Nov.10, 06: Lesson Reflection

I think that the lesson was pretty effective, because the students were able to transfer their knowledge from doing the large graph as a class to drawing their own graphs on a template. I attempted to teach them how to organize data into a graph, the meanings of the x and y axis (without using terminology), and to let them try drawing their own graphs. I believe that I accomplished what I attempted to do, with some help from Ms. Carson.

I need to work on explaining in better clarity, because some students were trying to copy the large graph that I did with them, without understanding what the numbers mean. Since the proportion of the template and my large graph is different, some students were not able to transfer their knowledge from one graph to another, due to a lack of understanding. Some had trouble because they could not figure out a way to draw neatly and accurately on the template. Ms. Carson helped me explain that to the students, so afterwards they were able to do it on their own.

If I can do this lesson again, I will revise the graph template so that it is less confusing. I will adjust the scale, and I will physically show the students how to use a ruler and a pencil to align the x and y axis, so they can draw a neat and accurate bar. My greatest achievement today is that the students had fun connecting their colourful squares together. In doing so, they were able to understand that each bar in a bar graph is created by individual pieces of information. It was a touching moment when one student came up to me and said, “Thank you Ms. Chung for teaching us this lesson, I really enjoyed it.”

I find that students, at least younger ones, need very clear instructions on how they should approach something. It might not be true in every case, but in terms of data management, in order to achieve accuracy, students must be taught how to go about to do it – in my case, how to draw a bar properly.

One bad thing about this lesson was that I did not include two students in the taping exercise. I did not think about it beforehand, but these two students were the only ones who chose green and yellow as their favourite colour. So while others were finding classmates with the same colour squares, those two could not participate. I believe that the activity or the graphing method must be changed in order to include everybody, so no one would feel left out.

The students were generally attentive, so classroom management was not a problem today. I also learned that sometimes being silent is more effective than yelling over students. When they saw that I was waiting for them, they eventually quieted down. I learned this from my professor in my Music Pedagogy class. I have also heard from a guest lecturer that there are teachers with all kinds of different personalities. Some people might think that gentle teachers are not good leaders, but it really depends on how they make use of their gentleness. I think that it is very true, because different kinds of teachers teach their students different life skills, and students learn from every one of these mentors in their life.

Overall, the lesson did not go as well as I expected, but it was not bad as a first lesson. Ms. Carson said that I did a great job, which I would take as an encouragement to do better next time.