Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Emma Bourgain
Description of the Group. Beattie Elementary is a public school in Fort Collins, Colorado that
is a part of Poudre School District and has classrooms ranging from preschool to 5th grade.
Beattie is located in a neighborhood setting that make up most of the school’s population.
Physical education, health, music, and art classes are all incorporated into the curriculum at
every grade level. Beattie utilizes teaching teams per grade level and have a strong emphasis on
collaboration and working together. Since there are a wide range of students who attend Beattie,
they have many different educational programs including gifted and talented, a special needs
resource and moderate needs program, literacy intervention, a full-time counselor and mental
health resources. Beattie is a Positive Behavior and Intervention Support (PBiS) school that
focuses on R.A.M.S which is an acronym for respect all, act responsibly motivated to learn, and
safety. The preschool classroom that I completed my practicum at had a variety of students
including ELL’s and students who were on IEP’s. Many of our students would be taken out of
class during center time to work one on one with a speech pathologist. My mentor teacher and
the speech pathologists would meet weekly to discuss student progress and address any concerns.
Our classroom had a 4:15 teacher student ratio including the lead teacher, an assistant teacher,
me, and another CSU education student. A co-teaching model was utilized daily and students
were split up into small groups that were each lead by a one of the teachers.
evident that emotional support, classroom organization, and instructional support were all
prevalent in the classroom environment and embedded within classroom routines. It became
clear early on that the needs, strengths and weaknesses of each student in the classroom were
vastly different and varied from one child to the next. My mentor teachers always provided
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students with a warm loving environment and even would go out of their way to ensure that
students who were struggling felt safe and comfortable in the classroom. The student was an
english language learner would struggle during morning drop off times especially leaving the
comfort of her mom. My mentor teacher would allow this student to sit on her lap during
morning meetings and then if she still was upset throughout the day, she would allow her to sit
on the rug right next to her desk during large group meetings and circle time. This interaction
between the teacher and student not only brought comfort to the struggling student but also to the
family of the student during this transitional time for them. When students would engage in
behavior that they were not supposed to be doing, the teacher would redirect their behavior and
attention but never raise her voice or get upset with the students. Along with this, my mentor
teacher was very in-tune and aware of the students in her class that needed extra support. We had
a student who had behavioral and developmental issues and delays and to accommodate for her
needs the teacher allowed her to sit in her own chair next to the teachers desk during circle time
and she had her own cozy corner where she knew she could go if she needed a break or time to
calm down. The students in the classroom were able to actively participate in conversations and
engage in daily activities by having shared classroom jobs and communicating with each other
Classroom Organization. Our classroom had a set routine that was followed every day. The
routine is something that every child knew which helped with transitions between activities since
every child knew exactly what was expected of them next. My mentor teacher had “problem
solving cards” set at each center that she would use when a conflict arose. Instead of telling the
children what to do she allowed them to look through the cards and problem solve the situation
independently. During center time, which can often be chaotic in the classroom, the teacher
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created a system where the students would bring their name tag and velcro it to the center they
were at. If there were no velcro spots available at that center, then the children would know it
was full and that they needed to find another center. My mentor teacher also effectively focused
lessons on what the students were interested in. She gave them a few different options for their
next unit and then allowed them to choose which in turn made them more engaged and interested
in the material. The classroom was laid out in a way that was effective to the learning of each
student.
consistently linking the material back to the students everyday lives. For example, during the
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clothing unit, the teacher would start by having the students put their nametag on the white board
under the category of the clothes that they were wearing that day. While watching this, the
students were very engaged and interested in the topic since it was something that they could
apply to their everyday lives. If specific students were struggling with content, she would put
them in a small group together and work with that group of students. On the contrary, students
who were more advanced would often group together so that they could challenge each other's
thinking and work together. Depending on the assignment, she would even mix the students
together so that the struggling students could learn from the more advanced students. Whenever
a student would say something, the teacher would further ask questions about how they knew
that or what they knew about the topic to expand on their knowledge and understanding. The
classroom was structured in a way that language was incorporated into every activity. In large
group meetings, the teacher would prompt open ended questions and use more advanced
language. During small groups, and center time, the teachers would walk around and engage in
conversation with the students about what they were doing and learning. As a practicum student I
was able to interact with the students daily, lead small groups, give a large group lesson, and
Anti-Bias Checklist. Not only was the classroom demographics diverse, but my mentor teaching
did a good job incorporating aspects of identity into classroom materials, toys, and books. The
dramatic play/kitchen area had all different types of foods to choose from as well as having dolls
that were all different races and colors. The books that the children would independently read
contained a variety of cultures and identities and provided students with information about
different cultural practices and backgrounds. Although I felt that the teacher did incorporate a lot
of anti bias learning and teaching in the classroom there are a few areas that I think could be
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even stronger. The classroom did not have a lot of diverse posters and signs around the room. It
really did not have many posters at all, and I think that this is something that would make
students feel even more welcome and included. Along with this, students just had the basic
colors of markers and colored pencils so when they were to do family drawings or self-portraits,
some students were not able to use colors that matched their family and self-best. All in all, I felt
that my practicum classroom created an anti-bias learning environment that was utilized well but
there are just a few suggestions that I think would make this learning environment even stronger.
Lesson Plans
Lesson #1
Teacher: Emma Bourgain Date: March 9, 2021
Lesson Idea/Topic and The idea of this lesson is to help students be able to understand and to
Rational/Relevance: speak about their emotions. This lesson allows children to be creative
when completing the worksheet and drawing two different emotions.
Student Profile: This class has 14 children ranging from ages 4-5 years old. There are 4
students that are developmentally advanced, 2 children who are
developmentally delayed and one ELL. The rest of the children have
shown very typically developmental patterns.
Content Standard(s) addressed by this lesson: (Write Content Standards directly from the standard)
Socio-Emotional Development: 4. The ability to recognize and regulate emotions and behavior
Preschoolers may: Manage actions, words, and behavior with increasing independence.
Physical Development: 3. Fine Motor Skills: The control of small muscles for such purposes as
using utensils, self-care, building, and exploring.
Preschools may: Manipulate writing, drawing, and art tools
Language Goal: 1. Receptive English Language Skills: The ability to comprehend or understand the
English language.
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4. Comprehend and respond to increasingly complex and varied English vocabulary, such as,
“What emotion is _____ feeling in this picture?”, “What does it look like when someone is
upset?”, “How do you hold your drawing utensil?”
Socio-Emotional
Application: Children are able to recognize their own and their classmate’s feelings and
emotions and regulate/manage them appropriately.
Explanation: Children are able to explain how they are feeling and examine the feelings of
classmates.
Physical
Application: Children are able to hold and use a writing utensil.
Self Knowledge: Children demonstrate their knowledge of fine motor skills by manipulating
drawing utensils.
Inquiry Questions: (Essential questions relating knowledge at end of the unit of instruction, select
applicable questions from standard)
Socio-Emotional
Open-Ended Questions – Can you show me what it looks like when someone is
happy/sad/mad/etc? What do you feel in your body when you are happy/sad/mad/etc? What
makes the girl feel frustrated? What do you think would make her feel better? When was a time
you felt happy/sad/mad/etc?
Close Ended Questions – Does Susan look happy or sad in this picture?
Physical
Open-Ended Questions: Can you draw what emotion you are feeling? How would you draw
someone happy/sad/mad/etc?)
Close Ended Questions: Can you show me how to hold a writing utensil?
Every student will be able to: (Create your own lesson objectives from the standard using student
voice)
Recognize what emotion I am feeling and understand what different emotions look and feel like. Every
student will also be able to demonstrate how to use a drawing utensil.
I can (content standard): Understand different emotions and how they make me feel.
I can: Demonstrate the ability to understand different emotions by answering questions and talking
about feelings.
This means (language standard): I have an understanding of a large range of emotions, how they make
me feel and how to talk about them. I also have the ability to show my understanding of emotions
through drawing.
List of Assessments: (Write the number of the learning targets associated with each assessment)
Name and “The Way I Feel”. The purpose of this activity is to increase
Purpose of students' awareness about different types of emotions by reading
Lesson a book in a large group and naming (drawing) different emotions.
Students will also be demonstrating their fine motor abilities by
drawing.
Co-Teaching Which model(s) will be used? One Teach, One Assist
Will co-
teaching Why did you choose this model(s) and what are the teachers’
models be roles?
utilized in This is the model that typically is used in my classroom. I felt that
this lesson? the students would be more focused if they were in the same
Yes routine. I would read the story in a large group while the other
teacher(s) observe student behavior and assist with classroom
management. After reading, all teachers will walk around and
assist in students' drawings. Teachers will write down what the
student tells them they drew in their picture.
Approx. 30 minutes; book “The Way I Feel”, markers, pencils, and paper
Time and (see attached worksheet)
Materials
Anticipatory The strategy I intend to use is: Invitation and Questions
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can you
tell that
the girl in
the
picture is
feeling
____
emotion?
”
6. The last
page is
about
proudnes
s. On the
page I
will go
around
the room
and have
every
child say
somethin
g they
have
done
recently
that they
are
proud
of.
7. After
completi
ng the
above
steps, I
will
individual
ly call
students
to get up
and go
grab
their
pencil
boxes
and meet
me at the
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tables.
8. I will
then pass
out the
“The Way
I Feel”
workshee
t and tell
the
students
to wait
until
further
instructio
n.
9. Once all
of the
students
have a
workshee
t, I will
show the
students
an
example
and ask
students
to write
their
name on
the top
of their
paper
(for the
students
who
cannot
do this, I
will write
their
name in
highlight
er and
have
them
trace it).
10. I will say
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to the
students,
“After
reading
the story
“The Way
I Feel”
we
learned
about
many
different
emotions
that
everyone
feels. I
invite
you all to
draw two
different
emotions
(one on
each side
of the
page)
and then
raise
your
hand
when
complete
”
11. Once the
students
have
their
hands
raised I
will go
around
and ask
the
students
what
they
drew in
their
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picture
and I will
write it
word for
word at
the
bottom
of their
workshee
t.
12. I will
invite
students
who have
finished
to pick a
center
for
center
time.
Closure The strategy I intend to use is: Exploratory Play and Question
I am using this strategy here because: After this lesson, the
students will transition into center time. I will close by asking
questions like, “what does someone look like when they are
frustrated?” or “what does your body feel like when you are
angry?” I will then dismiss the students from the table to go start
center time. I will encourage students to be mindful of their
emotions and the emotions of their friends especially while
playing in centers (typically a time where there is lots of conflict
over toys).
Differentiati Content Languag Process Product Environm
on Modifications: Understa e More teacher Students ent
For which nd own Respond assistance when can Students
students are emotions s to drawing and identify who are
you and have inquiry describing their still
differentiatin an ability question drawings. own developin
g (refer to to s emotions g fine
student represent regardin and put motor
profile as them in a g words to skills may
well as drawing. emotion them. only draw
assessment using yes one
data to or no emotion.
determine answers.
individualize Extensions: Students Is able to Only teacher Students Students
d student can write apply assistance when can who are
learning their own their asked for it. apply more
need): descriptio learning their advanced
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LESSON #2
Lesson Idea/Topic and The idea of this lesson will be to help students visualize numbers
Rational/Relevance: and understanding the order in which numbers occur. Students will
be given a large dice block labeled 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and counters.
When the child roles the dice, they then have to decide what
number that is and pull out that many counters. The idea behind
this lesson is getting children to understand that numbers can be
represented in many different ways.
Student Profile: This class has 14 children ranging from ages 4-5 years old. There are 4
students that are developmentally advanced, 2 children who are
developmentally delayed and one ELL. The rest of the children have
shown very typically developmental patterns.
Content Standard(s) addressed by this lesson: (Write Content Standards directly from the
standard)
Mathematics Knowledge and Skills: 1. Number Concepts and Quantities: The understanding
that numbers represent quantities and have ordinal properties (number words represent a rank
order, particular size, or position in a list).
Physical Development: 3. Fine Motor Skills: The control of small muscles for such purposes as
using utensils, self-care, building, and exploring.
Language Goal:
2. Expressive English Language Skills: The ability to speak or use English.
Construct sentences such as “I rolled a 6 on the dice therefore I laid out 6 counters” or “If there is
a 4 represented on the dice, I can represent 4 in another way (using counters)”
Inquiry Questions: (Essential questions relating knowledge at end of the unit of instruction,
select applicable questions from standard)
Open ended: “What other things can you count around the classroom?”
Close ended: “Can you show me how you would represent the number 5?”, “What is this
number (pointing to number on dice)?
Evidence Outcomes: (Learning Targets)
Every student will be able to: Understand (Create your own lesson objectives from the
standard using student voice)
Use their fine motor skills to roll a dice, recognize the number on the dice and then represent
that number using counters.
I can (content standard): Understand how to represent different numbers in a variety of ways.
This means (language standard): I have a strong understanding of number sense and how to
represent numbers in different ways.
List of Assessments: (Write the number of the learning targets associated with each
assessment)
Evidence of Assessment. Educators can use different types of assessments to know if children
have learned from a result of teaching. Assessments can be in different forms such as informal
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checks for understanding, observation and dialogue, tests and quizzes, academic prompts, and
performance tasks. Some different types of assessment include continuous assessment, effective
assessment, and authentic assessment. Continuous assessment occurs over a period of time and
can provide teachers with the ability to evaluate if students understand a certain standard. There
are numerous purposes of continuous assessment such as identifying a child’s strengths and
weaknesses, to assess and improve the effectiveness of curriculum, instructional strategies, and
teaching as well as being able to provide concrete data to families and other educators to be able
to make informed decisions about a child’s future. Effective assessment uses a variety of data
over time to understand a child’s developmental progress. It is important that all assessments are
effective in the sense that they use a variety of assessment tools to assess students learning in a
documenting the work that children do and how they do it for a basis of future educational
decisions. There are many strategies for authentic assessment such as screening procedures,
antenatal records, and developmental ecology maps just to name a few. When planning out a
lesson plan, teachers can know if students are understanding if they are able to demonstrate
transfer goals and performance tasks. I decided to conduct an anecdotal record since this type of
assessment is informal and occurs with both direct and indirect interactions. An anecdotal record
contains both typical and unusual behaviors and is usually a briefer account of a single event that
can help teachers and parents assess any developmental delays. During center time, I was
observing a student, Sydney as she was painting. When the teacher told Sydney that she had
“three brush strokes left” until the next friend needed to paint, Sydney had a huge meltdown and
proceeded to lay on her back on the floor and scream. See my example anecdotal record below.
During center time, Sydney was painting, and when the teacher told her that she only had “three
brush strokes left” she proceeded to lay on the floor on the back and scream stating that she “did
Interpretation: Sydney was very excited to get to be able to paint but did not want to stop or
share the paint with her friends. When asked to stop painting, Sydney did not know how to
respond to her frustration besides laying on the floor screaming. Would there be a better way in
the future to let Sydney know before she started painting that she has a certain amount of time
until she needs to be done? How can we as teachers help Sydney learn how to regulate her
Reflection
1. To what extent were lesson objectives achieved? (Utilize assessment data to justify
While conducting my lesson plan, students' achievement was documented by using the
Teacher Standards Gold. My teacher took pictures of each of the students’ worksheets and
inserted them into the TSGold app on her iPad. I helped her mark different areas that the
utensil, and expressing feelings. The app sorted out the information, but I was not able to
see the specific levels of each child. From my own observations I would say that a majority
of the students were in the orange/yellow section for socio-emotional development, but the
fine motor physical development skills varied throughout red, orange, yellow and green.
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2. What changes, omissions, or additions to the lesson would you make if you were to
teach again?
If I were to teach this lesson again, I would be more prepared with more questions to ask while
reading the story. I could tell that students were very engaged and wanting to answer every
question I had to ask since every child would speak out or raise their hand when asked a
question. The students would get sad if I did not call on them to answer a question. I feel as
though I could be more creative with the questions I asked or even have the children turn and
share their answers with a neighbor since every student wanted to answer the questions which
took a while. Another addition I would make is to add more sections for students to draw
emotions. I only made two sections, for two different types of emotions but I felt that some
students had more emotions that they wanted to draw but they did not have the space for it on the
worksheet. Another personal addition for teaching this lesson again would be to have better
classroom management skills and be able to bring the class back together more effectively when
3. What do you envision for the next lesson? (Continued practice, reteach content, etc.)
I envision that the next lesson will be a continuation of this lesson. Since emotions are a complex
topic to teach and to understand, students will need more practice with this topic. Reading more
stories or creating role play events where students are identifying different emotions would be
beneficial to this development. I would also like to do the next activity with small groups based
on developmental levels. Since some children in this class are more advanced than others,
splitting the kids into groups will help to be able to modify the assignment to be easier or more
4. If you used co-teaching, would you use the same co-teaching strategy for this lesson
if you were to teach it again? Were there additional co-teaching strategies used
I would utilize the same co teaching strategy of one teach one assist. This was very beneficial to
both me and my mentor teacher. My mentor teacher was able to sit back and observe the
student’s language development while I was reading and asking questions. This is something that
she does not get to do very often and was very happy to be able to take language development
notes. During the worksheet activity, all four teachers were walking around and assisting
students in drawing and writing out their drawings. This was beneficial because I would not have
been able to go around to each student and write down what they drew in allotted time for my
lesson. In the future, I want to be more confident in my leadership skills and abilities so that the
other teacher really can sit back and observe and not have to intervene with classroom
Throughout the course, we completed different fieldwork assignments that covered the topics of
planning for children’s learning. Understanding by design, unpacking standards, and essential
questions are critical when understanding effective ways to lesson plan. Assessment and
evaluation of learning along with planning for children’s learning must be developmentally
appropriate. Planning for student learning by knowing your individual students strengths and
course and my practicum placement I learned that I actually am more comfortable taking charge
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in classroom situations than I thought and that as a teacher you show confidence, your students
will respect you and listen to you more. I also learned that good teaching really comes with
experience. It is important to not be too hard on yourself when you are just getting your feet
under you, since aspects like classroom management and confidence really do develop over time
and with experience. During my practicum placement, I had hands on experience with using the
TSG assessment tool and learned how to classify different activities and behaviors into the TSG
domains and objectives. This was a big light bulb moment for me since it was connecting what
we had been learning about the TSG in class to applying it in real life situations. Going forward,
I have some new goals that I want to set for myself for the upcoming semesters. These goals
include, working to master lesson planning, continuing to build my confidence in the classroom,
and learning different assessment methods that different schools use. This semester I got a little
bit of all of this but going forward I think learning more and mastering these goals will make me
a stronger teacher.
Appendix
Standard:
Socio-Emotional Development: 4. The ability to recognize and regulate emotions and behavior
Preschoolers may: Manage actions, words, and behavior with increasing independence.
Adjectives/Adverbs:
Manage
Increasing independence
Criteria (adjectives/adverbs)
*can apply TSG - social-emotional objective 2: establishes and sustains positive relationships;
dimension b: responds to emotional cues; level 2- reacts to other emotional expressions
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*can explain; TSG - social-emotional objective 3: participates cooperatively and constructively in
group situations; dimension b: solves social problems; level 2: expresses feelings during a conflict.
Standard:
Physical Development: 3. Fine Motor Skills: The control of small muscles for such purposes as using
utensils, self-care, building, and exploring.
Preschools may: Manipulate writing, drawing, and art tools.
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Adjectives/Adverbs:
Building
Exploring
Close Ended Questions: Can you show me how to hold a Self Knowledge: Perform; students use
writing utensil? their fine motor skills to manipulate a
drawing utensil.
Criteria (adjectives/adverbs)
(TSG)
*can apply; TSG - physical objective 7: demonstrates fine-motor strength and coordination;
dimension b: uses writing and drawing tools; level 4 - Grips drawing and writing tools with whole hand
but may use whole-arm movements to make marks.
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*have self-knowledge; TSG - Physical objective 7: demonstrates fine motor strength and
coordination; dimension a: uses fingers and hands; level 4: Uses fingers and whole arm movements to
manipulate and explore objects.
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_______________________________________. ________________________________________.