IP&T 301 Teaching Reflection

When creating a lesson it is much easier to sit down, make a PowerPoint presentation and stand in front of the class and begin reading the PowerPoint word for word. But what’s the point because no one remembers what you said anyways. That is why Kerry and I decided that we needed to implement different teaching strategies into our lesson.
We decided that we needed something at the very beginning of class to grasp the student’s attention. We gave them a test in which not only grasped there attention at the beginning but also allowed us to use as a teaching tool later on in our lesson. Because they had just taken a test we then took their scores and used them to teach concepts and terms to each of them. I believed that this increases what the student learns because it gives them hands on experience using a test they have taken.
Another principle of teaching that is important is keeping the student involved and active in the lesson. This allows the students to conceptualize and almost teach themselves the information, which allows them to comprehend the information. To do this we allowed the students to create and present skits teaching the class of different styles of tests.
I would say that the strengths of our presentation is that the students were able to interact and be involved in the lesson. I also really like our assessment because it allowed the teacher to evaluate what the students had learned but wasn’t overly time consuming. It was also more fun for the students than a paper and pencil test.
I thought our weaknesses were that by giving them a test at the beginning can sometimes give them a negative feeling toward the lesson before it even starts, depending on the students feelings towards tests. Another weakness, I felt, was the over use of our PowerPoint presentation.
If I were to give this lesson again I would print off more diagnostic tests that the students could view and take home with them. I would also ask a lot more questions and had the students be more involved in the teaching process through effective questioning.