4.3 Analyzing Teaching Effectiveness

In section two, you will be analyzing your teaching effectiveness, thinking specifically about what went well and why it went well. Also think about what did not go as well as you would have liked and what may have led to these results.

Analyze your teaching based on patterns of learners’ understanding, skills, and misunderstandings. When thinking about patterns, think about the context for learning section of the pre-instructional planning and the various groups of students in your class whom you described in provisions for diverse learners and differentiation of instruction. Provide assessment data and use it to discuss who did well and who may have struggled. What might this indicate about your instruction? Based on your reflection, what changes will you make to support students’ learning?

In reflecting on your lesson and your strengths and challenges, what went well? Why? What challenges did you face? Why?

This prompt allows you to state general opinions of your lesson – you may speak to your teacher skill focus, classroom management, unplanned events that occurred, and how you felt while you were teaching. This prompt gives you the freedom to share your strengths and challenges in broad terms.

Reflection Example

I know that the read-aloud part went well. The learners were excited and enthusiastic throughout the reading the book and I think my implementation of engaging them with the text and story (their response “not I,” kinesthetically modeling the verbs, etc.) worked well. In looking out to their faces as I was reading aloud, I saw anticipation and excitement. Other things I think went well were the connections I had them make at the beginning and in the middle of the text. Without taking too much time, I asked them to raise their hands if they had been to a farm and went on to talk about certain animals they might have seen. I also related the baking bread part of the story to their own lives and asked them if they had ever seen muffins or bread baking. I saw a lot of eyes and faces light up when I did this and many hands went up in the air, giving evidence that the learners were making real life connections with the text being read to them.

A challenge that I faced was managing the behavior during the working time for the activity. While a certain element of noise is typical and to be expected during working time, I struggled to gain full control of the classroom when I needed to in order to clarify directions, give further instructions, and model again to the learners what I was expected of them. While I did gain most of the learners' attention, there were some who missed the directions because they were not directly asked to pay attention or were not focusing on what was being instructed.

• What do you understand about your own teaching based upon the patterns of learners’ understanding, skills, and misunderstandings that were identified?

When thinking about patterns, think about the context for learning section of the pre-instructional planning and the various groups of learners in your class whom you described in provisions for diverse learners and differentiation of instruction. Who did well and who may have struggled? What might this indicate about your instruction?

Reflection Example

It seems that learners are able to follow the instruction and questions that I present using the SMARTboard. Learners may need more review and repetition with unknown academic language, such as addition sign and story problem. They may need more modeling, too, in order to successfully accomplish tasks successfully. The tasks I did model, the learners  completed with high marks. The task (creating their own story problems) that I did not model, they did not complete successfully. This emphasizes the fact that I need to model what I expect them to do, especially for the developmental level of kindergarten learners.

What is the evidence that you engaged learners intellectually and deepened their learning?

Look back at the expectations for learner behavior you had set when planning this lesson. Did you engage learners intellectually as you had planned? What evidence do you have of their engagement? Give specific examples to support your claims. If your plan for intellectual engagement was ineffective, reflect on why that might be. What changes could you make to this lesson to promote more interaction with others and engagement with the content?

In what ways did you deepen your learners’ thinking? Give examples of how you moved them along Bloom’s taxonomy to the higher stages of analysis, evaluation, and creating. If you stayed in the lower stages (knowledge, comprehension, application), what might you do in the future to deepen their thinking in this lesson?

Reflection Example

Throughout the read-aloud, learnerss were engaged with the text and were eager to make connections, act out the verbs, and say their line as I read the story aloud. This is evidence that they were learning new words and making real life connections throughout the lesson, not only listening because it was fun but actually learning and acting out new ideas they perhaps had not been exposed to earlier (such as kneading the bread or threshing the wheat). The activities the students completed also gave evidence they had to think logically and think in terms of the beginning, middle, and ending of the story with the details in the middle, to correctly sequence the story line.

What is a proposed change to your teaching practices that is specific and strategic to improve individual and collective learners’ understanding of standards/objectives?

Look back at the expectations for learner behavior you had set when planning this lesson. Did you engage them intellectually as you had planned? What evidence do you have of their engagement? Give specific examples to support your claims. If your plan for intellectual engagement was ineffective, reflect on why that might be. What changes could you make to this lesson to promote a more engaged class?

In what ways did deepen your learners’ thinking? Give examples of how you moved them along Bloom’s taxonomy into the higher stages of synthesis, analysis, and/or evaluation. If you stayed in the lower stages (knowledge, comprehension, and application), what might you do in the future to deepen their thinking in this lesson?

Teacher Candidate Example

In future lessons, I will be better prepared to have a plan for manipulatives. I will create a phrase or specific instruction to ensure that the manipulatives are used correctly and only used when I specifically state that they can be. An action such as putting their hands on their shoulders may be a good way to keep their hands off of the manipulatives so their minds can be engaged in the lesson.

I will also make a plan for collecting manipulatives when we are done using them. In this lesson I could have had them return their markers, erasers, whiteboards, and chips before going to their tables to complete their worksheets. I then would have had help to pass out the papers while I collected the materials. This would mean, too, that I would need to have the worksheets in an obvious location or with me so learners would be able to successfully obtain and pass out the worksheets without too much distraction.