Video Analysis
CI495A Video Analysis 2
As I wrap up my pre-service practicum in my first-grade classroom, I have been teaching a class of eighteen 6 and 7-year-old students in many different subjects such as Math, Social Studies, ELA, and more. Recently, I taught a Thanksgiving lesson about Indigenous People and what they were grateful for in their culture, as students reflected on what they were thankful for about their own identities.
Before our lesson, I held a pre-assessment questioning students on their knowledge of the story of Thanksgiving and the representation of Indigenous peoples. Many students were expressing what they had learned from an education system that only presents the “master narrative”; my purpose for this lesson was to inform my students about the community of Indigenous people, correct their pre-existing understandings, and help them think more critically about the story of Thanksgiving. The lesson began with a read-aloud from the book, We Are Grateful: Ostaliheliga by Traci Sorell. The book begins in the fall and ends in the summer, sharing traditional celebrations and experiences of the Cherokee Nation through each season. While reading the story, the class engaged in a whole group discussion comparing and contrasting their culture with the Cherokee Culture. They built an understanding of what it means to be grateful and prideful of your identity and crafted some ideas for what they were thankful for this Thanksgiving. After the reading, the students answered comprehensive questions about the book and shared what they were grateful for by drawing an illustration of a turkey feather, and together we constructed a classroom turkey.
When reflecting on the video recording of my lesson, I found at my introduction was not as strong as I intended it to be. I knew going into this lesson that this was going to be a very tough task to teach a topic with heavy context to 6- and 7-year-old students. I wish I was better prepared to answer their questions about Indigenous people while reconstructing their ideals of Thanksgiving; because I did not have all the answers to their questions, the flow of our conversation became slightly awkward and tough to absorb. What I wish I could have done better was create an opportunity for them to submit questions they have about Thanksgiving and Indigenous people before the lesson, so all prospective content is covered.
Besides this, most of the lesson went very well throughout the book and the final summative assessment. The students were very engaged in new topics throughout the reading of the book, and they sparked an interest and questioned many unfamiliar ideas. Based on the involvement of my students, this is how I assessed my teaching and checked if they met their goals. I could tell if students were getting it, based on how many questions they asked about the details of the story. The conversations throughout and beyond the book were very fluid as I prepared heavily to explain key aspects of Cherokee culture highlighted in the book; such as the Trail of Tears, Cherokee New Year, Green Corn Ceremony, and more. The students recognized my expertise in teaching in this position, and I hooked my students by asking them what one thing they can relate to the Cherokee people, and one thing that differed from them. Later, the students felt engaged by collaborating with their team about what they were most grateful for.
As for the checklist, I completed mostly all the guiding points. I pressed the students’ understanding by facilitating conversations about their favorite books and characters while accessing their prior knowledge by discussing Thanksgiving and Indigenous People. We consistently checked for understanding throughout the literature piece, as well as the summative activity with comprehensive questions and whole-group discussions. Our class made real-world connections by relating to our personal experiences and reflecting on what makes up our identity. In addition, there was a closure to my lesson, as we collaborated to build our turkey, share what we are grateful for, and reflect on our new knowledge of Indigenous people.
Something I improved and implemented for this lesson that I lacked from my last video analysis included wait time, cooperative strategies, and modeling. I included wait time when I said to my students, “After hearing about how the Cherokee people celebrate the season of Fall, take a minute to think about you are similar and different Indigenous people?”. For cooperative strategies, most of the work was done as a whole group, but most specifically when we built our Thanksgiving turkey together. Lastly, I provided my model of how I displayed critical consciousness when thinking of the story of Thanksgiving.
Justification:
- understands the characteristics, uses, advantages and limitations of different types of assessment appropriate for evaluating how K-6 students learn, what they know and are able to do in each subject area
- checks for student understanding continuously using a variety of formal and informal assessment techniques (e.g. observation, portfolios of elementary student work, teacher-made tests, performance tasks, projects, student self assessments, peer assessment, and standardized tests) to enhance her/his knowledge of individual learners, evaluate students’ progress and performances, and modify teaching and learning strategies
- provides high quality feedback to learners to facilitate continued learning
- provides feedback in a timely manner