Middle School Lesson Plan Reflection

Middle School Lesson Plan Reflection

The lesson most recently taught did not go as well as planned because a number of the students did not seem engaged in the material. While that is fairly common with middle-school-aged learners, there were more students than usual who were seemingly not interested in what was being taught. I believe that may have been because they did not have a complete understanding of why the lesson was important, and they may have either felt that the lesson was not valuable or been a bit lost because they were not able to follow the material as well as they would prefer to. The way to correct that in the future would be to pay close attention to scaffolding instruction, which allows students to learn what they need to know with support, or "scaffolding" from the instructor only as and when they really need it. As they learn more about the subject through the lessons being taught, the level of scaffolding they have can gradually be reduced and they will be able to handle future lessons more or less on their own.

Children who are interested in the material and want to learn it can be trusted to do so, but they often still need a little bit of help because they are uncertain about how to process the information accurately or what, exactly, they really need to retain and build on out of the information they are being given. Because I did not scaffold the lesson properly, and because previous lessons may have also fallen short in that area, many of the students are becoming disinterested in their own learning. Fortunately, by using more scaffolding in lessons in the future this can be adjusted until the majority of students are much more actively engaged in learning all they can about the subject matter at hand. The more they want to learn, the more they will not continue to need scaffolding because they will be taking the initiative to understand all of the important concepts they are being taught and how those concepts will have value for the future of their education.

Scaffolding is best used when it helps the student figure things out by himself or herself, with the only support provided being necessary when a student struggles or is not able to become comfortable with a particular topic. While scaffolding is not intended to be something the student can permanently rely on, it is designed to be built up, adjusted, and then finally removed over time, as the student develops what he or she needs in order to be successful without the scaffolding being in place. It is very important in the future that I focus on the proper level of scaffolding and remember that each student is different. Some will need more scaffolding than others. If I spend too much time building up scaffolding, I will lose the interest of the students who do not need it. However, not providing enough scaffolding means that a number of students can have trouble with the material because they are not properly prepared to process what they are learning on their own. The key is finding a balance that works for the majority of students in the classroom, and then providing extra help to those who need it.