Analysis of Direct Instruction Lesson

1.    Analysis of clarity and effectiveness of lesson plan

  • Very effective because related to real life situation – students can make connections to why it is important
  • Objective states clearly what they need to learn
  • Lesson a little bit too long for 10 minute lesson – need more time to work through problems if in a real 7th grade math class
  • Information clearly explained to class – no questions on what we were doing
  • Working individually to double recipe and then as a table and then as a whole class worked well – allowed students to reinforce their own knowledge and help others if they were struggling
  • We were all very comfortable with all parts of lesson – team teaching was very smooth and worked well
  • Planning together helped us to be ready and organized for teaching
  • Sparked students attention with real world scenario
  • Presented new material to class
  • Asked questions so students were engaged
  • Closed lesson with a review and homework to follow for next day

2.  Organization of Lesson

·      We planned out each step of the lesson carefully – materials, objectives, introduction, body (who was going to do what and when we were going to do each thing), conclusion, and the assessment

·      The time constraint was very difficult and because of it we felt rushed so things that should have taken more time (such as the warm-up and doubling exercise) didn’t get the time it needed.

·      Having the warm-up right away got the class working and involved so no time was wasted at the start

·      Having the students work individually and then as a group allowed their questions to be answered faster so we didn’t have to go around to each table

·      PowerPoint slides could have been more organized by having items fly in, this way students would have been paying attention to exactly what we wanted them to be looking at and not looking ahead

·      Should have given out puppy chow after we assigned the homework because we lost their attention

·      Good use of visual aids – pictures, words, PowerPoint and examples

·      We laid out an outline to make sure we had a meaningful objective, an attention getter, an intro, and review

3.  Effectiveness of Lesson Introduction

·      Our warm-up was very effective in getting the class to get going on the task of reviewing what they previously learned.

·      Party comparison got the students attention and their interest in what we were going to be learning

·      Got the class involved by asking them questions about recipes and parties

·      Gave us a good start to why we were doing this and how it relates to math

·      Showed the students exactly what we were going to be striving for and what we would be doing

·      Would have also been good to hand out a hard copy of the objective for students

·      Having the warm-up on the board and not on the PowerPoint made the students change their focus to another place – more interesting

·      Telling the students that they had a warm-up to get started on made them focus and quiet down

·      Didn’t give them enough time to finish warm-up so we lost some students

4.  Transitions from one part of the lesson to the next

·      We felt crunched for time and so we moved too quickly from one task to the next – more time needed for calculating the doubled recipe

·      Good transition from warm-up/previously learned material and how it would help us in our lesson

·      Our PowerPoint slides allowed us to move from one part of the lesson to the next very easily

·      Party example related well with doubling example we had on the PowerPoint slide and so made a good transition from intro to new material

·      Transition between teachers allowed good transition between parts of the lesson - students knew when we were changing parts

·      We talked before hand about who was going to teach what part and that helped the transitions flow together

5.  Effectiveness of your questioning techniques

·      The party question at the beginning of the lesson really got their attention and so many of the students were volunteering answers

·      The warm-up was a good review and students knew how to solve so they many raised their hands to give answers (set them up for success)

·      Felt rushed trying to get students to answer

·      We did a good job with wait time – allowing students to think about what we were asking

·      Used scaffolding in their groups so all students came out with the same doubling solution

6.  Classroom management

·      Warm-up got them started right away so we did not have any issues at the start

·      Walking around the room checking on their progress allowed us to prevent unnecessary talking and students being off task

·      At the end of class after we handed out the Puppy Chow the students thought we were done so they started talking loudly. I had to remind the students we were still working on the lesson and I needed their full attention.

·      Having 3 teachers allowed one to be up front while others could move around the room – proximity control

7.  Movement around the room and body language

·      Team teaching allowed us to cover more area in the room

·      Movement allowed good management techniques

·      Mostly stood up in front of class when talking and giving new information – allowed all students to see us so we didn’t have our backs to anyone when giving important information

·      Floating around to tables allowed students to ask questions

·      When we stood in back of room while going over PowerPoint we had 2 focal points for the students

·      We planned everything out very well and we were all very confidant about our presentation/lesson

·      Even when we had a mistake on our PowerPoint slide we were able to keep our composure and therefore keep students attention

8.  Effectiveness of Lesson Closure

·      Gave out puppy chow before closure and so we lost the class’s attention

·      Should have had one more PowerPoint slide repeating our objective and then relate what we did in class to the objective.

·      We were able to give out an assignment during our closure that related to what we were doing

·      We told the class what they should be prepared for during the next class

·      Rushed – not enough time to have a complete closure

9.  Use of Different Teaching Strategies

·      Individual work – allowed personal understanding

·      Group work – allowed students to share their ideas and answers

·      Visual aids to show how to double

·      Mathematical/logical methods of doubling

·      Enough wait time for students to think before giving an answer

·      Wrote warm-up and answers on board and discussed verbally

·      Could have written the in class task on the board – “Double the Puppy Chow Recipe on a separate piece of paper for turn in”

·      Used Choral Responses during our warm-up

·      We stated objectives, reviewed previously learned material, introduced new material, provided students with examples to work on individually and in their group, went over solutions, and added closure to lesson – follows Hunter’s Direct Instruction Plan

10.     Enthusiasm, confidence and ability to capture student’s attention

·      We were very confident and very strong with our beginning

·      Even when we had a mistake on our PowerPoint slide we were able to keep our composure and therefore keep students attention

·      Good use of examples and questions that captured students interest because they related to the students

·      Puppy chow food really got their attention!

·      Team teaching made the students really focus on who was teaching at the time and was not boring – students had a different focal point

·      All enthusiastic about the topic because we are all math education majors

·      Lots of planning gave us lots of confidence

·      All have had public speaking practice and so were not worried about not having control

·      Students very engaged because of relation to real life

11.     Anything else you noticed about the lesson

·      Give more time to do problems – since we had a time crunch we should have had less problems to work on

·      Give students enough thinking time before giving them new information

·      Making the product in class would have given us a better understanding if the students were able to effectively double the recipe

·      Having the pictures and doubling solutions fly in one at a time would have allowed us to keep the students attention where we wanted it

·      Must connect back to the objective at the end of the lesson!

·      We tried to do too much in too little of time

12.     Overall Summary of what you learned from teaching and from your lesson analysis

·      Good to have a warm-up at the beginning to review previously learned information and to have class get started right away

·      Important not to hand out anything that could be a distraction to students because you will lose their attention quickly

·      Movement around the classroom very important part of classroom management

·      Having students turn in warm-up is a good assessment of how well they understood the previously learned information

·      Time management in planning and teaching is important to have a smooth lesson – time flies when you are having fun!

·      Extra time may be needed if students are not clear on a topic you thought they would have already known – if previously learned multiplication warm-up was not clear might have to work on that more before moving on, or if students have more questions

·      Flexibility important in teaching new material and if you have too much prepared – don’t try to cram everything but try to modify so you can work on things for another lesson