Lesson Plan & Implementation:

Reflection and Analysis

College of Education

Reflection is a critical process for supporting your growth and development as a professional. At
the end of each lesson, you should reflect on the experience and analyze its effectiveness. This
part of the process consists of three parts: the reflection, the analysis and the content-focused
questions.

In order to receive full credit your reflection and analysis must include specific references to the
video with time correlations. For this reason, complete a chart as you watch your video with the
following headings and focus your viewing on the student learning goal and/or teacher
instructional goal.

Time Celebration/Struggle/Question: Claim about teaching practice

4:30 I set very clear expectations about By setting this expectation in

the pieces of paper on students the beginning of the lesson, I
desks. helped to prevent any
unwanted behaviors.

4:47 I set clear expectations about By setting these expectations, I

watching the video. I also called out
table groups when I didn't have a
student’s eye on me, instead of
calling out that specific student.
was letting student know how I
wanted them to behave while
the video was playing and
prevented any unwanted
behaviors.

7:00 I circulated to each table group to This helped me to see if there

check in on them and find out what were any students who were
they were talking about. not participating. This also
helped me get an idea for if
students already understood
this concept or not.

8:55 A missed opportunity was A goal I am setting for myself is

regaining the attention of students to address every behavior,
with their heads down. every time. Students are not
focused or learning if their
heads are down.
9:25 I shared today’s science objective
with the class.
9:40 I started pulling sticks to be fair,
which was good, but I quickly
stopped and started calling on
students with their hands raised.
11:22 When asking for examples about
melting, I focused in on a specific
table group and noticed the rest of
the class started doing their own
thing and lost focus instead of
being respectful to those
answering the question
13:25 When I noticed students not
participating with the hand
motions, I made a conscious effort
to regain their attention and get
them to participate.
15:33 Informal assessment (thumbs
up/down) to check for
understanding.
16:33 Reflecting on this activity, I should
have posted the change in matter
around the room and had students
move to that area according to the
example I called out.
By sharing today’s objective,
students were aware of what
our goal was to learn. This
helps them get started thinking
about the content and get ready
to learn.
I wanted to consistently pull
sticks to hold students
accountable for listening as
well as to be fair with who I
was calling on to answer
questions.
I should have stopped to
ensure the class was focused on
the speaker because once
students lose focus, it can be
difficult to bring them back.
They also were not paying
attention, which means that
they are not learning the
content.
If students are not
participating, they are not
learning. Again, once they lose
focus and those behaviors go
unaddressed, it is more difficult
to bring them back.
This informal assessment helps
me know if I need to readdress
the material or if students are
ready to move on.
This would have been more
simple to manage, but still
would have had the same affect
as my original activity.
 21:00 My students had never done an Practice with type of activity
activity like this before where they would have helped this go
have to talk to one another to find more smoothly.
their partner.

23:30 I demonstrated responsiveness Responsiveness and flexibility

and flexibility when I realized that
the way students were moving all
around the room was not working.
are important because if an
activity isn't working, you
shouldn't keep pushing
forward with it. Student
learning should come first and
as teachers, we should be
responsive and flexible to that.

26:40 When the groups were sharing, the
rest of the class lost focus and I
didn’t know how to bring the back.
They were too busy worrying
about their own group, that they
did not pay attention to the groups
who were speaking.
I should have been more
explicit with the fact that we
were going to “fix” our groups
and talk about them whole
group.

27:00 After helping student remember Having this visual is very

the hand motions to think of the important to help students
process of change, I remembered understand the concepts as
to tell them to use the anchor chart well as to refer back to as
to help them. needed.

The Reflection: The reflection component should make you think about your overall impressions
and feelings that you had.

Questions to consider in your reflection:

1. What aspects of your lesson were implemented differently than you planned? Why did that happen?
2. If you were going to teach this lesson to the same group of students, what would you do differently? Why?
What would you do the same? Why?
3. What surprised you in your lesson?
4. Describe an instance or particular encounter that comes to mind. Why did you pick that instance? What is so
perplexing about that particular moment?
5. What connections can you make to your lesson today from your coursework, the literature, and any previous
lessons or experiences?

I had planned for students to be able to form their own groups and to stand together with their
group as we went around the room to discuss the cards in each group. Students struggled with
this concept so I ended up stopping the activity and telling the class to go to a specific spot in the
room according to their cards. If I were going to teach this lesson again, I would already have a
designated spot in the room for each change in matter (evaporation, condensation, etc.) Then I
would have given examples aloud and had the students move to the coordinating spot. At first I
was actually surprised that my students weren’t able to complete this task effectively, but then I
realized that they have probably never had to complete a task like this before where they have to
match something to find their partner.

The Analysis: The analysis part addresses the lesson’s effectiveness – to what extent did the
students meet the objectives stated in your lesson plan and how do you know? Make 2-3 claims
about student learning and support it with evidence that you gathered from the lesson (video,
student work, observation notes, etc.).

Questions to answer in your analysis:

1. Which students achieved the learning objective? Which students did not achieve the learning objective? How do
you know? Which of the following helped or hindered your students’ learning – teaching methods, activities,
instructional materials, planned differentiation strategies?
2. How did any special considerations of accommodations affect the lesson? Discuss the outcomes you achieved
explicitly with any students eligible for ELL support, gifted instruction or IEP/504 accommodations—did they
meet your objectives? Why or why not?
3. Based on what happened in this lesson, what are the next steps? What do you plan to teach next to this class
based on the data you collected? Be sure to explain how you will use information from this evaluation in future
lesson planning.
4. Include artifacts representing student work that reinforces your narrative.

My ESE students struggled with the writing portion of this lesson. I intended to pull them aside
to read the prompt explicitly to them, but instead I went around the room to check on them at
their desks. If I had pulled them aside, I could have been more explicit in my instruction and they
would have felt more comfortable telling me what they needed help with. Pulling them aside
would have also given me the appropriate opportunity to explain to them that they could answer
the prompt using pictures or words. Based on what happened in this lesson, I would review each
phase again and the hand motions we came up with. I believe the hand motions really helped
them remember the details of each change in matter; they just need more practice and repetition
with these motions to remember them and

make them useful.

Content-Focused Questions: Choose the section that aligns with your lesson content and
answer the questions accordingly.

Questions to answer specific to a science lesson:

1. In what ways did you access prior knowledge? What misconceptions were revealed
during this lesson?
2. Consider the extent to which you provided opportunities for your students to ‘do’
science. What process skills/practices were embedded and discussed in the lesson?
Analyze the explain phase. To what extent were the students sharing discoveries from
their exploration?
4. Consider your scientific explanations. Were you accurate in your discussions of science
content? Were you precise in your use of vocabulary? Did you encourage precision in
students’ use of vocabulary? Did you support student accuracy (in other words, did you
correctly identify student work as accurate or inaccurate)? This does not mean that you
necessarily told a student they were wrong, but that you recognized their lack of
accuracy and took steps to support their further learning.
5. Consider how science was represented in the class. What explicit connections were
made to the nature of science?
I accessed prior knowledge by asking students about the changes we talked about yesterday. I
also accessed prior knowledge by asking about the video we watched the day before and
reviewing the hand motions we came up with to remember the changes in matter. Students were
able to turn and talk about their observations in the science video of water freezing. I was precise
in my science vocabulary and I encouraged students to be precise as well. For their assessment,
they were to use four key scientific terms: melting, freezing, solid, and liquid.