Microteaching

Microteaching workshops allow educators to practice their content area teaching skills and build greater reflective teaching in a comfortable environment.  The purpose of this assignment is to encourage participants to think more specifically about the goals of their content area teaching in terms of how students will learn the information presented. Microteaching involves thinking about teaching style as well as content.  

Step 1– Select a topic (a specific SOL/standard) from a grade level that you are interested in teaching.

Step 2– Choose an activity that would be appropriate for exploring your selected SOL. Here are some resources for activities.

Think about how you will incorporate this into a lesson. While your entire lesson does not need to be direct instruction, there should be some direct instruction used when you explain the science behind the phenomenon you are investigating.

Step 3– Create a step-by-step lesson plan of what you plan to teach, including handouts or visuals.  Follow the complete UR Lesson Plan format.  You should design your lesson for a full 45-minute lesson, but know you will teach 20-30 minutes of your lesson plan.

Step 4 – Come to class with all materials prepared to teach the hands-on activity in your lesson.  Prior to coming to class, be sure to submit an electronic copy of your plan as well as any supplementary materials.  You may want to create a special folder for these documents.  Use the following outline to guide your time:

  • Context (2 minutes) – Briefly describe the teaching context. Who are your students? What grade are they in? What topics have they studied? What is their prior knowledge and preparation for this lesson? 
  • Lesson Delivery  (20-30  minutes) – Lead your group through the hands-on activity and teach the science behind the activity. This is DIRECT instruction.  Do not spend your time explaining what you will do.
  • Closing Comments  (2-3  minutes) – Close the activity and answer any participants’ questions.
  • Reflective Feedback (10 minutes) – Engage in group discussion of the lesson.

This is meant to be a low-risk, highly supportive environment for you to test your science teaching and obtain useful feedback from your peers.

Group Process
Once your group has gathered, introduce yourselves and decide the order in which you will teach.

 Students watching and participating as students during the microteaching session will complete a microteaching critical analysis form. In completing this form it is important to consider these guidelines for giving effective feedback:

  • Start with at least one piece of positive feedback to reinforce effective elements.
  • Be specific and identify a moment or feature that worked well or poorly for you as a learner. If you can, explain why it was effective or not.
  • If you don’t notice anything in particular, look to the performance criteria on the back of the microteaching form to help you focus on individual components of the teaching.

The person who conducted the microteaching should begin the oral evaluation process by offering a self-evaluation, noting areas that appeared to be effective and ineffective. The remaining time should be devoted to a group discussion of the microteaching experience. Upon completion of the discussion, microteaching forms should be handed to the presenter.

Personal Reflection
Upon completion of microteaching, you will reflect on the experience. Think about these questions as you construct your response.

  • How did you prepare for this experience? (Choosing an activity, preparing for the delivery, etc.)
  • In what ways did you adapt materials and resources for your microteaching?
  • What was the most challenging part of this assignment? Why?
  • Which part(s) of the microteaching went well and which part(s) did not go so well?
  • What could you have done differently? Or what would you like to have tried instead?
  • Summarize the feedback you received.  Which was most helpful and why?
  • What did you learn about your own teaching in this experience?
  • What is the most important idea you are taking away from this experience?

What to Submit
You should create a folder in Box or Google Drive (depending on what platform your instructor is using) for this assignment. You will upload your lesson plan, teaching notes, and reflection.