Allison Lawrence

8. Reflection, Self-Evaluation, & Professional Development (LO 4.2 &

4.3) (APS 2, 3, 10)
TWS Standard
The teacher analyzes the relationship between his or her instruction and
student learning in order to improve teaching practice. The teacher uses
on-going analysis of student learning to make instructional decisions. The
teacher identifies area of need for personal professional growth.
Task
Clinical 1: I believe that if I was given the opportunity to be more involved
in the learning process of my students on day-to-day basics I would of better
handled the decision of what instructional strategies to use for their lessons.
Because I was not incorporated much in instructional time the students did
not see me as a teacher or leader, but more as a playmate or friend. This
proceeded to be difficult when instructing them to preform tasks during my
lesson plans, because they were not used to me giving them instructions. I
believe I could of incorporated the disciplinary tools I saw begin used in the
class more often during my lesson plans to limit disturbances from students
talking out of turn or not following directions. I also believe that in the
future I will think more about how I speak to the students and remember to
talk to them on their level instead of at them, just to get the content/objective
across.

Clinical 2: This clinical was a much more positive experience. I had all the
time I needed to grow with the students and learn how they process
information easily, and how they respond to different types of instructional
strategies. The one thing that I believe I could have worked more on was
giving a wider range of alternate activities to those students who were above
and those who were below. I learned that in 4-K a classroom could be a
mixture of students who did not receive any help at home and come in
knowing little to none about the core curriculum. And you will have the
students whose parents work with them daily, and they thrive in
exercises/lessons you will teach. I found that in the future I would best
handle this situation by incorporating more alternate hi and low range
assignments for those individual students.

Allison Lawrence

Prompt
What you did and why, critique of those decisions, and what you might
change or need to change to improve impact on student learning in the
future.

Clinical 1:
Lesson Plan 1: In this lesson I focused on teaching the students what the four
basic needs were and why it was important for animals and people to have
those things to survive. I started by teaching them what a need was. A need
is something you have to have in order to survive/live. I then related it all to
the fish we had just recently added to our classroom. I thought it would be a
great way to introduce our new pet and also teach the students how
important their role is in taking care of it. Feeding it, changing the water ect.
This lesson fit in perfectly with my second lesson because my second lesson
focused on habitats. I incorporated the idea that animals and people find
these 4 basic needs of survival in a habitat that fits them best. If I could
change anything about this lesson it would have been my delivery. I believe
that because it was my first lesson I wanted everything to be so perfect and
in order I did not teach from the heart or passion for the subject but mostly
with the idea of getting the students to learn the objective. I would next time
teach them more about the fish and how they live, and incorporate their own
lives and compare/contrast, thus making a more personal connection with
the objective.
Lesson Plan 2: I began by teaching the students the definition of a habitat-a
place where something/ animal or person lives. Then we discussed and
examined two different habitats-land and water. I focused on those because
they were polar opposites and I thought they would have been the easiest to
compare and contrast. We then compared and contrasted them. I explained
that each habitat better fits a certain animal. After that I then went on to
explaining that we were going to explore a land habitat, and needed to use
our senses to discover evidence of animals. I then had to explain what I
meant by evidence of animals. All in all I believe this was way too much
information for one days lesson. I believe that it would of worked much
better if I split it up and did the lesson plan meat or worksheets/lecture then
did the exploration of the environment on another day. After the exploration
we would have been able to do what I originally planed and view the
pictures we took in our environment we explored. Due to time restraints we
were not able to do this. I believe that this lesson taught me to do better at

Allison Lawrence

time management. To have everything timed out and if it is too much to

break it up into two days if need be. As a teacher I must learn how to be
flexible when I realize that a lesson plan is too much or too long. I have to
break it up and segment it into parts, so that the students are not
overwhelmed, as I believe they were based on the participation ratings of the
lesson.

Clinical 2:
Lesson Plan 3:For this lesson my plan was not a success due to time
restraints. I learned a great deal about the need to have a back up to my back
up plan. I made the graph and all of the pieces ahead of time, and their
pumpkins were already cut and colored yet we did not have enough time to
count and compare. My original lesson plan was that students were to place
their name on the graph according to the first letter of their name then tell
me what letter was used most for the beginning letter of our names? What
was the least used letter ect. I made sure before that the numbers would not
exceeded 0-3 in comparison, because that is what the standard called for.
The students were not able to compare and the graph was destroyed before I
was able to do it again, but if I could change anything it would have been
time management. I would of picked a different day, if I had the choice to
teach this lesson. The students were all excited about having their party, and
my CT was not there so I had to teach them with the assistant. I learned that
a teacher needs to realize when things just are not going right, finish the
lesson, but realize that the standard was not a success and will need to be
revisited at another time if this happed again.
Lesson Plan 4: This was my favorite lesson. I did a puppet show and a read
aloud every time I visited focusing on a one letter a day. I realized early on
with the help of my CT to keep lesson plans short and to the point, because
four year old attention spans are not that long, so I decided to continue doing
only one letter a day, even though I knew I would not be able to complete
the whole alphabet during my stay. I taught letters a though e. Each letter
had an activity to measure the childs comprehension. These activities
usually involved arts and crafts, because a big standard for these children is
mastery of coloring, pasting, cutting ECT. My activities many times focused
on just that. I also built a stage for them so that they could interact with the
smart board. Once I brought in the stage that is all they wanted to too was
play on the smart board, but what they did not know was that I was
assessing their progress individually through games, and interactive stories.

Allison Lawrence

If I could have changed anything during this lesson it would be to be more

simplistic. I tended to plan way too much for one letter at the begging, but
over time I leaned that their attention spans only last about 10 or so minutes
sitting down at max and after that they need to get up or go back to their
desks for the next activity.
Lesson Plan 5: This was my least favorite lesson plan, because I was trying
to incorporate the objective and the moral lesson of everyone comes from
different background and that makes them special and unique but still
friendly. I read the story then had the students guess what objects were in the
bags using feeling words such as I feel this or that. I did this to explain to
them that Lucy had to do a collage so that her grandpa could see the
picture in a different way than the other students. I then had the students do
their own collage, and had them tell me what they were making to encourage
new vocabulary. If I could of change anything it would have been to have
more malleable opinions for them to use for their collage. Some of the
students broke the cotton ball apart or split the string. This showed me that
they were able to do a lot more with materials than I originally thought. I
would have had more options for them to use that creativity.

Section 1: Whole Class

Lesson Plan 1: My instructional decision that impacted the whole class was
to have them go and look at the fish when they were done. This created a
time of unordarly ciaos during my lesson. I thought it would have been a
great idea for early finishers, but it ended up being a distraction to the other
students. I would of cut this out completely and had the student who finished
early use a different piece of paper and draw their favorite animal and
include all of the four basic needs for survival in their picture. I implemented
the Spanish words for the different needs; I believe that this gave my ESOL
students a leg up on understanding the meaning of the four basic needs.
Although, when I assessed them my ESOL students could not name me one
basic need for survival. Address this main concern I would have had a video
in Spanish talking about the four basic needs (early childhood level) and
would of played that for them in the morning during the video they were
watching, to prepare them for my lesson better.
Lesson Plan 2: mentioned above*time management* It impacted my whole
class because they were bombarded with too much information for one

Allison Lawrence

lesson. My lesson included: senses, habitats-land and water, what animal

lived in each, evidence of animal life, and compare and contrast animals to
their habitat. To create a more positive learning experience for my students I
would of split these objectives up in least two days. Accommodations, I
would have had them complete a group answer slip at the end of the activity
outside so that it seemed more productive. I would of also only taken out 4
at a time and went out for a shorter time. For my ESOL students I would
have had them work together so that they could communicate in their
language for the outside activity. I would also have focused more on the
rules of the activity. Having the students repeat them back to me over and
over. I would of also had some way of labeling the groups better instead of
having them hi-five their partner. After watching the video I discovered that
this was poor management on my part.
Lesson Plan 3: time management as stated above really impacted my whole
class performance of this lesson. I modified this lesson by having the
students color their pumpkins on a day I was not there. After viewing the
results I realized that it was not a fair judgment on my progress to assess
them on the color of their pumpkins, when I was not there to teach them that
skill or knowledge. I believe that if I would have been able to complete this
lesson the students would of done great, because I have been asking them
compare and contrast questions during my read alouds all the time. I would
just need to make sure they would be able to not just compare and contrast in
literature, but also mathematically.
Lesson Plan 4: I believe because I implemented so many different learning
styles into my lessons I was able to help every range of student learning
style in my classroom. I implemented technology, art, reading, listening, and
theater and many more during my activities. My accommodations varied
depending on the lesson at hand, but I feel that I struggled most when it
came to verbal accommodations. I have student who struggles when
answering verbal commands/questions. I should have had an alternate way
of communicating with him when doing assessment based instruction and
just used the verbal instruction when I was teaching the lesson not assessing
for that individual student.
Lesson Plan 5: My decision to pause during the read aloud and ask probing
questions impacted the whole class instructional time. I thought that because
of our teachers telling us to pause and reflect during read alouds, I was to do
this in this read aloud as well, but after talking with my CT and reading her

Allison Lawrence

reflections she believe that this was a hindrance on their learning. I stopping
the story distracted them and asking questions that instead I should of read
the whole story and then asked questions. I believe that after looking at the
results of my analyzes I would agree with her that the students were
unfocused on key parts of the story. Instead I believe what would have been
more beneficial is to read the story all the way through then do a whole class
activity that focused on comprehension and noticing cause and effect within
the story.
B.
Section 2: Three Individual Students reflective discussion should include:
A. Identify and describe the student that was most successful:
Clinical 1:
Student R-Middle: This student showed the most progress in my TWS6. He
went from 0% to an average 86% progress rate on completion of objective in
relation to my standards through lesson plans 1-2. I believe this success
came from my assessment strategies. The first assessment was based solely
on verbal responses and not on physical representation of comprehension. I
found out that this student does better when expressing his comprehension
through art or some sort of physical not cognitive representation. The
second reason for this success was based on whole group and individual
assessment. Where the student lacked in whole group assessment he thrived
in individual assessment. He was able to show me he understood the
objective when he did work independently without distractions from the
whole group.
Clinical 2:
Student N-Low: This student has a speech impediment and through trail and
error of using different leaning strategies for my lesson plan 4 I realized that
he did better when having to use art or physical movement when expressing
comprehension instead of verbal responses to my questions. I also believe
that he did better during whole group because he had time to hear the
responses of the other students and then form his own answers to the
questions that I asked based off of their responses. He went from a 0% to
91% in mathematical comprehension when I incorporated group instruction
instead of one-on-one verbal questions of comparing numbers. He also went
from a 63% to a 80% comprehension percentage in lesson plan four because
I believe of the change to hear the responses of the other classmates during

Allison Lawrence

whole group discussion and then use that knowledge when I assessed him on
a physical artistic assessment, where he did not have to use much verbal
responses to my questions instead he relied on physical expression of
comprehension.
B. Identify and describe the student that was least successful:
Clinical 1: Student P-high
Although, he scored 100% accuracy rating on all of my comprehension
assessments, I believe that this hurt him. I did not give enough higher level
thinking questions for him to really be able to thrive. I believe that when a
student scores 100% on everything the objective is mastered and there needs
to be a way for them to build onto that mastered skill. I should of provided
alternate assignments for him to complete additionally to the standard
assignment. This way I could better see a progress in their development
cognitively and socially.
Clinical 2: Student P-high
Again, although she scored 100% on everything I assessed her on; I was not
able to see progress. I attribute that to not being challenged enough, I again
could of incorporated alternate more challenging assignments that would of
let me see more progression in a skill or areas that I could help her improve
on. I also noticed that this student thrives in cognitive assessments, but lacks
in socialization among peers. Knowing this I believe that more team
building exercises or peer-oriented activates would of benefited her
progression in class.
C. Identify and describe the student that was about average in
performance:
My two students who were about average was my high level students and
above I have critiqued my performance and discussed what I would of done
differently in the future to improve or see more of a distinct progress in there
comprehension of other more advanced tasks or progress in socialization
(clinical 2) than cognitive. *Part B*

Allison Lawrence

Section 3: Reflection on additional 2-4 lessons

What modifications/adaptations you would implement as a result of teaching
and/or student performance, both during and following instruction of this
lesson:
Lesson Plan 2: I stated above that I would change the amount of time I had
to teach this lesson and what I would teach on each day-break down the
objectives
Lesson Plan 3: I would have done this lesson on a different day that way I
could of focused more on teaching the lesson in an amount of time I knew I
could complete it and I knew the students were not distracted in the
anticipation of a party.
Answered Below:
1. What instructional decisions did I make before and during the lesson and
why?
-Based upon student performance, discuss the instructional decisions
for the next or future lesson.
2. How did you engage or motivate the students successfully?
_What instructional mode(s) was employed? (Lecture, small group,
demonstration, experiment, etc.)
3. How effectively did you use instructional aids, i.e., whiteboard, video,
calculators, manipulative, computer, etc.?
_Were the students actively or passively involved? How so?
4. How effective were the materials and resources you selected for the
lesson?

1. Lesson Plan 2: Before the lesson I made the decision to break the students
up according to their gender and take them outside for the safari. I believed
that way I could manage them better in small group instead of a big group.
Although, after I taught the lesson I discovered that because of disobedience

Allison Lawrence

issues it would of worked better if I did a mix of girls and boys, so that I
could eliminate some social distractions in the future lessons. During the
lesson I made the decision to have the students tell me what to circle instead
of having them circle the animals on my pre-assessment worksheet. I still
stand by this decision because the students would not all be able to get a
turn, and their focus would have been on the smart board, because they have
never used it, and not on the content material in my future lessons.
Lesson Plan 5: Before the lesson I made the decision to not blindfold the
kids and have them feel the floor to show how touch may help someone who
cannot see. I instead used a bag with something placed in it and had them
reach in and tell me what it was using feeling words. I believe this worked
better because the students all got a turn and it went more smoothly
transitionally wise according to going form whole group to small group
instruction. During the lesson I decided to stop after a couple of pages and
ask probing questions. I know that this strategy is not a good way to retain
focus during a read aloud for this age of children. Instead in the future I will
wait till I read the story all the way to the end then do a discussion or an
activity to get the main points addressed.
2. Lesson Plan 2: Before I began my lesson I told them in a whisper that I
had a secret, the secret was that if they paid attention and did not act out or
blurt out I would give them the last ticket they needed to have their party. I
continued to leave little reminders of this when the class started to be
disruptive. I believe that this was a great way to retain focus at first and get
discipline under control at first, but I would of changed it along the way.
Instead I would of written the word ticket on the board and just said I am
going to erase a letter when the class is not being quiet. This way I would of
not have to stop my lesson and remind them over and over of our deal. It
would have been more of a quiet approach to maintaining discipline.
Lesson Plan 4: I engaged my students every mini-lesson during whole group
instruction with a puppet show. The puppets name began with an A (Alli)
and each letter after that was her friend who started with the next letter. The
students loved Alli, and it was a great way to encourage positive behavior in
the classroom all day not just during our lesson. I would say lets not be so
loud Alli is sleeping, and we wouldnt want to wake her up. The students
were quiet. The puppet worked great for maintaining focus and connections
during whole group and maintaining focus during independent work with
positive reinforcement of her existence in he classroom.

Allison Lawrence

3. Lesson Plan 4: At first I found it very hard to incorporate any use of

technology in this classroom because my CT and her assistant were not
familiar at all with it. After I made the stage I incorporated games, videos,
and interactive books with the smart board and the students seemed to really
love it. I used the stage as a way to positively reinforce good behavior in the
classroom. The students who were behaving correctly got to use the smart
board and there ones who were not did not. The students became actively
involved in the games that I played or helping me highlight words in the
books on the smart board. They also were actively involved when I used the
smart board to teach them a dance for my letter D lesson.
Lesson Plan 2: I loved using the smart board app that my teacher had. It was
full of transitional songs and dances that I used when moving into a new
portion of the lesson plan. It got the students moving and I was able to
refocus their attention. Students were actively involved because they were
up and moving to get out all of their energy before it was time to refocus. I
also let the helper of the day pick the song that they wanted to play.
4. Lesson Plan 2: I used manipulative for this lesson in two ways. The first
was that the children used small magnifying glasses to explore their
environment outside. I taught them how to use them previously, so I was
confident they were going to be able to use them correctly. They loved the
idea that I connected saying that they were real scientists exploring an
environment, because a real scientist would use that tool in their day-to-day
discoveries. I also use manipulative for part two of my post-assessment for
early finishers. They were to place the 3D animals in the correct habitat on
their mat. The students loved looking at the animals and their features to
discover what habitat they would thrive best in.
Lesson Plan 4: I was blessed in being able to use the Montessori animals and
objects during my puppet show lessons. I picked 3-5 different objects that
began with the letter sound I was teaching and my puppet introduced them to
the class. Some of the objects I passed around the students and they loved
how small they were. I think this helped because 4K students are very small
and their world is small too, so having objects that match the size of their
world helped them in seeing the connection between the letter sound and the
begging sound of each object.

Allison Lawrence

Section 4: Reflection for Professional Development

Identify two professional development goals that emerged from your
insights and experiences with the TWS. Identify two specific steps you will
take to improve your performance in the areas you identified
1. Time Management
In my professional life I tend to overdo and over-plan to a fault. My goal for
student teaching is to time out every lesson plan I am going to teach and
have just one assignment for those who finish first not 2 or 3. This will allow
me to focus more on getting to the point with the information I need to
teach, and not be distracted in thinking I do not have enough time to
complete this lesson. I will make progress towards this goal by timing out all
of my lessons before I teach them, and to have simplified lesson plan
activities not in-depth and overzealous.
2. Talking to the Students on their level
I tend to be so caught up on disciplinary issues that I have noticed I lack in
talking to the students on their level. It opened my eyes on how different the
cognitive development is for each age range of child. I was so used to
talking to students as if they were 3rd graders like my previous clinical, and
had to re-adjust my tone and word selection to better the cognitive language
development of the age range of children I was teaching. Now I do know
that does not mean talk to younger students like they are babies, but talk to
them on a level they can comprehend. I will accomplish this goal with
experience. Watching more closely how my CT interacts with the students
and then proceeded to do the same with my instruction. I will also make sure
that I know my students on a personal level each one individually, so that I
can relate to them on a topic that they are most interested in.