Sophie Zidek March 30, 2014

Social Studies Lesson Self-Evaluation

Bill of Rights Lesson
The lesson I taught was one that my cooperating teacher provided me with. The Social Studies concept that was addressed in the lesson taught was that of The Bill of Rights relating to how it was a historical document and what it meant to the students. The lesson was an introduction to the Bill of Rights and what they meant to the class as Americans. The main ideas of the lesson was to introduce the students to the Bill of Rights and what each amendment meant. The lesson was structured as an introduction. It included a Focus and Review that targeted the articles of confederation, the founding fathers, and the constitution. The students then read a section of their textbook that described the Bill of Rights and what each meant. While reading this chapter, the students matched certain amendments to pictures on a worksheet and described each amendment. The students were engaged in the lesson. However, there was one student who was not interested in learning. He distracted others, tried to pick fights with the cooperating teacher, and generally misbehaved. While, my approach to this behavior was to ignore it because, I knew he was seeking attention, my cooperating teacher sent him into the hallway.

SOCIAL STUDIES SELF EVALUATION

However, the remainder of the students worked studiously and asked questions. This was the second lesson that I taught them, they were extremely engaged because they wanted to please me because, I was new and special. A majority of the students met the standards that the lesson plan required to show mastery. However, two students did not meet the mastery requirements. The first was the child who was misbehaving and asked to leave the room. The second was a child who has missed an excessive amount of school and is behind in the work. Despite working 1 on 1 with the student, she was not far enough into the curriculum to understand the evolution of the government. I found that I asked lower level questions in my lesson and tended to ask leading questions to help students access information. When asked leading, lower level questions students responded extremely well and answered on a higher level than the question initiated. When students asked me questions, it stemmed from confusion over the given directions. Although I repeated the directions multiple times, students did not understand that the answers were not in order in the book. Next time, I will ask students to repeat the directions back to me instead of repeating myself 5 times. Classroom management was my strong suit with the children. The students and I had an extremely good relationship. The students were

SOCIAL STUDIES SELF EVALUATION

extremely excited to meet my needs and worked hard to behave and follow the directions. It was an extremely talkative classroom that liked to bicker with each other. However, they were easily redirected back onto task. There was only one child who misbehaved and that was due to family issues. Overall, I believe there were no management issues because, the children were excited by the newness of being taught by a student teacher. The lesson went well, however, it was not exactly as I planned. To me, the lesson seemed boring. I had hoped to have a short discussion at the end to make it more engaging. I was supposed to have 45 minutes to teach my lesson. Instead I was limited to 30 minutes and did not reach independent practice. This was extremely upsetting. I had hoped to complete my lesson. If I could teach it again, I would plan for a less busy day and budget more time. If I were to teach a younger grade, the lesson would be a read aloud with the students matching, the pictures as a class on the smart board. If I wear to teach older children, I do not think I would modify the lesson. I would just ask the students to work individually. If I were to improve my lesson, I would like to have better attention grabbers for redirection. I used the clap method. I think that through research I can find more engaging techniques. I also would like to work on my timing. Although my lesson was cut short, I was still off on my timing. By having a child be a time keeper, I could better manage my timing.

SOCIAL STUDIES SELF EVALUATION