UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN — ANN ARBOR ‘SCHOOL OF EDUCATION DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATIONAL STUDIES ‘TEACHER EDUCATION PROGRAMS FIELD INSTRUCTOR'S VISITATION REPORT FORM. ‘Student Teacher’s Name: Lindsey Smith School: Haisley Elementary School Cooperating Teacher: _Chris Dailey University Field Instructor: Kathy Mahoney Date of Visit: February 62008 Observation Visit #__3 1. The following activity(ies) were engaged in during visit: Observed instruction X Met with cooperating teacher Met with student teacher x Had group conference (CT and student) Met with principal er other administrator Other: During the observation Lindsey taught a lesson from the Everyday Math program on fact families. The instructional objective was for students to write four addition and subtraction number models to form a fact family using the numbers on a domino, Lindsey did a very good job of planning her lesson. She was well prepared and organized for her instruction, Lindsey began her lesson with the students seated on the rug and used @ white board as an instructional tool. Lindsey gave explicit instruction for the students to make good choices in who they sat by onthe rug. She called the students to the rug by tables looking for the ones that were quite and ready. She adjusted the students seating where necessary prior to the start of her lesson. Lindsey “Hooked” her students by first reviewing the concepts of addition and subtraction. She then modeted an example using the white board of a simple addition and subtraction problem. She had the whole class say the problem out loud while she pointed to the numbers on the board. She then moved ‘on to model a subtraction problem, Once she was sure that her review was successful she moved on to ‘her domino example of a fact family. She got the class” attention with the prompt, “ now listen up, this is important”. She then related the idea of fact families to the students’ actual families. I thought this was very effective and all the students seem to get the relationship. Lindsey continued her instruction at the white board. She drew several examples of fact families using dominos and called on various students to name parts of each family. When creating addition fact she used the term “turn around” fact to help guide the students. An example would be 6+2=8 is a turn around for 2+6=8. The class seemed to understand this very well. She then moved on to the subtraction facts in the family reminding the students that you always start with the largest number.During her instruction Lindsey used positive reinforcement to encourage correct behavior. She ‘was explicit in her explanations and encouraged students to share their strategies with each other. She instructed students to use whisper voices and thanked them for being good listeners. In general see had control of the class and kept their attention throughout her instruction. Lindsey then moved en to the guided practice part of her lesson. She explicitly explained they ‘would need their math journals when they got to their seats. Once they were ready she released them by tables to get ready for the next part. She used pesitive reinforcement to praise those that were ready to listen. This helped get everyone on task. Lindsey then lead them through their journal page using the overhead and calling on various students. For the last part the students completed a section of their journal page independently while she moved around the room and checked for understanding. She finished her lesson with an exit slip used as a post assessment. ‘Two things that Lindsey was working on during this lesson were her ability to maintain the student's attention and her movement throughout the room. I feel that she did a nice job with both of these. She was very effective in maintain attention while at the rug. She used positive language and calm voice in focusing har students, While doing their seatwork Lindsey moved throughout the room. ‘When assisting her students she got down at their level, which was very effective. One thing that I suggested was to watch her timing, ‘The iesson ran a bit late and the students had to get to a special. The ending felt a bit rushed because of this. I also encouraged her to continue to practice her verbal prompts. T suggested trying the “thumbs up” technique to gage understanding of the whole class.