Elementary Education Program

Department of Teacher Education & Learning Sciences

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: Sara Savino Date: 4/2/2019

1. How effective were your instructional strategies? What changes would you make in your
instructional approaches if you taught this lesson again? Why?

Overall, I think my instructional strategies were effective. My lesson was designed with the Gradual
Release of Responsibility model in mind. I felt like the students in my class were eased into the lesson,
they were not introduced to too many concepts at once. My field partner and I started the lesson with
some questions to gauge their prior knowledge about rights and responsibilities. Once we realized that
the students were mostly familiar with the terms, we had them make connections to their personal
lives. We talked about the rights and responsibilities that they have at home and at their school. From
there, we taught the terms and their meanings. We modeled identifying a right in the NC Constitution
and thinking of an implied responsibility. As a class, we came up with another right and responsibility
before students were released to work independently. Students then worked in pairs to find rights in the
constitution and write responsibilities for those rights. As part of their independent work, they
engaged in a card sort as well. If I could teach this lesson again, I would plan for this lesson to take
more time. I would have liked for the students to have some more time on each of the parts of the
lesson. I think they could have benefitted from doing some more practice with me and my field partner
before being released to work independently. I would have liked to allow the students to look through
more than two sections of the Constitution for their independent practice as well. However, time only
allowed for them to look through two. I think that going through two sections was not enough for them
to get the hang of identifying rights in the document.

2. Compare how students actually responded to the lesson verses the way you anticipated they would
respond. Explain how you scaffolded or extended students’ thinking.

In my opinion, the students responded to the lesson pretty well. From our questioning at the start of the
lesson, I could tell that they actually were more familiar with the terms of rights and responsibilities
than I anticipated. I provided them with definitions of each word, but most students probably already
knew the meaning and did not need to hear a definition. If I could redo the lesson, I would ask for a
student to come up with a definition themselves next time, instead of providing them with the
meanings. The students in my class had a bit more difficulty reading and understanding the language in
the NC Constitution than I thought they would have. I scaffolded their thinking by walking around and
talking with groups, helping them decipher what the sections meant. I think with more time, they
would have been able to do a close reading of their designated sections and would have been able to
decode what the sections meant. I could also summarize the sections into different wording so that the
students would be better able to identify the rights.
 Elementary Education Program
Department of Teacher Education & Learning Sciences

3. Describe how you assessed whether your students achieved the objective of the lesson. Was this
effective? If not, what would you change about your assessment?

At the end of the lesson, the students did a card sort as a form of formative assessment. Using what the
students learned from their lesson, they sorted ten representative pictures into the categories of rights
or responsibilities. My field partner and I walked around to assess how students were sorting them. If
we disagreed with where a picture was sorted, we asked them to explain their thinking to see if there
was a lapse in their understanding. As another part of the assessment, we talked through where
students sorted some of the cards and which they had trouble with. We asked students to justify their
thinking again and discuss with their peers when they came up with disagreements of where a card
should be sorted. I think that this was an effective assessment. We were able to tell that almost
everybody in the class had an understanding of the meaning of rights and responsibilities and examples
of each. I would change my assessment for next time so that it would be more specific. I think that next
time I would walk around with a clipboard of student names. Based on how they are sorting and
justifying their sorting, I would note whether or not I thought each student had a strong understanding.

4. How effectively did you motivate your students, set and enforce expectations, and handle
transitions? Would you change anything and if so, why?

The students seemed to be motivated and engaged throughout the lesson. We were clear in our
instructions and expectations of what they were to do before releasing students to work independently.
I think that by first modeling what we wanted them to do, they were able to understand what they were
supposed to do and stay on task. My field partner and I were explicit in what we wanted them to do
and how to do it. I made sure to tell them that they should be respectful when it comes to
disagreements in the card sort. We told them we would be walking around to work with them. We
handled the transition from working as a class into partner work by having student work with the
person sitting next to them on the carpet. We wanted to avoid unnecessary time spent or altercations in
choosing partners. In having them work with those next to them, it was less likely that the students
would be working with their close friends. We wanted our students to have fun and enjoy our lesson,
but the students would have had more difficulty staying on task if they were allowed to choose and
work with their friends. While working, my field partner and I reminded the students of what they
were supposed to be doing. There were a few times that the students needed to be reminded to focus or
be quiet while my field partner or I was talking. However, they seemed to listen after being given these
reminders. I think that the lesson could have gone more smoothly if my field partner and I had set
some more clear expectations regarding their behavior before the lesson. We could have let them know
that we expected them to be quiet and listen while we were talking because they would be allowed
time at the end to talk and work together. The students were a bit loud during the card sort. I think that
I could have reminded them to speak quietly to their partner and that they would be only working with
their partner and shouldn’t be talking in other groups.

5. Did you make modifications to your lesson plan during the lesson? If so, what were they and what
motivated these changes?
 Elementary Education Program
Department of Teacher Education & Learning Sciences

We did have to make some modifications because we had less time than anticipated. Originally, we
had planned to bring up the NC Constitution on the projector, look through it a bit, and model finding
rights and thinking of implied responsibilities. Instead, we just used the document camera because it
was already set up. We didn’t have them look at the whole Constitution, we just projected one of the
cutouts of two sections of the Constitution to model finding rights. We had planned to have the
students underline the right they saw and then write a responsibility to go along with it. During the
actual lesson, we instructed the kids to underline the right but just talk about the responsibility with
their partner because we were not sure they would have enough time to write it. For our discussion, we
had wanted one pair to come up and show how they sorted the cards. We realized it may have been
impractical to have a student bring up their cards and resort them as it would take up time and be
boring for the students to wait for the pair to sort in front of the class. My field partner and I decided
that it would be more beneficial and engaging to discuss which cards the students had difficulty with.
This turned into a really productive discussion involving respectful debates over which cards should go
where and students justifying their answers with reason.

6. How did you meet your Teaching Behavior Focus? If you did not meet it, what would help you to
meet it next time?
Our Teaching Behavior Focus was to promote collaboration. I do think that my field partner and I
succeeded in meeting this behavior focus. We promoted collaboration when identifying the rights
and responsibilites as a class, and when they did this in partners. Collaboration was promoted again
when the students worked in pairs for the card sort, and talked all together during the class
discussion. My field partner and I told the students that we wanted them to be respectful in working
together. We promoted productive collaboration by informing them that they should be justifying
their thinking by explaining their reasoning for where a card should be placed. I would consider the
behavior focus to be a success because the students worked respectively with each other, were able
to handle disagreement, and explained their thinking to their peers.