Reflection Questions: Kimberly Palmer Debate Lesson
1. To what extent were the objectives learned? Provide evidence to support your answer.
The objectives were learned well. The students were able to identify both Pros and Cons to Reduced Fat Foods during the debate and summary phase. The students were also able to identify the effects of advertisements on food choices during the introduction and assess the effects during the summary. The students also used the information provided on food labels to provide evidence during the debate.
2. What were major strengths of the lesson? Provide evidence to support your answer. Focus on cause-and-effect relationships {I did this, it caused that}.
I felt like I was really prepared for this lesson. I really think my introduction got the students interested in the topic. I provided a comparison picture and the students were able to voice their opinion without even being presented with any background information.
I also think a major strength my lesson had was being mainly done by the students. I provided the core and the layout. This allowed the students to be more involved in their learning. This is also a way to teach student responsibility.
Also time management was a great strength. I knew when to start each of my sections so this created a nice flow to the lesson. I also provided students with updates on how much time they had left. This allowed them time to wrap up their sides.
3. What were major weaknesses of the lesson? Provide evidence to support your answer. Focus on cause-and-effect relationships.
My major weakness is not being able to spend more time on the food label. I think that I should have provided a little bit more background information on what is good for you and what is bad and what is recommended. If I had provided this information during the introduction of the lesson the students might have better understood just how bad or good some of the examples really were.
4. If you made adjustments during the lesson (with respect to instruction or classroom management), list them and: (a) describe the reason for the adjustment, (b) the rationale for the action that you took, and (c) provide a description of the result.
The only adjustment I made was in reference to the closure, when we were reviewing the objectives at the end of the lesson. I decided to refer back to the beginning picture, in reference to the effects of advertisements on food choices. Originally I was going to ask if they knew of a different example. A) I decided to change because I knew everyone would remember that picture and it contained a ton of examples. B) I did this because The homework also included this exercise, and I didn’t want to give them any answers to their homework. C) The result turned out well. The students remembered the picture and were able to list many different examples that companies use to get them to buy their product.
5. Identify a decision you made as you planned the lesson that had a positive or negative impact as you taught the lesson. Describe what you learned from that.
I made the decision to put questions on my PowerPoint to ask my students. I knew that at the end of my lesson I might need some more sections to fill up my whole time, so I put the questions in the PowerPoint just incase I would need extra material. This ended up having a positive impact on my lesson because I did need the extra material, and I’m not sure I would have remembered to questions I wanted to ask unless they were on a slide. I learned to always over plan. It is better to have too much material then to not have enough.
6. (A) What is the main thing you learned from this lesson? (B) What improvement plan (if any), will you implement for the next lesson?
The main thing I learned was to be well prepared. Being prepared also allows you to make adjustments, but most importantly to feel comfortable teaching your content. I was very nervous before teaching my lesson, but as soon as I got started all the fear went away because I knew exactly what I was going to do. The only thing I would improve on my involvement of all students. I tried to make sure I called on different individuals, but I really need to make sure to involve everyone somehow.