Unit Plan Lesson - Field Experience

For this field experience activity, I was asked to teach a lesson to a group of students, after teaching the lesson I was asked to review and evaluate my teaching experience. The lesson I taught was a wrap-up and review lesson for the unit on poetry. The class was made up of twelve 10th and 11th graders, in an SGI (Small group Instruction) 10th grade Common Core English class. The class period is 120 minutes. The students have been working on the poetry unit for the last two weeks and are ready for a formal assessment on the unit.  But before they test I like to hold a review session. Today’s review session will be in the format of a game of Jeopardy.

The class began with the normal check-ins, where we discuss the students’ progress towards their monthly goals. This month they each set goals for a number of units to complete in all their classes. We discuss their progress and ways to pick up the pace or address any issues they may be having. Following the check-in, the students were given time to work independently to catch up on any of the incomplete assignments that were due before the test. During this time I move around the room checking in with each student on their progress in the class. Students who are caught up with the work complete or review their study guides, which are allowed to be used on the test. I allow handwritten study guides on the test because it forces students to attempt to study, and I reward this attempt by allowing the use of them during the test.

Following the independent study period, we begin the game of jeopardy, the class is broken up into three teams (randomly by counting off 1-2-3) and given a clicker, and each clicker makes a unique sound and records the order of responses. Like the TV game show, students are given the answer to a question and must respond in the form of a question. The categories for today’s game are vocabulary, grammar, literature, and Night (questions from Eli Wiesle novel). The students are then rewarded we a small piece of candy for each correct answer. As the game begins the students show little interest in the game, but as they see the other students being rewarded with candy they soon take interest and are excited to participate and try.  After each question, I answered any questions and clarified the correct answer if need and move on. By the end, all the students have gotten some candy, been rewarded for their participation and had another chance to study for the test.

Following the game, students return to their seats and straighten the tables in preparation for testing. I again ask if there are any questions before we begin the test. I answer a few of them go over our class testing procedures and distribute the tests. The test is a multiple choice test with an essay component. I figure it should take between 30 to 45 minutes. The students begin testing.  As they test, I move around the room providing any assistance and answering any question that may arise.  As the students complete the test they are given a ¼ sheet of paper on which they evaluate the test, by answering three questions.  1. Was there anything you didn’t know on the test? What area did you feel like you did well on? 3. What area was the toughest? This is usually completed the last 5 minutes of class, but on this day it was done during as they completed the test because I wanted to leave time for discussion on the day’s lesson and learning activities.

During the final ten minutes of the class, I engaged the class in a discussion around the day’s lesson. I asked them to think about how they felt the lesson went; I asked whether or not the Jeopardy game was helpful to them in preparing for the test.  I got lots of responses, but the common theme seemed to be that it was a fun activity, and it did help with the test, many of the students thought that we should have done the same activity the day before, so they could take notes and study them the night before the test. For the most part the lesson was successful, and the grades on the test were higher than the previous unit. Also, the test surveys seemed to suggest that the student’s felt it more prepared for the test. I am excited to continue to try fun ways to present materials as well as prepare for tests. The student’s enjoyed it and it was a good break in normal class structure.