Reflection

Danielle Nicolls SEED 394 Kevin Reins April 30, 2012 Internship Reflection: A Week at Sioux City West My lesson was on research paper citations and works cited pages in MLA format. According to my pre-assessment data, very few students had training in this skill. Some knew it was for papers, but most had no idea. I think the students learned the importance of citing sources to avoid plagiarism, as well as becoming able to cite a short story from and anthology. I know they gained knowledge from this lesson due to the assessment at the end of the lesson, which was a copy of their completed works cited page. Most students were able to create a works cited page with no or little error.

My observations lead me to believe that the students were engaged in the lesson. Most of the class participated in discussion and were able to identify correct answers when asked. The class did have some behavioral students, and those students did struggles a little bit with the lesson, but I was able to work with these students on a one on one basis after the lesson so they could complete their tasks. When I was planning the lesson, my first focus was how I was going to present this lesson. With the help of my Field Supervisor, we determined a method that has worked with her students in the past. We determined that a lecture-based lesson with class participation would be the best delivery system for this lesson. We also used technology the students were familiar with, which was an overhead-type projector on the smart board, and I utilized a word processor projected to the screen in order to demonstrate the required format for the work. I also referenced the MLA handbook in order to ensure accuracy in the lesson. After gaining the knowledge from the pre-assessment on the students’ current knowledge of this process, I limited my lesson to only the specific citations they would need for their paper. I think the most effective part of the lesson was the visual representation I provided. I think this really helped the students fully understand how their works cited page should look. I also emphasized consistency, showing the students that this is the only way to document this type of citation. I think one thing many high school students struggle with is the idea of correct formatting; that they think that as long as the information is provided, it doesn’t necessarily matter the order of the citation. When the students turned in his or her works cited pages, they were formatted correctly.

I was able to follow my lesson plan pretty closely, as it was a fairly straight-forward lecture-based lesson with plenty of time built in for students to ask questions throughout the lesson. Since this was planned as a fifty minute lesson and I was teaching in a class with block schedule, my Field Supervisor had the beginning of the class. I think my lesson took less time than I anticipated. In the future I will probably revise the lesson in order to accommodate the time. I think the fact that I created a visual of the works cited impacted the results of the lesson, and I also feel that because of my Field Supervisors recommendation on the project that it made it too simple. I think that when I teach this in the future, I will create more of a challenge for students in order to get deeper understanding from the students as well as more accurate results in my assessment. I think that the activities and visual aids were appropriate. This lesson activity was important to the students because they were creating a portion of a larger project. The visual aid was appropriate because it allowed students deeper understanding of what their citations should look like. Before teaching this lesson again, I think it would help me as an educator to collaborate with educators who have taught the lower grade levels to accurately determine what the students should know about this topic, then to create a more targeted pre-assessment with questions about specific details pertaining to citations. Then I would be able to more accurately measure the effectiveness of lessons the students had in the past about this topic, and know exactly where the problem areas are on this topic. I would also do less spoon-fed instruction, because it is my belief that students at that grade level should have more accountability than they have at West High. I think my teaching strengths include a personable personality that helps me relate to students in a way that is important to them. I also think that I am able to use that to help students want to achieve and set higher standards for themselves. I think that so far I have been very prepared when tackling lesson plans, both at Yankton Middle and West High. In the future, I would like to work on becoming more familiar with the technology in the classroom, because it is very hard for me to seem prepared and professional when the students are helping me understand the SmartBoard or projector or computer. I also want to enhance my public speaking skills; at least be more comfortable in front of people talking. It is my hope that through the Ed school, I will have ample access to practice these two skills in the next semester.