Observation

Instructional Lesson
Classroom:
Grade: 4th Grade
Curriculum Area: ELA

Observer: Taylor Gamache

Date: 2/2/2015
Time: 10:0-10:45

What I notice

Thoughts, Questions, Connections to Methods

Classes

Each teacher was decorating his or her

door for the read-a-thon. My clinical
teacher decided to let her students do it!
They read a book called the Jolly
postman as a class and divided into 4
groups Each group chose a fairytale
( thats what they were studying) and
they had to write a letter to their
fairytale character, one group chose
humpty dumpty, one group chose
Rapunzel, one group chose wizard of oz,
and one group chose sleeping beauty
( maleficent). They had to work together
as a group to write a letter ( this went
along with the book they read) and then
they turned each groups letter into a
huge life sized book. This book hung on
their classroom door to be judged, and
they won! Out of the whole fourth and
fifth grade. I think the reason they won
was because the students did all the
work, a lot of the other doors were only
done by the teachers and the students
had no part in it. The class also made a
book cover and title page, it was so cute.
The students got really into it, and it was
not just a waste of time to have done for
the door, they were engaged and
learning. They were including what they
were learning about fairytales and
writing letters as well as team work all at
the same time.

This was a great lesson for me on classroom

management; under normal circumstances
these students could have been loud, off task
and socializing during this time. However, they
were not, they were so into creating their
letters and wanting to make their door the
best, they did not stop working. This lesson
was great because the kids had so much room
to be creative. They only had a few guidelines
but they could pick their fairytale, illustrations,
and what they wanted to say in their letter.
They also had to have proper letters greetings
and include what they learned about writing
letters. This also showed me that you can
make anything into a learning lesson. My
clinical teacher could have easily done her
door herself, but she let her students be apart
of it and incorporated reading and writing!
This is an example of the group who did
Repunzel.