My Mini-Lesson

October 8, 2007

I did my mini-lesson today. I think it went pretty well. The kids caught on well to the key idea (what you do to one side of an equation, you must do to the other). I thought they were somewhat involved when I presented my concrete example of what they were about to do. Right now, though, they seem pretty bored. They are just taking notes. They don't want to participate, and she's have trouble eliciting responses from more than just a handful of students.

She blew through the notes to get to the examples. Some of the kids are having trouble. I wonder what I could have done differently in my lesson/example/activity to make these example problems make more sense.
Some areas for improvement I do see:
-I should have written the equations as I was going so they could make the connection between balancing a see-saw and balancing an equation.
-I should have asked if anyone had any questions.
-I should have pursued the "why" behind: y+5=8 gives y=3.

The second class went a lot better since I had the time to reflect about what I needed to change. The kids were rowdier, but I think their genuine curiosity about me made them behave a little better and listen when I told them to quiet down. They are currently not being so well behaved for Ms. Screws. She's already had to hand out a couple of warning slips.

I do wish the vocabulary I used would have tied better into her lesson. I now know for future team-teaching that both parties should discuss vocabulary. She used very unusual terms and methods, so I wasn't expecting them.
Things I should have done differently:
-I should have prepared a few more "unknowns."
-I should have put a few more questions on their assessment quiz.
-I should have given them an equation that resulted in a negative value for the variable.