Mini-Lesson Demonstration Reflection

The Write to Learn Activity that I demonstrated was Admit/Exit slips. In preparation for this demonstration I chose a learning objective that I knew I would easily be able to teach and assess student learning. The learning objective that I selected was 

"I can listen to commands in Spanish and perform the commands correctly".

In order to acquire a deeper understanding of both Admit and Exit slips, I chose to demonstrate both. I created a half sheet (in bright green of course ) that promoted activation of prior knowledge and helped me to determine if the class was ready to move on or not. I focused on different vocabulary words that students would need to know in order to take it to the next level and listen to them in a command. On one side of the half sheet I created a matching activity where students were asked to draw a line from the Spanish vocabulary to the correct definition in English. On the other half side of the Admit half sheet I wrote three prompts for students to finish. 

1.) Some of the vocabulary words that I struggles with are .......

2.) Some of the vocabulary words I feel very good about are .....

3.) One way that I could study my vocabulary words to better understand them is .... 

I also created an Exit Slip. This was a full bright yellow sheet of paper that I made to have students fill out during the last 5 minutes of class. This Exit Slip began with stating the learning objective for the day so that students would be reminded of what they were trying to accomplish in this day's lesson, and would be able to self-assess their learning. Below the learning objective were two questions for the students to answer:

1.) ?Que hiciste hoy? (List what you learned, did, had trouble with, or enjoyed today?

2.) How could you use today's lesson/learning in real life?

I used the first question for me to understand where each individual student was at and which students may be need a little extra support. This information could also help me to create groups/partners. The second question was written to help students create relevance to real-life situations, which we know builds upon engagement. 

I thought the Admit slip went well. I had the class fill it out and then compare with a partner. After that we all went over the answers as a group. The class seemed excited to have known the correct translation for the different vocabulary. This was also a good way for the group to have a take-away item. Going through the answers as a whole group also gave me an idea of where the class was at with the vocabulary, and whether or not we needed to review before moving on to commands. The mini demonstration also went well because I had students actually act out the commands which catered to a variety of learning styles. 

My classmates took away an example of both an Admit and an Exit slip. They also gained knowledge of one way that they could use these in their future classrooms. Before beginning my demonstration I explained a couple of different ways to use Admit slips. For example, some teachers assign them the day before and do not allow students in the class until they have completed them. This slip is like an ticket into their class. 

If given the opportunity to do this demonstration again, I would find ways to model the activities better for my students. I feel that I kind of breezed through the explanation part of it, and may find that 9th grade students may struggle with the activities with the way that I modeled it.