I taught my first lesson plan to my 3rd grade placement class on Friday, July 16, 2010. This class has been in school for one week. My social studies lesson involved how communities are made, and how many different communities the students belong to.

I was comfortable/uncomfortable with the lesson presentation because of….
I was comfortable doing this lesson with this class because I thought the students would enjoy the physical movement involved in this lesson. I thought that coming together to make different communities would help them understand the concept of community, which I think can be a challenging concept to fully grasp. This class appeared to need a lot of scaffolding so we did not get to finish the lesson. The teacher covers social studies in the afternoon, before recess and dismissal. By this time the students are tired of sitting still, so I thought being active would help them stay on task, which I believe it did.

I was uncomfortable with the lesson presentation because I was not familiar with all the classroom procedures that the teacher and the class have been establishing. This class has been in school for one week, so the students still needed lots of reminders on the procedures. Since I was not familiar with the procedures, I felt unprepared. I was not prepared with as much scaffolding as the students seemed to need. Parts of my lesson that asked the students to think more independently were not successful. Also, because it was the end of the school day on a Friday, I felt that the students’ attention span was shorter than it might have been at another time of day.

If I could do this lesson again, I would…
…have the KWL chart on an overhead document to show it to the students. I would have first taught a specific mini lesson on KWL charts, covering how and why students use them, as a refresher for these students. I did not think that this would be necessary because I thought the students would know this. But after reflecting, it seems worthwhile to me to do a mini lesson explaining KWL charts and other tools, at the beginning of each year, especially at this younger age.

I also learned that my lesson was too long, especially for this group of students. I believe it would be more meaningful if it was split into two parts. I think this lesson would be a great part of a cohesive unit; it was hard for me to plan that way, combining it with the lessons that the teacher was doing (which follows the text). I look forward to having control over the whole unit (and the year). I think then there will be less downtime due to students’ inattention, and incorrect teacher expectations. I have learned that it is important for the teacher to expect to reteach a number of procedures, practices and learning tools, to ensure all students have understanding.