JATO+Video+Critique+Analysis

Watching the video of my co-teacher and I teach is definitely an eye-opener to what I need to improve on. We had stated our objectives in the beginning of the video (learning about sound terms in poetry, and identifying said sound terms within the poem “The Bells”), so our students knew what we were going to talk about in the lesson that day, however we did not tell them what we wanted them to take away from the lesson. We only stated what we were going to do throughout the lesson and how we were going to go about it. In future classrooms, there will be a brief moment of what I would want my students to take away from the class and the lesson being taught. My co-teacher and I were confident, though, that we had explained enough of what they were going to do that lesson to understand what they were going to take away from the day, although it would be nice if they knew why it was important for them to know the terms as well as what they should know by the end of the day. For the lesson, then, we had used both the Smart Board and the white board provided to us by the cooperating teacher, as well as a worksheet with “The Bells” by Edgar Allen Poe for the students to have for practice on the terms. We were prepared with our materials—we had enough extras for our students in case they needed it, we had a variety of white board markers, and I had enough knowledge with the Smart Board to know how to work with the resource. We had used the Smart Board with the analysis of “The Bells”, and on the white board, we wrote the terms and their definitions so they could have both in one general place. It worked for the students, and they seemed to use it to their advantage.

For our formative assessment, we used “The Bells” for the students in order to see if they could correctly identify the sound terms, like we wanted them to do for our lesson objective, within the poem. My co-teacher and I chose this particular assessment because of the numerous examples of the sound terms we had to work with within the lesson, plus it was a generally easy poem to understand and work with for the students’ behalf. While it was effective, I think one thing that could be different is how we approach why the examples the students provided from the poem were one sound term and not another. We seemed to skip over them explaining their reasoning for thinking it was one sound term and not the others, and we continued to take examples from the students. It could be helpful to know why they think it’s one over another term, and get a feel of what the students know and understand from the lesson.

The classroom itself is very comfortable and very organized. It is strict, and it follows the events of the day (scheduled accordingly), but they seem to be more relaxed and more attentive in the class. For the time, we had made the classroom into groups, so there were five to six desks per group (usually it is in rows facing the Smart Board). I feel the activity was very effective, especially when we came back together as a class. We had a very active class wanting to give examples to us and wanting to tell us what they had learned, which was very good. When I was watching the video, I seemed to be very comfortable with the kids, and they seemed comfortable enough with me. I addressed the students as if I were encouraging them to do their best, so I would give them inspiration to work and do their best on the project at hand. I think I could have used their names a bit more and learned who they were instead of just giving them words of encouragement, but when they seemed to get it more by doing that, I felt very good about what I was doing. Only a few students asked questions—general questions, such as if they were right on one term—so I did not have to give that much feedback to the students. Their behavior was a little rambunctious after a while, and I had to raise my voice to the students to get their attention back on track with the lesson, but for the most part, the students were very mature and worked on the work we handed them. When I heard myself yell out for them to stop being so loud, I felt a little guilty for raising my voice to them. It did work, however, so maybe I could find a way to not raise my voice again to my future students and see what other options there are.

If there’s one thing I’ve learned from this lesson, it’s to not assume they know what something means. There were a few silences throughout the video that I noticed because of a question we had asked the students, and maybe clarifying what we are asking or having them understand what something means if they are confused about something would help them understand the lesson better. That would definitely be something I would change. Also, I didn’t seem to talk or teach as much as I desired, so maybe being a bit more assertive in a co-teaching classroom would be a good thing. Something else that could potentially be changed is, like I had stated, not cramming all the terms into one day and just spreading them out. It seemed the students got really confused about a few of the terms and would get them mixed up from time to time, so maybe dedicating a lesson those terms one day and then learning the other terms the next day would help. All in all, though, I think the lesson went really well, and enjoyed the atmosphere the classroom provided. It’s definitely an eye-opening experience to see yourself teach, and you can work on the little things that need to be fixed (like little nuances and nervous ticks).