Teaching time

This week is my group's week to teach! It's very exciting to be teaching my first full classes with my group, but it is also very nerve-wracking. 

Monday: Direct Instruction

Our direct instruction lesson came first, and in my opinion, it was one of the most difficult to plan, and teach. Going into the lesson I was very confident in our group's activities, and planning, but my main concern was trying to remember everything I wanted to say. Despite this, I thought it went extremely well. It was very reassuring to hear positive feedback from Mrs. Birnbryer, the teacher's aide, Dr. Smirnova, and our SS Methods colleagues as well. 

I was very happy that the class liked our use of the gong. I was afraid it might be distracting and take away from the lesson, but it was very helpful when refocusing the class, and reminding them of important information from our lesson. I also thought that the guided practice was very helpful to the students. The visual aid poster made it a lot easier for the students to visualize Lewis and Clarke's journey west and was especially helpful when reviewing the guided practice timeline worksheet. 

If I could do it again I would not want to change much. It would have been helpful to include more check for understanding questions after a segment of lecturing. Although these CFU questions were written into our lesson plans, we forgot to ask them all. Also, the independent practice could have been more difficult. A lot of our SS methods colleagues said they noticed many of the kids were counting spaces to find the correct words. This tells me that the activity was too simple for the class, and that they are capable of higher level thinking. 

Overall, I was extremely satisfied with the outcome of this lesson. Aside from a few small changes, I would keep everything the same if I had to give another direct lesson on this topic.