Elementary Education Program

Department of Teacher Education & Learning Sciences

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: Becky Dyke Date: 12/04/19

1. How effective were your instructional strategies? What changes would you make in your
instructional approaches if you taught this lesson again? Why?

The instructional strategies we used in our lesson included open-ended whole class discussion,
facilitated student to student discourse and hands on learning. Our strategies were relatively effective
during our lesson. Our most effective strategy in our teaching was our hands on learning portion. Our
students were able to design their puzzle piece and place it in our whole class puzzle. This way our
students were able to visually see how all of our cultural differences work together to make a cohesive
unit. If I were to repeat the lesson, I would give more time for student to student discourse to learn
about our classmates cultures.

2. Compare how students actually responded to the lesson verses the way you anticipated they would
respond. Explain how you scaffolded or extended students’ thinking.

I anticipated the students would be relatively rowdy during the lesson and not understand the concept
that we were trying to reinforce. However, our students were on task the entire activity and understood
the concept we were reinforcing. We scaffolded students thinking by teaching students to not just think
of their own culture, but the importance of others cultures and how they fit into the classroom and are
valuable and important.

3. Describe how you assessed whether your students achieved the objective of the lesson. Was this
effective? If not, what would you change about your assessment?

We assessed our students on our lesson objective after our hands on activity. We brought our
discussion back whole class after our puzzle was hung at the front of the classroom. We asked the
students to share an important part of the puzzle piece with the whole class. We then asked the students
why it is important to welcome other cultures that are different from our own. This was our
overarching goal of the lesson and the students seemed to have a deep understanding.

4. How effectively did you motivate your students, set and enforce expectations, and handle
transitions? Would you change anything and if so, why?

From the beginning of our lesson, we were very clear on our expectations for the students behavior.
The students were very excited to complete the activity, but knew if they wanted to participate, they
had to be on task. I cannot think of anything that I would change if I were to complete this again.
 Elementary Education Program
Department of Teacher Education & Learning Sciences

5. Did you make modifications to your lesson plan during the lesson? If so, what were they and what
motivated these changes?

Yes, we had to change the timing on our lesson. We were only given a 40 minute block to complete
our lesson. Therefore, we had to shorten our story block in order to have enough time for our main
activity and discussion.

6. How did you meet your Teaching Behavior Focus? If you did not meet it, what would help you to
meet it next time?

We met our teaching behavior focus throughout our lesson. We invited students culture,
backgrounds and community into the classroom. We focused on the importance of these
differences and how they can make a strong classroom community.