Nicole Moorman

Lesson Reflection #1
Dr. Bulgar
April 21,2015
On Tuesday April 21, 2015, I was given the opportunity to teach a
whole group math lesson in Mrs. Detherages first grade classroom.
Math is taught in her classroom around 1:30-2:30 on a daily bases. Due
to an exciting assembly that day and the issue that I had to leave at
2:00, my lesson began around 1:15 and ended around 2:00. The
overall goal for my lesson was to teach students about nonstandard
measuring units. They were to learn how they could use other objects
besides a ruler to express the length of different objects. Throughout
my entire lesson, I had a hard time getting the students to stay
focused on the task. It could have been the lasting effect from the
assembly they had gone to in the morning, but the students were
extremely wound up and a lot of misbehaving was occurring. Some of
the students were engaged because through observation, I could tell
that they were paying attention to the video I was showing and
listening to me while I was giving instructions. The students who were
not engaged were laughing obnoxiously during the video, and talking
or rolling around in their seats on the rug. The evidence that I have to
support those students who were engaged throughout the lesson is the
multiple worksheets that were handed out are completed correct. I do
believe that my goal for the entire class was met because all students
were able to answer questions correctly about nonstandard

measurement, and all the students demonstrated skills that they knew
how to measure objects with other objects besides a ruler. The next
lesson I would teach to the class would be to give them a nonstandard
measuring tool, for example tiles, and tell them that they need to find
objects around the room that are 8 tiles long. They would be instructed
to record this data and we would discuss as a class what objects
around the room were 9 tiles long.
The lesson succeeded in that all students clearly had an
understanding of how they could use an object to measure another
object. I was able to observe each and every one of the students
measuring an object with paperclips, tiles, or links successfully. The
lesson did not succeed in that I had a hard time getting the students to
stop their misbehavior. While working with a small group of students on
a worksheet, the other group who was supposed to be measuring with
the links was making necklaces and lassos and waving them around
their heads. I tried the techniques that Mrs. Detherage uses on a daily
bases to get the students to settle down, but they didnt want to listen
to me as well as they listen to her. Reflecting back on this lesson, I
have learned a lot. I learned that I need to be sterner with my tone of
voice towards students who are misbehaving. If I was teaching this
lesson again and the students were misbehaving, I wouldve done a
better job of separating the students who were misbehaving from the
students who were engaged in their work. I shouldve taken the objects

away from the students who werent using them properly. Overall, I
think that the basics of my lesson were good. I was prepared to teach
with a well-written lesson plan and all materials ready, I just had issues
with the students behavior.