New Week, New Realizations

This week I finally taught my first classes and took over the leading role while my CT took the backseat.  I got observed on Wednesday as I taught a lesson about argumentative writing. The previous night for homework students were given argumentative articles to read regarding whether or not animals should be in circuses and zoos or if they should be freed. It was the student’s responsibility to highlight the different components of the argument and to come to class prepared the next day. My lesson started off great as all students came prepared and ready to work.  The overall assessment of the lesson was for students to make a brief claim and to then construct their own counterclaim. Based off of assessing students counter claims I was able to realize the strengths and weaknesses of the lesson. I realized I should have given students an example counterclaim as to what would qualify as a “4”. When I re-did this lesson with the three other classes I provided specific examples of what I was looking for and got better results when grading assessments.  The main lesson I learned from this week was to provide clarity on exactly what I am assessing students on and to be specific when providing feedback.  During one of the opportunities to re-teach this lesson to another A2 level class I was confronted with one of the many realities of teaching. As I began to begin my planned out lesson I realized that none of the students have even attempted to begin their homework from the previous night. In an instant I had to modify my lesson to make it work under the circumstances. I realize it is changes like these that occur all the time and as teachers we must always have a plan A/B/C/D ready to adjust to any type of situation. As I approach the fourth week I will begin to completely take over two of the A2 level classes and finally get a feel of what it is like to teach on a day to day basis.