Sarah Petersen MC#1736

EDU3302- Instructional Technology II

Dr. Shen

18 October 2017

Video Recording of Lesson: Reflection

After watching the video recording of the lesson I gave on "Common Grammar

Mistakes", I am left with several notes of what I would do differently and what I would repeat,

including questions being asked by both teacher and student, as well as engaging the students

intellectually. This is important to observe because it allows me to get an "outsider looking in"

perspective of what a lesson I teach actually "looks" like, which is great for me to assess via video

recording.

I intentionally opened my lesson plan with the inquiry of my students' need to ever learn

about grammar in the first place. I wanted to hear their immediate reaction to something that

seems so stuffy and dry throughout mainstream American schools, and put that up against how

these ELL's think it relates to their lives (@2:48). This led to a roughly 45 second discussion of

students contributing their thoughts towards grammar in general, how it's used to

communicate, and how it's changes the way people perceive them when they do communicate.

Mr. Daniel encouraged me before hand to emphasize the importance of studying grammar in

this light, and inviting the students first into the "why" behind the "know" is a great launchpad

into learning.

By 7:20 into the video, I had scaffolded up to the point of the students assessing what

"verb tense" means. Prior to this moment, I had asked for an explanation of a verb to introduce

the idea first. Students were able to recognize what a verb is or looks like, but at first unable to

bridge this concept to the meaning of verb tense, specifically. By 11:35, students were giving

verbal feedback and sharing their responses when I asked them to explain what "verb tense"

means. This shows that through our conversation, examples, and discussion, the students were

able to grasp new concepts and be engaged intellectually in the class.

 The same could be said throughout the capitalization component of the lesson. Every

time I looked over my shoulder to scope out the room, yes, I realistically saw eyes looking sleepy

and tired, but amidst that I saw focused gazes set on the screen, determined to find out which

capital letter could possibly fit in front of "__idtown" (@25:04). With the sample sentences

during this exercise, I asked the students aloud, "How do we know that is correct?" Several

students blurted out their reasoning with a tone to their voice that reflected confidence and

assurance. I see this as progress because they at first weren't giving as much direct feedback, but

now were showing more signs of engaging intellectually.

Reflecting on the "quotation" piece of the lesson got to be quite interesting and amusing.

The students began to interact more with their peers and were showing-off the physical

response component, as well as letting me know they were following along, by displaying the

hand motion of "quoting" someone with their hands (@31:59). However, they had more

difficulty deciding where the quotes were to be specifically located regarding what the person

had said. I sensed this and responded by inquiring more of their reasoning: "How do you know

the first quote goes there?" (@33:22). There were several different answers that were shared

which led to me referring back to the rule stated above the example sentence. Once I read it

aloud again and then asked the class another time where they think the first quote belongs, I

received a much more uniformed response from the students. Their ability to assess what they

believe to be true by placing their thinking side-by-side with the material being given ultimately

reflects an intellectual engagement in the classroom.

Overall, I would dare to say that the lesson prompted students to think intellectually

when they were exposed to new content and then had to apply it themselves to their own

writing, whether being asked to hand-write it on the spot or assessing their previously typed

work. For this cluster of students, being directed to generate their own sentences without the

ease of typing or using online translators is a feat in of itself. This contrasts the final component

of the lesson where the students participated in a self-reflection piece and had to analyze their

own writing that they were able to type out prior at their own pace and in a differently
structured environment. In both circumstances, the students in this lesson were led to

questioning and follow up response as a result of their intellectual engagement throughout the

class.