Part III: Post Lesson: Video Assessment, Observation Notes, and Reflection
VIDEOTAPE SELF-ASSESSMENT 1: INTERPERSONAL SKILLS
Questions for Analysis: Please respond with comments
Describe your tone of voice. Does your tone vary in expression? Does it convey acceptance or impatience? If you were a student in your classroom would you feel comfortable taking risks given your tone of voice as expressed in this videotape lesson?
I felt that my tone of voice was calm and comfortable. The pitch went up and down and showed various expressions. I was able to tell that the students in my class felt comfortable participating in discussion and asking questions. This was apparent to me because some of the student who usual don’t participate were avid listeners, and contributors.
What is the nature of your verbalization? What kind of questions do you tend to ask most? Are they problem-solving questions? Questions that relate to real world experiences?
Since the focus of my reading lesson was on the comprehension skill, Drawing Conclusions, a lot of the questions I asked required students to draw a conclusion in order to answer them. When students answered my question they sometimes extended their answer by giving their own real world experiences. I gave a relative comparison when explaining empires, provinces and districts. This comparison really made the information click for some children.
How responsive are you to what children are saying? Are you more responsive to certain children than to others?
I feel that overall I was responsive in some way to each child who contributed to the discussion. In cases where student answers were not clear, I tried to ask follow up questions that expanded and clarified their answers.
How often do you acknowledge children? What is the nature of this acknowledgement? What is your body language?
I scan with eye contract throughout the entire class when speaking. When a student is speaking, I make sure my eye contact is with the speaker. I do however, briefly glance away to make sure others are tracking the speaker as well. I try to have as many students participate as possible, depending on the time allotted. After each speaker, I try to make some acknowledgement (compliment, repetition so others can hear, clarification question, etc.).
My body language is attentive, but relaxed. I think this definitely helped the students to relax and feel able to participate freely.
How do you provide feedback to children regarding their performance? Do you tend to make global statements such as “good job” or do you tend to be more specific?
There are instances where my feedback to the students is more of a generic statement. However, I am aware of it and try to keep it to a minimum. If I do say, “Great Job!”, I always follow it by the name of the person I am directing the comment too. A couple of students answers were above and beyond so my feedback was more specific and elaborate.
I also provide corrective feedback to students who become distracted and the class as a whole. These comments are brief, but make my point clear. Overall, any reigning in of the class or individuals during my lesson, I thought, went well. In particular, Anthony called out answers a few times. The first time, I acknowledged his contribution right away and at the end reminded him to raise his hand in the future. The second time, I stopped him, and said, “I’d love to hear from you, but you have to raise your hand…raise your hand and I will call on you”. This time I did move on. Sure enough, Anthony raised his hand, and shared his thoughts when I called on him. This was a proud moment for me, and an outstanding accomplishment for Anthony.
Affective Qualities: Comment and give examples
Accepting and tolerant
The above example of Anthony continuously calling out.
Encouraging and supportive
Elaborating on students contributions and going out of the way to recognize a job well done.
Example: Chelsey demonstrated a real understanding of the Empire to Country comparison. I said, “You really got this Cheals..AWEOSME!...Maybe you can explain it a little more to Zhane after we’re done?”
Friendly and warm
Using nicknames to call on students. For example: Cheals, or Kam. Or calling someone buddy or sweetie. These terms imply a personal and meaningful relationship has been established. The conversation also flows better, and seems less mechanical.
Having an appropriate use of humor
Poking fun at my own terrible drawing. The children chuckled at my comment and also refocused them on the board.
Calm, in spite of conflicting demands
During independent work, all students were on different pages and required various levels of attention. I reminded the class that this was an independent activity, and the volume should be low. Problems that seemed to relavent to everyone, I addressed out loud for the class to hear. For instance, multiple booklets were falling apart, I stated aloud, “For those of you who have pages falling out, I will come around with a stapler…just give me a few minutes to make it to you.”. After this the questions regarding the loose pages ceased.
Attentive and responsive to students’ needs and interests
When talking about the word district and rebellion, some students gave answers that weren’t complete relevant to the topic (i.e the movie District 9, and Star Wars). I did not ignore these comments. I complimented the connection and in these cases identified personally with them. However, I did not extend my responses to any great length.
________________________________________________________________________
After reflecting on your use of interpersonal skills during your videotaping, please complete the following statements.
- I felt really good about…
…the class discussion that occurred while reading the article aloud.
- I was uncomfortable with…
...the level of uncertainty when the students were sent to complete the booklet individually.
- What I learned most about myself was…
…relaxed body language, and enthusiastic tone effects the students performance in a positive way.
- I had problems with…
…leading into the Drawing Conclusions Equation.
- Things I would do differently next time include ….(state why)
…more explicitly stating what are valuable details in the text, and the answers to the questions were valid conclusions one could use in filling out the pages of the booklet. I would include these changes because it would lead to more immediate students success with the independent activity.
- The decision I made during the lesson that stays most in my mind was…
…rushing through the explanation of the booklet because of time. I think this decision caused my students unnecessary frustration.
- When I think about teaching, learning, and the learning process, I learned….
…that you can never be to explicit with your explanation. I also, after watching the video, should have a way to explain my skill or idea without using any of the words in the explanation itself. For example, explain detail + detail = conclusion without using the words detail or conclusion.
No comments:
Post a Comment