Reflection and Self-Evaluation

Secondary Methods Assignment Cover Sheet

Title of Assignment: Reflection and Self-Evaluation

Name: Katy Wood Date: 11/20/11

q Competency 009 – The teacher incorporates the effective use of technology to plan, organize, deliver, and evaluate instruction for all students.

q Competency 010 – The teacher monitors student performance and achievement; provides students with timely, high-quality feedback, and responds flexibly to promote learning for all students.

Justification Statement:

I created this artifact on November 20, 2011. This artifact was written in reference to a high school theatre arts level 1 class. This artifact will be used merely as a reflection on previous actions and methods used in the classroom. I will use this artifact as a reference source for future lesson planning in my classroom. By keeping record of what worked and what did not work in the classroom, I will be able to become a more effective teacher.

Reflection and Self-Evaluation

Learning objective number one was the most successful in regards to student improvement. Almost all of the students improved their percentages from fifty percent or less to scoring a full one hundred percent on their assessment. The objective was geared towards learning the different areas of the stage, and I feel that the students were successful during this objective because much of the learning took place on an actual stage. Getting out of their seats and walking around on stage to learn the different areas helped them from a visual standpoint as well as a muscle memory type of standpoint. All of the various learning styles were covered during the activities and lecture. And by doing an activity that required the students to draw on knowledge just taught to them, it helped to stick in their memory for future use in the classroom. The students in my classroom had a wide variety of learning characteristics, but again, by using multiple forms of learning styles to teach them, the information was understood by almost every student. The pre-assessment numbers showed an average of thirty percent as the average score for the class. The post assessment percentages jumped up to ninety two percent. I also feel that this objective was not necessarily difficult to comprehend, but rather, it was brand new information that had never been taught to the students previously. During the entire lesson, the objective as well as instruction and assessments were aligned almost perfectly together to increase student learning. During their pre-assessment, the objective was clear to the students: they were to learn the different areas of the stage. During the instructional part of the lesson, there was a picture of a stage drawn on the board with boxes drawn inside the stage to indicate the different areas. During the activity, the students were required to stand in the correct area of the stage. This activity was done on the actual stage, so the students got a really good sense of the different areas. Also, because the post-assessment was exactly the same as the pre-assessment, the students were well prepared to complete the quiz with confidence.

The learning objective students had the hardest time comprehending was learning objective two. This learning objective focused on creating character voices, using variation in pitch, dynamic, and rate. Now, as far as the students understanding what was expected of them in regards to creating a character voice, they seemed to grasp that concept. However, putting it into practice became a bit more challenging. I have a theory that it was more about the improvisation and commitment to a character voice that was challenging rather than just creating one in an unlimited amount of time. The activity portion of my lesson became a bit challenging for the students when they were playing the left right switch game. Every time the circle went around one space, the students had to improvise a scene using their assigned character voices. However, some of the students were having a little bit of trouble due to the fact that their scenarios were too specific. When the topic was broadened, there was more room for creativity and the students felt less like they were doing something incorrectly. I do not believe that the individual characteristics such as the gender or ethnicity of the students had anything to do with their success. Their success was based on their bold participation in the activity. It did not have to be correct in any way. I believe the students that were not as successful during this objective were those that had never done an activity like this before, not the ones that were Hispanic or female. I believe, were I to do this lesson again in a week or so, the students would perform much better having already done the exercise. All of the instruction and activities for this objective were aligned very well together. I strong believe the students grasped the information based on feedback I was getting during the class time. I believe the students were not as successful with this learning objective because it was new and the students were reluctant to perform because they felt awkward.

For learning objectives two and three, I would modify the scenarios given to the students for their improvised performances during the games. I believe having a broader idea to work with will help assist their imagination and creativity into creating their character’s movement and voice. Otherwise, learning objective one’s instruction and activities seemed to work extremely well, so for now, I would not modify anything in that lesson. For future lessons like these, I will need to be more organized with my materials. It might work better for learning objectives two and three to have pre-made index cards with scenarios already written on them. That may help the classroom run more smoothly. Another thing that may help the effectiveness of learning objectives two and three would be to put the students in pairs or groups of three. That way, I can walk around the classroom and assess each student’s performance more personally, as well as helping them understand the objectives better. I also believe putting the students in small groupings would allow the students to perform better because they are not concerned with the entire class watching them.