Link to Factoring Lesson Plan:
Link to Assessment of Lesson:
Link to Assessment Rubric:
Description of Assignment:
In my Literacy and Curriculum courses at Saint Michael’s College, each student in the class was assigned the task of designing back to back lessons that focus on just one topic or aspect of an entire mock unit that we are designing for a middle school class. I chose to focus on Algebra 1 in my unit, and for the back to back 20 minute lessons I chose to focus on factoring. There are many different ways and formulas that are used to factor a quadratic equation, but I only had twenty minutes to teach the lesson. I decided to base this lesson as an extenuation from the vocabulary lesson that can be analyzed in the previous blog post. I had students recall what was discussed in the vocabulary lesson, and then I went into a discussion of how to factor in the general form, how it relates to FOILing, and what it means graphically. I had a class with three of my peers who not only participated in the lesson, but they also gave feedback for areas of strengths as well as areas of improvements for future lessons. The lesson was concluded on the second day with an essay-based quiz that had students factor equations and explain their thinking processes.
Tagged PCs/Mission Statement:
Performance Criterion 3.1: Candidates design learning environments that support individual learning marked by active engagement.
Performance Criterion 3.2: Candidates design learning environments that support collaborative learning marked by positive social interaction.
Performance Criterion 6.1: Candidates implement multiple methods of assessment to monitor learner progress to inform instructional practice.
Performance Criterion 7.2: Candidates plan instruction by drawing upon knowledge of learners to meet rigorous learning goals.
Saint Michael’s Mission Pillar Tag:
Our graduates are reflective and contemplative practitioners.
They thoughtfully implement curriculum and assessments, drawing from a solid
They thoughtfully implement curriculum and assessments, drawing from a solid
theoretical base to guide their instruction and leadership decisions. They balance action
with reflection to stay centered and purposeful in active environments, offering a role
model for students.
Prior to our lessons, we made an accommodations matrix as a class. We were asked to pick a group of students with similar educational struggles, and design a lesson that accommodates some of these students’ needs. I chose the students Shelby and Avery who have anxiety. It was the main focus of my lesson to teach the material in a way that made students feel comfortable and calm. I wanted my lesson to be a comfortable space for all students and I did not want any students to feel overwhelmed at any time. To do this, I had to create a confident poise that was also comfortable and relatable for my students. I allowed students to have private reasoning time to formulate hypothesis on their own about their learning. I made sure all students had a chance to volunteer, and often encouraged students to think through their work outloud with a friend, with the teacher, or as a class. Math is often viewed as boring for many students, however it is my goal as a teacher to be able to tap into student’s prior knowledge to encourage them to make conjectures about the math by themselves to foster an investigative classroom environment where students understand where the math comes from and why it matters. I also implemented a variety of assessments such as entrance tasks, exit cards, class/group discussions and presentations, and a summative quiz at the end to ensure that all students have a chance to succeed as well as showing me areas of class-wide confusion so I can adapt and further the learning in future lessons.
Personal Teaching Reflection:
Beginning in my middle school career, my math classes seemed to strip all of the student curiosity and investigation out of the courses to focus on a more fact-based, teacher led lecture. Rather than have students build on their prior knowledge to enhance their understanding as to how all of the material from previous lessons, units, and math courses are interconnected, the facts were just presented to us and we were told to take them at face value. This strips student ownership of their math work from the class and completely disengages students. My goals for these lessons were to promote student inquiry of the math, build on their prior knowledge, and create a comfortable environment where student investigation and hypothesis are encouraged and accepted. After the first lesson, it was clear that some students were not feeling comfortable with the math language and calculations. In turn, I adapted my second lesson to review some of the vocabulary from previous lessons as well as previous math courses (ex] real numbers, factoring, factored form, and the standard form of a quadratic expression). I had students rewrite some of these terms in their vocabulary journals paired with examples and nonexamples to ensure students are beginning to grasp the concepts. I then allowed students to retry some calculations on their own and present their findings to the class if they felt comfortable doing so. Creating a comfortable environment means having poise as a teacher, but it also means feeling able to adapt to student’s needs to ensure students are not overwhelmed with the material. Often times students feel as if they’re bad at math because teachers are trying to rush through the content and they feel left behind. I want my students to be proficient and understand where the math comes from and why it matters rather than have my students become memorizing robots.
Some areas of focus that I will need to address for my future teaching as well as for my overall unit design for these classes definitely starts with time management. Apart from fostering a comfortable environment for students, I also have had issues with time management. The plans that I had for this lesson included a graphing activity as well as discussion of real-world problems which are both included in my standards (model with mathematics) and my overall unit essential question (what does factoring mean in the real world applications?). However, there was some confusion in the material from the first day as seen in the exit card, so I had to adjust the lesson for the second day. Although my essential question and some of the standards were not fully targeted in my lessons, I believe the review in the second lesson allowed for better mastery of the factoring skills which will better help the students answer the questions more fully in the future. I am never going to get through all of the material that I would like to, but if I want to create an environment that reflects the student's understanding of my essential question and the standards, I need to be able to allow for more time in lessons in which students need a little extra time to persevere in their solving of equations. Throughout the semester in these two courses I have been working on ensuring that students understand the math language, as well as allowing more time for certain aspects of lessons to enhance overall student understanding, and time management. All of these were targeted in these lessons, and I would like to say that I improved in all of these areas. There is still a long way to go, and I cannot wait to see where the rest of my educational career and essentially the rest of my adult life takes me!
Tyler - a very thoughtful response to the experience. You have wonderful goals for your future teaching!
ReplyDelete