The purpose of this paper is to give you experience reflecting on children's learning of mathematics and reflecting on your own teaching and lesson planning.

Your paper should include four pieces:

 Part I: A brief description of the activity you did with the group. I should not have to read your Standards-based curricula lesson plan to understand what you were doing with your group.

Part II: A description of what happened when you conducted your activity with your group. Please include a description of the group you did your lesson with (number of students, grade level, ages, # boys and # girls). You do not have to give a "blow by blow" (first, I passed out a piece of paper, next I said: Students, today we are going to study fractions...etc.). But, I should be able to have a picture of what happened in this lesson from your description.
 
Part III: A reflection or reaction to what the students were thinking/doing/saying as they worked on your planned activity. What did the students learn from your activity? How do you know they learned this? THIS SECTION IS CRITICAL. I want you to really think about and PROVIDE EVIDENCE to support your analysis of student learning in this situation. Evidence should consist of your descriptions of what students said and/or did which showed you that they were learning.

Part IV: A reflection on your plan and on your role as teacher. Example questions you might address: In your opinion, how did the lesson go? How well did the students learn what you planned to teach them? How would you assess your performance in implementing your plan? What did doing this activity teach you about math, teaching, planning lessons, and/or yourself? How might you change this lesson for future use based on this experience?

To receive between 9 and 10 points, your work should include ALL of the following:

1. A lesson plan that was revised in light of feedback from instructor. Please include copies of the draft plan with instructor comments, the curriculum pages, and the final revised plan.

2. A reflection that contains all four pieces outlined above. (Description of the activity, a description of what happened during your lesson, an analysis of student learning, and a reflection on your own teaching).

3. A description of the event that is clear and easy to understand.

4. An analysis on student work/thinking that is substantive and supported by evidence (quotes, description of students' written work, description of students' behavior, etc.).

5. A reflection on your teaching that is substantive and thoughtful.

6. A reflection and lesson plan that reflect good writing standards.

To receive between 8 and 9 points, your work should include MOST of the items given above.

To receive between 7 and 8 points, your work should include SOME of the items given above.

If your work receives less than 7 points, this indicates your work is missing important pieces and has serious problems. 

Examples of NON-substantive reflections:

1. Reflections on students: "The students had fun with this activity. I think they learned alot."

Questions left unanswered by these comments: How do you know students had fun? What does fun have to do with learning? What did they learn and how do you know they learned it?

2. Reflections on teaching: "I learned teachers have to have all their materials prepared ahead of time. I now know that teaching is alot of work because you have to be prepared for anything."

Questions left unanswered: How did being unprepared effect your teaching? What aspects of preparation do you need to work on? How in the world can teachers be "prepared for anything"? What does that mean? 

Page Limit: Please try to limit reflections to 5 word processed, double-spaced pages. Focus on two to four revealing moments/incidents in your reflections.

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