Week 4 Reflection

I have finished my lessons based on telling time and finding elapsed time. I decided to give a formal assessment format because there were so many aspects of time covered throughout the past weeks. The day before the assessment, I had a discussion about time and practice work to see where my students were in their understandings. I also gave them a few worksheets from the math workbook provided by the school to practice at home, but not for a recorded grade. The students needed so much help on their problems before the assessment. I was still reminding students what the start time was and to add minutes by five after numerous days of practice. I told my teacher of my concerns and she assured me that I had covered as much as I could and spent enough time on the topic.
The assessment I made for my students had 28 questions. It covered reading analog clocks, finding elapsed time, adding multiple times to a start time to find the end time and vice versa, drawing hands to show a given time, different ways of writing time (2:45 or quarter to three), and AM/PM. Although only one student received 100 on the test, the class had a high C average which was affected by an outlier and I was pleasantly surprised by. I realized that part of the reason students needed so much assistance yesterday is because I offered it. Also, I believed many students practiced the night before and recognized that they needed the extra practice. This shows me that they care about their test scores, or they have parents that do, and that a majority of my students likely get help from their guardians.
Another thing I would like to note from this week was a spur of the moment idea I had that I plan to use again. After handing out work or practice problems, students have difficulties paying attention to instruction. They want to finish their work and do not pay attention to the next subject being taught or the next activity being done. To prevent this, I had my students stand up and switch sides as the classroom desks are split into two large areas. The students loved being in a completely different seat and were not tempted to finish someone else's work. My mentor teacher noticed this and told me she would be using it as well. I believe this really resulted in much more energy and attention from the class as a whole.