Priscilla Fuentes

Unit Plan Reflection

My unit plan was on Space Patterns looking specifically at the sun, moon, and stars.
When building this unit plan, I wanted my students to have visual models of the space systems.
Therefore, I thought of models I could use to explain the pattern and include the students in the
models. However, these models became my greatest success and downfall. For lessons 1,2 and 4,
the models worked well but not for lessons 3 and 5. I believe I was extremely excited about the
model that I did not assess their actual performance or cognitive demand as well. Surprisingly,
excitement could be a barrier for successful planning. I believe another barrier of successful
planning was not knowing my students cognitive level or language skills as well. I should have
asked myself Can first graders do this? more. For lesson 3, I demanded too much of my
students and due to this demand, I lost their attention and engagement half way through the
lesson. Not understanding what your students can do was a planning barrier. Next time, I will
investigate more about grade level expectations and maybe even look up different lessons plans
to understand the students cognitive level. Woolfolk (2013) explains that Piaget had four stages
of cognitive development. First graders are usually in the second stage. In this stage, children are
grasping what is mean to think of objects abstractly and are limited to thinking only one way
(46). I believe that lesson 3 used models that were more abstract whereas the rest of the lessons
that models where more concrete.
One of the biggest barrier to successfully implementing the unit was timing. In all my
lessons, either I had too little time or too much time left. It was hard to calculate how much time
the students would take in doing an assignment. Wong and Wong (1998) suggest having
predetermine activities for students who finish their work early. Such activities could include

reading a book, finishing old homework and so forth. This suggestion would help me concentrate
more on the students that need work rather than figuring out what to do with the students who
finished early. However, I do not know what to do with an activity that takes longer than
planned. Another barrier of implementation was forgetting about the small details. Often, when
revising, I would concentrate in looking at the big things, like where my students would sit, what
transitions would I do or how best to execute the model, that I would forget about the small
details. Details such as using a marker when writing on the overhead projector or how papers
needed to be passed. Next time, these small details need to be revised and consider.
I definitely saw myself grow in this experience. I learned how to plan better as well as
how to execute my lessons better. My journey of growth started with the third lesson. My third
lesson was the most important one because it had the most content. This lesson went poorly. The
students did not understand the model, some finished before others had even started, and I ran
out of time, thus I changed my lesson last minute. However, this failure taught me a lot about
teaching. I learned that it is best to address only one learning objective in each lesson. I also
learned that how to model an activity well. This lesson also taught me to pay attention to the
small detail such as spacing for models and better overhead projections. The next two lessons
after this one went well. I retaught my day and night lesson. I concentrated on only showing why
day and night happened. I used a lamp and a globe, which is a more concrete model. The last
lesson demanded a higher cognitive level of the students. However, I model exactly what I
wanted the students to do and I used visual as well as graphs. I also just concentrated teaching
one objective, which seasons had longer days. If I had mixed more information into this lesson or
would not have model it as well, it would have failed. I also learned how to be comfortable in
front of a classroom. I learned that teaching is so much more than content. It is about managing

relationships, unexpected events, such as students crying, and how to call attention effectively.
Froyen and Iverson (1999) mention three areas to consider when teaching: content, conduct and
covenant. The content area looks at the spatial area, the distribution of materials and lesson
planning. I believe I concentrated most of my energy perfecting this area in my lessons. The
conduct area looks at the rules, procedures and consequences of the classroom. The teachers in
my classroom already established this area. Covenant refers to the relationships within the
classroom. I did not consider this area when planning or executing my lessons. I did not consider
that some students could have fought during recess thus were in a bad mood.
I assessed my students two ways. One way was that I would orally ask the students the
questions that addressed the objective. The second way was through a worksheet at the end of the
lesson. These worksheets were my summative assessment. My objective for the first lesson was
that the students would know the movements of the sun, earth and moon. My objectives for the
second lesson were that the students would understand why we only see stars at night and why
the stars look small when they are actually big. My objective for the third and fourth lessons was
for the students to identify when it was day and night. My objectives for the last lesson were that
the students understood that the length of the day was linked to the season as well as which
seasons had short or long days. When I asked the questions, most of the classes hands would go
up and the students I called on gave me the right answer. I know that this assessment is limited.
When looking at the worksheets, 11 of my 20 students answered the star questions right. Four
students did not answer the question at all. I wonder if this was due to the timing or because they
did not understand the questions. Five students answers did not make sense. When meeting the
second lessons objective, I believe I was average. I did not succeed, but I did not fail either.
Next time I do this lesson, I believe I am going to do the questions as a whole class. I would read

the questions and allow the students to talk amongst themselves. Then, I would call on a student
and have them write the answer by themselves. 16 out of my 20 students were able to identify
when it was day and when it was night. Two of the students did not finish the assignment. They
answer the first question right, but did not answer the second question. I could assume that they
knew the second answer, but simply did not respond it. My two other students answer the
question wrong. For the last lesson, the students answer the question right and did the math
problem right. Overall, my unit plan was good. I could use some reinforcement of the content
and a reassessment to see if the students understood it after the reinforcement.

References
Woolfolk, A. (2013). Educational Psychology (12th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.
Wong, H. K., & Wong, R. T. (1998). The First Days of School (pp. 174-180). Mountain View,
CA: Harry K, Wong Publications Inc.
Froyen, L. A., & Iverson, A. M. (1999). Schoolwide and Classroom Management (Third ed., pp.
46-81). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.