Today was the day that I implemented my Direct Instruction lesson plan!
I introduced the concept of greater than, less than, and equal to in a 2nd grade classroom.
Overall, I think it went well. My cooperating teacher loved my lesson!
I am, however, very critical of my own work. So I can find plenty of things that could have been better with it.
My anticipatory set wasn't as smooth as I had rehearsed. It was a lot tougher to carry out when there are 23 7-year-old kids yelling out answers at me when I was not asking for any answers.
My transitions could have been better as well. Despite writing them in my lesson and practicing ahead of time, it was hard to remember to actually say all of the transitions between the development, guided practice and independent practice.
One activity that I did during guided practice that worked really well, was one that included sorting small pompoms into two groups. They had to count how many pompoms were in each group and then figure out which symbol (>, <, =) to use. In their math notebooks (I needed them to write all of this down to have some kind of record of their work) I had them write the whole problem down, and then write it out in a sentence. For example, they would have to write 13 > 7 -- 13 is greater than 7.
I wanted them to understand that the symbols we were using were taking the place of the words.
Most of the class did very well with this. Some did not get it right away and needed another example, but then quickly picked up the concept.
One of the reasons this activity worked so well was because it was very kinesthetic. they enjoyed using the pompoms and having the hands-on work.
The best part of the lesson for me was the closure, and no, I'm not saying that because it meant it was finally over.
During the closure part of the lesson, I asked students to tell me what the concept of the lesson was, and everyone could tell me. I then asked the class to tell me one thing they learned from the lesson, and most were able to tell me how to use the >, <, = signs correctly.
I felt like my lesson had been a success!
Hi Kelly,
ReplyDeleteI think you are being too hard on yourself. It sounds like it was a success! I can relate though. I am sure I will say the same thing when I present my DI lesson. Thank you for researching the museum. I want to check it out with my daughters. If it's anything like the LICM it should be terrific.
Sally