EDR 317 Observation

Name: Rachael Quigley Date: April 1,2014

Topic/Grade: Writing in response to reading/grade 1

Teacher demonstrated enthusiasm and interest while teaching.
Rachael is an enthusiastic teacher who has established an effective rapport with the students. She is interested in
and concerned about student learning.

Students were provided with necessary materials.
Students received writing materials when they returned to their seats.

Lesson was presented in a clear and logical manner.
Rachael presented the lesson in a before, during, and after framework.

Students were engaged throughout and were aware of what to do and what was expected of them.
Students (20) participated enthusiastically in the lesson and seemed to understand the objective of the lesson.

After completing the morning routine (attendance, lunch count, calendar), Rachael invited students to join her
on the carpet to listen to a read aloud of the big book version of It Looked Like Spilt Milk. Since students had
already read the book, she did not take predictions. This is a good opportunity to discuss reading the same book
for different purposes. During reading, she asked questions about the different types of illustrations on each
page. She covered parts of the text with a post it so the students could infer what they thought the author
wrote based on the illustration. She stopped at appropriate points and called on volunteers to help her gure
out what the words would be. She called attention to authors syntax ("writing style") to have students help her
gure out one of the sentences. As students shared answers, she asked why students thought it was that word.
This helped the students identify and understand the pattern in the book. It would be helpful to discuss why the
author chose to capitalize the nouns in each sentence. After reading would have been a good time to review the
author syntax and style. Rachael then explained students would draw a shape, tear it like (like the illustrations in
the book), then write about it on another piece of appear that said "it was just a cloud in the sky." Her
directions were clear and easily understandable. She also explained a checklist students would receive to help
them complete their writing assignments. Before students started, she ensured students understood the
assignment by sharing her model then explaining how students would use author syntax ("sometimes it looked
like...") to write their stories. The writing portion of the lesson was not observed, but in the post conference,
Rachael shared writing samples and we discussed their progress. Rachael set a goal to anticipate the students'
responses and plan appropriately. She feels she is progressing with this goal and set another one to have a
sponge activity for earlier nishers.