Department of Teacher Education & Learning Sciences

Elementary Education Program

Pre-Observation Form

Directions: This form is to be completed prior to every lesson that will be observed by the mentor
teacher or university supervisor. It is to be submitted no later than 3 business days prior to the actual
observation along with your lesson plans.

Name: Katherine Hill Date: 11/7/17

1. What is the topic of your lesson?

Characteristics of various landforms.

2. Why are you teaching this lesson? What is your rationale for teaching it?

I am teaching this lesson as a review of landforms. Students briefly identified landforms

in a previous lesson and discussed some of their characteristics but I want to make sure
that students can describe characteristics of major landforms.

3. What is your Teaching Behavior Focus? Why did you choose this?

Demonstrating withitness when problems arrive. There is potential for behavior issues
to arise in the lesson so I want my observer to pay attention to how I handle this if it
happens. Also, playdough is involved and a problem could potentially arise with that due
to excitement.

4. Why did you design your instruction in this lesson the way that you did? Why did
you choose this way of teaching the lesson (e.g., Was the idea from a methods
course? From your mentor teacher? Another source?)

I wanted the majority of this lesson to be the activity, so I created a short review that will
cover all of the points I want to hit at the beginning to free up time for creating
landforms. My mentor teacher and I discussed effective ways to review this topic and I
created this plan.

5. As you are thinking through this lesson, what do you believe will be the most
challenging part of this lesson for you when you teach it? Why?

I think the most challenging thing will be keeping children under control and on task
when using the playdough. Playdough is exciting and mostly used for play, so students
might have issues keeping their excitement under control.
 6. How will you know if your learning outcomes for the students are met
successfully?

If students can form models that show understanding of what these landforms should
look like and can describe their characteristics.

7. How will your classroom management support the learning outcomes?

By setting expectations with the playdough, students should be able to stay on task.

8. List 1-3 areas which you would like for your observer to pay particular attention.
Why do you want your observer to focus on these areas?

Were the visual arts incorporated in an effective and productive way? This is my first
arts integrated lesson and I want to make sure I am applying what we have learned in
class to the classroom. I want the art to enhance learning.

9. Is there anything else you would like your observer to know before the
observation?

This is an arts integrated lesson