Observation Notes from McKenzie Jackson (Lincoln Elementary-Granite School District)

Daily Language Activity (2 min)

1. Great job explaining the reasoning why we need to make certain corrections – they need
clarification a lot of the time!

Progress Monitoring Partners (2 min)

1. Excellent use of the timer and timing expectations!

2. I see you had an issue with Paula not having a partner – and you handled it very quickly.
3. Thanks for remembering people signing the wall of fame! This may or may not be something
that you include in your classroom, but it’s good for the students to be acknowledged.

*Get in the habit of positively cueing students when they are doing something RIGHT (i.e. “I really love
the way that Eileen has her vocabulary out on her desk with her voice at a level 0.”)

Vocabulary Practice (12 min)

1. It’s really great that you underline the definition so students follow along as they write.
Excellent!
2. This is a great time where you can use more proximity in the classroom.
As you talk/explain and as the students write down their definition, you can be walking
around to the back of the room or around to other tables in order to see: 1) where they are in
the process and 2) if they are on task. If there’s only two or three students writing – move on.
3. Loved your use of popsicle sticks! This adds more variety.

Engagement for Theme (10 min)

1. I LOVE how you stopped the Disney video to bring in background knowledge and talk about how
each clip and how it connects to theme. This is the point of the engagement piece! We want to
try and create any sort of background knowledge that we can for them.
If I can offer one piece of advice – connect each of the THEMES given to you to our
criteria of theme (themes have no character names, themes are a broad idea about life,
ect.)

Reading Portion (35 min)

1. I really like the idea of drawing/taking notes/doodling during their reading. It can help keep
them on task while also trying to tie it to the idea of theme.
2. Be sure that if you are giving instructions of something new for them to do (like this activity) you
need to have their full attention. This can get by using an “attention getter” or counting down
backwards from 10 until you have all their voices at a level 0. If you let them talk while you talk,
they’ll start to talk over you and the volume of the room starts to increase. Some students won’t
hear instructions and it will get frustrated for everyone.
3. Excellent job making connections and asking prompting questions: “what do we know about
______ so far?”
4. As the students do their “notetaking/drawing” you assigned them, hold them accountable
throughout the lesson. If you notice someone is doing a great job – give them a shout-out! If you
need to prompt people to stay on tasks, do that as well.
5. Watch the attention of the students are you read. Some students were not filling out their notes
or reading along with you. They have very poor rigor, and they get really bored easily. This is
where you can make them read along as a whole group – or you can have them read in small
groups and summarize the reading with you.
6. Once you reach the end of the story, good for you for getting the students to talk about what
they think the theme is and how it connects!