Field experience watching videos essay mae | math

Goals: The goal of part one of the project is to observe two classroom lessons and critically reflect on the role of the teacher in each lesson. 

The questions below should help guide your thinking while you watch and reflect on the video.  I expect you will watch each video more than one time, and therefore, I have kept the videos relatively short.  In your response, you should address the four major questions and use the sub-questions to help you think about what to be looking for as you watch the video.  It is very important that you support your writing with evidence from the video.  I expect you to use direct quotes and specific explanations from the video throughout the paper.

Begin by writing general thoughts about the teaching you observed.  What were you thinking and feeling while watching the video?  What things did the teacher do that you viewed as positive?  What things were negatives? 

After a general reflection, push yourself to think more critically about four important components of teaching mathematics (these will be explored in detail throughout the course so do the best you can at this point with what you currently understand about teaching math):

1. How did the teacher support students’ productive struggle in mathematics?

     a. Is there evidence?

          i. Students in the video were productively struggling while doing mathematics.

         ii. The students were frustrated and struggling in unproductive ways.

        iii.The students were not struggling.

2. Did teachers use responsive listening to support and extend student thinking?

    a. What types of questions were being asked by the teacher?

    b. What types of answers did these questions elicit from students?

    c. How did the teacher respond to students who answered questions?

        i. In your discussion, be sure to provide examples of some questions asked by      the teacher and the answers provided by the students to support your conclusions.

3. Did the teacher lead the students in meaningful discussions about mathematics?

    a. Was the discussion productive?

    b. Was the discussion mostly from the teacher to the students or between the teacher and students?

    c. Was there discussion from student to student?

    d. Who did most of the talking?

    e. In what ways did the teacher use students’ voices to promote learning in the classroom?

4. Did the teacher assign worthwhile mathematical tasks that promote reasoning and problem-solving?

    a. Did the tasks used in class promote reasoning?

    b. Did the tasks used in class require students to problem solve (i.e. figure something out)?

    c. Who was doing most of the work, the teacher, or the students?