Video Analysis Reflection

For my Video Analysis I chose to video a lesson that I predicted the students might run into some trouble with. This is a very creative and summative project, which the students have not seen yet this year. This project is what Barell states as a summative experience because I was “assessing the students’ understandings, and reflections” through asking them to write their own sentences on the varies topics of the Northeast (Barell 59). Throughout the video they get louder when they get lost but I let some of them participate in a productive struggle.
Since this lesson was a summative the majority of the questions I asked were surface level questions. In the beginning while we were folding, I prompted them with a “which is your left and right …show more content…
Countless times throughout the lesson I made sure they had nothing in their hands or anything to distract them on their desks. On minute 23 I had one student that was drawing on a piece of paper in the back of the room. Materials quite frequently distract him on his desk to the point where he will get lost if we do not catch that he is messing with something instead of listening. I took time to tell him to put it away but did not make it a big enough deal that it embarrassed him and we quickly went back on track with the lesson. The students start to get restless at minutes 20:38 and that is when I decide to use fluctuation in my voice to draw them back in. In the past I have used the sayings like “redirect” or “eyes up here” but just like call backs the students get tired of hearing the same words and the phrases start to lose their meaning to the students. I use the variation in my voice more now than I did in the lesson. It is something this class response well to. Another strength of this lesson was I kept them quiet while others were trying to work. They were all so invested in this project turning out well that there were not a lot of talkers but some of them need to be reminded not to talk more than others. The last strength was I have some students that need a more stern hand, as you saw on minute 7:05, when Harper had to write his name on the board. We have noticed that if you do not get …show more content…
Even though they understood that they were using the knowledge we have been learning to make a brochure I wish I would have explicitly said it instead of just hinting at it. I would have stated “the objective for this lesson is you are going to be travel planners using your knowledge to draw people to come to the Northeast.” That is a fun way to open and hook your students to buy into the assignment. Dean tells us is important because “clearly stating the learning objectives in student-friendly language helps students focus on what you want them to learn”(Dean 7). My students also want to know why they are doing an assignment before they start it. Another weakness throughout the lesson was my language I used with the students. When I stated to fold their paper in a third they got frustrated because one third to them could be different than their neighbor. Reflecting on my lesson and testing how to fold the brochure better next time I am going to try to say “make a tube and crease it, then fold the back flap back to make the accordion.” Another think I will change next time I teach this is to have my brochure labeled what each page will be called. I did this for the neighboring class when we rotated and it worked very well. Having that visual for the students reassures them they are right without you having to tell everyone they are looking