Prac A Assignment 3 Reflection

Melisa Edwards
During my four week Practicum at Clarkson Primary School, I was placed in a
year four class. Predominantly, for the first two weeks, I was able to observe and
take small groups. During the second two weeks, I was teaching a 0.4 FTE work
load, where I was able to use what I had learnt and reflected on in the first two
weeks, and attempt to put it into practice. I found the observation weeks very
useful to build a good rapport with both the mentor teacher and students, and to
reflect on the mentor teachers teaching strategies, the classroom management
and the school policies. After, taking a few lessons of my own I was able to
reflect on my classroom management techniques where; I reflected on if I had
considered alternative explanations to help keep students on task, my lesson
planning approach; where I could reflect on the time I allocated for each stage of
the lesson, how much time was actually required, and how this may have
influenced the students behaviour. Throughout my practicum I also reflected on
my; teaching strategies; what teaching strategies and techniques were I able to
use, and how effective where they were to allow and support students to make
connections to prior knowledge as well as how this could be used to improve the
learning of students and diversity; acknowledging the various cultures and
academic levels within the classroom and whether I was able to create and
facilitate learning opportunities to allow all students to be successful.
Using the feedback from my mentor teacher and different reflection
techniques such as; self-reflection, surface reflection, pedagogical reflection and
critical reflection, I have been able to analyse my performance and effectiveness
in the classroom, whilst conducting lessons. This reflection has given me the
opportunity to identify areas which I can improve on, and I will use this
information to guide me through my following practicums as I grow and develop
as a primary school teacher.

Reflecting on my lessons, I can see that I have tried to provide alternate

explanations, to explain concepts, particularly for those struggling students. With
the various levels of competence in the classroom, it was important to quickly
understand that children learn and understand concepts differently, and at a
different pace. I found the best approach was to introduce the concept to the
whole class, generate a class discussion and work through a few examples on
the board. This technique was generally, well received by the majority of the
class. However, for the weaker students this approach was somewhat lacking.
These students required more focussed sessions, particularly in numeracy. After
instructing all of the students to commence their work, the struggling students
were grouped at the front of the class, for a focussed learning session. During
this time, students were handed a whiteboard to work on. I then re-explained the
concept and went over a few more examples with these students, until they were

able to commence some of the work independently. Where possible, this focus
session incorporated concrete materials such as blocks and counters to enhance
their learning. I found this group responded well to drawings on the board, such
as; three groups of seven to show, and allow them to visualise that 3 x 7 is the
same as 7 x 3. I found these drawing techniques allowed students to visualise
what the question was asking them, and supported them whilst attempting work
independently.
After, the focussed learning session, these students would return to their
desks, to attempt to work through other numeracy problems independently. As I
had already identified the weaker students (those who were took part in the
focussed learning session), I would ensure I took note of how they responded to
their work once they had returned to their desks, I would monitor their progress
and if required, I would run another focus session to consolidate their
understanding of the concept. Before, commencing a second focus session with
these students, I would ensure the rest of the class was on-task and progressing
through their assigned activities. It was important to recognise the group of
students that would complete their work early, and ensure that additional work
to challenge and consolidate their learnings of the concept were available.
Often, the extensional students would swap their work for peer marking.
They would then be given a new activity to ensure that they were engaged and
challenged. Assigning work that was too easy for them, often resulted in them
distracting others as they became bored with their work. After completing a
second focus session (if required), a class discussion was started to give students
the opportunity to hear different explanations to help consolidate their
learnings. I had noted that students, particularly those who were struggling,
often could relate to concepts and grasp them more easily after these class
discussions as they were able to hear several explanations of the one concept
from their peers.
Using surface reflection techniques, I have been able to reflect on how my
approach to lesson planning has reflected in the effectiveness of the lesson and
how it has influenced the classroom management. Lessons that focussed on one
topic for too long often resulted in students becoming restless and misbehaving.
After observing the reaction of students, especially during the two hour block
sessions that the school has adopted, it was important to provide variety within
the lesson. The use of rotating groups, was most effective, and kept students
engaged for the longest period of time. This was evident during the numeracy
rotations, where students rotated for the two hours between four activities (think
tank, timetable repetition, math game, and whiteboard focussed learning
groups). During other sessions such as literacy, having a rotation system is
somewhat impractical. During literacy sessions, it was important to break the
large block up, by engaging student to come together for a group or class
discussion part way through the lesson to maintain their engagement. Literacy
sessions were generally opened with a re-cap on the previous lessons learnings,
this was followed by an introduction to the lesson and described how the lesson
would be broken up; such as; for the first 20 minutes students will work on their

introduction to their prepositions and then we will all come back together for a
class discussion to discuss what students have written, before moving onto the
body of the preposition; this approach, allowed students to manage their time to
ensure that a particular amount of work was done before the class discussion
commenced. For some students, giving them time frames worked well, and
allowed them to plan their work accordingly. Others, responded differently, and
appeared to waste their time initially, and rush their work towards the 20
minute deadline.
After, observing the students behaviour and this technique in a few
lessons, I decided to shorten the time frames, and set smaller tasks to maintain
their engagement. This resulted in more students staying on task for longer
periods of time. One such method was to explain the work expected of them for
that lesson via a list on the board, and then to regularly provide students with
feedback, and guidance as to what they should be working on e.g everyone
should be finishing off their introduction now and within the next five minutes
everyone should be starting their body. To gauge the students progress
throughout the lesson a show of hands was useful to indicate the overall
progress of the class. This also, provided instant feedback for the students to
allow them to identify if they were, ahead, on track or behind compared to the
other students. It also, allowed me to identify which students were struggling and
allowed me to approach these students to understand what part of the concept
they were struggling with. Lessons that were well prepared and were able to
cater to the various needs/levels of students were most successful, and required
less teacher intervention to manage and maintain student behaviour. Creating a
rotation system or other similar systems where lessons were broken up, provided
the most beneficial learning environment for all students, as they did not become
bored and thus were less easily distracted; this resulted, in overall better
classroom management.

Reflecting on my lessons and approach to lesson planning, I can see the

importance of recognising prior knowledge, and the importance of using teaching
techniques to engage students to allow them to make connections using their
prior knowledge to enhance their learning and to create an authentic learning
experience. The pedagogical development of students and their engagement
reflected in the classroom behaviour. Content that students could resonate with
and lessons that were authentic created a positive learning environment.
Initially, during my first few lessons that I conducted, I was unaware of the extent
of the student prior knowledge. Reflecting on these lessons in comparison to
those lessons where I was able to identify prior knowledge; I can see that those
lessons where I have been able to engage the students and make strong
connections between new content with their prior knowledge facilitated a
learning environment where students were more likely to stay on task and
became less distracted.
I found, that the best approach to understand and gauge the students
prior knowledge of a topic or concept was to open the lesson with a class
discussion. Class discussions took place, using different teaching strategies such

as; verbal class discussions, the use of KWL (know - want to know - learnt)
charts, individual and class brainstorms. This allowed me to tailor my lesson
according to their prior knowledge, and helped me to identify areas where I could
enhance students learning and understanding of concepts by creating strong
links between new concepts and previous knowledge. Reflecting on my
performance, I can see that the initial lessons that I took, where I was unable to
acknowledge the extent of the students prior knowledge, resulted in lesson
feeling unauthentic to the students. These lessons, often took longer than
expected resulting in the missed opportunity to engage students such as; failing
to acknowledge students understanding of the layout of a preposition in a
literacy lesson. This resulted in, excess time required to explain the lay-out of a
preposition and what information a preposition contains. After, acknowledging
their prior knowledge or lack thereof, I could then more appropriately, tailor my
lesson to either explain the different literacy text lay-outs or, recap previous
lessons to consolidate their understanding of text layouts to assist in their
progression throughout the lesson.
Throughout this process, of understanding prior knowledge; it was
important to implement various resources to assist the students learning.
Students prior knowledge of numeracy concepts was enhanced through the
implementation of concrete materials to consolidate their learnings. This
approach also, made the learning experience authentic as students were able to
relate to the concept and could understand its practical application. The use of
fake money was one such example, where students had to pay for a list of
items, and were expected to work out the change they would receive.
Reflecting on my approach to lessons, initially it was difficult to understand the
students capabilities, the class I was in had a small group of extension students,
a few students at the expected level and a small to moderate sized group of
weaker students. Catering to all of their needs was somewhat difficult initially.
Reflecting on my approach and how the students responded to the mentor
teachers approach, I was able to develop and improve on my initial teaching
approach and teaching strategies. I understand the importance in developing
lessons that are able to challenge the extensional students whilst, being able to
cater to the needs of the struggling students. The use of focus groups is
important to allow the struggling students to have extra time, whilst allowing the
extensional students to continue their work and move onto more challenging
work. It is important to understand the capabilities of the extensional students to
ensure that they are continually challenged and that their engagement is
maintained. Throughout my time observing and teaching the class the
importance of grouping students to better cater to their needs was evident.
Groups of students may be an informal process whereby, throughout the lesson
whilst walking around the classroom, your time is focussed on ensuring particular
students are on task and understand the question, or groupings may be more
formal, where by students get into their groups to work through different
activities targeted at their level.

Throughout my four week practicum with the year fours at Clarkson primary
school, I have grown as a pre-service teacher. I now understand the significance
and role that lesson planning, acknowledging prior knowledge to create an
authentic learning experience and catering to individual needs and diversity can
have on classroom management. It is important to understand the students to
facilitate a positive learning environment and to provide an environment where
they are all given the opportunity to succeed. Another important part of this
practicum, was building a strong rapport with the mentor teacher. I felt, this was
a significant part of practicum, and facilitated many critical feedback sessions
that have allowed me to reflect on my performance in the classroom.
This practicum has highlighted the importance of reflection; using different
reflection techniques such as; self-reflection, surface reflection, pedagogical
reflection and critical reflection, I have been able to analyse my performance and
effectiveness in the classroom, whilst conducting and planning lessons. This
reflection has given me the opportunity to identify areas which I can improve on,
and I will use this information to guide me through my following practicums.