Cooperating Teacher Observation

Lesson number one that Mrs. DiNardo, my cooperating teacher, planned for her students was

actually an activity that involved the principal of the school named Mr. Anderson. It was a lesson about a

certain style of writing that they had been practicing. He had written this story to demonstrate how to

write one and to give them someone to look up to as a motivation to write their very own. The second

lesson she had planned for the class was Non-fiction story elements and sequencing. The objectives of

the first lesson were to teach the students a new writing style that they would be exploring as well as

get them started with a new writing assignment, using the principal’s story as an example and

motivation. It is also an objective that they’d learn the new elements of the story writing and be ale to

display their skills themselves through writing their own stories. The objectives of the second lesson

were to learn about the elements of non-fiction writing in books and be able to identify them

throughout the books. Another objective is to learn the skills of sequencing and putting events in order

of which they occurred in the stories or passages.

The first lesson started from the very beginning of their school day after their daily morning

announcements. Mr. Anderson, their principal, had set aside time out of his morning to meet with this

class and his excitement to share his story with the students of his school was unmatched. First he

started by asking how the class was and introducing their new topic. Part of this lesson was to reiterate

different elements of stories that they had already reviewed. Some of these elements include a table of

contents, page numbers, pictures, captions, headings/topics, real information, and many more. His story

didn’t include all of these but the students were quick to point out the ones that were included that they

identified. This was one big milestone that showed their progression is what they had been learning

about these types of stories. The next part of the lesson was presenting his story to the students of the

class. He had written his story about Germany which is his favorite country. He explained all about the
different things in Germany like food, language, and even different cities in the country. He added a

table of contents to give more elements to the story as well as page numbers. He included headings

which went along with the topics of each page. He did his research and added real information to make

sure they were getting the correct information. Mr. Anderson read the story in front of the whole class

and actively was asking questions to keep the kids’ attention and keep them engaged. The students

enjoyed hearing a story from their principal and immediately after wanted to write their very own just

like him. Mrs. DiNardo lead them into their next writing activity by telling them to brainstorm some

ideas of topics in which they wanted to write a story about. Using Mr. Anderson’s story as a model, it

was the perfect transition into their next topic of their writing portion of their learning. Mrs. DiNardo

gave each student the same writing format packet that she’d given Mr. Anderson to make his example

with. This helped the students to visualize what their story should be laid out like. After they had figured

out a topic, Mrs. DiNardo lead them onto their first topic in which they were able to start their writing.

This lesson continued on for a few days remaining in the week until they were all able to finish and

illustrate their stories.

Another lesson that Mrs. DiNardo taught her students was about the elements of a non-fiction

piece of writing and how sequencing works. This lesson was about Rosa Parks where they explored a

biography, a type of non-fiction book, about her life. They were reviewing Rosa Parks because during

this time of their school year, it was Black History Month. They had been analyzing historical figures

from Black History Month which is why Rosa Parks was the topic of this lesson. Not only was it because

of Black History Month, but also because she was such an important historical figure in our history. They

read this book about Rosa’s life and afterward were given a worksheet. On this worksheet was a giant

timeline which they had to fill out with certain milestones from her life that they read in the book. As a

class with the instruction coming from Mrs. DiNardo, they started off by learning that the dates and

years that things happen is the most important when looking at a sequence of events, such as what
happened in someone’s life. They took this knowledge and were able to put certain milestones that

Rosa achieved throughout her life in order on the timeline, starting with when she was born, including

when she stood up for herself on the bus, and when she sadly passed on. Some events like her marriage

were included in between these milestones. Mrs. DiNardo was actively reminding them of how a

timeline worked and was repeatedly showing them where the information was going as they were

completing the activity together. She was keeping them engaged through her positive attitude and her

reassurance that they would easily understand how to do the activity as they were going along. She

demonstrated positive reinforcement which was extended through the actions of the students and even

displayed through their work. They worked efficiently and had no trouble paying attention as Mrs.

DiNardo made the lesson very captivating. She asked many questions throughout the story to keep the

kids engaged and to see if they were paying attention. In the end, her goal was to see if any of the

students were able to retain the skills of how sequencing worked and how to put events in order of

which they happened according to the book and in Rosa Parks’ life. The students demonstrated this

extremely well and were able to finish up the activity on their own by filling out the last fact with the last

bit of information left. Their finished worksheets showed their progression and their retention of these

skills.