The video that I presented for my CFG shows me teaching a short lesson before my students began drafting their I Am From poems. During this lesson, I modeled using my brainstorming sheet to fill a poem template with sights, sounds, smells, tastes, and feelings. I also previewed the two poem templates that students could pick from. To help students understand the purpose and structure of their task, I reviewed our objective at the beginning of the lesson and reviewed the lesson structure (writing, break, more writing, and lesson wrap up) with my students before sending them to their tables to begin writing. I chose to include this video as an example of Standard Four because it shows some things I think I have done well in my teacher presentations, and it also shows some things that I can improve in future lessons.

I think my modeling of the poem template went well because students seemed to understand the templates when they started to write. I also think I showed more enthusiasm for this lesson than I showed in other lessons. I do notice that I was not smiling as much as I thought I was smiling, however. This is something I want to work on in future lessons. I also think I could have incorporated more student voice into this video by having students repeat some of the lesson goals, providing time to ask questions, or having students help me model some of the lines on the chart paper template. I feel I have improved in my teacher presentations at this point and now that I feel more comfortable with my own presentation skills, I know I am ready to incorporate more student voices into my lessons.

When I presented this video to the class as part of a Critical Friends Group, someone also mentioned that my sentences can be a bit lengthy. One of the ways I could have improved in this lesson would have been to use shorter and more direct, specific sentences. If my own speech was shorter, I think I would have found more time and space for the student participation that I feel this lesson was missing.