Katie Oller

Student Teaching- 4th grade

Student Teaching Video Reflection
I chose for my video reflection to videotape a lesson early on in my first
placement during a science unit. I chose to do this lesson early on in my placement
and reflect after completing my first placement in order to see my growth over the
first 8 weeks of student teaching. After watching this video a few times, there are a
few areas that I felt were my strengths of the lesson, and a few areas that I felt were
weak and could be improved. The science lesson that I taught was an introduction
to rotation vs. revolution and how the moon has a significant impact on Earths
tides. Through this lesson, students are also identifying the size differences between
the moon, Earth and the sun using a visual aid.
One of the strengths of this lesson that I also feel I implement in other
lessons is the way that I talk to students. I try to continuously ask higher level
questions of students and insert and explain vocabulary words to help students
deepen their understanding. I also thought that this was a good lesson because it
covered a variety of topics in one short 20 minute lesson. Students were able to
compare sizes of the planets while learning about planet movement and understand
the moons impact on Earth. I carefully made this lesson to be interactive with
students, and provided experiences for all learners. While I was talking and
explaining the movement of the planets, I was hitting auditory learners. While
talking, I also was moving the planets to demonstrate the movement, which was
helping visual learners see how planets move. Lastly, students were given their own
planets to manipulate after I explained, which helped kinesthetic learners

demonstrate the movement on their own. To engage students more, I asked them at
the end of the lesson to explain to a partner how the tides affect the moon, which
allowed them to explain a new concept in their own words. I also thought that I did a
good job of trying to walk around the room to monitor students and keep them
engaged in the lesson.
Although I thought this was a good lesson for the beginning of my placement,
watching the video gave me real insight on some things going on in the classroom
that I have not been noticing and some areas that call for improvement. For one, I
saw multiple students who were distracted and fiddling in the back of the room at
their desks. Although it was distracting themselves, it was not causing other
students to become distracted. However, if it was something I noticed during the
lesson I would have definitely said something to the student while teaching to get
their attention. I also noticed that when I asked students to manipulate their visual
to help them see how the tides are affected by the moon that a few students
ignored my directions and just sat there. Although I was walking around the
classroom to see students examples, I must have missed the one or two students
who did not follow my directions. However, I was not surprised at the students who
were not following the directions because one was a very high level student who
sometimes disengages because concepts are too easy for him. In the future, I will
ensure to stop by particular students desks who I believe may not be following
through on the directions.
In addition to the classroom management piece, I would change a few other
things about this lesson. Although parts of the lesson were focused on SOL driven
concepts, the main concept of the lesson was about tides, which is not directly
related to an SOL concept that students do need to know. In 4 th grade, students do

need to know how the moon affects the Earth, so it is still related. Even though this
is not a direct concept that is needed to know for SOL standards, I do like that it is
challenging students with extra information and higher level thinking. I also related
the tides back to lunar and solar eclipses, which is something that students are
expected to know. In addition, I wish that I had a stronger assessment for students
to show what they gained from the lesson. I liked that at the end students were
talking to a partner and sharing what they learned in their own words, but I do wish
that I had also included some kind of worksheet or required them to write a
sentence. Ideally, I would ask for students to share in their own words the concept,
and then give them some kind of informal assessment to show what they have
learned from this lesson.
Other than these two main areas, I did notice smaller things like how I talk to
students, and which students I call on frequently, and others not as frequently. I
thought that I did a fairly good job calling on different students (at least in this
lesson), and also thought that the way that I talked to students to explain concepts
was appropriate. I did think that students understood the concept, but I would think
that the lesson didnt stick with them because they did not have a chance to write
down answers and it was a concept that was only covered in one lesson. I do think
as a teacher it is important to cover some information that still aligns with the SOLs,
but goes above and beyond what students need to know. I think it is fun for
students to learn other fun facts (especially in the solar system unit) to help keep
them motivated to learn. I was lucky that I was placed in such a great group that
was so interested in science and learning, which made my job a lot easier!