Lesson #2 Reflection: Instructional Decisions/Teaching

Preperation: 

While my fourth grade class went on a morning hike on the nature trail, I prepared my lesson by writing notes down on the back of my lesson plan and writing key points on the board so that I could manage my time in advance. 

I wrote down key formative practice problems that I would model for my students and practice problems that they would answer in their math journals individually. 

Modeled problems - 2.1 liters (l) = _____ milliliters (ml), 9.3 centimeters (cm) = _____ millimeters (mm)

                                8 centimeters (cm) = _____ millimeters (mm)

Student practice problems - 5 grams (g) = _____ milligrams (mg), 7 kilometers (km) = _____ meters (m)

                                           6 millimeters (mm) = _____ centimeters (cm)

Modeled chart on board - 1000     100     10     1     .1     .01     .001

                                           K         H        D     B     D      C        M

                                          kilo     hecto  deka base deci  centi     milli

                                         (km)     (hm)   (dk)  (m)  (dm)  (cm)   (mm)

Notes written on the board - Units of weight: oz, lb, t (students provided answers)

                                            Units of length: m, miles, ft, in, cm, mm, km, yd (students provided answers)

                                            Units of mass: g, kg, mg, l, kl, ml (students provided answers)

Implementation:

What went well during the lesson was that my students were able to start making transitional connections between what they knew about the units of measurement and how they learned how to convert to various units within the metric system from their teacher to the visual chart I was presenting to them on the board. I went over some practice problems and demonstration of how to move decimals in the numbers to whatever unit they were converting to by using the chart. Some students understood it right away and with the students that were still struggling, I helped them by working one-on-one with them on how the chart works and that if a number doesn't have a decimal, it's automatically at the very end of the number. 

What did not go well was with the technological integration of the metric soup game on the computers. A few computers don't stay charged and so they need to stay plugged in at the cart when students are working on them. A few other computers started dying and malfunctioning. I had those students move on to one of the iPads that were available to work on the game. The game worked on a couple of the iPads and the other iPads didn't have a working game on them or they would die quickly. Soon, no one was able to work on the iPads if the computers weren't working; so I had those students move on to the paper activity/assessment. After some students weren't able to play the online game, I had them partner up on a computer with another student so that all of the students had the chance to practice converting in the game.

With the instructional period, I made a few mistakes on the board. I had the wrong number representation above the units on the chart and I had to fix them after the special education teacher let me know. Another mistake I made was that I had a student practice problem that dealt with converting kilometers into grams; which is not at all possible. The students let me know and I told them that I was testing them with that mistake to see if they would notice so that I felt less humiliated.

Modifications:

Since there were technological issues that occurred between the computers, when I came back from literature circles in another fourth grade classroom I continued on with the lesson by having the students with computer problems move on to one of the iPads that were available to work on the game. The game worked on a couple of the iPads and the other iPads didn't have a working game on them or they would die quickly. Soon, no one was able to work on the iPads if the computers weren't working; so I had those students move on to the paper activity/assessment.

With the instructional period, I made a few mistakes on the board. I had the wrong number representation above the units on the chart and I had to fix them after the special education teacher let me know. Another mistake I made was that I had a student practice problem that dealt with converting kilometers into grams; which is not at all possible. The students let me know and I told them that I was testing them with that mistake to see if they would notice so that I felt less humiliated.