Symmetry+Reflection

I believe that I have improved this lesson from it's original plan. The first time, the lesson was not as effective as it could be, but I think if I could teach this newly prepared lesson that it could be fabulous.


 * //Reflection after teaching 1st lesson://**

Although I thought that my lesson was well planned, I discovered today that it lacked many aspects and I have great room for improvement. To begin, my objective did not match the lesson I delivered. The objective stated that "Students will identify figures as symmetrical or non-symmetrical based on whether the two halves of a figure are exactly the same." I think that I developed a simple objective, but provided activities that asked students to do more than just identify whether the figures are symmetrical or non-symmetrical. The activities and guided practice I provided asked students to identify how many lines of symmetry the figures had. I anticipated that students would already have ideas about symmetry, but they did not already have that prior knowledge. To begin, I didn't have an engaging enough introduction. It was very basic, and did not capture the students attention. We should have looked around the room and discussed the overall concept of symmetry before talking about the lines and definitions. I started out with the definitions first, and I should have allowed the students to do some exploring with manipulatives or hands-on materials. The students could have folded shapes in half to see the line(s) of symmetry. Then, I did not provide a model for the students to follow. I should have had models or large enough figures to display in front of the classroom when doing guided practice and finding the different lines on the figures. In addition, figures and points on the figures should have been labeled for more convenient discussion. The amount of problems I asked students to complete was also tedious and repetitive because most of the shapes were very similar. Very few (2 or 3) problems could have communicated the point of the lesson. After our discussion I see how just asking students to do 2 or 3 problems, but providing 10 or so on the worksheet, allows for more advanced students to complete more problems. I think that the alphabet sheet could have been a bit more fun, but I think I was too discouraged at that point in the lesson to have fun with it myself. I am disappointed because if I had executed the lesson better, then the students may have had more fun with the alphabet worksheet and in finding the symmetry in their own names.

After today I have learned a lot about teaching mathematics. I think before today I had a much different idea about how math lessons should be delivered. However, our conversations showed me how important modeling is. You can let students explore their thinking, but it is important to have specific guidelines and models for what exactly you are asking them to do. This concept has been on my mind since we ended our conversation, and I want to read more about mathematical lesson planning. I intend to work very hard on improving this lesson and learning more from teaching different subjects.