Lesson Plan Presentations from 11-15-17

These are my comments from class on 11-15-17. There were four other presenters besides myself. I am so glad we had enough time to go through everyone's lesson plans. The first presenter to share was Carman Seay, on her lesson of 2nd grade two digit addition word problems. She allowed 65 minutes for her lesson. I wonder if 65 minutes might be a little lengthy for a lesson, but it is Math so, it could take that long. I really liked her fall themed word problems idea. Which, could also be winter themed, spring, or some other holiday type of theme around different times of the year. I feel like starting off with writing the word problems in pairs of students, would maybe be best; as I feel like it could be hard for different students to write a whole problem. I thought Carman had good use of Bloom's Taxonomy. Also, from last week when she presented her first lesson; I felt like she showed good use of the standards and in connecting them to each lesson.

Linsey Johnson was next to present her lesson plan on 1st grade writing. It was based on fairy tales and was 60 minutes in length. I felt like I missed her anticipatory set. However, I found this video on a site of free educational videos and thought this might make a good hook or anticipatory set; the site is:   http://www.watchknowlearn.org/Video.aspx?VideoID=9735&CategoryID=2587

I liked a few different things about Linsey's lesson plan. I liked that there was an example on the board for the students to view as they work. I think this is a very useful idea. I also loved how the story map reflected the three little pigs story they were studying; this was very cute. I did notice that the objective was maybe missing and the standards. The standards or frameworks were hard initially for me to find. I found a site that makes it easy to know what standard is for what. It allows you to pick your grade and subject and the standard to go with. It is called  https://www.commoncurriculum.com/  It allowed me to type in my lesson plans really easily.
Linsey's second lesson plan was based on 2nd grade writing as well; with an emphasis on Goldilocks And The Three Bears. Once again I loved the story map used; that matches the theme, very cute. I felt like I was still missing the objectives and standards. One of the things I had to ask myself and think about when building a lesson plan was..."What do the students already know?", "What do they need to review?", and "What do I want them to learn?". These questions were very useful for me; in coming up with lessons.

The next presenter was Sara Clark. Sara did her lesson plan on 5th grade and the Unit was Landforms. I got very confused on which lesson plan was which. But, that also means they were very cohesive. Each lesson was around 50 minutes long. I felt like maybe the condition was missing on her objective; but I could be wrong. She gave students opportunity to make extra credit points if they were completed more quickly. I don't like the idea of extra credit points unless students have done all of their normal work; not just to make up points when they didn't do the work in the first place. At the same time, maybe those students who are finished more quickly, as long as they are correct in what they have done, could help students who are struggling. I felt like she had a good hook and her lesson plans overall were very interesting.

Gabi Berry was the next presenter and did her lesson plan on 1st grade writing with a lesson titled in Small Moment Stories. It is planned to be 45 minutes long. Gabi's objective was pretty composed and she had a very good display of the standards. The topic she chose about Pete The Cat was a good decison; since kids love Pete The Cat, even my own children. I love the idea of having "Cat Chow" during the video and that Gabi took into consideration that some students have allergies. I felt like she did a good job linking Pete The Cat to their own cats. I really also liked the journal entries based on pictures they looked at. The students can be very creative with the pictures. She also did a good job including the making of inferences and predictions of Pete The Cat. I didn't know what to think about her closure though. I was understanding that the closure should be a type of activity. Otherwise, this was an interesting lesson. Gabi's lesson two was based on Dogs instead of cats. She had a good use of standards. I loved the idea of the dog tag and collar for the "students" to wear. Gabi had a good reminder and review of the previous lesson. The magic wand thing she told us about was terribly cute; in turning the students into dogs. I liked her use of the picture walk again and I think table groups are a good idea. I also liked the pictures in the basket idea she used. Overall, Gabi had a fairly solid lesson plan.
Thank you to everyone who presented.