Video of Practice
Video Analysis
When my students were learning about exponents I decided to change up my teaching style. Instead of spending half of the period listening to a lecture, students were given the majority of the period to work on practice problems. Exponents are typically a difficult concept for students to grasp, especially when they start learning about negative exponents. Individuals typically get confused distinguishing which variables are supposed to move from the numerator to the denominator and vice versa. Towards the end of the period I would review problems that students were having trouble with and thought that the majority of the class was starting to understand exponents.
Unfortunately, the first exponent assessment contradicted my assumption. Students were still struggling with the concept of exponents. I started to become a little frustrated because we spent so much time working on exponents and when we reviewed the material as a class no one had any questions. If students were having difficulty understanding the concepts, why were they not asking questions? After looking over their assessments, past homework’s and classwork assignments, I realized that many students were not being productive during class time. Most of the classwork assignments were incomplete and as a result students had a difficult time with the homework. Another issue was that many students were clueless as to whether they made any mistakes. If they were working with a friend, the likelihood that their friend got their same answer was high.
Because of this realization I decided to once again adjust the classroom culture when we started learning about polynomials. I still had students complete independent work, but instead of giving them an entire worksheet, I gave them smaller sets of problems. Once they were done with the smaller set of problems, I put the answers up on the board so they could check if they made any mistakes. I asked students to make their corrections in a different color instead of erasing their mistakes all together. Too often students are ashamed of their mistakes and immediately erase their wrong answers. However, if students erase their responses without first thinking about why they are wrong they are not learning from their mistakes.
In addition to correcting their mistakes in a different color I asked students to write a sentence or two about why they think they made a particular mistake. This forced students to really think about the mistake itself rather than focus on the fact that they made a mistake. Something that I was hesitant about doing, but wanted to experiment with, was requiring to students to work independently instead of in groups. While group work can be helpful, I find that too many students rely to heavily on their partners and think they understand the material simply because their partner does. I have noticed that my freshman struggle working effectively in groups whereas my juniors really benefit from group work.
At the end of this lesson I asked students if they liked how I designed the class that day. The overwhelming majority of students said the self-check activity was extremely helpful and that we should do it more often. I was not only happy that students enjoyed the activity, but I actually knew that they were grasping the concept rather than simply assuming that they understood the material.
Overall I think I have gained a lot of confidence teaching. At the beginning of the year I was fairly timid and was nervous about making mistakes, but now I have embraced being at the front of the room. I also think that I have developed strong relationships with many of my students in all of my classes whereas before I only really felt comfortable teaching one of the classes. I thought students were working productively throughout the period with the exception of a couple of students. While I think I have improved a lot since the beginning of the year, I want be better at differentiating my practices. I think I spend too much time lecturing and giving independent practice and want to be a little more creative with my lesson plans. Another thing I think that is important to work on is how much time I spend talking versus listening to students. Ultimately I would like my classes to be more student-centered with more student discussion. I think with some time and experience I will be able to better facilitate discussion so that my students are the ones talking on tape rather than hearing myself talk.
Unfortunately, the first exponent assessment contradicted my assumption. Students were still struggling with the concept of exponents. I started to become a little frustrated because we spent so much time working on exponents and when we reviewed the material as a class no one had any questions. If students were having difficulty understanding the concepts, why were they not asking questions? After looking over their assessments, past homework’s and classwork assignments, I realized that many students were not being productive during class time. Most of the classwork assignments were incomplete and as a result students had a difficult time with the homework. Another issue was that many students were clueless as to whether they made any mistakes. If they were working with a friend, the likelihood that their friend got their same answer was high.
Because of this realization I decided to once again adjust the classroom culture when we started learning about polynomials. I still had students complete independent work, but instead of giving them an entire worksheet, I gave them smaller sets of problems. Once they were done with the smaller set of problems, I put the answers up on the board so they could check if they made any mistakes. I asked students to make their corrections in a different color instead of erasing their mistakes all together. Too often students are ashamed of their mistakes and immediately erase their wrong answers. However, if students erase their responses without first thinking about why they are wrong they are not learning from their mistakes.
In addition to correcting their mistakes in a different color I asked students to write a sentence or two about why they think they made a particular mistake. This forced students to really think about the mistake itself rather than focus on the fact that they made a mistake. Something that I was hesitant about doing, but wanted to experiment with, was requiring to students to work independently instead of in groups. While group work can be helpful, I find that too many students rely to heavily on their partners and think they understand the material simply because their partner does. I have noticed that my freshman struggle working effectively in groups whereas my juniors really benefit from group work.
At the end of this lesson I asked students if they liked how I designed the class that day. The overwhelming majority of students said the self-check activity was extremely helpful and that we should do it more often. I was not only happy that students enjoyed the activity, but I actually knew that they were grasping the concept rather than simply assuming that they understood the material.
Overall I think I have gained a lot of confidence teaching. At the beginning of the year I was fairly timid and was nervous about making mistakes, but now I have embraced being at the front of the room. I also think that I have developed strong relationships with many of my students in all of my classes whereas before I only really felt comfortable teaching one of the classes. I thought students were working productively throughout the period with the exception of a couple of students. While I think I have improved a lot since the beginning of the year, I want be better at differentiating my practices. I think I spend too much time lecturing and giving independent practice and want to be a little more creative with my lesson plans. Another thing I think that is important to work on is how much time I spend talking versus listening to students. Ultimately I would like my classes to be more student-centered with more student discussion. I think with some time and experience I will be able to better facilitate discussion so that my students are the ones talking on tape rather than hearing myself talk.