Observation of Billy Leung on November 20, 2012 by Katherine Chung
Start of lesson:
-Handed out notes/worksheet
-Introduced himself
-Asked if anyone in the class was familiar with Binary?
-Had students get into groups of 4, with 1 expert per group.
Star: great way of getting students into groups.
For consideration: perhaps have ‘expert’ students come to the front of the room, then have remaining students get into groups of 3, and then assign an expert to each group, this way you insure that each group has an expert.
Once in groups, gave short lesson on binary, using powerpoint and whiteboard. Where students suppose to take notes on the worksheet or on a separate piece of paper? Maybe combined worksheet with a notes handout? Or print out your powerpoint slides, or ask the students to write notes on a separate piece of paper.
Your volume was good, very good classroom presence. Good wait time, didn’t talk over students.
After short explanation of binary, had the students try some questions.
Star: walked around to each group.
For consideration: tell the students how long they have to work on the problem set, ex. 5 min, 10 min? then note the time on your watch and ensure that you give them the time you set. If you notice most groups are done early/or not done, you can always ask the class “raise your hand if your group would benefit from additional time” then give more time if most groups request, but if no one raises hand, then you can transition onto next part of lesson.
Great challenge to students to ask them to imagine how a computer works, and to allow them to use their imagination.
Great demo on how a hard drive works. Wonderful that you asked the students to move to the front of the room so they could all see better. The slides were done a little too quick.
WISH: Pace of lesson. In block 1, you had to rush the hard drive demo, but finished with 5 min to spare. In block 2, you ended with 15 min to spare. In your lesson plan you should outline for yourself an estimate on how much time you will spend on each portion of the lesson. Knowing that there will be flexibility as the lesson occurs, but this will help keep you on track. It’s important to watch the clock throughout your lesson.
Great classroom presence really connected well with the students.
For consideration: how will you end your lesson. Is there follow up questions/homework/assessment? Maybe an exit slip: One thing you found interesting, one thing you learned, one thing you want to know more about.