Strengthening Your Reflective Commentary

Reflective Teaching Form Guidelines Watching a videotape of yourself teaching is an extremely valuable experience. Videotaping allows you to view and listen to the class as your students do; you can also scrutinize your students' reactions and responses to your teaching. By analyzing a videotape of the dynamics in your classroom, you can check the accuracy of your perceptions of how well you teach and identify those techniques that work and those that need revamping. View the videotape as soon as possible. Plan to view the tape on the day it is made or the next day so that your memory is fresh and you can readily recall what you were thinking or feeling during class. Run the tape through once or twice just to get used to seeing yourself on tape. During these first viewings, be prepared for a dose of "video-induced despair" (Krupnick, 1987), a common ailment brought about by the visual distortions of the medium. Most people tend to notice their voice, appearance, gestures, and mannerisms --Do I really sound like that? Is my hair always this disheveled? Why didn't I notice that my shirt was untucked? It is important to realize that these details are exaggerated on tape and are far less noticeable and distracting in real life. In any case, a wrinkled blouse or a crooked tie has nothing to do with effective teaching. (Source: Krupnick, 1987) Plan to spend twice as long analyzing the tape as it took to tape your class. Once you've adjusted to seeing yourself on tape, set aside sufficient time to analyze it. As you start to analyze the tape, remember to focus on your strengths as well as aspects needing improvement. The problem areas are likely to jump out at you, but don't overlook those things that you are doing well: talking to the class, not the board; answering questions clearly; and so on. Use checklists to focus your analysis. You can use the same checklist the instructor used to evaluate you (Microteaching Checklist). You may observe more aspects when reviewing your video. References Tools for Teaching by Barbara Gross, University of California Berkley, last updated 4/11/02, date: 09/21/07 http://teaching.berkeley.edu/bgd/videotape.html Davis, B. G. Sourcebook for Evaluating Teaching. Berkeley: Office of Educational Development, University of California, 1988. Krupnick, C. G. "The Uses of Videotape Replay" In C. R. Christensen with A. J. Hansen (eds.), Teaching and the Case Method. Boston: Harvard Business School, 1987. Millis, B. J. "Conducting Effective Peer Classroom Observations." In D. H. Wulff and J. D. Nyquist (eds.), To Improve the Academy. Vol. 11. Stillwater, Okla: New Forums Press, 1992 Teacher Name: Sarah Jansen Lesson: La Naturaleza vocabulary

Reflective Teacher Form

 Good use of visuals & media 1. What are the specific things I did  Good board handwriting well?  Good job showing example and helping students during group work

 More wait time after questions 2. What are the specific things I  Design a FUN activity could have done better?  Try to not let it get confusing when switching from English to Spanish  Talk louder? (I couldn’t tell on the video)

 When I mixed up Eng and Span and say things 3. What do students seem to enjoy like el path =) most?  Span and Eng translations of fairy tale names  Group work

 Reciting vocabulary words as a class? 4. What do students seem to enjoy (I think it’s a good exercise to do though) least?

1. Better time management 5. If I could do this session over 2. Assign groups – don’t make students again, what three things would I choose their own change? 3. Don’t spend as much time reviewing story

1. Shorten time spent on Span/Eng names of 6. How could I go about making random fairy tales and/or shorten vocab those three changes? list 2. Assign students to groups 3. Just give a brief description of story – not whole summary – even if student aren’t familiar (will help with time management too)

Next time, I will try to encourage student Any other comments… participation more and I will try to design a more fun/interactive activity too.