Stephanie Gutierrez

EDUC 450
November 12, 2016
Lesson 2 Reflection
1. To what extent were the lessons learning targets achieved? (Utilize
assessment data to justify your level of achievement)
The objectives of my lesson were achieved. My post assessment and class
discussion demonstrated to me that students took a lot of important information
away from my lesson. In class discussion, both classes participated in meaningful
discussion about the content. The most useful discussions where this took place was
when discussing the political cartoons and following The Wizard of Oz reading in
both classes. Because the interpretations of the cartoons and the chapter from The
wizard of Oz allow are abstract, it allows students to think critically and use what
they know and have learned to make connections. Class discussion and the post
assessment both demonstrated that students left my lesson with the main takeaway of Chinese Imperialism.

2. What changes, omissions, or additions to the lesson would you make if

you were to teach again?
Between lessons, I made a few changes. The first change I made was using a new
metaphor. I did not really have a metaphor that helped make the material relevant
to the kids, but Mr. Knierim did. Toward the end of the lesson he explained it to the
kids and it was easy to tell that helped make the information just click for the
students, so I decided to use that metaphor with the second class I taught and it
worked really well. I also changed the discussion of the political cartoon from just
one big discussion with the class in general to a turn-and-talk followed by a short
class discussion. This way students had a moment to think and bounce ideas off
each other, and then come together as a class and talk. I also needed to work on
timing. There were some kids that did not have partners for some discussions so I
would spend time asking them what they thought and allowed for too much time
during some turn-and-talks. The second time around I really tried to work on my
timing. If I saw a couple of students that did not have a partner I instructed them to
go talk to the other student that did not have a partner rather than talking to the
two individual. This helped me stay on task with evaluating how much time students
needed to discuss. The last thing I changed was how I ran the Open Door Notes
activity. At first I gave the students all the directions and did not do a good job of
giving explicit directions, for a number of my students were confused. Reading both
notes individually also took up too much time. The second time around I had
students find a partner and turn their books to the designated page. After they did
that I explained we would be reading the two notes. I had one person in the group
red the first note, and the other read the second note. I then explained that when
they were finished they will talk to their partner and communicate what their note
was saying, and then compare the two notes. This worked much better. There was a
lot less confusion and the students started the activity immediately rather than
looking at me with a confused look on their face.

3. What do you envision for the next lesson? (Continued practice, reteach
content, etc.
For the next lesson I envision going into depth about other countries industrialized
by the US and how it impacted their development and history. This lesson would
also set the precursor to WWI in the United States. Students could use what they
learned from this lesson to make predictions about what they are going to learn
next and also supplement their knowledge about what they will learn.