Thursday, September 10

1. Describe a great classroom activity that you observed. What made it great? What was the impact on student learning?

Today the class worked on a Daily Oral Language (DOL) for language arts. What made this lesson great was the format and process the teacher presented it. The students began by working individually on the problem. After everyone plenty of time, the teacher asked for volunteers to make corrections to the DOL on the smartboard. This was the first thing that made the lesson great. The students were directing their own learning and presenting what they knew to the class. Additionally, the students had to explain to the class why they made the corrections they did. After all the corrections, the teacher stood in front of the class and told them the technical reason for each of the corrections, and adjusted some corrections that still were not right. Then, after all was said, the teacher asked to students to state what they had learned. This also made the lesson great. It made students reflect on their own learning and become active members in the learning. Ultimately, this lesson allowed the teacher to discuss import writing conventions while engaging the class, promoting active student participation, and continually checked for understanding along the way.