I am evaluating a lesson taught in the EESL 650 classroom.

This lesson was a science lesson on light and

shadow. The teacher was creative in relating her science lesson to a short story she was also teaching
simultaneously, The Treasure of Lemon Brown. I was able to read the short story which helped in building my
background knowledge of her lesson. I was able to understand more fully and appreciate how she connected in a
way that was cross-curricular.
This teacher had meaningful activities that were hands-on and provided comprehensible input to meet her
content and language objectives. She used a short video that was engaging and to the point, as well as realia to
reinforce the content objectives. The most memorable part of the lesson for me was the graphic organizer she
distributed to aide students in visually representing the academic vocabulary for her lesson. She was also cognizant
of IPOTs and the need for student communication and interaction. Something that was very obvious throughout her
lesson was her rate of speech. The teacher used a slow rate of speech and asked HOTQ throughout the lesson to
reach and engage students.
I realize the lesson that I observed was taught with adults. However, I would recommend additional activities
that required students to use the academic vocabulary orally to aid in making it a part of their active vocabulary.
Perhaps even allowing certain groups to become experts on particular academic vocabulary terms and teaching
the class how their term is used in context. My only concern is that there did not seem to be any scaffolding
techniques to bridge students who may be at a lower English proficiency level. A question I would ask is how would
she connect the science content of this lesson to students prior knowledge, and not just make connections to their
literacy unit?
Overall, this was a well planned lesson and I enjoyed observing it.