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: Lauren Blanton Date: 12/5/19

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. Students seemed to maintain their

behaviors, and truly understand the point of the lesson. I did a good job engaging students and getting

them excited about our lesson, as well as diverting their attention to our theme of diversity. I taught

using step-by-step instruction, but I could’ve given students more exact guidelines. Although it is

important for students to explore on their own, giving more structure would’ve been helpful. For

example, we could have set up a timer to give them a certain amount of time to discuss their about me

sheet with their classmates. Our teacher typically does this so they are able to use their time wisely.

Another thing I would alter about my instruction would be to model, and further extend the lesson by

having more independent study. Our students were able discuss in groups, and as a class, but they

could have been given more time to think about their own diversity and culture.
 Elementary Education Program
Department of Teacher Education & Learning Sciences

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.

Surprisingly, our students didn’t have preconceived stereotypes or misconceptions about other

cultures. Students responded by being respectful, and interesting learning about diversity and other

cultures. They all kept an open-mind, and responded with excitement. When asking deeper, or in-depth

questions, I scaffolded by providing verbal sentence frames for students, as well as modeling

discussion questions. For example, when we asked the question “what do you already know about

culture and diversity,” I would give students an example by saying “I know that there are different

cultures, and that everyone is diverse in their own unique way.” This helped jump start students

thinking and give them support when answering questions, they may have never had to think about

before.

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?

Students shared their “all about me sheet” and discussed with a partner about their differences. We

then came together as a group and talked about diversity and differences. I assessed my students by

listening to student responses, and engagement in group discussions. Specifically, I assessed my

students when asking these questions at the end of the lesson:

• How are you similar to your peers? How are you different?

• What did you learn about others, and their cultures?

• Why is it important to appreciate everyone, despite their differences?

• What did you learn about your peers?

Although it was not the typical testing assessment, it was a valuable way for me to see if students

understood the lesson, and assess what they learned. Sometimes you can tell what students know
 Elementary Education Program
Department of Teacher Education & Learning Sciences

through verbal discussions rather than testing them on a sheet of paper, each student participated which

is why I was able to accurately gauge the lessons effectiveness through group, and classroom

discussions.

4. How effectively did you motivate your students, set and enforce expectations, and handle

transitions? Would you change anything and if so, why?

Our students stayed engaged and motivated throughout the whole lesson. They were excited to

learn more about cultures since they previously learned about different types of schools around the

world. Not only did they learn about diversity, they learned more about each other and were excited

when one of their friends, for example, had the same favorite food as them. I could’ve enforced

expectations and handled transitions better by giving more structure. If I gave them specific directions,

this would have reduced the amount of talking, and distraction when transitioning.

5. Did you make modifications to your lesson plan during the lesson? If so, what were they and

what motivated these changes?

Since our students seemed very engaged when having a class discussion about culture and

diversity, we continued to talk about it more than we had planned. Students had much more to add than

we initially thought, so we modified our lesson to meet our time requirement (the amount of time we

were given from our teacher to complete the lesson) by reducing the amount of discussion about the

book. Since our book repeated the same sentence several times, we focused primarily on the images

and would ask students what they saw, and how they interpreted the illustrations. This ended up

working well because we were able to better assess our students, and it was valuable to hear their own

thoughts.
 Elementary Education Program
Department of Teacher Education & Learning Sciences

6. How did you meet your Teaching Behavior Focus? If you did not meet it, what would help

you to meet it next time?

I met my teaching behavior focus by communicating clear expectations for students as much as

possible, although I still think I could have improved. Next time, I want to create expectations before

the lesson begins, so I can reiterate throughout the lesson, and not take time away from the lesson to

address behavior. If a student was talking when another student was sharing, I would have the student

who was speaking pause, until all classmates have eyes on him/her, and listening to them speak.

Students would also respectfully do this by tapping a peer on the shoulder if they are not listening.