Lesson Implementation Reflection

As soon as possible after teaching your lesson, think about the experience.
Use the questions/prompts below to guide your thinking. Be thorough in your
reflection and use specific examples to support your insights.
I. How did your actual teaching of the lesson differ from your plans?
Describe the changes and explain why you made them.
I originally wanted to teach my lesson over the course of two days due
to the difficulty of the content. My cooperating teacher moved my
lesson from Monday and Tuesday to Tuesday and Wednesday to
teaching all of the lesson on Wednesday but due to the weather and
having a snow day on that that my lesson was moved back another
week. Since I only had an hour and a half to teach my lesson and for
them to play the game I covered the material thoroughly and then
used the remaining time for them to play the game and to experience
what trade is. In my lesson plan I had it scheduled for each round of
the game to last 10 minutes each and once they started playing I
realized that they did not need 10 minutes so I reduced the time in the
first round to 8 minutes and for the second round I reduced it to 6
minutes. I originally had the first part of lesson scheduled to last 1 hour
and due to the day that the lesson was being taught it was reduced to
about 40 to 45 minutes so that the students would have enough time
for the game. I had a small written assessment that I was going to have
them complete in which they would need to write down 5 goods that
each of the countries import but due to time restraints at the end of
the game I decided not to complete that part and finish the last few
minutes up with a few more questions that we could discuss as a class.
II. Based on the assessment you created, what can you conclude about
your impact on student learning? Did they learn? Who learned?
What did they learn? What evidence can you offer that your
conclusions are valid?
The assessment that I created was a worksheet talking about the
game and I also used a verbal assessment as a class discussion before
the game and after the game so that I could decipher what they were
grasping and what they did not understand. The questions on the
worksheet were also included in the class discussion so that I could get
a grasp on how they felt that the game went and also how they were
feeling with the results of the game. For the most part the majorities of
the students learned a lot from the lesson and were able to tell me

after the lesson what they learned and even give me the definitions of
the words that we talked about at the beginning of the lesson. There
were a few students who could not tell me the definitions after the
lesson but appeared to know what we were talking about and
understand the content.
III. Describe at least one way you could incorporate developmentally
appropriate practice in a better or more thorough way if you were to
teach this lesson again.
When I teach this lesson again I will allocate enough time for the lesson
so that when the students get to the game at the end of the unit they
will completely understand that they are doing and be able to
successfully complete the activity. Based on the input from the
students it was fairly easy for them to attain the items that they needed
for their country. The next time that I teach this lesson and have them
play the game I will make the game a little more difficult and have
some of the items that are needed in limited supply and make it so
that they will have to work harder with trading to try to gain the items
that they need.
IV. Based on the assessment data you collected, what would you
do/teach next if you were the classroom teacher?
I think that if I was going to teach this lesson again I would break it up
into several days and cover specific products that each country would
import and export. I would also provide the students with information
on how trade began and the different items that were traded then. I
would also show them how trade affected the United States and other
countries throughout history. I would like to be able to have a
discussion with the students throughout the unit so that I know that they
are grasping the content. I would create the lesson in such a way that
the students would be able to compare and contrast trade throughout
history. For the game I would have specific cards floating around that
each of the countries need but they would not start out with the cards
that they need. They would have to trade the items that they have for
items that they need to make their country successful.
V. As a result of planning and teaching this lesson, what have you learned
or had reinforced about young children as learners?
During the planning and teaching of this lesson I learned that it is
possible to make even the most difficult content fun and exciting.
Students are capable of learning even the most difficult content if it is

presented in a way that they understand and have fun learning the
material. I have realized that I sometimes underestimate what they are
capable of doing. Students are going to be more invested in the
lessons if they are able to participate in some way. Hands-on and
minds-on activities are a good way to provide the lessons for students
while making it fun and interesting for the students. As long as the
students feel that they are involved physically in the lesson they will be
more active in their participation.
VI. As a result of planning and teaching this lesson, what have you learned
or had reinforced about teaching?
I realize that I underestimate the ability of the students and I know that I
will know more about what the students are capable of handling and
will be able to better gauge the difficulty of the lesson that I will be
teaching based on the capabilities of the students in the class. I have
also realized that the students are going to be more interested and
invested in activities that are hands-on and minds-on.
VII. As a result of planning and teaching this lesson, what have you learned
or had reinforced about yourself?
In the process of planning and teaching this lesson I have realized that
I tend to choose topics that are difficult and try to find ways to teach
them that break them down to levels that the students will be able to
understand and be able to walk away feeling like that were able to
conquer the content. I may not always get it right the first time but I
realize that if I can look into the situation and take away from it the
things that went wrong or that just did not fit I am going to learn right
along with the students on some of the lessons. Every day in the
classroom is a learning experience for everyone and how you handle
these situations is based on how well you are able to learn from
situations in which things did not always go as planned or in which you
are receiving constructive feedback from administration or another
department.