Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Reflection
The above lesson plan was developed after having meetings with both my mentor teacher and university
supervisor. The suggestion was to use a Depth of Knowledge Observation Chart to improve questioning to have Commented [AG9]: Domain 3b – Using Questioning and
Discussion Techniques
the students reach a higher level of thinking. The goal was to use questioning to have students use the level four
extended thinking. These questions involve asking how students feel, think, believe, as well as making
predictions and drawing relationships. I used the advice from those meetings to create a lesson plan on a
The students did very well with this lesson. The students echo read, to the extent of mocking the inflection that I
put into telling the story. As the lesson plan lays out, after reading two pages, there would be a pause for the
students to answer the proposed questions. I gave the students think time before requesting that they turn and
talk with their partner. I gave enough time so that both students get time to talk. During this talk time, I walked
around and listened to conversations. I was amazed at some of the words the students used: terrified, Commented [AG10]: Domain 3d – Using Assessment in
Instruction
embarrassed, disappointed.
During this specific lesson, there was one student that was upset and cried throughout the lesson. Despite this, Commented [AG11]: Domain 3e – Demonstrating
Flexibility and Responsiveness
he participated when asked and the other students continued to work through his verbal cries. Planned ignoring
was utilized a lot. Once the students realized that neither teacher was going to feed into his cries, they also
modeled this. The students were still very supportive to their peer – offering words of encouragement or
rubbing his back as they walked by – but understood that more than these subtle gestures may be more of a
trigger. With this observation, I feel confident in saying that this classroom is a great community of learners and
When looking a deeper into Danielson’s (2014) Framework, Domain 3 – Instruction, there are five components.
They are communicating with students, using questioning and discussion techniques, engaging students in
learning, using assessment in instruction, and demonstrating flexibility and responsiveness. I feel this lesson
plan shows clearly that there is direct communication with the students. The students demonstrated by
successful discussion that the expectations were clear. I followed the lesson plan directly for most of the lesson,
but I also found another place to stop and allow the children to think and added a question about how the friends
of little rabbit might have felt when they missed their activities because they thought the sky was falling. The
students responded very well. After the students partner talked, I had one group answer the question aloud. I
used prompts with the partners were talking and pointed out that I liked key words. These prompts and words of
encouragement really sparked the engagement when the partners answered. They did not hesitate to share their Commented [AG12]: Domain 3d – Using Assessment in
Instruction
‘big’ words and thoughts/feelings. Feedback to Students
The assessment used in this lesson plan consisted of observation and listening during the partner talk, as well as
evaluation of the writing for understanding. The journal writing at the end of the lesson plan helped to step back
and read if the students were connecting to the reading by relating their feelings and the character feelings.
Overall, the students did very well with relaying their thoughts and feelings. However, more work is needed on
the handwriting aspect of journaling. The students need more consistent practice with capitalization,
punctuation, neatness, and use of word wall words. All of which are now on a rubric that was created for future
Overall this lesson was a great opportunity for both the students and I to really see what they were capable with
when relating to a text. The students were able to articulate their thoughts and feelings, as well as connections to
characters and the story, clearly and without reservation or fear of answering aloud. Despite some challenges, I
feel the students will be able to better perform on their unit assessment at the end of the week in the
comprehension section. We were able to dissect the parts of the story, label the characters, plot, settings, etc.
without asking these direct questions, but by having the students use higher-level thinking and discussion.