Figurative Language Lesson
Content
Figurative Language Lesson (part 1) Reflection Date of implementation: 3/1/12 Time: 11:30-12:30 Notes: Team taught with Kristina Traynor Teacher’s Comments: Mrs. Needles thought that overall our lesson went well. She commented that we had good practices put in place and that the lesson itself was well written. Thankfully, she assigned the students independent practice for homework (since they were only able to start it with a remaining 5 minutes of class time) and therefore we will see the outcomes of our lesson and be able to use them again in the second set. I was reluctant that she stepped in and did this because we had really never discussed giving the students’ homework, but I didn’t want this practice to be for nothing; I wanted the complete worksheet for means of assessment. While our lesson was well planned, our instructional delivery was what needed the most work. Miss. Needles suggested that when the students are not responding to our questions that that’s when we should have had them turn and talk to a partner. Instead of feeling out whether students were getting it or not and making adjustments accordingly, we carried on with our lesson the way it was on paper. The problem with this was unsure students on the topic of figurative language were left wondering until another five minutes into the lesson of what it was. Also, to better engage students, they should have been invited to the carpet, or if they were to stay at their seats then we should have walked around. Getting the students up and moving more too, simply by switching up partners would have been a beneficial way to engage students as well. The final critique Miss. Needles had for us was that when students were underlining the simile, metaphor, or personification in the poem, then we should have had them underline first rather than tell us and then underline. This would have allowed us to examine the phrase together and offer more students opportunities to work with the poem in identifying figurative language. Also, the fact that we called them up to mark the poem while saying their phrase on their way could have been disastrous had they been wrong. Were we going to stop them on their way up or after they underlined the phrase? We were really unsure of what to do and certainly did not have a plan had this occurred. My comments: I felt that the lesson was planned well, that we had activities that supported and exercised figurative language well, and that despite minor technical difficulties that threw us for a loop, that the lesson was mediocre at best. I agree with Miss. Needles that it could have been a lot more engaging by having students sit on the carpet; perhaps they could have controlled the smart board since we were unfamiliar with it and having them record their responses instead of us would have better involved students. Also, I like her suggestion of having different partners to discuss with. I would be interested in researching how to pair students for discussion in more unconventional ways than the person across from you, at your table, etc. without it being too much of a distraction from the lesson. With time I hope that I can better feeling of what students are getting and not getting and adjust my instruction on the
spot. I feel sometimes that we are so nervous that we get sucked into the lesson and don’t want to leave anything out although students have not understood what you have said since the introduction because they do not know what figurative language itself is. This particular instance made me question, should I have skipped my two other slides of the anticipatory set and gone right to the definition of figurative language? YES! Next time if that situation arises, I know now rather to switch up my order of discussion. Instead of talking about what students know about figurative language and then what they know about similes, metaphors and personification only to go back to introducing figurative language again, I should have grouped the topics together to make the lesson more cohesive and easier to comprehend. Another thing I feel that I should have done was differentiate. I had students who knew all parts of figurative language with fluency but other who did not even know how to recognize a simile. I also know that I was not very confident with the content on metaphors and should have done more research on it so that I could better help the students identify metaphors. After all, you cannot teach something to others until you have mastered it first yourself. Finally, I found working with a partner to be difficult because although we designated who would lead what parts, we ended up teaching a section together. In that section it almost felt like a competition. Students were not given wait time because immediately after I posed a question she would call on another student. Students were receiving two different sets of directions and were being talked at instead of talked too. I realize now that I heard more of my partners and my own voice than our students when really our voices to students should have been balances if not less to promote student centered and their ownership of figurative language. What to do for next time: 1. Differentiate 2. Engage students more 3. Feel it out/ adjust the lesson where it feels necessary 4. Familiarize self with content more fully 5. Create a more explicit plan with a partner if teaching together in the future as to how you will transition and respond to students together.
spot. I feel sometimes that we are so nervous that we get sucked into the lesson and don’t want to leave anything out although students have not understood what you have said since the introduction because they do not know what figurative language itself is. This particular instance made me question, should I have skipped my two other slides of the anticipatory set and gone right to the definition of figurative language? YES! Next time if that situation arises, I know now rather to switch up my order of discussion. Instead of talking about what students know about figurative language and then what they know about similes, metaphors and personification only to go back to introducing figurative language again, I should have grouped the topics together to make the lesson more cohesive and easier to comprehend. Another thing I feel that I should have done was differentiate. I had students who knew all parts of figurative language with fluency but other who did not even know how to recognize a simile. I also know that I was not very confident with the content on metaphors and should have done more research on it so that I could better help the students identify metaphors. After all, you cannot teach something to others until you have mastered it first yourself. Finally, I found working with a partner to be difficult because although we designated who would lead what parts, we ended up teaching a section together. In that section it almost felt like a competition. Students were not given wait time because immediately after I posed a question she would call on another student. Students were receiving two different sets of directions and were being talked at instead of talked too. I realize now that I heard more of my partners and my own voice than our students when really our voices to students should have been balances if not less to promote student centered and their ownership of figurative language. What to do for next time: 1. Differentiate 2. Engage students more 3. Feel it out/ adjust the lesson where it feels necessary 4. Familiarize self with content more fully 5. Create a more explicit plan with a partner if teaching together in the future as to how you will transition and respond to students together.
