Christopher Ngo

Tiger PRIDE

10/3/14

Week 2 Reflection
For week 2 of Tiger PRIDE (9/29/14 and 10/1/14) the unit was spatial awareness with my 22 4th
graders. For Monday, the lesson focus was on personal and general space, and following directions. The
lesson took place on the blacktop area of Cleveland Elementary on the basketball courts. Cones were
needed to mark boundaries of the activity area, hula hoops were needed for each student, and a whistle
was needed for classroom management strategies. For Wednesday, the lesson focus was the same as I
wanted to reinforce the importance of personal space since it is important for the rest of the units for
the entire semester. Although high-medium-low levels was a previously learned skill, I wanted to include
that in the lesson focus so students can practice different levels as they move through general space.
Poly spots were required for each student as they needed them to serve as steering wheels for their
imaginary cars in the instant activity and hula hoops were again needed for the main activity.
For both days, the student learning outcomes were the same as the unit and lesson focuses
were the same to serve as a reinforcement throughout the entire duration of Tiger Pride. The
psychomotor learning outcomes is that students should be able to perform various locomotor skills like
skipping, sliding, galloping, and walking at all different levels in order to travel through general space
while maintaining good personal space. As for the cognitive domain, students should be able to discuss
strategies they implemented as individuals and in conjunction with their teammates to accomplish the
task of maintaining good personal space while moving to the other side of the activity space. Students
should have been able to discuss strategies they used and explain 1 benefit to maintaining personal
space to accomplish certain tasks. The affective domain learning outcome was for students to be able to
include individual and team space awareness concepts in the lesson to effectively accomplish the tasks.
Students should have exhibited traits such as smiling, high-fives, have positive dialogue, give
encouragement and receive positive feedback from the instructor. I believed that I reached my student
learning outcomes as I gave positive feedback to students who were on task and performing well. I also
gave feedback for management to encourage a more positive learning environment. As for the
psychomotor and cognitive domains, I believe that my students had a very clear understanding of the
underlying concepts of the lesson. Although the numbers do not reflect the progress I felt I had with my
students, my lesson was very engaging and kept the students interested; especially with the instant
activities, despite the high management times. I reached 6 minutes of activity time for Monday but only
3.5 minutes of activity on Wednesday. If I were to alter anything about my lesson plan to increase
student learning outcomes, I would probably change up my activity to make it a big more interesting. I

Christopher Ngo

Tiger PRIDE

10/3/14

would probably include an activity where the students had a little more autonomy because they seem to
engage in more activity when they have a little freedom to do what they want to do with the task and
equipment while still managing to focus on the unit goals.
This week I do not think I hit all 4 criteria of a learning environment. Although my activity time
was higher this week compared to week 1, with 6 minutes of activity on Monday, I do not believe that
my students received maximal practice opportunities as my management time for the two days was a
combined 39 minutes. My end goal is to hit 15 minutes of practice or activity time and that means I
would have to cut management time down to under 15 minutes to reach that. Once I achieve those
numbers, my students will receive maximum practice opportunities. On Monday, my students were in
activity for 18% of the time, receiving instruction 23.5% of the time, and spent 58% of the time in
management. On Wednesday, activity time was 12%, instruction time was 19%, and management took
up 69% of class time. To improve these ratios, I will have to keep instruction simple, clear, and concise,
provide quality demonstrations, establish a bigger presence out there on the blacktop as a teacher and
figure of authority, and deal with misbehaving students in an effective and efficient manner. I believe
that when my students did get the opportunity to practice, that they were able to practice at a high level
and achieve the utmost level of success but due to the high amount of management time, those
opportunities were cut to a minimum. In order to provide my students the most opportunities to
practice at a high level, I must minimize behavioral issues right from the start of class, keep students
engaged and interested in the activities, and encourage participation by giving positive constructive
feedback. In my lessons, I provided my students the opportunity to develop and progress their skills but
it could have been better. I helped with development and progress by providing feedback and assessing
them throughout the entire lesson. By asking questions for understanding, giving both behavioral and
constructive feedback, and tending to students individually as well as 1-on-1, I made sure that students
were developing their skills. To further improve and develop their skills, I must decrease management
time to increase activity time. By increasing activity time and giving students more practice
opportunities, I can provide quality feedback for skill development.
Throughout my lesson, my teacher movement was fairly good. I observed students by mostly
close interactions and engagement within the general learning space. I did not observe from the
perimeter as I was providing small groups of students feedback on the skills. Cues of the skills were
provided on both days as the games had to be explained. They were reinforced throughout the lesson as
I repeated them and had students demonstrate the cues and rules. Instructions were quick but Im not

Christopher Ngo

Tiger PRIDE

10/3/14

sure if they were very clear because I spent as much, if not more, time giving instruction than students
were in activity. I also had students ask more questions after the student-teacher demonstration. All of
my students were in front of me as I was giving instruction so that everyone could see and hear me but
it is often quite difficult to keep all students listening for the duration of instruction. During activity and
management time is when I give the most feedback and given that my management time overshadows
my activity time, most of my feedback is given for behavioral issues. I want to minimize these behavioral
feedback comments and increase feedback for skill development. This week, feedback was given to
either the entire class or individuals. A lot of my feedback was checking for understanding as I wanted to
make sure that students grasped the gist of the activity. There may have been a few times where I could
have given feedback but my mind drew a blank as I didnt know what to say besides good job. I want
to avoid giving generic feedback unless I have something to follow it up with. I used student-teacher
demonstrations and all of my students were able to see and hear me. I used equipment for the demos
as my students were going to use hula hoops for the activity. These demonstrations were at the correct
speed and were visual demonstrations. I did not use any whole-part-whole demonstrations for this
week. I was able to distribute equipment without disturbing the learning environment because I already
set up the equipment in the general learning space prior to the start of class. Collection of equipment
may have disrupted class a little as students were rolling hula hoops around and swinging them around
their hips. It didnt prove to be a huge disruption as I reminded students to hurry up and bring the
equipment in. I managed disruptive students by speaking with a more authoritative tone and
threatening to shut down all equipment privileges for the rest of the semester. As for the students who
continued to misbehave, I have them strikes towards sending them out of the class and to the cafeteria
with Ms. Mendez. Three skills that I did well this week was student progress assessment, studentteacher demonstrations, and hit the affective domain by encouraging students, staying positive, and
giving out high-fives. I would like to work on classroom management strategies, cutting down instruction
time, and giving constructive feedback.
To improve my pedagogical skill set, I could use my teacher movement more effectively to
assess my students and give constructive feedback. I would also think of ways to simplify instructions
and cues of the skill to quickly get my students into activity time and obtain more practice opportunities.
And as for management, I must establish a more authoritative tone with some students and
compromise with others. Based on this week, I could move onto something with less equipment and less
instruction to reinforce good behavior before reaching the skill themes units in the weeks to follow.
Student learning outcomes will change slightly to get students to engage in more cognitive thinking to

Christopher Ngo

Tiger PRIDE

10/3/14

better understand concepts. To attain more cognitive thinking, I will use group discussions and check for
understanding during teacher feedback. I must also encourage students to discuss their strategies for
completing tasks. I am looking forward to next week and reaching my goals.