Lesson 5 Johnson

Malea Vitt and Katrina Cronin

Entry #5

November 19th, 2021

Experience Narrative: Friday was our fifth day of Service Learning teaching at Johnson Elementary. We taught our 4th grade class which has about 28 students in total. In this class we introduced our final lesson which is to be our two day final space project. Students will take all of the lessons we have taught so far and combine a perspective technique and relief to create an alien creature of their choosing. This class we worked on ideating their creatures, coming up with stories about them, and beginning the backgrounds. There were a couple of small issues to do with clarifying and building stronger connections to the lesson and within it but this was probably the best classroom management, and time management lesson we have taught all semester. The insight I gained from this lesson is that giving students the majority of the time to work and ideate really helps their creativity shine, no two students will have the same project but they are all able to grasp our concepts about perspective and space and connect them to their projects.

What Worked Well / Interpretation/Content Meaning:

Like I said, this class was the best so far in terms of hanging time , the lesson, and the class. All of the students did great work on ideating and developing their connections to our projects so far and it was very helpful for them to really connect and express themselves. I feel as though this was a great way to set up for the second day as so many built a strong foundation to work from. They also had engouh time to create, ideate, and think without being rushed and we had more than enough time for cleaning up and reflecting on our ideas which was really helpful. I think overall this class felt the easiest because of the preparation and management, we were able to be in control and it felt easier.

What Did Not Work / Personal Significance: As was discussed there were some small clarifying issues. The first of which being strengthening the connection from creature to strength or power, by identifying characteristics of thing of strength and then connecting that to an alien or creating something that holds those characteristics. The second, would be some clarifying objectives for them as to what their background needs to be/look like, what techniques they can use, and the actual worksheet itself such as clarifying wording, boxes, and helping guide the students better through their learning. While I think this class went swimmingly, it was very easy to see the small issues of these miscommunications in the students learning through their confusion. I think by continuing to identify these issue, and try to recognize and change them going forwards it will be much easier to bridge the gaps and help stop the confusion. What this lesson taught me is that details really do matter , considering how you will explain something and helping prevent and anticipate those issues heads on will allow students to create with the proper steps and tools to guide them.

Future Actions: In the future, I will try to anticipate wording that may be confusing, and go over steps to clarify my expectations for students more clearly. Students are not mind readers and it is up to me to identify and explain my expectations for their projects clearly. It is also my job to ensure they have clarity in those instructions. I feel as though prepping and anticipating the confusion will allow me to fix those issues before they arise in the classroom and reframe my concepts and expectations to students who may still be confused at what they are supposed to create. I feel by recognizing these areas where I need to focus more on things like the details of my lessons I will be able to be more confident in all areas of creating a lesson, and that confidence will benefit not only me but my students and teaching.