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: Holly Small Date: 12/1

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

I believe my instructional strategies as a whole proved to be effective because students were engaged and left the lesson
understanding the main takeaways. However, there are some things instruction wise I would tweak to make the lesson stronger.
(1) I used a virtual read-aloud for this lesson, simply because of lack of access to the book. I couldn’t find it at METRC or the
public library. I used a virtual read aloud that had someone else reading aloud to the students. While I think that virtual read aloud
serve a purpose, I think a traditional read aloud would feel more authentic to students, and would allow for me to better gauge
their level of understanding. (2) I would not require as much writing on the worksheet as I did this go round. The original
worksheet asks for students to write words to indicate what is being worn, and for my age students (kindergarten), I think this
was a bit advanced. Rather than advancing the lesson, sometimes students were more preoccupied with spelling than the actual
concepts I wanted them to learn. In the future, I would stick to the original worksheet but take out the writing portion, specifically
for my first semester kindergartners, who are still not comfortable sounding out words on their own.

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.

One thing in particular I did not anticipate is that some of my students had read “Mary Wear’s What She Wants” before. Initially
when giving my lesson and students told me this, I panicked a bit, and was scared my lesson was “ruined”. However students
were very eager to read the book again and I do not think their engagement was lessened in any way because of this. To extend
students' thinking, I believe I was able to bring them to form a deeper understanding of how the book relates to Women’s Rights.
I was able to do this by scaffolding students' thoughts on how women’s dress has evolved and that relates to women’s rights.
After allowing students to form these ideas, I guided them to form the connection of how these concepts relate to “Mary Wears
What She Wants”.

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?

To assess whether or not students achieved the objective of the lesson, I had two checkpoints that allowed me to gauge their
understanding. (1) If students were able to accurately fill out their worksheet and verbally explain to their peers the ideas they
portrayed. (2) In the conclusion of the lesson I asked questions to hit on the main takeaways students should have and made sure
to be aware of how each student answered.

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

My ability to motivate students is something I am very confident in. I may not always execute a lesson perfectly, or
convey a concept the way I intended, but I always make sure my students feel motivated to learn and know they are worthy of
learning! In this lesson in particular to make sure my students were prepared we started off by simply saying how we felt that
day. If students wanted to expand they could, and if not that's okay too. I think this is a nice way for students to know I (the
teacher) care about their feelings, a way for me to gauge where they are at that day, and for them to feel seen. Additionally, the
validation of their feelings prepares them to learn and puts them in a headspace to work to the best of their abilities. When
 Elementary Education Program
Department of Teacher Education & Learning Sciences

students answered questions I always made sure to give positive feedback. On student worksheets I made a point to compliment
some aspect of their work, even if some things needed to be tweaked, so students could feel proud of what they had created.
I was able to enforce expectations for my students by laying out what the lesson would look like in the Introduction of
our time together. I made students aware of what they would be doing and how they would be participating. If I were to change
something about how I set up expectations I would make a point in the beginning to remind students to raise their hand when
they wanted to speak or ask a question. This would have helped me to avoid a lot of the disruptions during my lesson. Also, I
would have liked to have done a better job just explaining what was expected on the worksheet. I think my ability to tell students
what is expected will grow as I become a more seasoned educator.
Transitions is an area where I think I need the most growth. As I watched my video back of me giving my lesson, I saw
how choppy my transitions were. I know if I am able to see how unauthentic my transitions were, my students most likely felt
that as well. I would like to change how my transitions go so that students don’t feel rushed, and have the space to ask me any
questions they have. I may do this in the future by taking the time for 20-30 second break in between transitions for students to
have the space to ask questions and prepare themselves for the next activity.

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

I did not make any modifications to my lesson plan during the lesson. In some other lessons I have given I have had to do this,
but for this one I was able to stick to the plan. I went through each activity and followed what I had intended to do on my lesson
plan.

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 was able to meet my Teaching Behavior Focus of “Aligning task with learning goals”. I was able to do this by making sure all
of my activities within my lesson in some way advanced my learning goals. My discussions, read aloud, and worksheet all
furthered my students' understanding of the concepts being taught.