Jenny Gold

12/3/18

SIOP Lesson Demonstration

Pre-Teaching Reflection

1. The pre-teaching session is a little less formal than an actual lesson, and usually does not

involve the "whole" class. However, do you feel that spending a little bit of time on your

upcoming content is beneficial to the students? To you as the teacher? Please explain in a

paragraph.

- It was strange to do a pre-teach session with the whole class, because we didn’t want

to repeat what we covered on the previous day. It would be different if it were only

for a small group because we would repeat what we went over in more depth. I think

this would be very helpful for ELLs and struggling students because they have a

background for the new content. This is what really helped me when I was learning

Spanish. If I had a background about what a reading was about, it was much easier to

read and understand because it cleared up misconceptions from minimal pair words

and multiple-meaning words. As the teacher, I found this helpful because even before

I taught, I knew what areas of content the students struggled with.

2. Now that you had an opportunity to deliver your pre-teaching session, would you do

anything differently if you had the chance to do it again? If you wouldn't change anything,

why do you think you used your time effectively? Please answer in a couple of sentences.

- If I got the chance to do the pre-teaching session again, I would have covered more

material. Our pre-teach took much less time than we anticipated because the students
 knew a good amount of the content beforehand. This would clearly be different for

elementary students, but this same type of scenario could happen.

3. Do you feel that interaction is important during the pre-teaching session, or rather is it a

time to simply present information that may help the students in the upcoming

lesson? Please answer in a couple of sentences.

- I think that interaction is always important in teaching. The teacher must know how

well the students are comprehending the material at all times, so they know if it is an

effective strategy. Interaction also increases retention of information

Main Lesson Reflection

4. Did you achieve both your language and content objectives? How can you be sure?

- Yes, we achieved both the language and content objectives. Our content standards

were that students would be able to explain the roles of Congress and that they could

cite specific characteristics of each chamber. Our language objectives were to apply

concepts learned by role-playing the process of passing a bill. The students were able

to do complete this task and demonstrated deep knowledge of Congress through

answering questions and exit-slip responses.

5. Do you feel you "immersed" the students in the vocabulary? Based on your assessment, did

the students have their own understanding of each of the vocab words?

- I believe we immersed the students in the vocabulary. I would use a word like

“constituent” in context, explain the word meaning, then use it a few more times and

ask what it means. This way, I kept it in context and explicitly taught it. Students

used vocabulary words in context during the role-play, demonstrating that they have

a deep understanding of the meaning.

6. Do you feel you had enough interaction, a chance to apply the language/content with

students? Why or why not?

- I integrated more questioning into the lesson while we delivered it than we planned

for. We realized after the pre-teach lesson that we were going to run out of material

during the regular lesson, so we expanded the information we were providing. Some

of it was delivered as a lecture which I altered to be as student-led as possible through

questioning. Because of this, I feel we had enough interaction and chances to apply

the language and content.

7. What are three aspects of the SIOP process that you find effective and truly need to be in

your lesson plans (especially if ELLs are present)?

- Building background, comprehensible input, and interaction were very helpful

aspects of the lesson to plan out. It is very easy to assume that all students have

background on a topic, that they understand your speech, and that they don’t need

extra practice interacting with others, but these are huge struggles for ELLs.

8. Looking back on your pre-teaching sessions now that you completed the lesson, what is one

thing you would have done differently? Why?

- I would not have changed anything in light of teaching the lesson. They only thing I would

have changed is what I realized directly after the pre-teach session: that we should have

covered more content because the students already were familiar with a good portion of it.