The reflection aims to represent the crucial findings during the teaching experience. The lesson I have conducted took place in a k-grade class, the chosen discipline was Social sciences, and the topic was Economy. The lesson covered the aspects of people’s jobs, needs and wants, earnings and savings, and physical money forms. The conducted work received a positive feedback from the classroom teacher, who additionally consulted me on the future opportunities for improvement.
The strengths of the lesson method were children’s engagement in the learning process and the curiosity provoked by the lesson activities. Along with the appealing studying approach, the children also appreciated the material itself, which became evident when the participants discussed the most remarkable pieces of knowledge from the lesson. The differentiated instructions were implemented to assist students with varying learning predicators to perceive the material and included group activities, personal interviewing, creative assignments, and role-playing. The approaches had a special impact on struggling students, as they were motivated by teamwork, and individual learners, as they succeeded at personal interviewing. The possible drawback and area for improvement are the lack of students’ cooperation, which was evident during the team job assignments, and the need for further differentiating.
During the lesson, the students had several opportunities of mastering the material. Every piece of the activity was supported by control questions concerning the economic features. The assignments in a form of games, such as matching the corresponding items of needs and wants, jobs and responsibilities, and money attributes, provided students’ understanding and remembering during the learning process. The closure exercise on submitting the learned material and the efficacy assessment process later demonstrated that the target of the lesson was mostly met: 3/4 of the class, including 2 of 3 struggling students, mastered the material and provided consistent answers on the summarizing quiz, and all the students engaged in the common lesson activity.
According to the classroom teacher’s recommendations, personal observations, and the conducted research, I found several aspects for improvement during the next lessons. One research showed that utilizing various approaches during the lesson causes a positive impact on the k-grades (Wilson, 2015). Another study suggests ordinary instructions are poorly designed and require innovation (Strachan, 2015), and the suggested read-alouds should improve the quality of the following lesson. Finally, while most of the efforts within the lesson plan supported the struggling children, there is a need to form a strategy for more successful children. As the study shows, the differentiation in the case of talented children requires interventions (Dijkstra, Walraven, Mooij, & Kirschner, 2016). The main further improvement should include learning differentiating for students with high abilities.
In conclusion, the conducted lesson demonstrated how clear objectives and interactive practice can positively affect kindergarten students in their learning material perception. During the lesson, the students had an opportunity to participate in several activities related to the economics and demonstrated comprehension, curiosity, and pleasure in learning. The results were measured during the lesson and after its completion in a question and answer and choral responding assessment. The recommendations and the research revealed the urgency of other lesson innovations and placed an emphasis on the importance of creating learning opportunities for high-ability students.
References
Dijkstra, E. M., Walraven, A., Mooij, T., & Kirschner, P. A. (2016). Factors affecting intervention fidelity of differentiated instruction in kindergarten. Research Papers in Education, 32(2), 151-169.
Strachan, S. L. (2015). Kindergarten students’ social studies and content literacy learning from interactive read-alouds. The Journal of Social Studies Research, 39(4), 207-223.
Wilson, L. K. (2015). The impact of differentiated literacy instruction on English language learners in kindergarten. Web.