My Reflection on an Indirect Instruction Class

Teaching Strategies for Indirect Instruction  

Grade Level: 2

Period: Mathematics

Lesson Topic: Graphing primarily

The class began with the teacher trying to brain storm with the students through asking questions like "I want to know how to count the jelly beans?"  And asking for different suggestions from the students. Those questions where followed by the teacher distributing jelly bean bags to each student, to make it student-friendly task and using self-reference, the teacher ask the students which color of jelly bean was their favorite. Students then where suppose to write on a piece of paper their favorite jelly bean flavor/color. The following step was to uncover the bar-chart that the teacher had already prepared on the board. The students where to choose their favorite color jelly bean flavor and based on the color they will choose the square shaped colored cards and each group of students were called to the board based on their table number to post on the bar-chart their cards. After posting every table's card on the charts, the teacher said to the students to simply look at the graph and analyze the graph "what do you know from this graph?" The first student walks up to the graph and points at the green colored bar and said most people like green jelly beans.

Another key question, the teacher asked was" what else do we know from this graph?" After getting the student's feedback, the teacher proposed the following question "how many more people like green jelly beans than red?" The students were asked to form a problem and solve it based on the previous question. The teacher then rotates around the students to repeat and clarify the question individually. Than the teacher explained the purpose of this task is to form a problem like this:  12-4= -----__

One student suggested a different way to solve the problem which was not relevant to graphing. So the teacher redirected the student smartly and smoothly back to the topic of graphing. Finally, the last question was "how many people participated in the game of the jelly beans?" Students raised their hands and answered the teacher, so the teacher replies by asking a following question "how did they come up with the answer through explaining it to the rest of the class". The teacher raps up the session with giving the students the feeling that they came up with all the answers themselves. 

Reflection:
I think that the teacher was professional and organized the way she delivered the math period. She demonstrated high class management skills. The seating arrangement was in groups and tables were number-coordinated which is relevant to the math period. Group work was reinforced throughout the period yet, students had the chance to participate individually. I like how the teacher used real life example and what the students are interested in (jelly beans). She used inductive strategy through letting the students come up with the formula and the answers, and through moving from general concepts to specific ones. I also liked that the teacher relied heavily on the questioning strategy and used key questions as a transaction from one step to the other.

Comments:
The teacher asked an African American student to go up to the board twice, while others did not get the chance to participate at all. I am not necessarily stating that as a negative point due to her professional skills, I thought there must be a reason for her to do that. Maybe to boost this particular student's self-esteem or to encourage him to overcome a difficulty in math or ..ect

The teacher physically rotated around the students and making hand gestures that gave the students a sense of security and an indirect message of  "I'm here for you".

The incident of the girl suggesting off topic to the graph and then how the teacher redirects the students back to the topic through re-phrasing the right question was done smoothly and most importantly the girl did not feel embarrassed. 

The teacher collected the empty bean bags after distributing it to the class. And I think it would've been better if she choose a student as the "helper" in this period to do the job. That would give the student a feeling of responsibility and to reinforce the student-center strategy.