Lesson reflection:

For Mathematics, the class had not long finished a unit learning about 2D shapes and finding the
area of 2D shapes and we had begun a new maths unit on multiplication and operations of number. I
used data from previous multiplication units to inform where I would begin this unit, which was
looking at arrays and multiplication at repeated addition. The learning outcome for this lesson was
for students to recognise multiplication as arrays and use repeated addition to find the product of
two numbers.

The lesson demonstration began smoothly as the entire class could both see and hear the
instructions for what to do in the task. As the activity involved many resources, I took too long to
explain the instructions, which resulted in the students becoming disengaged. After sending the
students to their desks, I realised we did not have enough polyplugs to provide adequate materials
to each group. This meant I spent much of the initial activity time helping the students to find
resources they could use, instead of observing, prompting and recording students. Additionally,
many of the students forgot the instructions to bring their maths books to their groups to record
their findings, which I was unaware of as I was assisting students with resources. In order to observe
each student and to manage the behaviours and activities happening in the room, I quickly made my
way to each group, which resulted in an increased productivity from the students. The plan to gather
in a sharing circle to discuss our findings and to check in with student understanding fell short due to
a lack of time. At the end of the day, I sat down with my mentor teacher who observed the lesson to
evaluate the lesson.

Lesson evaluation with mentor:

With my mentor, we began by discussing the positive aspects of the lesson. My mentor affirmed my
ability to question students to engage them in higher-order thinking, the use of learning intentions
and my positive interactions with the students, which I agreed. We then spoke about the ways I
could improve my professional practice. My mentor and I both agreed that I struggled to manage the
resources and space of the activity, which affected student engagement. We discussed the purpose
of the lesson, which was correct for where the students were at that current point in time. However,
my mentor advised me to reduce the size of the task, and therefore, the number of resources. I
attempted to check in with the students to determine their understanding of the task, yet, I didn’t
make the students accountable for their efforts. My mentor provided me with advice with how to
ensure the students were accountable for their learning for me to use in future.

The following lesson:

After listening carefully to the advice of my mentor, I thought of how I could redesign the lesson to
better manage the activities and the space. I reduced the number of resources from four polyplug
sets each group to one polyplug set. This eliminated the problems faced due to the lack of available
resources for the students, while also reducing the time taken for each group to set up the activity. I
set clear physical and behavioural boundaries for the students and made sure to reinforce the
boundaries throughout the lesson.

This time doing the lesson, the students were highly engaged in the task and were able to complete
all the elements of the lesson, which was not possible for all students previously.