Collaborating Teacher Observation #3

Susan Tellefsen

This lesson was for my 4th grade Math students. For this lesson, our 4 th graders
were learning the steps for creating a line plot with fractional measurements and
how to analyze the data.
I opened this lesson with trying to pull in background knowledge that they had for
line plots. To do this, I drew a line on the whiteboard with 3 ticks and wrote the
numerical measurement for each of the values on the ends. This was about 2 mins
into the lesson and I asked What do you guys notice about these numbers? What
I was hoping to hear from the students was that they were ordered least to greatest,
but I dont think they understood what I was asking based off of how I asked it. I
think this is important to reflect on because if your students arent giving you the
answers you are looking for, it may be that you need to think of an alternative way
of asking the question. After reflecting on this, another approach I could have used
for this was to give them 3 different line plots and see if they could identify the
correct one based off of the organization of the measurements and explain why that
one was chosen.
Just before 4 mins into the lesson I gave the students instructions on how they were
going to cut and glue the foldable into their notebook. Students then began to get
up and get scissors and glue. Since the class has jobs, I should have used this
opportunity to have the materials managers for each table get the supplies for all
rather than the whole class getting up to get their own. This strategy may have
been a bit timelier and less chaotic. While watching this whole portion of the
lesson, I struggle with how much prep work I should do for the students ahead of
time vs. allowing them to do it. For this lesson, some students finished after 2
minutes whiles others took nearly 5-6 minutes. I feel that this is valuable time that
could have been spent better with practicing problems, but at the same time, I feel
that these small artsy type activities get students engaged and give them a small
break that is often needed.
At 20 mins into the lesson when I mentioned the xs (plots) that go on the lines,
several of the students showed excitement or stated something like Oh, I love
these!, These are so cute and fun! I just thought this was worth reflecting on
because I never thought I would get so many positive reactions out of this
concept/lesson.
After watching the video and recalling when I was standing in front of the class,
there were only about 5 of the same students consistently answering the questions.
Looking back, I think it is critical that I allow the think time for those students that
wouldnt otherwise have enough time to think about the question and offer a
response.
Throughout the lesson the students participated in whole group discussions, turn
and talks, and independent practice as well as student-led instruction. There were
multiple opportunities with the practice offered to the students where I was able to
see if they understood and mastered the learning objective. I really liked the
worksheets that they had to do their independent problems on because it allowed
for them each to create their own plots based off of data provided and then the
other sheets had the line plots and made them analyze the data, so a bit of practice

Collaborating Teacher Observation #3

Susan Tellefsen

with each of the steps outlined in their notebook foldable. The students expressed
that they would like an opportunity to take their own surveys and create their own
line plots at some point in the future; I would call that a successful lesson!