Lexus Monroe

ELED 4410
Lesson Reflections

Math Lesson- Indirect Measurement

Introduction
This lesson was taught in Mrs. Bluemels first grade class. There were nineteen
students in the class. Eight of them were girls and eleven of them were boys. The lesson
was teaching the students how to compare the length of objects using indirect
measurements. The lesson that I planned was planned around the My Math program
which is the core math program that the school utilizes.

Preparation
The next portion of the lesson, I talked about the lesson objectives for the day
and introduced the vocabulary. I combined the content and language objective. I wrote
the objective on the board that they use at the rug (SIOP 1, 2, 9). I had the students
read the objective and we talked about what we would be doing for the lesson that day.
The objective was: I will compare the length of objects using indirect measurement. I
presented the objective as Your Job to the students. I did this so that it was clear to
the students to know what we were going to do for the math lesson that day.
The math program had provided some vocabulary cards with pictures that I was
able to use when talking about the words. The vocabulary words were: Length, Short,
and Long. These words opened up great discussion with the students because the
students have heard these words at some point. Most students were able to share or
had an idea of what the words meant, but some students did not get the opportunity to
verbalize their thinking at that time (SIOP 9, 4, 16).
Although I utilized supplementary materials (vocabulary cards), they were not
very strong. The materials could have been physical items for the students to use and

Lexus Monroe
ELED 4410
Lesson Reflections
visualize and the students could have been broken into groups to discuss the
vocabulary words. If I were to teach this again, I would tell them to tell the person next
to them their definition of length, short, and long. By doing this, every student would
get the opportunity to talk and discuss the vocabulary.

Building Background
I started my lesson with a warm up problem of the day that was in the My Math
program. The warm up problem that was provided was not related to the topic that I
was teaching about. It was a problem that was from a previous lesson. It would have
been more beneficial to the students if the warm up problem was an introduction to the
new lesson, and it would have allowed the students to link their past knowledge to the
content that I was about to teach (SIOP 8). Looking back at this, I would have added a
different problem as a warm up problem to get the students ready to start the lesson.
After that problem I showed a video that was, again, provided by the program.
As soon as the video had ended, I asked the students different questions that
revolved around the video to activate their background further. I asked the students:
What was the difference between the boxes? What did this person discover when they
could not fit some of the items in the box? While I was questioning the students, I made
sure to give them time to think before they answered (SIOP 18). This portion of the
lesson addressed the building background component along with some of the
interaction background. The building background portion could have been stronger if
the questions would have been more meaningful or the example was shown to them
live with physical manipulatives. This also could have been improved with examples
that were more relatable to their lives (SIOP 7). I could have had them try the example
with their own materials, rather than have the students watch it on the video.

Lexus Monroe
ELED 4410
Lesson Reflections

Comprehensible Input
I feel like I did a good job explaining the directions as well as speaking in a way
that the students would understand what was being asked of them on the assignment
(SIOP 10, 11). One thing that I would like to improve was the variety of techniques being
used. I only used the PowerPoint that was provided by the program and a few
manipulatives to help explain some of the story problems to the students toward the
end of the lesson. The students knew what they should be doing but they were not
provided with different manipulatives or strategies to think about the problems.
I would improve this in my lesson by giving them blocks/ manipulatives to use for
some of the problems as well as some strategies to narrow down their thinking when
solving some of the story problems (SIOP 13).

Strategies
The rest of the lesson was taught along with the worksheets that came from the
math program. The objective was comparing lengths of objects using indirect
measurement. The students were given pictures of objects and they had to determine
which object was longer or shorter. This portion of the lesson could be improved with
more meaningful activities. Not all of the students needs were being met. There were
not enough questions to engage the higher level thinkers. In the future, I would write
higher level questions right into my lesson so that I was prepared to engage higher level
students. Another thing that I would have done was created different activities that the
students could do aside from the worksheets from the math program.

Interaction
I mentioned some of the interactions that the students had with me when we
were discussing as a class what we got from the video. This was how the interaction

Lexus Monroe
ELED 4410
Lesson Reflections
remained throughout the rest of the lesson (SIOP 16). We went through the rest of the
math lesson together and only some students would respond to the questions that were
being asked on their math pages.
I felt like the students needed the opportunity to work together. If I were to teach
this again I would break them off into groups and have them solve some of the
challenge/story problems together. When I tried to help them with those problems, I felt
like I scaffolded them too much by grabbing physical objects. Instead of doing what I
did, I would allow them to work in groups to solve it first and provided them with the
manipulatives (SIOP 17).

Practice/ Application
This portion of the lesson was not executed very well. I relied too much on the
math program and there were not meaningful activities besides their math worksheets
that they were given. This is where I learned that I need to step outside of the math
program to bring in more things that are meaningful and engaging because worksheets
are not.
For this specific lesson, I would bring in manipulatives for the students to try out
and use to measure. I also would have done another activity where they could measure
different things in the classroom and compare their lengths (SIOP 20, 21, 22).
My supervisor also brought by my attention that I could have stepped a little bit
outside of this lesson and looked into Piagets conservation theory. This is a
developmental theory where some students would not be able to tell that some objects
are the same measurement even though they look different. This is something that I
would research further and consider for this lesson in the future.

Lexus Monroe
ELED 4410
Lesson Reflections

Lesson Delivery
The lesson was delivered in an efficient amount of time. I taught this lesson in
the morning and finished in under 45 minutes. Most of the students had time after this
lesson to work on their extension math books that my mentor teacher provided. The
students were engaged most of the time but I felt like the lesson was too easy for the
students.
The students finished and grasped the concepts quickly. The students needed
more of an extension to go along with this lesson.

Review/ Assessment
I closed the lesson with a short review of the vocabulary and the concept of
comparing different objects. This could have been stronger if I would have come back to
the objectives. I reviewed the vocabulary well but forgot to go back to the objective
(SIOP 27, 28).
After closing the lesson I gave the students a verbal summative assessment from
each individual student (SIOP 30). I proved three random items that I brought. I asked
the students which one was the longest, which one was the shortest, and to put them in
order from least to greatest. I did not have time to assess every student because it took
more time than I had expected (SIOP 26). In future lessons I will pay closer attention to
the time and pacing that I have to work with to make the assessment fit into that.

Conclusion
From this lesson, I got firsthand experience that the math programs that are
provided do not always have the best supplementary materials or the most meaningful
activities for the students. It is important to find outside materials to supplement the
lesson. Students need the opportunity to touch math and solve things on their own.

Lexus Monroe
ELED 4410
Lesson Reflections
Another thing that I would like to improve on would be looking at some of the
other lessons that could be integrated into the lesson that I am already going to teach.
This would get more content into one lesson as well as offer extensions to the students
that already know the material. It also keeps the teacher prepared.

Lexus Monroe
ELED 4410
Lesson Reflections

Science Lesson: Parents and Offspring

Introduction
This lesson was taught in Mrs. Bluemels first grade class. There were twenty
students in the class. Eight of them were girls and twelve of them were boys. On the
day that this lesson was taught, there was a new student whose first day was on this
day. I was not prepared for this student, he was not in my contextual factors that I had
originally and I did not have enough copies of the assessment (I found this out at the
end of lesson when I distributed the assessment).

Preparation
When I began this lesson I wrote the objectives on the board that is where the
students meet at the rug. I presented this as your job to the students. The objective
that I displayed for the students was: I will be able to see and tell about the similarities
and differences between parents and their offspring (SIOP 1, 2, 3). After talking about
the objective, it transitioned smoothly into the discussion of the vocabulary words. To
introduced the vocabulary with a PowerPoint presentation with many different pictures
as examples of the words (SIOP 4, 9). The vocabulary words were: characteristics,
parents, and offspring. One thing that went very well before talking about the objectives
was the investigation that I had prepared for the students. The students were a picture
of a parent and an offspring at their table (SIOP 16, 17). They were asked to work in
groups to talk about the similarities and differences between the parent and the
offspring. This discussion between the students had all of the students engaged and
allowed them to verbalize their thinking (SIOP 6). During the investigation, I made sure
to remember to ask questions to my high level learners in the class as well as facilitate

Lexus Monroe
ELED 4410
Lesson Reflections
the discussion so that all of the students, including the ELL students, got the
opportunity to voice the observations that they were making.

Building Background
The students began to build background as they were discussing and making
connections during the investigation activity that they were given. After the
investigation I introduced the lesson by asking the students questions such as: have
people ever told you that you look like your mom, dad, grandparents, etc.? This got the
students making their own personal connections. After giving them time to think, I
showed them a picture of me with my parents (SIOP 4, 7). This worked out very well
with my lesson because in the picture that I brought, I look nothing like my dad and
almost exactly like my mom. It worked out because I was emphasizing the point that
sometimes offspring look like their parents and sometimes they dont. Showing the
picture to the students to think more about their families and parents. It also gave the
students a deeper meaning of characteristics, parents, and offspring (SIOP 9).

Comprehensible Input
Throughout the lesson I made an effort to be consistent with the vocabulary that
I was using.
For example, I tried to make sure that I was saying offspring rather than babies and
saying the word characteristics rather than things. I also required the students to use
the vocabulary words throughout the activities that I had planned for them (activities
will be mentioned and described in the practice/ application section).

Lexus Monroe
ELED 4410
Lesson Reflections
Another thing that I made sure to do was to give directions to the students when
I had their attention and before I gave them the supplies for the activities. For example,
for one of the games that I brought, it requires them to move around the classroom. I
gave the directions and examples for the game before they could begin to play. (SIOP
11, 12) With the examples for the game, I demonstrated the types of behavior that I
wanted to see as well as remind them of the vocabulary that I wanted to hear
throughout the activity (characteristic, parent, and offspring).

Strategies
With this lesson, I provided a few different activities that got the students moving
and practicing the new vocabulary that they learned. The students were engaged and
asked for assistance when they needed it. For example, during the animal matching
activity (mentioned in Practice/ Application), some students were struggling to figure
out what questions to ask to find the match that was theirs. I was able to move around
the room to give the students prompts or ideas of what types of questions that they
could ask (SIOP 13, 14). One thing that was challenging for me as I was scaffolding the
students that needed help during this activity was managing the rest of the group. I had
a hard time interacting with an individual student while trying to keep the rest of the
class on task with the activity that they were participating in. Next time I do an activity
such as this, I will make sure that I still look around often as I am working with one
student.
For this lesson, I made sure to write higher level questions into my lesson (SIOP
15) so that they were on my mind as I was teaching. At the close of my lesson, I asked
the students, Can parents be offspring too? When I asked this, I told them all to think
about it for a moment before answering (SIOP 18) because I knew that this might be a

Lexus Monroe
ELED 4410
Lesson Reflections
more challenging question for the students. I felt like this was an improvement from my
previous lesson and is something that I want to continue to plan before I teach lessons.

Interaction
The students had many opportunities for interaction between themselves
through the investigation at the beginning of the lesson and through the activities that I
provided (SIOP 16, 17). The students also had frequent opportunities of interaction with
the teacher (me). I was able to lead discussions and ask questions while they were at
the rug when we talked about the objectives and the vocabulary (SIOP 17). I also made
an effort to give the students time to think after I asked a question so that everyone had
an opportunity to respond. I feel like the wait time was a strong characteristic within the
interaction.
One part that I need to work on, is reminding the students to raise their hand
before responding. During portions of the lesson when I would ask them a question,
some of the students would immediately shout out the answer to the question that I
asked, and there were times that I did not remind them to raise their hand. This is
something that I need to keep in mind for future lessons because when this happens,
many of the students who are not shouting out, are being having their voices or
opinions heard.

Practice/ Application
This portion of the lesson was the most fun for me and the students. I planned a
couple of different activities throughout the lesson that gave the students the
opportunity to use the new vocabulary words that they have learned (characteristic,
parent, offspring).

Lexus Monroe
ELED 4410
Lesson Reflections
The first activity was an activity that we did as a class. This is a game that can

be played on the SMART board where the students will identify the animal babies
and match it with the animal parent.
The second activity was a matching game that the students did together.

Directions:
Tell the students that they will each receive a picture of an animal and the
animal will be either a baby animal or an adult animal. Show an example by
holding up a matching card pair of a baby animal and an adult animal.
Continue by explaining that the students will need to keep their animal a
secret and not show anyone their card. When the game begins, the students
will look for their mommy or daddy if they are baby animal or they will look
for their baby if they are a mommy or daddy adult animal. Tell the students
that they will look for their match by walking around and asking yes and no
questions about the other person's animal. At this time stop and
demonstrate an example by calling two children up to the front of the room.
Give one child an adult animal picture and one the corresponding baby
animal picture. Have one of them ask a question that would help them decide
if they have a match like, "Do you have fur?" Let the other respond and have
them demonstrate by asking more questions until they figure out if they have
a match. Ask the students if they understand the questioning portion of the
game. If they don't understand, demonstrate with another example match
and explain further.
These activities were fun for the students and they required them to utilize
the vocabulary. I felt like the activities that I planned were successful because I did

Lexus Monroe
ELED 4410
Lesson Reflections

hear the students using the vocabulary and most of them were engaged throughout
each activity.

Lesson Delivery
The overall lesson went over smoothly. The transitions were good and the timing
was just right. I planned for the full time that I had. I also brought books about animal
families for the students that finished the assessment early. I also had an IPad video for
the students to watch as an extension about animal families but the IPad were not
working. With the IPad situation, in the future I would attempt preparing that activity
much sooner than I did on the day of the lesson.
I felt as though the students were engaged for the majority of the lesson. I
mentioned earlier, in the Strategies portion, is managing the rest of the group as I am
working with individual students. By working on this, I will have 100% engagement.

Review/ Assessment
When I closed the lesson, I reviewed the vocabulary and gave them the
directions for their assessment. When reviewing the vocabulary, I used the pictures that
I brought for the investigation. As a group we talked about the characteristics and how
we knew that which animals were parents and which animals were offspring. At this
point in the lesson, I had the chance to ask other questions to review the content with
the students.
The end of the lesson was just a summative assessment that I prepared for the
students. All of the students got an 83% or higher except for one. The student that
received a lower score got a 50%. I think that she was just confused about what it was
asking.

Lexus Monroe
ELED 4410
Lesson Reflections

Conclusion
Some things that I saw improvement in was the activities that I planned, and the
questioning. It was obvious to my supervisor that I focused this lesson more toward my
high level learners. This was something that needed to be fixed in the previous lesson
and was strong in this lesson. One part that I would like to work on is managing the rest
of the group while working with individual students or small groups. The management
effects the interaction of the lesson as well as the engagement of the students.
Another thing that I took away is that you should always be prepared. Besides
the questions and activities, make sure that you have enough of everything for every
student. Like I mentioned early in my analysis, we got a new student on the day that
this lesson was taught. I had made extra of everything except the final summative
assessment. This made the final assessment much more stressful than it should have
been. Although there were challenges, this lesson was so much fun to teach. The
students were so excited for the science lesson that I had prepared and were engaged
during the activities.

Lexus Monroe
ELED 4410
Lesson Reflections

Geography Lesson- Goods and Services

Introduction
This lesson was taught in Mrs. Bluemels first grade class. There were twenty
students in the class. Eight of them were girls and twelve of them were boys. This
lesson was taught at the end of the day with a 30 minute time period.

Preparation
When I began this lesson I wrote the objectives on the board that is where the
students meet at the rug. I presented this as your job to the students. The objective
that I displayed for the students was: I will be able to explain the differences between
goods and services (SIOP 1, 2, 3). This was a positive things because it allowed the
students to know what I was going to teach as well as what to expect.

Building Background
When I began my lesson, I told my students that I wanted them to think about
the different places that they go. These places might include their house, school, the
grocery store, soccer practice, etc. I told them that I wanted them to think about the
different people that are at those places. I asked them What are some of the things that
those people do? Do they help other people? During this time, I made sure to give the
students time to think about how they would respond (SIOP 18). This introduction
helped the students to make personal connections as well as link their previous
knowledge to what I was teaching (SIOP 7, 8).
For this lesson I was teaching about goods and services. I had prepared a PowerPoint
presentation with pictures of many examples of goods and services (SIOP 4, 9). I also

Lexus Monroe
ELED 4410
Lesson Reflections
included the vocabulary word: exchange (I realized at the end of the lesson, that I did
not review that word ever again after I taught it).

Comprehensible Input
After I introduced the lesson and taught the vocabulary, it was time for me to
allow the students to put those vocabulary words into practice. I planned two different
activities (SIOP 6) for the students to participate in during the lesson (the activity will be
mentioned in the Practice/ Application section). These activities gave the students
different ways of showing me that they were learning (SIOP 13). One activity was a
group matching activity and the other was a class activity that was on the SMART board.
I also knew that it was important for me to give the directions of the sorting
game before giving them the materials and allowing them to start. By doing this, it
helped the students know exactly what to do when they did get their materials and it
helped with management of the class.

Strategies
During these activities, I was able to walk around to scaffold the matching or
question the students about why they would sort the way that they did (SIOP 14, 15). I
feel like the activities that I planned were strong because they were a good way for me
to see their thinking and watch them justify their answers. This helped them to deepen
their understanding and allowed me to assess. One thing that I need to pay attention to
during these types of activities is making sure that I talk to every student. I have
noticed that there are some students that are always the students who are talking and
participating while some of the other students that are quieter just slide through the
cracks. I would like to work on keeping track of the students that I am always working
with and talking to.

Lexus Monroe
ELED 4410
Lesson Reflections

Interaction
The students had different exposures to interaction. The students got to work
together in small groups (SIOP 16, 17) as well as with the class and the teacher (me).
With the matching activity, the students got the opportunity to work in their table
groups. The class worked with me during the SMART board game as well as when I was
walking around to question the students. These interactions were positive because
these allowed the students to be scaffolded as well as verbalize their thinking. Like I
mentioned before, I need to make sure to pay attention to the students that I am
helping and talking to. This is important for two reasons, the first is so that I can monitor
and possibly reteach a student who is not understanding the concept and two so that I
can be sure to acknowledge every student. Students should know what they have to say
and contribute is important to our class, and some students are overpowered by the
students that are consistently raising their hand and shouting out their answers.

Practice/ Application
I planned two different activities for the students to demonstrate their understanding
of goods and services. The first game was played together as a class and it was on the
SMART board. The students were given a picture of either an object or a person performing a
job, and they needed to determine whether it was a good or a service. They liked this
activity because even if they were not the student to come up to the board to click and drag
the picture, they were still trying to figure out where the picture belonged.

The next activity was a picture sort that I created. The students were given two
headers that were labeled goods and services, as well as a variety of pictures. They

Lexus Monroe
ELED 4410
Lesson Reflections
were asked to sort the pictures based upon whether they were a good or a service.
These activities put the goods and services into different contexts and the students
needed to determine those on their own (SIOP 17, 20, 21).
To improve the SMART board activity, I would prepare higher level thinking questions to
engage more of the students as well as deepen the understanding of goods and
services (SIOP 15). At this point I could have incorporated the word exchange and linked
the goods and services.

Lesson Delivery
This lesson was executed in just the right amount of time. The transitions were
good and the timing was just right. I planned for the full time that I had. I also brought
books about different types of occupations and community helpers for the students that
finished the assessment early. The students were engaged for most of the time. The
only time that I noticed that some of the students were not engaged was during the
SMART board game. This is where the higher level thinking questions would have fixed
that issue and made that activity stronger.

Review/Assessment
In the closing of the lesson, I asked the students to tell me what a good was and
what a service was. After talking and reviewing the content, I distributed the summative
assessment that I found. The assessment gave the students twelve different pictures
and they had to determine whether that picture was showing a good or a service. This
showed that they understood and were able to distinguish the difference between the
two.
One of the pictures that I over looked and should have talked about with the
students was the picture of the carwash. The carwash is doing a service but it was not a

Lexus Monroe
ELED 4410
Lesson Reflections
person. This confused many of the students and only nine out of nineteen got that
answer correct. I realized after that throughout the lesson I emphasized how goods are
objects and services are people doing things. This made me think about how important
it is to analyze and examine your assessments before you administer them to your
students (SIOP 30).

Conclusion
Overall I thought that the lesson was successful. Some things that I thought were
strong, were the examples that I gave in the PowerPoint to help the students to
understand the vocabulary, and the group matching activity. Some things that I would
like to improve for the next lesson would be figuring out where and when to ask higher
level questions in the lesson (SMART board game), not forgetting to use or talk about a
vocabulary word that was taught (exchange), and analyze the assessment carefully to
check for any misconceptions for invalid questions (carwash).
Moving forward in lesson planning and teaching, I plan to continue to think and
write high level questions into my lesson plans. By doing this, I will already be conscious
of what I want to ask my students during the lesson. I also want to review the lesson
before teaching it so that I know that everything that I am teaching is applicable and is
covered in the lesson. Finally I plan to examine my assessments to check for validity
and mistakes.