Department of Teacher Education & Learning Sciences

Elementary Education Program

Formal Observation Reflection

Directions: Complete the reflection questions and submit your response to your observer prior to having a post-
conference to discuss the observation. If a conference is held immediately after the observation you will submit
your responses to the observer the following day via email.

Name: Lauren Stone Date: 11/9/17

1. To what extent were learning outcomes appropriate and achievable to your
students?
My learning outcomes were both appropriate and achievable for my
students. They gained a deeper understanding of concepts that they had
some prior knowledge about and learned a lot of new information about
concepts that had not yet been introduced. All of the learning that I expected
to be happening was manageable for this class.

2. How effective were your instructional strategies? What changes would you make in
your instructional approaches if you taught this lesson again? Why?
I believe the instructional strategies were effective in the sense that students
were very engaged in this lesson. Having students act out a historical event in a
skit allows them to make more meaningful connections with the content, as
does watching their friends act out events. It makes the important information
more memorable and allows them to extend this knowledge when learning
more about this time period. If I were to teach this again, I would do a lot more
research on the Revolutionary War because at some points, I was doubting
myself and just wished that I had a fun fact or interesting anecdote to tell
students to help them connect to the content even more.

3. Evaluate the effectiveness of your oral and written communication with students.
(Consider how well you communicated learning objectives, clarity of directions, use of standard English, quality
of questions and effectiveness of discussion techniques.)

I feel that my communication with students was effective. They generally

followed all directions I gave, with the exception of the noise level at
some points. I feel that as I was circulating around to the various groups
that I was able to communicate with each student and give them
individual attention that helped resolve questions or concerns they had
and also boosted their confidence to perform in front of their peers.
4. Evaluate the level of student engagement in your lesson . (Consider how you presented the
content/skills, the activities and assignments for students, grouping of students, and structure and pacing of the
lesson.)

I feel that overall, my students were very engaged in this lesson. By

integrating arts, it helped reach students who normally would be
disinterested in the content. Acting out skits gave students a platform to
 show what they learned while also allowing them to be creative and
expressive. Even reading the short passages was not painful for
students given that I intentionally made them concise, mounted them on
colored paper and laminated them, and provided a colorful marker for
them to highlight important information. All of these considerations,
however small, helped contribute to the overall engagement of the
lesson.
5. How effectively did you use instructional materials, resources, and/or technology?

I feel that my instructional materials were simple and straightforward. It was an

uncomplicated lesson that relied more on student creativity and collaboration than
technology or fancy resources. I believe it is important to just use the basics from
time to time.
6. To what extent were your assessment strategies effective? What changes would
you make in your assessment approach if you taught this lesson again? Why?
My assessment methods were adequate, I feel that I could have been
more innovative. I had a mental gauge as I was walking around for which
groups I would definitely need to check back with and which students to
watch for. I feel that I was able to get a good sense of each students
grasp of the content. I also used the skits themselves as an assessment.
I had a few criteria such as the accuracy of their representations, their
inclusion of factual information from the event, and each members
participation.

7. To what extent was your feedback to students accurate, substantive, constructive,

specific, and/or timely?

I feel that I could have improved with my feedback, especially after the skits. I
was able to give really specific and constructive feedback while circulating
around to the various groups, however, I feel that I could have done better with
giving specific positive feedback after they performed. This would have helped
boost their confidence and encouraged them to be open to these kinds of
lessons in the future.
8. To what extent did the classroom management and environment contribute to
student learning? (Consider your classroom procedures, your use of physical space, and the students
conduct.)

The nature of this lesson lent itself to being less structured than normal
social studies lessons as students were working in groups and moving
around the room and making props or dramatic movements. I attempted to
find a balance between letting them have fun and be creative and
maintaining a reasonable volume and energy level. Allowing them to have
the room to be creative definitely contributed to their learning and I feel that I
did an alright job at striking that balance.
9. Did you make modifications to your lesson plan during the lesson? If so, what were
they and what motivated these changes?
I allowed a group to go outside the classroom to come up with their skit which I
usually am not a huge fan of doing, but it was just too crowded in the room with
 all 6 groups. I was very intentional with the group that I did allow outside
because I knew that they would be able to regulate their noise without my
constant attention and it worked out fine. I did not think enough about where the
students would perform and it was different in my head when I was planning the
lesson, but I improvised in the moment and it worked out fine.

10. Was your Teaching Behavior Focus goal met?

I believe so. I feel that I was able to facilitate collaborative learning and monitor
learning activities effectively. I actually accomplished the latter better than I had
anticipated because I have struggled in the past with giving each group a fair
amount of attention. The collaborative learning seemed to be a success and it
seemed that all students got something out of this lesson and were able to have
a good time doing it.