Subica Hussain
Master of Arts in Teaching
PROFESSIONAL RESPONSIBILITY: Teacher Reflection
The lesson was designed for the intervention block for students at grade level. As an interventionist, I modified the lesson (EngageNY: Module 4; Topic A; Lesson 1) that I believed would benefit students and fulfill their learning needs. My plan was to support their learning process through concrete representation to abstract. The lesson modifications accommodated the differentiated learning styles that were identified before the lesson and were addressed through the use of UDL.
The planned alignment of the lesson provided the opportunity to the students to move from less challenging to more challenging in a step by step process. The use of the hundred chart supported the students to visually see the pattern that number follows when tens and ones are added and subtracted in terms of the place value. The students identified various patterns not only at the beginning of the lesson but also during the lesson. They were asked to compare their solutions during the activities with the hundred chart and see if it follows the pattern rule. The evidence showed that they met the first outcome of the lesson by identifying and color coding the number patterns on the hundred chart.
Overall, the lesson experience went well except for the closing part as I ran out of time. I lost some of the planned time because I observed during activity 1, the students were having a hard time with the concept of trading the 10 ones disks with 1 tens disk. I asked them while they were representing the numbers, what strategy they should use in the situation where you have 7 tens and have to take away one. They were able to verbally give the answer 69, but couldn’t apply the strategy of trading. At this point, I decided to spend more time to address the concept of trading in more detail because later on when they will be expected to solve arithmetic subtraction problem they should know that they cannot take away one unless they decompose 1 tens into 10 ones. So, I gave them ample opportunity to understand the concept through more examples. I purposefully wanted my students to not only be aware of the strategy but can also apply the strategy in a different situation. And I am glad that the students learned the strategy and implemented it independently during the second activity. The implementation of the actual trading provided the evidence that students met the second outcome. The use of manipulatives supported my learners to apply the learned strategy and have the concrete experience to visually represent the solution. The students were engaged throughout the lesson and actively participated. The open-ended questioning technique such as, “What are some of the notices and wonders when you look at the hundred chart?” or “Do you see any number pattern?” supported them to think critically.
Another challenge was to engage Student Q purposefully throughout the lesson. He gets easily distracted and shows difficulty on keeping himself on the task. I used the method of assigning him the responsibilities as being my helper and partner during the time when I modeled the activity for the whole group. The technique kept Student Q not only engaged, but I found him actively participating throughout the lesson. When Student Q raised his hand, he couldn’t recall what he wanted to share. I asked him to recollect his thoughts and told him that I will get back to him when he is ready to share his thinking. After a while, to my surprise, he told me that he was willing to answer. And shared his critical thinking with the whole group. Student Q’s action gave me the evidence that he was involved and engaged.
Another change I made during the lesson was during the second activity. I assigned different numbers and situations to each student. I purposefully evaluated their learning through formative assessment. I wanted to make sure that each student has learned the concept of 10 more/less and 1 more/less before they move to the more challenging situation. The students were able to individually group tens and ones and use the trading strategy that involved tens grouping and ungrouping. The representation of disks on the template provided the evidence that they understood the concept of adding subtracting like units, which was one of the lesson outcomes.
After the formative assessment, I knew students were prepared for the next challenging task where students had to realize that they cannot add every time they see the word more. They must read the sentence carefully and apply a strategy to figure out the missing number in the sentence frame. At this point of the lesson, I realized there was not much time left to address this task and did not have enough time to debrief the lesson and have students complete the exit ticket. I spent more time during the first activity when I had to reinforce the concept of trading; I feel it was the right decision to show flexibility and utilize the time to ensure that the students have a reasonable understanding of the concept. It was a wise decision for not to take the lesson forward as it was an important concept for students to understand and apply in future when they would be expected to solve arithmetic problems. The utilization of extra time during the first activity resulted in that I had to rush through the lesson at the end. Therefore, I squeezed the process of closure as it was my formal observation. I skipped the part where I had to address the strategy to solve the complex sentence frame. I quickly debriefed the concepts and strategies learned during the activities and distributed the exit ticket. I did not get a chance to do verbal exercise during my debrief which I planned for my students to identify number patterns without visual representation. The rushing of me, in the end, affected the performance of the students while they were solving the problems on the exit ticket. The evidence showed that they couldn’t achieve the eventual outcome of the lesson. After the lesson, while I was watching the video of myself teaching, I noticed that due to shortness of time I mistakenly accepted the incorrect answer to one of the sentence frame, as I had felt pressurized to finish the lesson. My intention was to complete the planned lesson and show the assessment part during the formal observation. There I was mistaken. As an educator, I should have had taken a wise decision to change the plan due to lack of time and should not have let the students do the exit ticket. Instead, I should have verbally assessed the students’ understanding as the closure of the lesson.
In the future when I will meet with the group of students, I will have them do a quick review by brainstorming what they learned last time. I will then introduce the situation where they have to think differently while solving the complex sentence frame mentioned above. They would be instructed to use the available resources (manipulatives and hundred chart) to solve the sentence frame. I will also have students do a verbal exercise to identify the pattern rule. I will use the same exit ticket and have them redo it with complete understanding.
After the whole experience, I find myself as a reflective educator who learns from her experiences. I always try to utilize my instructional time for the success of my students. I am glad that during the coaching conversation, my instructional coach supported me on this idea and provided me with confidence that even in a situation where you are being observed, I should take the timely decisions that are in the best interest of my students.