Observing for Reflection
Observing for Reflection
Reflective
practice is the ability to self-evaluate and critique what you have taught within
the classroom. Being able to master reflective
practice takes time and an ability to be honest with one’s self and others (Johns,
2017). The purpose of this journal blog is to look at
a recorded lesson. While viewing this
lesson, I will be critiquing the lesson and applying the observation guide
based on John’s Model for Structured Reflection (MSR) 17th Ed.
2017. This reflection guide breaks down
different elements of reflective practice and helps the reflector complete a
structured reflective practice. In addition,
the purpose of this assignment is to evaluate how the lesson was taught and
complete the model. I chose to review a lesson
called Revealing Character. This lesson incorporated a language arts and fine arts
curriculum.
Reflective Practice
Reflective practice is a skill that
needs to be developed and continually worked on. This is not something that will be mastered
right away. But as it’s continually worked on, you will become better at
reflecting over situations within your life and work. While reading about reflective practice I
found that it made me more mindful of how I reflect upon lessons I have taught. I think back to different ways I have taught
students and the many different curriculums.
Within the classroom I am always reflecting on what is going well and
what needs to change. These adjustments
happen all the time within the classroom and helps the students become successful. Reflective practice has changed my beliefs
about the way I teach by making me aware of what I need to do to reflect after
a lesson. It reminds me of why reflection is important to teaching.
Within the reading I found two phrases
that stood out to me; “bring the mind home” and “mindfulness” (Johns, 2017). Bringing the mind home is very much like meditating
and resting your mind during the day (Johns, 2017). This happens when you slow down and take time
to reflect on what has been taught and become mindful of your teaching. The idea of mindfulness to me means to be
within the moment and not trying to do several other things. These two ideas directly relate to reflective
practice and not only have effect on teaching but have a place within our lives. Within the reading I found information that could
be applied to my life and to my teaching.
I loved how it stated that reflection is reweaving; that we become aware
of our fears, but also see the way it effects our teaching (Johns, 2017). We don’t want to let fear take over and stop
our progress.
The Way I Approach Teaching
Looking at
my approach to teaching, I have found that I do not actively reflect on what I
have taught. This being my tenth year of
teaching, I feel I have become a little lazy with self-evaluation and
reflecting on the positives and negatives of a lesson once I have taught
it. This could be because I have been
teaching for so long that I now reflect during lessons and make the adjustments
at the time, but do not go back and review it after class. Learning about reflective practice has changed
the way I want to look at my teaching and change my teaching approach. It has given new life to how I think about my
teaching and making me want to keep myself mindful and within the moment of
teaching and not worrying about the other things I need to be getting done for
the school day.
Reviewing a Lesson
The lesson I chose to watch was Revealing Character. This
lesson caught my eye when I was looking for a video to practice reflective
practices. It shows a lesson where a
fine arts teacher and language arts teacher combined to create a cohesive
lesson for students to create a work inspired by The Dinner Party by Judy
Chicago and the book The Weirdo. Students
created place settings using art to represent characters from the book and to
show their transformation. Seeing these
two teachers work together really gave an insight on what happens when teachers
combined their lessons and created a blended learning environment within a unit.
The idea of consequences within
teaching is an interesting concept. Some
believe that consequences are only bad. However,
a consequence can be positive or negative.
While watching the lesson, the consequences of the lesson for the
teachers were positive. Students seemed engaged and were replying to
questions. The consequences for the students
were that they learned about a new author and related to the book. In addition, they learned about a new artist
and created a work that represented the characters within the book. The consequences for alternative actions
would be that students are becoming more self-aware and knowledgeable with
their learning and are able to connect two subject areas together (Johns, 2018)
Factors
that influenced my response to the lesson are, first, students seemed really
interested and engaged. They answered
questions and were able to talk about their artwork once it was created. Students worked well within their groups and
truly brainstormed about their character.
The second thing that influenced my response was the teachers’ knowledge. The fine arts teacher really knew what she
was talking about and how to help the students complete the art works. I also noticed that she doesn’t touch the
student’s artwork. This is a large part
of my philosophy as an art educator. Teachers
are to guide and help students, but should never paint, draw, or build for a
student. Students need to learn these skills
on their own. In the past when I have
had students ask for help, I explain by drawing on a post-it note, or painting
on another piece of paper.
While watching
the video, I felt that the teachers worked well together and made the lesson
easy to follow. Students seemed engaged
and interested. Students worked well in
groups and were able to explain what they created and how they created it. Students were proud of their work. Likewise,
the teachers were proud of their students and what they were able to accomplish. The teachers hoped to influence more teachers
within the school to collaborate with each other on their lessons.
The
teaching that I observed connected to my previous experiences by the different
collaborations I have done within my schools.
The middle school I work at loves to have teachers collaborating and
even has a team that uses project-based learning. Whenever we can incorporate art within the
curriculum, students not only seem more interested, but more engaged within the
lessons.
There are different factors that affect
teachers as they teach: factors that might constrain me, factors that influence
my response, factors that need to be shifted, and factors that influence the
way I act (Johns, 2017). Different factors
may cause us to respond differently in any given situation. When creating an ideal learning environment
for students, these factors need to be taken into consideration to remind us on
how we should act.
My feelings
about the lesson are positive. The students
were put into a situation that was well structured and organized by the teachers. Students used their prior knowledge and were
able to create works of art that represented their characters from the
book. Students were able to talk about
their work of art and explain why they created different elements as they
did. In addition, the teachers helped
set guidelines and created an environment where students felt they could work
and discover the subject areas.
Conclusion
Anytime
we teach something new, there will be areas that need to be tweaked and changed. This is part of teaching. When we can reflect and really look at the
changes that need to be made, not only do we grow as teachers, but we are
creating a better education for our students.
We want students to leave our classrooms and curriculums feeling as
though they learned something and got to be part of the process of learning. We don’t want students to just receive the information
but discover for themselves and apply it within their lives.
References
Lewin, M. (Producer). (2004). Revealing Character [Television
broadcast]. In Connection with the Arts: A Teaching g Practices Library. Burlington, VT. 28 mins
Johns, C. (2017). Becoming a Reflective Practitioner (5th ed.). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley &
Sons.
Comments
Post a Comment