Reflecting on My Teaching

Lesson One Evaluation & Suggestions for Lesson Two

Beverly J. Martin 3rd Grade

In our first lesson we completed a pre-assessment on kicking in soccer, for the soccer unit that Mr. Amato was just beginning. We wanted to assess the students without them knowing that they were being assessed. We figured this would be the best way for their kicks to be as authentic as possible. For our pre-assessment lesson we created a few activities that we thought would best allows us to assess the students all while allowing them to learn and practice kicking a soccer ball.

Billy gave the introduction for our lesson and explained the first activity that the students would be doing. The activity that we chose was partner passing. One partner will stand on one side of the gym on the yellow line across from their partner who will be standing on the opposite yellow line. The partner on the right side will be the one that starts with the ball. They will place the ball on the yellow line and the teacher will tell then when to kick the ball to their partner. Once the ball is kicked the partner will stop the ball with their foot, and wait to kick the ball back to their partner when they are instructed to be the teacher.

While giving the introduction, Billy was able to maintain adequate attention of the class. The introduction was very clear and well explained except when it came down to the demonstrations, he had the students demonstrate the activity right off the bat. In reflection of this I believe that it would have been much more helpful if at first both of the teachers demonstrated the skill first and then if we wanted to have students aid in the demonstration that they would be a part of the second demonstration, after the teachers had clearly shown what was going to be expected of the students.

After the introductions we put the students into groups of 2 and then gave them directions on where to go in the gym. Once we had the student’s attention and in the correct sports, that is when we finally handed out the equipment, one soccer ball to each group. Billy went to one end of the gym and Jamie went to the other end so that we could both participate in the assessment and helping students with their performances in kicking.

After we had the students kick back and forth for a while, Bill then explained the next activity. The next activity, which was just like the first activity, except that instead of waiting for the teacher to tell the students when to kick the ball, they just kicked back and forth with their partner. We let this activity run a little longer then we had planned, because the students were really struggling to kick the ball to their target which was their partner. Once we had assessed all of the students the class period had ended. We closed the lesson very quickly and sent the students off to their classroom teacher, for their last class period of the day.

All in all I believe that our lesson went well. The objectives of our lesson were met. The class overall did much better in the first activity where we had them trap that ball and wait for the teachers instructions to kick the ball to their partner, then when they kicked the ball back and forth continuously. I was however surprised at the level of skill of the students. I went into the lesson thinking that the students would be at a higher level than they actually were.

There are a few things that I would changes for the second lesson that we teach, one of which we should make sure that we do the demonstrations ourselves first, like I previously stated. Before we teach our second lesson and Post-assess the student’s skills we believe that the class is going to strongly benefit from command style teaching with a lot of practice and repetitions. Therefore we want to make sure the students receive a lot of practice before we assess again, and we would like to set up the same kicking drill without trapping the ball to see the difference that practice will make in our results.

Also we decided that we need to move around the gym more than we did this lesson, we felt as though Jamie got stuck on one end of the gym just helping the same children over and over again and Billy got stuck on the other side of the gym with a different group of children. I believe that the students will benefit more if they receive feedback from both of us instead of just one of us. We will have to make this happen next lesson.

Lesson Two Evaluation

Beverly J. Martin 3rd Grade

Our second lesson was much like our first lesson, except we took into consideration the suggestions we believed would help to improve from our first lesson. We made sure that we demonstrated all of the activities ourselves first before we started to include students into our demonstrations. Furthermore, we made sure to move around the gym much more then we had the first time we taught. We were able to help out more students, and give feedback as as many students as possible, which is always a plus.

This lesson went much smoother then our first lesson. The music worked great as our signal for attention in our instant activity of shadow shake. The students responded well to stopping when the music stopped and it was a great success.

For this lesson Jamie gave the introduction, and did a really good job. She told the students that it was assessment day, and did it in such a way that the children were at ease with being tested in physical education.

In addition we did include the continuous partner passing, and with the practice that the students had had in between our first and second lesson, made a huge difference. The students were much more successful the second time around.