Department of Teacher Education & Learning Sciences

Elementary Education Program

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: Lyndsey Jones Date: 11/28/17

1. To what extent were learning outcomes appropriate and achievable to your students?
The learning outcomes for this lesson were appropriate and achievable to my
students. For kindergarteners it was in their range of appropriateness, but challenged
them to think about other people outside of themselves. In addition, they were able to
answer questions about text details, and retell what happened in the story.

2. How effective were your instructional strategies? What changes would you make in
your instructional approaches if you taught this lesson again? Why?
I believe that our instructional strategies were effective for this lesson. Doing an
engage at the beginning of the lesson really got the students engaged and gave them
stake in the lesson. In addition, using the read-aloud to introduce the text, and
stopping in the middle of it to make sure they were comprehending what was going on
in the story was a really effective instructional strategy. Asking them questions after
reading the text was also an effective instructional strategy. Finally, doing a culturally
relevant activity with the students helped them to really understand differences
between people, but how everyone can come together to be friends. The changes I
would make in my instructional approaches if I taught this lesson again would be to go
more in depth about culture and other differences between people because I kept it
pretty basic (I felt that it may overwhelm my kindergarteners, but I think they could
have handled it).

3. Evaluate the effectiveness of your oral and written communication with students.
(Consider how well you communicated learning objectives, clarity of directions, use of standard English, quality of
questions and effectiveness of discussion techniques.)
I think I did well with the effectiveness of my oral and written communication with the
students, but I can always improve. I think sometimes I may not have been as clear
as I could have been when asking questions and giving directions, but overall I feel
like the students understood what I was saying and wanting them to learn from the
lesson. In addition, I feel that the questions I asked were very thought provoking for
the kindergarteners and allowed them to use their knowledge from the book we had
just read to answer some of them, and they could use previous knowledge about
themselves and others to answer other questions about differences of culture.
4. Evaluate the level of student engagement in your lesson . (Consider how you presented the
content/skills, the activities and assignments for students, grouping of students, and structure and pacing of the
lesson.)
Students were very engaged in the lesson. The hook/engage with the M&Ms really
got them invested in what we were doing. This also related to what we were going to
be discussing about how people are different. In addition, the read-aloud of the book
was very engaging in itself, and stopping along the way to check childrens
comprehension helped keep them engaged. Also, the name puzzle piece activity
made the children really excited and kept them engaged in the learning process
throughout the lesson.

5. How effectively did you use instructional materials, resources, and/or technology?
I used M&Ms as a hook, and put questions that corresponded with each M&M color on
the SmartBoard. Also, the read-aloud was done using a video of the read-aloud on the
SmartBoard, and this kept children effectively engaged in the reading. I believe this
was an effective use of instructions materials/resources/technology for this lesson, and
it kept the students on task and invested in the lesson.

6. To what extent were your assessment strategies effective? What changes would you
make in your assessment approach if you taught this lesson again? Why?
My assessment strategies were pretty effective. Oral questions to check students
comprehension of the read-aloud really helped us to get an idea about how well the
students had processed and understood the book that was read. Also, being able to
discuss with the class how people are different was an effective assessment strategy.
A change I would make in my assessment approach if I taught this lesson again would
be to have a more concrete or written out assessment to help the children visualize
what they have talked about, as well as it would help me get a wider range of the
whole class and how well they comprehended and learned the material in the lesson.

7. To what extent was your feedback to students accurate, substantive, constructive,

specific, and/or timely?
I felt my feedback to students was accurate and warranted, as well as timely in
response. In addition, I feel that I was constructive when giving feedback. I was firm
when need be, but in a kind way and I helped children realize what they needed to do
and they were more receptive to the feedback because I was kind about it.

8. To what extent did the classroom management and environment contribute to student
learning? (Consider your classroom procedures, your use of physical space, and the students conduct.)
I used the Gimme Five classroom management procedure during the lesson, as well
as instructing students with directions before actually doing the activities and other
parts of the lesson. This allowed students to not be distracted from what we were
learning, as well as to stay on task because they knew what was expected of them
before they were expected to do it. In addition, the classroom environment contributed
to student learning because I was excited and enthusiastic about the lesson and the
activities, and was kind and welcoming to students and what they had to say.
 9. Did you make modifications to your lesson plan during the lesson? If so, what were
they and what motivated these changes?
I made minor modifications to the lesson plan during the lesson. This included
changes such as allowing more than 3 people to share their answers out loud to the
class for the M&M activity, as well as ask more questions about the read-aloud to
make sure children had comprehended what the book was about.

. 10. Was your Teaching Behavior Focus goal met?

My Teaching Behavior Focus goal, Student engagement through discussion is
fostered was met. Having students talk in groups during the M&M activity, as well as
share their answers with the whole class, and discussing the read-aloud as a class
allowed for this Teaching Behavior Focus goal to be met.