Analysis of a YouTube mathematics lesson for intermediate students

¶ … lesson that appears on Youtube in terms of its efficacy and the overall performance of the teacher. Just a few of the dimensions and traits of the lesson that will be reviewed include whether the teacher is explaining the lesson properly to the students, the use of models and practice providing and well it is done, the use of proper vocabulary by the teacher, the illustration and making of connections by the teacher, the providing of specific instructional feedback and the overall pace of the lesson. AN overview of the class will be given and there will be a review of any accommodations that were made for English language learners (ELL\'s) as part of the lesson. The challenges and implications for future students will also be covered. While the teacher did good based on the audience, it is also clear that this is a targeted lesson based on the level of the students.

Analysis

While the writer of this brief report will not go in order when it comes to answering the questions given above, there is a reason. First, it is clear from the subtitles on the Youtube page and the level of verbiage used in the video that this is not a group of struggling and/or ELL learners. Indeed, this teacher is speaking with rather high-level terminology (at least when it comes to the level of student she is dealing with) and thus it can easily be presumed that struggling learners and/or ELL/ESL learners are not part of the group she is teaching. The author of this brief response can also briefly touch upon the implications for future teaching. There is something to be said for seizing on the ability and acumen of some younger students and how letting them waste away at a level that is clearly below their current learning level is a disservice to them and their parents (Jones). At the same time, there are the ELL and otherwise struggling students that need to be caught up with the rest of the group as much as is possible so that they realized and learn what they need to learn. While the use of segmentation is probably unavoidable on some level, it should be minimized and kept as little as possible (SDVS). It should be the goal to align as many students into the same group as possible and thus avoiding any stigmatization or bullying that can occur once students realize (and they will) why they are being separated and taught different lessons. The author will come back to the points above at a high level before the conclusion of this report. However, the author felt it important to mention these things straight off the top before getting into the other important parts of this essay (D\'Entremont).

With the above out of the way, the teacher in the Youtube video under review in this report is quite good. Once taking into account that the students are obviously and completely at an intermediate level, it makes complete sense why she is speaking and teaching at the level she is. Indeed, if one did not know that, it would be concerning because she is using words and terms that would be above the learning level of a lot of kids that age. Even so, the kids seem to be participating and going along with the lesson quite well given the complexity of the terms of concepts that the teacher is using. Rather than just saying \"complete the sentence,\" she is using the actual terms and items that are part of the English language including \"preposition\" and \"verb,\" just to name a few. She is absolutely challenging kids to fill in the sentences and she is using variations of the same theme. For example, the song with the mouse is part of this as she is taking the same overall song and varying it based on where the mouse is, what the mouse is going, how he wants to be there and so forth (D\'Entremont).

The teacher is also using making strong use of word cards. About 2.5 minutes into the video is a strong example of this. She slides the cards into their slots and has the children fill in the sentence. Beyond that, she is not relegating them or forcing them to make a certain choice. Indeed, she offers the choice of \"beneath\" or \"below\" earlier on in the video, even though both would technically work given that sentence. She is also providing direct and immediate feedback to the students as she herself brings in terms and clips into the lesson as well as when she directs students to make a choice regarding the same lesson. The teacher keeps her voice up and she is very precise with her terms and her lesson. She doesn\'t go at a very slow pace but she does not go too fast either. The setup of the class is also very strong in that the teacher has set herself up against a wall and corner and the students are in very close proximity to her. She establishes herself as the facilitator given that she is elevated and above the students but the close setting of the students versus that of the teacher and the way that she encourages the students and facilitates the class is a good balance between showing leadership but not being too overbearing while engaging in the same (D\'Entremont).

Something that is very adept and good about her lesson is that the teacher is looping in a lot of things that might not necessarily be obvious. About 3.5 minutes into the video, she has the students use the map in the upper part of her learning board to help construct a sentence. While doing this at first or doing this with struggling students would probably not be the wisest thing, it works for these students as they are clearly at the right level to learn what they are being presented with. One potential downside to this approach is that the students are reciting back in unison. The teacher needs to be careful that students are not just giving thumbs up to align with the larger group and that they are truly part of the learning. If a student is just going with the motions but are not learning at the level of the other students, that could be an issue. Even with that caution, the teacher is clearly being careful to get everyone involved. She does a blend of engaging the students as a group as well as individually. An example of the latter is at the 5.5-minute mark when the teacher specifically engages with the girl in the purple striped shirt. Just thirty sections later, there are two other girls and a boy in red that she engages with (D\'Entremont).

Late in the video, she blends a \"map\" of sorts (the stool) and the different terms she has been suing throughout the class. She goes back and forth between the maps and the sentence strips. A potential challenge relating to this is overwhelming the students and perhaps throwing them too much at one time. Once again, that does not seem to be a problem with this teacher as the kids seem to have a good fix on things. However, if this was a wider group of kids that included learners at a lower level and/or ELL/ESL students that are still trying to catch up on one level or another, doing this sort of methodology would probably not be doable since it would be doing too much too fast for them.