Melissa Terry's Video Analysis Reflection

I ended up trying to take three videos before I gave up due to technical issues.  The first video clip is the longest.  This shows the teacher whose classroom I am working in giving directions at the beginning of the lesson.  The rest of the time that I am in there, we (Mrs. T and me) are moving about the classroom helping students complete their projects.  Their projects had to have several components: their question to be answered, a writing component, and an art/picture/sculpture component.  In the first clip, I am helping some find information to help them answer their questions.  Students are in different stages in project completion.  Some are struggling to find answers to their questions.  Some are finished and in the process of typing up their summaries or creating their final product.

This is the first research project that these students have done this year.  They have not had a lot of experience.  Therefore, a lot of teaching was occurring prior to beginning research and also individually or in small groups as needed.  Different students needed different things as they worked on their projects.  Some were able to find answers to their question, but then had difficulty putting their notes into written summaries.  Others wanted to create google slides but had never done this before and needed a tutorial.  Others needed help locating pictures for their final presentations and needed to learn to copy/paste into documents.  The video clip is only seven minutes but it shows a snippet of what occurred over five days. 

I feel like I had to really become focused on what the students needed and provide that because my time with them was limited.  I taught lessons on thick/thin questions, taking notes, and writing summaries as students were beginning the research process.  I wanted to video the part where students were working because I wanted to analyze how they did doing the research independently or with minimal support.  What I found was there were some students who were off task much of the time.  Even with a deadline looming, they were still using their time to talk with friends and mess around.  There were other students who did not have the reading or writing ability to do this project without a lot of support.  One student that I worked with had to have everything read to her, and then we had to discuss it so that she would understand and be able to write down the main points.  Another students was researching how floods affect homes and she could not understand many of the articles she read.  There were others who were able to do this project with ease and they finished quickly and then struggled with continuing to work on their presentation to make it even better.  They just wanted to be “done” rather than continue to take the time to add sound, animation, color, etc. to presentations.  The other part I have struggled with is wondering how I could have facilitated better at the beginning to make their projects a little more meaningful.  The level of thick questions was not exactly what I wanted.  For example, I was hoping that instead of researching “causes of floods”, they would study ways to help those recovering from a flood, or how to better our transportation system to survive a flood.  I will continue to reflect on ways that I can increase the rigor of their questioning to provide more substance.

Those challenges aside, I feel like this was a good first effort by these students and the teacher and I have already talked to discover ways to make future projects even better.