Phase 1 Reflections on Micro Lessons Preparation

Assessing Prior Knowledge:


I decided to create a lesson which was meant for 8th grade students who have had some interaction with slope and the graphing of slope. The lesson I am creating is geared toward students who have had exposure of slope and are furthering their understanding of slope and applying it in new and creative ways. I hope to learn that students have somewhat of an understanding of slope and can also apply certain algebraic skills to discover slope in formula form as well as graphically. Prior knowledge information is vital in the planning process, I hope to evaluate how well the students understand slope and in turn give them individually challenging work for students who need remediation, or acceleration. Knowing what each student or most students understand with the lesson will determine how advance the lesson will be for each student.

Plans Instruction: 

I decided to clearly state my goals, objectives and outcomes through my lesson plan; however with the lesson itself I hope to demonstrate the goals and objectives after modeling the Slope Stories. The students demonstrated the outcomes of their slope stories by posting them on the discussion board as well as taking ten minutes at the end of the lesson to write a reflection about slope and how it could be used or be seen in every day life. The objectives and goals are completely appropriate for the 8th grade NCTM standards as well as the Common Core Standards. I guided my lesson using the NCTM and Common Core Standards. I decided have the students state the outcome of the lesson using reflection because I believe it is important to implement writing within mathematics.

Designing Instruction: 

I am writing my lesson plan with the idea of engagement, modeling, guided practice and the independent practice. I believe the instructional design of my lesson is appropriate for the concept. The students have some understanding of slope, therefore, the students begin with guided practice to inspire review as well as begin to transfer prior knowledge for this particular lesson. Having the students then continue the lesson with independent instruction, helps the students not only take charge of their own learning but in addition presents the teacher with more time for one on one individual attention for students who need remediation. I created the lesson to focus on slope, this being said there are several different concepts of slope I included for students who need remediation and students who need acceleration. I included positive, negative and undefined slope, in addition I also included the beginning of y-intercepts and the formula for y- interceptions. Because a great deal of the lesson is independent instruction this helps students who need remediation to focus on positive and negative slope, while student who need acceleration will have undefined slope as well as y - interception formulas and graphing if time allots. I believe I am going to use the smart board with my instruction. Using the smart board will allow me interaction with the concept as well as the student responses. I believe I will have each student open the notebook program on the individual computers as well during the guided instruction and independent instruction. The students were able to maintain a safe, legal and ethical use of technology using the notebook program. The students were not able to access the internet during this lesson therefore maximizing the safety of the lesson. All students were successful when their individual responsibilities of social interactions. The students are able to have the notebook program in front of them on their own computers, therefore the technology meets the diversity of the learners through a creative math center. Each student will be respectful of each individuals work and should not feel threaten by others looking at their work. The only people involved in the creative learning process is the learner and the teacher (no internet necessary).

Planning Assessment: 

My assessment tools will demonstrate the performance of goals and objectives by having the students individual create their own slope stories via the computer and also type up their own reflections about the lesson and how slope is involved during every day life. The students will constantly be engaged in higher order thinking skills when creating their own slope stories, by writing their stories the students will demonstrate what elements are necessary to produce a positive, negative or undefined slope story. In addition having the student write reflections helps further assess how well the students grasped the concept. Each student will send in their notebook file including their slope stories and their reflection, this type of assessment is individualized and much more effect for the teacher to understand how each student understands the material.