Lesson+Plan+3+(PPA)



12/5/2008 Reflection Today’s lesson went quite well even though it felt a little chaotic at the end, and I was kind of disheartened when several students didn’t know how to isolate the variable. I think the closing activity would be less chaotic if the students were used to doing activities like that. They were initially kind of resistant to the opener (list all perfect squares between 0 and 200) but once a few of them figured out a patter/method, it wasn’t so bad. I was surprised that I had to define a perfect square for them. During the demonstration/explanation part, I tried to get a lot of input for the students, and I remembered to pause a lot to ask for questions. They all seemed to understand as I went along, but I knew that the closure activity would give me a true sense of whether they really got it or not. I had them form groups and arrange their desks in a circle. Each student received a piece of paper with a quadratic equation at the top. They were instructed to do only the first step—isolate the variable. Then they were instructed to pass their paper around the circle. They would receive their neighbor’s paper, and do the next step—simplify the radical. Then, they would pass it one more time and check the answer on the paper they received from their neighbor. Last, I handed out the HW. I did ask for their answers as completely simplified radicals, but I probably should have added on there that I didn’t want any decimals so they wouldn’t plug the square roots into their calculator. Also, I should have stressed the importance of completing it, and that I really was going to collect it and that they really were being held accountable for doing it, because only 5 from 3rd period did it, and more from 4th about 12! It wasn’t long or complicated either, so they had no excuse. I still need to work on getting their attention, and really waiting until they are all quiet before beginning. Also, Mary Ellen observed me and she reminded me that culture is as simple as home culture, not as extreme as different countries’ cultures like I usually think. She told me that the group activity was good because it made my lesson multicultural. It was a good reminder.