Megan Conley

January 12, 2014

First Teaching Reflection

My first teaching lesson for this experience was a language arts and history lesson which
taught the students about the friendship of John Adams and Thomas Jefferson and worked on
their reading skills. I am pleased with how this lesson went, however I still know I have room to
grow as a teacher.
For this lesson, I lead a guided reading of the book The Worst of Friends. This story gave
the students more information on the Founding Fathers of the United States of America. I read
aloud to the students and had them follow along by answering questions and filling a web
diagram and a timeline. The web diagram and timeline helped the students follow along in the
book and helped them pick out details of the story that fit into the two charts. These charts also
helped the students to remember facts that they would need for later assignments on the book. I
am glad I included this in my lesson plans. It gave the students extra practice and knowledge in
filling out these charts and gave them facts to physically look back on to review what they
learned. Next, my lesson had the students to unscramble sentences that were typed out on
flashcards. The students seemed to have enjoyed this activity. They correctly completed the task
with only a few questions. I printed out three different sentences and had each sentence on a
different colored paper so that the students could easily tell which words went together as a
sentence. This resulted in a smoother activity with little confusing. Also, when reviewing the
sentences, the color coding helped the students easily know which sentence was being checked.
Lastly, my lesson had a venn diagram used to compare and contrast the two characters of the

book. I instructed the students to fill out this worksheet on their own and turn it in as a grade. I
used this diagram to see how well the students understood and remembered the information they
learned during the reading. I graded this diagram based on the number of facts the students can
give and any other creative similarities or differences they could come up with. The students did
really well filling this out, which helped me see that the lesson was successful. However, to
improve my lesson I would have been clearer in the lesson assessment. The only grade that the
students received for the lesson was the venn diagram. When teaching this lesson again, I would
better explain to the students what they were to be graded on and make sure they knew when and
where to turn in the assignment.
During this lesson I was conscious of trying to move around the room as much as I could
while reading. Psychologist Fred Jones says that this helps with student discipline. Jones saw
that teachers who use physical proximity rarely need to say anything to the offending students
to get them to behave (Charles, 2011). The class is usually loud and they blurt out answers.
Therefore, I started out my lesson by addressing this behavior and explaining why they had to
raise their hands to talk instead of shouting. Strahan, professor at Western Carolina University,
said successful teachers think about the causes of misbehavior and respond to the students as
individuals, using disruptions as teaching moments and opportunity to model self-discipline
(Strahan, 2005).
This experience has given me confidence and knowledge for my future teaching. The
kids did really well for the lesson and seemed to learn a lot and enjoyed the lesson. They said
that they enjoyed having me teach them. This gave me confidence in my abilities and helped me
feel even more comfortable in front of the class. Also, this experience has given me more
knowledge on what teaching techniques work and which do not. I started out reading the book

and showing the pictures in the front of the class as I read. One of the students asked if I could
project it onto the screen instead, so that the pictures would be bigger. I now know that the
students need to be closer to the book or have the book projected so that they can see the
pictures. Otherwise, the students will not pay as much attention because they cannot see. Another
skill I have improved on is writing out my lesson plan and then memorizing it to the best of my
ability so that I can be teaching without following along too closely to my note and not pay
attention to the class and adapting to the needs of the students. I am glad to have had this
experience to help me in these particular areas.

References
Charles, C. M., (2011). Building Classroom Discipline. Pearson, 10, 126.
Strahan, D. B., Cope, M., Hundley, S., & Faircloth, C. (2005). Positive Discipline with Students
Who Need It Most. Clearing House, 79(1), 25-30.