Exemplary Teacher Observation Reflection Form

(Teacher can be from same or different grade band)

Teacher Candidate for Science Endorsement: _____Kimberly McCreary____________

Exemplary Teacher Initials: _______________________________________________

School: ___Picketts Mill ES_________ Grade: __________1________________

Lesson Topic: ________Weather __________________________________________

I observed another first grade teacher at my school teaching a lesson on weather.

There were 19 students in this class and 4 of them were labeled as EIP. The class was
a reduced class size EIP model to allow the teacher additional time to address the
needs of those particular students.
As the lesson started off, the teacher told the class what standard they would be
working on today (identifying and describing types of weather). She played a
weather song on YouTube and her students stood up and sang along. After listening
to the song, she showed an anchor chart previously made by the class that showed
different types of weather. She asked if there was anything that needed to be
changed or added to the chart, and the class agreed to add hurricanes to the chart
as they had been hearing a lot about hurricanes in the news recently. After that, she
read a science textbook chapter about weather (provided through the Science
curriculum adoption materials). She then introduced the stations that students
would be moving through for the remainder of the lesson. At one of the stations,
students would work with a tornado in a bottle. Another station had a parent helper
making a cloud in a bottle. At another station students worked with the teacher to
build a rain gauge out of a water bottle. And at the last station students worked on a
Weather Word Search. Students moved throughout the classroom from station to
station in groups of 4-5. At the end of the class period, she brought the class back to
the carpet and discussed what happened at each center and restated the standard.
I thought this was a really good lesson. Students were engaged in and interested
in learning through hands-on activities. They built on previous knowledge and asked
questions before engaging in the days lesson. I could tell that the groups were
formed to allow the teacher to provide extra help for students who needed it. The
teacher used technology to introduce the lesson and engage her students in the
singing of the song. Differentiation was present through her grouping and
questioning throughout the lesson. The only thing I can think of for improvement is
maybe to replace the Word Search activity with another hands-on activity, but I am
sure another parent volunteer might have been needed, as first graders usually need
adult assistance with most hands-on activities.
In her questioning at the end of the lesson, the teacher was able to see that most
students were able to attain the student performance objectives. One way to know
exactly what her students learned could have been to use a ticket out the door on
the way to Specials.
Overall, the lesson seemed to be very effective and engaging for the class. Its
definitely a lesson I would like to try in my own classroom.