Alex Van Dusen

10/27/2016
Burden & Byrd, Chapter 8, Double Entry Journal

Page

Quote

Reflection

199

Furthermore, students are more likely

to stay on task and be engaged in
instruction when they know that they
will be held academically
accountable.

Im going to relate everything to my recent

beginning student teaching experience. This
quote stood out to me, because I still need to
discuss with my master teacher about her
grading policies. I just conducted a lesson
today that included a classroom activity, and
Im not sure how the teacher would like for
the activity to be graded. I believe it would
help the students if they knew how they
would be held accountable for completing
the activity. Thankfully, all of the students
actively participated and worked on the
lesson handout. Even with the 1.5 hour class
period, we (me, the teacher, and the
students) were not able to complete the
entire activity during class. Thus, I will need
to complete the activity on the following class
day. Prior to that, I will need to discuss with
my master teacher regarding how she would
like for the activity to be graded.

204

A successful lesson beginning can

greatly contribute to a meaningful
learning experience for students. The
beginning of a lesson should be
designed to capture the students
interest and focus their attention on
the learning objectives to be
addressed during the lesson.

Considering the lesson that I gave today to a

sixth grade science class, I feel like I actually
did fairly well with the beginning of the
lesson. There was definitely some room for
improvement, for example I made a mistake
by reading the term nucleolus as nucleus,
and I didnt catch it until about five minutes
later; however, the students remained
attentive and engaged throughout the whole
lesson. I probably could have introduced the
lesson activity more effectively. I feel like the
way I opened up the activity was somewhat
awkward, and I could have modeled different
parts of the activity in a different order. I had
a lot of student participation, which was
encouraging, but I need to figure out a way
to include every student with whole-class
discussions and activities. There were the
same students answering questions that I
would ask, and I think next time I will need to

use a method that will encourage every

student to participate.
204

There should be a predictable,

standard signal that tells the class
We are now ready to begin the
lesson.

I addressed this need at the very beginning

of my lesson today, and it made the entire
class run much more smoothly than if I had
not explicitly gone over with the class the
signal. I utilized my master teachers
method, which goes like this: I say Eyes,
and the students clap once, I say Ears, the
students clap twice. It was so cool to see
how well that worked! I also used the method
where I, the teacher, raise my hand and wait
for the students to attend to the teacher.

206

Teachers often need to distribute

materials to students.

I encountered an issue with this during my

lesson today, where students had a hard
time finding the appropriate colored markers/
pencils for the corresponding organelles.
This was something that my master teacher
and I spoke about following the lesson. For
the following class day, I will need to be sure
that the appropriate and necessary applies
are readily accessible for every student. The
distribution of materials, although not
overwhelmingly distracting, did disrupt the
lesson slightly.

207

When planning for directions, you

should (1) have no more than three
student actions that are required for
the activity to be described, (2)
describe the directions in the order
that students will be required to
complete the tasks, (3) clarify what
type and quality of product is
expected, (4) make the description of
each step specific and fairly brief, (5)
provide written (on a whiteboard, a
projection screen, or a handout) and
oral directions, (6) give the directions
just before the activity, and (7) make
provisions for assisting students who
have difficulty.

This is really helpful advice for me, because

it provides me with an effective technique for
giving students directions. I want to be sure
to follow this procedure whenever I give
students directions, from this point forward.
So, to help me remember, I want to come up
with a shorter version of each step:
1. < or equal to 3 student
actions
2. Steps in proper order
3. How each step should look
like
4. ^ brief
5. Provide visual for steps
6. Directions immediately before
activity (not ten minutes prior)
7. Assist students from there