As part of our adapted practicum, we are required to give feedback to our peers on their lesson deliveries and planning. Since I prefer if my peers give me criticism over praise, I thought I would do the same with my feedback to them as well. It wasn't until actually reading my feedback from my peers that I realized that I must consider the subject discipline that the lesson was built upon because certain subjects such as in the languages and arts, are skills based and the texts chosen or the topic chosen can vary from class to class depending on their interests and needs. However, other subjects such as math and sciences have a set curriculum and we must teach from the curriculum as opposed to purely focusing on skills and interests. Feedback should be considered a "snapshot" (to quote Christina Philips) and not the overall picture. Thus I believe the lens that we give feedback through must be shifted and this is one of the few places I believe the adapted practicum can be better improved upon. Since our class has little to no knowledge of chemistry, it is difficult to teach the grade 11 curriculum (SCH3U) and thus I feel that I would like more feedback on the content that I taught as opposed to just how the lesson was carried out. I would like to know if it was too easy, too difficult, just right or somewhere in between, and how I can amend for future lessons. Using my professional judgement, I also believe that some feedback I got from my peers were not entirely effective (and vice versa - I most likely gave feedback that stemmed from own biases in my teaching areas) because they are looking at my lessons from their teaching areas of specialty. For example, one of my peers mentioned that I was not focusing on teaching the student as I presented some content that they were supposed to cover in grade 9 and 10. When lesson planning, I always keep content in mind along with the class dynamics and thus I chose to cover one concept in the chemical reactions unit for the entire 75 minutes of the lesson which is unlikely for a class of SCH3U. Thus, it is very important for me to give feedback while trying to think from the perspective of a History or English teacher if I'm providing feedback to those teachers teaching those subjects. Just like how I don't agree with some ideas, I also don't want my feedback to be disregarded or elicit a negative affect because I didn't consider the lesson delivery from their perspective. In the future, I will place greater importance on my positionality when I teach and give appropriate feedback in the future. Overall though, much of the feedback and criticism I received are very helpful and constructive to lesson delivery in general. In particular, my speaking pace, including a handout with my lesson, and using more text in my lessons (and not just images) are aspects I focused on changing the most by the end of the third lesson. Since I only covered one topic in SCH3U, I believe the students would be okay by taking notes from the PearDeck Presentation without a handout to follow along; however, I acknowledge the benefits that a handout can provide. Due to my class dynamics, I think a handout can also be suited to the needs of different learners and I will include one for my next lesson on single displacement reactions. Sharnam and I collaborated on this handout together. In addition, I tend to speak fast when I am excited and/or nervous about presenting a topic. Especially in a school like DSSS where there is a high proportion of ELL students, it is important to speak slower, enunciating each syllable as I speak so students of all language skills can understand. Lastly, as a highly visual learner, I know I learn well from lots of images as opposed to text-heavy lectures and most of the students who I've tutored also prefer this style of teaching. However, within POD B, there are 2 students in particular who are not visual learners and I must ensure I present my lessons so they are accessible to all. Resultantly, I've added more text in my slides for the third lesson. Furthermore, as I gain more experience asking for feedback, giving feedback, and incorporating these ideas into my teaching, I realized that my feedback form does not do what I originally intended for it to do. I split up the feedback form into sections on lesson delivery, pace, assessments etc. but I think what I really wanted was feedback on the different activities that I had presented throughout the presentation. As such, I will amend my form for lesson 3, making it activity focused instead of being more general as I constantly ask myself when I did that action that was referenced in the feedback form. The final feedback form is also in the form of a collaborative Google Docs page so it is easier to track and get back to those who provided me with feedback. Finally, although most of the class was engaged and answering the questions I posed even though they have little to no chemistry background, I did notice a few students who did not participate through PearDeck's anonymous answering system. Just like in a classroom full of students in SCH3U, I would actively try and seek ways to engage those who do not participate and in this case it was by privately messaging those classmates on their interests and how I can get them more engaged. One of my peers had a great suggestion on relating to political issues more such as climate change. I'm not sure why I didn't think of this before as more than half the class has a language or history background and thus excel when learning about historical or current issues of significance. Since I pride myself in coming up with connections between seemingly unrelated concepts, I will try to incorporate a historical element into the next lesson. I think I will also introduce a lab as that puts what we are learning into practical significance. Although I am trying to find ways for everyone to participate and speak up in class, I do think that some students prefer not to speak out loud in class regardless of how interesting the topic is to them. In my opinion, this would not affect their learning as it reflects more of their personality. Just like how in real life we don't force introverts to attend parties each day, we also shouldn't force our kids to speak up in class if they don't want to. Thus I believe the use of breakout rooms and JamBoard for everyone to record their ideas during break out rooms, as well as the anonymous answering system on PearDeck, are all valid ways of participation. Students don't always have to speak up to participate and learn in class. Update with the above observation: Eddia, who is a year 2 TC in my chemistry teachable class commented on her experience in this adapted practicum. Since she was a year 2 TC, she had a placement with a class in Halton. She mentioned that although students may seem on the surface to understand what you teaching, if you go into breakout rooms and listen to the students' conversations, many of them actually are not sure of what they are doing. The voices reflected in the classroom may just be a few of the students and it is very important to get input from every student. In this light, perhaps focusing on one topic per lesson but going very in depth, and approaching the concept from multiple angles, is the best way to teach a lesson.
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AuthorHi! Thanks for taking the time to read about my journey. I hope you can take something from my experiences and share yours in return. Don't be shy! ArchivesCategories |