School: Point Harmony Elementary

Principal: Mrs. Beth Scott

Teacher: Mrs. Johnna Tackett
Grade Level: 4th Grade
Candidate: Rachael Sherman-White
Lesson Plan Reflection #2
Planning
When I began to prepare for the lesson, Comparing Fractions I began to think about what
obstacles I faced when I was learning how to compare fractions. One of the things that confused
me as a child was understanding the concepts of the greater than symbol (>), and the less than
symbol (<) during comparison. So, with this information in mind, I decided to demonstrate the
symbols and explained it to the students before I began to teach the idea of comparing fractions.
To be of further assistance to the students, I created a cloud with the greater than and less than
symbols and I had the students practice naming each one. I also gave them a strategy to use by
sharing with them that the hungry alligator always wants to eat the one that is larger so, his open
mouth will always point toward the bigger fraction.
Implementation
This second lesson incorporated technology in the form of a flipped lesson which I uploaded
to youtube.com. The students eagerly paid attention to my teaching during the flipped lesson
video and they were excited after the lesson to find out how I created my video. To get them
back on track, I smiled and said I used a webcam to record the video and then I uploaded it to
youtube.com. I told them we would do our lesson first but when there was time, in the future,
they could ask me questions about recording a video and I would answer them. This simple
response was enough to get the students back on track and I proceeded to discuss the problem I
left them to work on from the video.
After the students completed the instruction from the flipped lesson, I passed out a diagnostic
worksheet to gage the students understanding of the material. As the students worked on their
papers, I circled about in the room keeping track of both successes and misunderstandings. Out
of the 23 students who were tested 9 of them produced a perfect score, 8 students missed one
question, 5 students missed 2 questions, and 1 student did not answer a single question correctly.
So, I quickly tallied through and noticed that six students missed question #2, and seven students
missed question #5. Armed with this information, I proceeded to go over questions #2 and #5
while incorporating answers from fellow peers who successfully completed the problems.

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Once the diagnostic assessment was complete, I began to teach the lesson by solving
problems similar to the ones I wanted the students to complete. Once the teaching was complete,
I passed out a worksheet for the students to work on with a shoulder buddy to gage formative
understanding. Much to my delight, I witnessed higher performing students providing clear and
concise direct instruction to their lower performing peers. After I collected those papers, I
noticed the students had significantly gained understanding.
Clarity of Presentation
Due to the overall success of the class, I would judge my teaching performance as both clear
and concise. Out of 23 students who were tested, 17 of them successfully completed their
assessments within a margin of 100% to 80%. Of the remaining six students who did not
successfully complete the worksheet, 3 of them did not even answer numbers 4 and 5. This piece
of information magnifies the fact that these students could have benefitted from having a little
more time to complete their assignment. In fact, this could have changed the outcome for the
overall score for the class. Additionally, 1 student missed every single question. As I looked at
his paper, I honestly believe he did not understand the symbols of greater than or less than. In
the future, I will pay close attention to this student and make sure he is paired with a shoulder
buddy who is successfully completing the problems to help him gain understanding. I will also
seek fun exercises on the computer in the form of games to help this student acquire
misunderstood skillsets.
Attention to Individual Differences
Of the students I have to teach there is a blend of both low SES and middle SES students.
Some of the students do not arrive to school on time each day and one student in particular
sometimes misses up to an hour of instruction on any given day. The classroom is also graced
with learners of all types, I noticed some students were visual learners, a few were auditory
learners, but the majority of students seemed to be kinesthetic learners. With this information in
mind, I prepared to have visual, auditory, and physical representation involved in my lessons.
Additionally, three of the students have ADHD and are not medicated. In order to keep these
students attentive I would move about the room and vary my voice, inflection, and praise to keep
these students on target and fully engaged.
Student Response
While I was teaching my lesson, I asked several questions to the students. The vast majority
of the questions were short answer questions which equated to 81.25% of all the questions I
asked. Of the remaining 18.75% of questions, they were simply yes or no questions.

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Collectively, the students responded well to my teaching. They were energetic and inquisitive
about when I would teach them again. When I shared with the students that I would be teaching
again on Tuesday, April 8, 2014, the students responded with positive responses and gestures.
Planning and Implementing Higher Order Thinking Skills
In order to maintain interest in higher order thinking skills, I decided to create my own word
problem using students from Mrs. Tacketts classroom as subjects of study. The word problem
had nine parts to successfully complete the entire problem. Due to the level of difficulty, I
allowed the students to work in groups to devise the answers to the problem. The students really
enjoyed reading a problem in which they were the stars of the show so to speak. This hook
seemed to help keep the classroom excited and engaged about completing the problem and
prodded them along in finding the answers. In the future, I will continue to construct my own
materials using the students in my classroom as subjects in my word problems. This was both a
fun and pleasurable learning experience for me, the students, and Mrs. Tackett alike.
Assessment
As I consider the overall performance of my class and I ponder about the ones who did not
successfully complete the worksheet, and so I am left with several thoughts. First, I am pleased
with the overall success of the group. Seventeen out of 23 students successfully completed the
worksheet with a passing score. Second, of the six students who failed to produce passing
scores, three of them did not complete the worksheet. In the future, I will provide just a few
minutes more for my students to complete their work so I can have a more accurate picture of
their understanding. Third, when I consider the one student who missed every single question, I
am convinced that he does not fully understand the symbols greater than and less than. I am
going to take time to work with him on developing understanding so that he too can perform on
the problems successfully.
Special Addition: Areas Needing Improvement
There are two areas I need to improve upon to enhance my pedagogical skills. The first area
of improvement I will address is to include additional higher order thinking questions in my
questioning skillset. The second area I need to improve upon is to increase the student talk ratio
so that it is closer to 50% instead of 27% of the overall talking during a lesson.