lesson plans. 2. Have specific questions set out and identified within lesson plans. Indicators of Success 1. Specific knowledge of student progress throughout and at the end of every lesson. 2. Improvement of student grades in summative assessment tasks. Outcomes 1. 2. 3. 4. Students will feel like they are receiving the help they require with specific topics. I can better gauge pacing of learning activities and specific lessons based on feedback. Student progress will improve as they receive the help that they need in specific areas. Lessons will be more engaging for students as they will be required to think actively during the lessons.

Timeline 1. PS1 Practicum (Nov 7 Dec 11, 2012) Reflections Throughout my practicum, I consistently used formative assessment to gauge the progress of my students through effective questioning and observation. In most lesson plans at least one concrete strategy to identify student weakness was identified. In fact, one of my strengths during the practicum was my questioning during lessons; I was able to successfully lead students through a lesson via questioning. This strength likely came from my tutoring experience where I use questioning just like I would in the classroom, to lead the student to come up with their own theories, generalizations, and realizations. Two of the best tools I think I used were thumbs and focus groups before a summative quiz. Thumbs is a quick assessment technique where I ask a question about a particular topic, and the students let me know how they feel about the topic by giving a thumbs up, sideways thumb, or thumbs down. It was pointed out by my TA that I could improve this technique by adding a heads-down which I will have to be cognisant of using in PSII. The lesson prior to a summative quiz, I wrote topics up on the whiteboard and required students to put their names under at least one category. As the rest of the class was working, I then called each group out for some extra help with that topic. Some weaker students came out for help in each topic, which was great to see.