Kelly Collova

Dr. Bulgar 

ELD 375

April 25, 2013

Lesson Reflection 2

On the morning of Thursday, April 11, I taught Mrs. Reil’s third grade class a lesson on

triangles. The objective and goal of the lesson was for the students to understand and identify

attributes (lengths of sides and size of angles) of different triangles. The second goal of the

lesson was for the students to be able to classify the paper triangle cut outs and triangle blocks in

groups according to the attributes of the triangle. By the end of the lesson, I wanted the students

to be able to distinguish the difference between an equilateral triangle, isosceles triangle, scalene

triangle, acute triangle, and obtuse triangle.

I felt like the students met the goal of this lesson. When I asked the students to group the

triangle paper cut outs and blocks into groups according to the attributes of the triangle, they

were able to do so. After I gave the students time to group the triangles, I had the students share

with the class the groups that they came up with and what made them group the triangles the way

they did. When the students explained to me their reasoning behind their grouping, the students

used the correct names of the triangles and angles and were able to distinguish the difference

 between triangle attributes. For example, when Joseph explained to me his reasoning for 

grouping the triangles, he explained that the first group consisted of isosceles triangles, the

second group consisted of scalene triangles, and the third group consisted of equilateral triangles.

Joseph also pointed out to me that it was easy for him to figure out which triangles were scalene

triangles because “the sides were not all the same length.” After conferencing with Joseph and

 

other students, I found that each student fully understood the objective of the lesson and were

able to describe the attributes of the triangles to me.

Although about half of the class was out sick and an evacuation drill was called, I thought

that the lesson did succeed. The students were able to apply what they learned from the lesson to

grouping triangles according to the lengths of sides and size of angles. The students were able to

answer the questions I asked them during the lesson when they worked independently grouping

the triangles. I also thought the lesson succeeded because the students were engaged during the

lesson. They really enjoyed the paper cut outs of the triangles and the triangle blocks. As soon

as the students walked into class and saw the triangles on their desks they were excited and

continued asking me what they were going to do with them.

If this were my class, I would have a lesson on quadrilaterals the next day since the

students fully understood my lesson. I would start off by asking the students if they know

anything about quadrilaterals in the morning message. I like how Mrs. Reil does this with her 

math lessons because I think it is a good lead into the lesson and the students really seem to

enjoy it.

If I were to do this lesson again, I would only use the triangle paper cut outs and not use

the triangle blocks. Mrs. Reil explained to me after the lesson that using 3D shapes, the triangle

 blocks, for this lesson is confusing for students because triangles are a 2D concept and not a 3D

concept. While planning this lesson, I did not take this factor into consideration, but now I know

for the future.