November 6, 2015

Aleigha Hopkins
Small Group Microteach Reflection
Overall I was very happy with how my presentation went. I thought my lesson was well
planned out, and that it flowed quite nicely. I tried to incorporate a number of different teaching
methods in order to enhance the students learning. I started with a group discussion paired with
direct teaching followed by individual work in an effort to emphasize both class collaboration
and individual achievement. I used a number of different mediums to provide differing
opportunities for individual student strengths- physical investigation of the rocks, brainstorming
ideas on the board, and individual construction of the lab books. I thought that I dealt
appropriately with student questions and was able to keep the class on task for the majority of the
lesson. One of my favourite parts of my lesson was how I closed it: I went back and added the
scientific rock names to the board where we had previously described their physical attributes. I
did this by asking the students to recall the rock classifications from the work we had done. I also
used a thumb scale to gauge base understanding of the topics we had covered, and I thought that
this method of formative assessment was quite helpful in giving me feedback as to how well the
students had retained the information.
I believe that my presentation skills themselves- tone of voice, loudness, clear
communication- were quite well developed. I recall from our Issues Presentation that some of
my feedback was to pare down the amount of information presented and avoid speaking too
quickly. These were things I focused on going into this presentation. I believe that the amount of
information I covered would have been appropriate for a Grade 3 classroom, and I do not believe
that I rushed through any of the information or my explanations of the information. It seemed as

though the class was fairly receptive to the presentation, and the level of understanding was
pretty high for a condensed lesson.
With all of that being said, there was definitely room for improvement in my lesson. I had
thought that my hook Were going to be scientists! would be sufficient to capture student
attention; however, the comment that rocks are boring from one of my students clearly
communicated that I had not been able to get the students invested in the lesson. I tried to bring
their attention back to the importance of studying rocks and minerals Our world is one big rock!
We have to learn more about rocks to understand more about our world! but I am not certain
how effective this was. Additionally, I would have changed the lesson by having the students
participate more in the development of the rock definitions instead of having them written out
ahead of time. However, there was limited time for this lesson and I do not believe it would have
worked to have the class develop the definitions. I also found that I was not able to stick to the
exact timing of my lesson plan during the lesson itself. I was able to make it all work, however I
realize now that you cannot plan for every minute of the class and expect that to be sufficient.
Students will ask questions or struggle with concepts, and this will throw off the anticipated
lesson timing. I do not think this is a bad thing, it just means that teachers must be willing and
able to adapt their lesson plans when required.
I think this was a great opportunity to test out our lesson planning and lesson presentation
skills. My classmates did an excellent job of replicating the environment of a Grade 3 classroom,
and I would be much more comfortable and confident standing up in front of a Grade 3 class as a
result of this activity.