The most valuable aspect I learned this week is the power of review. This week's schedule was crazy because of PSSA's and there were no classes on Friday. The school district that I'm at does the PSSA testing first thing after homeroom and it lasted for about 90 min. The classes rotated so the first day I had my Accounting I class for 90 min., the other days for about forty min. The students in this class are a mixture of juniors and seniors. So the day that I had the class the longest, many students were missing because they were taking the PSSA’s. But I pushed on with a lesson. After all, I can’t have the seniors sitting with nothing to do. On Tuesday, I started the class with a review, which was essentially re-teaching the lesson so the juniors could pick it up. And they did. By asking the seniors questions and having them explain the principles, the juniors seemed to pick up the concepts quickly, quicker than if I were explaining it. And it also gave me the opportunity to see what the students learned and/or didn’t learn from the previous day’s lesson. It’s amazing what the students get and what they don’t get out of a lesson. I may think that a point was crystal clear and that everyone got it. And the students may be able to answer questions correctly during the lesson. But somehow, it either gets lost or just doesn’t stick to the next day. So seeing this, it was as if a light went on in my head and I began starting each lesson with a review. It gives me the chance to emphasize and reinforce the points that may need more in-depth explanation. It also gives me the opportunity to add points that I may have overlooked in the initial lesson. This week’s most valuable lesson was definitely the power of review!
If I could change anything about this past week it would be a lesson that I rushed through because of time constraints. It was 7th period and for various reasons I had about a half an hour for a lesson that I planned for about 45 min. with an exercise at the end. Well, I rushed through my lesson and completed it. The students did get a lot of it but there were things that I left out because I was rushing. I learned not to rush through a lesson because you only end up teaching it again. So, guess what I did the next day. I started off the class with a review and explained that I may have rushed through the previous day’s lesson. The students did learn a lot from the first day but I was glad to have a chance to reinforce and to elaborate!
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I agree with you that reviewing with the start of a lesson about what was previously learned is a great wat to make sure the students are picking up on what was taught in the lesson. Review is essential in every class I think. Great job.
ReplyDeleteI agree with a review of the previous lesson. It not only helps the students keep the lesson fresh in their minds but it also helps me understand how much learning occured the previous day. If I notice a lack of learning from the previous day, I can change my teaching style in order for the students to gain more from each day.
ReplyDeleteI agree with reviewing at the start of the lesson, keeping the information fresh in their mind helps out with students overall understanding. I try to use different methods of reviewing to see which way my students learn the best.
ReplyDeleteI know exactly what you mean about rushing through lessons. I've done that a couple times and it's caused me to miss some of the most weighted points that I wanted to make, and talk too much about relatively insignificant issues. That doesn't necessarily sound like the same exact situation you had, but I can definitely identify. Doc O's words of "Less is more" constantly ring in my ears while I'm trying to fit too much into a single lesson.
ReplyDeleteKeep up the good work MB. I know there are a lot of challenges at GAR for you but I don't think any of us are more fit for that than you are.
That is great that you admitted to them that you rushed through the lesson. Showing the students' your vulnerable side is sometimes what it takes to make it an environment that everyone is comfortable in teaching and learning.
ReplyDeleteI also like how you realized the importance of review. I always looked at reviews as the glue in our instruction. We are going to talk about different ways to review this week in class.
Great reflection!