Impact Student Learning

My experience during student teaching impacted my students positively, but not as much as I anticipated.  After viewing my psychomotor preassessment for the sidearm strike, I adjusted my lesson so that I could focus on the critical elements that students struggled the most with. Once I reviewed my cognitive preassessment for our tennis unit, I also made sure to review the most missed questions during the next lesson. Teaching the specific skills to the lower skilled students showed some improvements. The lower skilled students didn’t improve to the level I wanted them to; however, they still showed improvement for the psychomotor learning goal. Two of the lower skilled students showed no improvement, one student improved with one critical element, and one student improved by two critical elements. Three of the middle skilled students showed no change for their sidearm strike while the other student showed improvement by one critical element. Two of the higher skilled students stayed consistent with their psychomotor score and the other two showed improvement by one critical element.

I think that the students’ skill level played an important role in how the student was able to improve their skill. For example, the lower skilled students that struggled showed little to no improvement with my assistance. The higher skilled students showed some improvement or consistent proficient skill performance. I made a few changes after the first lesson to enhance the students’ skill acquisition. I used a poly-spot as a reference point for students to step with their non-dominant foot. The poly-spot helped to remind students to step during their sidearm strike.

One thing I would change to encourage maximum learning for all students would be to allow students to self-assess or assess a partner. With a checklist physically provided to the students, this could hold them accountable for performing the skill correctly. Another thing I would change to maximize learning would be to utilize additional technology. With this piece, I could allow students to record their performance to watch back in slow motion. If students were able to see a video of their performance, this could help them understand what they need to improve on. I did feel that I was very prepared to teach this lesson. I knew the critical elements that were necessary for student success. Additionally, I made sure I was verbally stating the important cognitive pieces involved with this unit. The students were generally receptive to my help. It was very nice to hear students stating the cues out loud as they performed their skill. I also think that specific feedback allows students to maximize improvement. In conclusion, the data representation shows that my teaching positively impacted the student’s learning. From the excel spreadsheet, you can see that generally students showed improvement with both the sidearm strike and exit ticket quiz. I feel that our tennis unit went very well and I was able to provide necessary assistance to meet our objectives and our standards.