III Lesson Reflection
My final lesson in the small catholic school involved the use of geoboards. I planned this lesson for my students because I wanted to continue with shapes but give the students a different out look by providing individual geoboards. I chose this to present more of a challenge for my three students when copying shapes and experimenting with symmetry. I thought that by doing this lesson I would be able to provide each student with the proper challenge for their level.
Objectives and Expectations For this lesson I introduced my students to geoboards. I wanted them to copy shapes onto their geoboards from patterns that I provided, as well as copy shapes that I had made on my geoboard. After these shapes were created I wanted the students to recognize symmetry and shapes within shapes.
What Happened I started the lesson by asking the students if they knew what a geoboard was used for, Aidan replied right away by saying "yeah those are the boards that you use rubber bands on to make things." I told them that was right and passed out a board to each student and laid a pile of rubber bands in the middle. At first the students had the boards upside down and wanted to create shapes on the back side of the geoboard, nice the pegs were different on the back side I challenged them to try to create a shape. Aidan and Annamaire both made stars and Lukas made a triangle.
Once they made a shape on the back side I asked them to clear off their rubber bands and turn the board over. I asked the students to make a square of any size, then I asked them to make two triangles that looked different from each other. The students had no problem creating these shapes and were able to work with the rubber bands fairly easily so I decided to move onto the next task. I made several shapes on my geoboard and asked the students to copy that shape onto their boards. The shapes I was making were not simple shapes and often had several shapes within them. Each student copied the shapes in their own way. I asked them questions like "how many triangles are on the geoboard now, or how many squares?" I often asked them how many rubber bands they used and if they could make the same shape using more or less rubber bands. After the students were able to successfully copy shapes that I was making I laid out some shapes drawn on paper without dots. I asked them to make that shape on their geoboards. The students had more of a challenge to create the shapes without seeing it already on the geoboard, with an added challenge of it being drawn on plain paper. To end the lesson I asked each student to create the letter of their first name on their geoboards using the rubber bands.
Assessment of Student Thinking and Learning I wanted to do this lesson with my students because one of my students was struggling with shapes while the other two students really excelled. I knew this lesson would allow me to present more of a challenge to the two students who needed it while providing the right amount of challenging material for the student who struggles.
What happened during this lesson really surprised me, the student who has struggled throughout the past two lessons excelled more in this lesson than the other two students. Lukas really took to this lesson and enjoyed it. He was very responsive to my questioning and offered so much insight to his thinking. When I asked him to recreate the shapes from my geoboard he kept repeating "this is so easy!" I continued to present him with more challenges, so I asked him to make a certain shape with only three rubber bands. This shape looked like a set of stairs. Lukas said "I bet I can make it with only one rubber band!" I was not sure if it was possible to make with one rubber band and while I was working the Annamarie, Lukas experimented by himself and was able to create the shape using only one rubber band! It was wonderful to see Lukas excel in this lesson, he had been struggling with shapes the past two lessons and really dug into this lesson. He was so eager to experiment with making the shapes, and when he couldn't figure something out he did not want any help; instead he would use a variety of rubber bands and figure it out for himself. Annamarie struggled a little during this lesson. She was able to make the shapes, but it took her longer to create them on her geoboard. While Lukas and Aidan were stretching their rubber bands to make shapes, Annamarie was using individual rubber bands to each side of the shape. I took this as an opportunity to talk with the students about how we can make shapes in different ways, for example Aidan used one rubber band to make his shape while Annamaire used five rubber bands and the two shapes looked the same. I asked Annamaire she why liked to use so many rubber bands and she told me "I think it is fun, colorful, and easy!" I challenged Annamarie to use a lesser amount of rubber bands and found that she struggled. Although Annamarie could make
the shapes with more rubber bands I continued to ask her to use fewer, it was important that she demonstrated how to make shapes in a variety of ways. I noticed that when Annamaire was struggling she wouldn't examine what Lukas and Aidan were doing with their geoboards, she would examine what I did on mine, she even asked if she could borrow the sheets that I had with pictures drawn on them. Annamarie was able to easily identify shapes within shapes and recognize the sides of the different shapes. Aidan was very excited about this lesson. He knew what the geoboards were used for and was looking to be challenged. There were a number of times when Aidan would challenge himself by limiting the number of rubber bands he would use. When I asked the students to make two different triangles on their boards Adian wanted to see how many triangles he could fit on his board. He made a large triangle with triangles in the middle. There was also one time were Aidan thought of a totally different way to make a shape on his geoboard than the shape that was on my board. I asked him to hold up his board and we all talked about how Aidan made his shape and how I made mine, I only used three rubber bands and Aidan used six rubber bands but the shapes looked the same. Aidan talked about how he made his and it was wonderful to see and hear how he was thinking. Aidan was very quick to offer help to Lukas and Annamarie when they got stuck making the shapes. I had to remind him several times that it was very good that he wanted to help but he couldn't do it for the other two students. Unlike the previous two lessons, all three students were at different levels during this lesson. Lukas was thinking at a higher level, while Aidan and Annamarie struggled. Although Aidan was confident in naming the shapes what were found on his geoboard, he struggled when the shapes he was asked to make began to become more intricate
shapes. Annamarie was also confident in naming shapes on her geoboard, but struggled with the process of creating shapes with a given number of rubber bands. Lukas showed signs of struggling but was able to work through those struggles by himself and successfully communicate his thinking.
Self Assessment and Reflection on Teaching When I had originally planned this lesson I thought that it would allow me to easily implement different difficulty levels for each student. During the lesson, I planned for the students to make shapes that they were asked (triangle, square), shapes that were demonstrated, and shapes from patterns that I had provided. Throughout the lesson I asked the students a variety of questions, suc...