Phase II

Phase II of my "Line of Symmetry" lesson was implementing it in a classroom. (Original posts can be found here).  As you have probably gleaned from the educational-type posts I've written, I'm still a student working on my Elementary Education Bachelor's Degree. This means that I have no official classroom to implement my ideas. Typically I would go into the elementary school I'm assigned to for the semester and teach my lesson, however it's currently 110° outside signifying summer in Arizona. Summer in Arizona means no school at the elementary level. 

As a result, I taught a 4th grade math lesson to a bunch of 4th year college students.

Instructional Decisions/Teaching:

My group consisted of three fellow future-teachers. As a team we decided that we would teach our lessons as if our audience were elementary-leveled students and elementary teachers. For instance, as I taught my lesson, I taught the lesson the same way I would in an elementary classroom while explaining why I did what I did.

Throughout my lesson, I made sure to have a copy of the lesson plan with me so that I could judge my timing for each of my activities and goals. Having a copy of my plan also allowed me to keep track of the objectives I wanted my students to master. As the lesson progressed, I made sure to help one of my "students" with the technology aspect of my lesson. I've noticed that it takes him longer to get used to websites and the links that are embedded. The other two members of my team were moving faster through the activity so I let them explore different shapes and lines of symmetry.

Assessment of Learning:

I feel that my lesson was very successful and enjoyed the instant feedback my team provided. Each of my team members let me know that my objective was met and they all enjoyed the website I used (it can be found here). My team also gave me extra suggestions on when to discuss lines of symmetry, and where to provide more details to the students. I absolutely agreed with everything they said.

My Reflections:  
I would add some more details to my lesson plan. I feel that if a substitute teacher were to pick up my lesson, he or she would be able to teach the lesson, but not as smoothly as I would hope. For example, I would add more specifics to my  assessment piece. After watching how many lines of symmetry my college colleagues were drawing, I realized that my 4th graders would be folding their assessment shapes multiple times to find the lines of symmetry. After I have the students fold the shapes they designed, I would have them color the different lines of symmetry so that I know which folds they want me to check and assess.  

The pictures below are examples of what I expected my "students" to create for their assessment. The students were instructed to create shapes with no lines of symmetry, one line of symmetry, and more than one line of symmetry.

I provided each of the students with rulers, scissors, computer paper, and grid paper in order to create their shapes.

Students were instructed to cut out their shapes and begin folding them in order to find lines of symmetry.

 

After folding the shapes, the students were instructed to highlight the lines they thought were lines of symmetry.