A Humerus Leg of the Journey: Phase 2: The Reflection

1. Instructional Decisions/Teaching (InTask Standard # 9): Discuss the implementation process and describe

• What went well and what didn't go well during the implementation of your lesson?
• I was able to allow my students to explore and experience most of the parts of my unit in a concise and timely manner.
• It was enjoyable for the students to play on the games and they were able to experience new websites and applications that could help them in their future classroom. They expressed on their peer reflections that this was both an engaging lesson as a student and informative as a future teacher.
• We realized a problem with the jeopardy game because it does not mark the questions that you do, so you know which ones you have already done. I would have to do something in my classroom to fix that or supplement it.
• How well was the alignment to objectives and standards maintained?
• Very well! The whole lesson is centered around the standards and objectives and never really goes away from that. I found various activities that all have the objective of allowing students to practice the names and functions of the skeletal system and expose them to the content repeatedly.
• All of the standards were assessed before and after.
• Describe any modifications made during the implementation of the lesson
• This lesson is supposed to be a unit in a fifth grade classroom, taught over the period of 4 weeks. Obviously I did not have that kind of time, so I made it more of an experiential learning for my students.
• I did not really do the direct instruction part because it would take far too long and the practicing on the websites was sufficient.

2. Mechanics:

• What technologies did I use (for the teacher and the learner)?
• I used the internet, Kidspiration, and powerpoint for pre-assessment, practice, and learning. In my classroom, if I had a smartboard I would use that for jeopardy and direct instruction. Students could use Ipads for the internet games as well, for easy access.
• How were the technologies used (by whom and in what manner)?
• The technologies were used much of the time by the students to practice the names of the bones and learn about the functions of the skeletal system.
• The teacher also used technology for pre-assessment, direct instruction, and practicing through games.
• My lesson was within the correct time frame
• It was short because…
• This lesson is meant to be a unit, spanning a month so thirty minutes was simply a brief overview.

3. Assessment of Learning (InTask Standard # 6): Refer to Assessing Student Learning

• Include at least 2 digital artifacts that demonstrate what you or your students (peers) have created as a result of your lesson

• Describe your students' level of success in achieving the standards and objectives for your lesson based on your assessment
• This was a lesson, in which the content is not familiar to some college students, even. People do not generally know the scientific names of the bones of the body or the functions of the skeletal system. So, the pre-assessments showed me that there was a wide range of understanding! And they really learned during this lesson. Some of the pre-assessments displayed a generally low understanding, however, after some individual practice we played the jeopardy review game and it was clear that student understanding had gone way up! In general they really improved on the standards from their pre-assessment to the jeopardy game.
• Describe the level of success you had in teaching the lesson
• How do your individual reflections support this?
• Overall I feel like I was pretty successful in the manner that my lesson was delivered, in this context. I should have considered more details and things that would make this lesson more successful, but the attempted implementation taught me a lot about things I can tweak and fix to make this lesson even better!
• How do the comments from your classmates support this?
• The reflections generally supported this notion. In general they noted that I needed more direct instruction or more clear direct instruction. I would include this more in a 5th grade classroom, but did not do much in my lesson with them because of the time constraint. There were also minor problems with some of the programs that they noted I should address.