Name: Molly Rozga Lesson topic: Graphing the Price of Produce Date Observed: November 17, 2009 School/

Grade Level/ Number of Students Taught: Westside Academy II, 4th Grade, 17 Students Cooperating Teacher Name: Ms. Allison Pelsis PLANNING AND PREPARATION: I thought the lesson was planned very well, especially after considering how the lesson transpired. I took the opportunity to have my cooperating teacher look the lesson over. I feel making that critical step helped my lesson be successful. She was able to make sure that I was using vocabulary that the students were familiar with, from previous graphing, and what new vocabulary I wanted to introduce. She also reminded me that I need to remain flexible during the lesson. I used this advice to gauge whether students were ready for independent work. My lesson objectives connected with the activity, assessment and rubric. I was not able to complete the lesson within the hour that I had. We were able to complete the lesson after the afternoon reading groups. Lesson time totaled 90 minutes. LEARNING ENVIRONMENT: The fourth graders in Ms. Pelsis classroom are very enthusiastic about participating. I think this component to my lesson had much more to do with Ms. Pelsis classroom culture than my lesson. I tried to make the lesson interesting by using real numbers for things that students tend to eat. To encourage the students to respond, I made sure to ask a lot of questions, and allow students to put answers on the document camera for the class to see. CLASSROOM INSTRUCTION: I incorporated a lot of literacy strategies to the math lesson. The students were given 5 sentences and told to collect the data from within. Each sentence had a year value and a price value. I had the students circle the year and underline the cost and connect them with an arrow. While we as grown-ups may be able to see that each sentence is a factual statement, the students are still working on pulling facts out of their reading, so it was very deliberate. We also used a T chart to organize our information prior to graphing. I also thought it was very important to model all of the strategies with the document camera. ASSESSMENT: The students were given some questions to answer after their graph was complete. The questions ranged from reading their graph, interpreting the graph and making some cost comparisons. Two questions were also included to allow students

to practice addition and subtraction of money (numbers with two decimals). Once the students work was completed, they were able to complete a self assessment. I placed it in the context of making sure you are successful with the assignment. The questions and self-assessment align with the standards and rubric. PROFESSIONAL RESPONSIBILITIES: Once I had my lesson plan completed, I brought it to Ms. Pelsis. She was able to go through the lesson with me to make sure that I knew everything that I was presenting and where the students are in terms of the lesson. Ms. Pelsis made sure that I understood that we may be doing the entire lesson together, as graphing is a general struggle for this class. I also had Ms. Pelsis preview the lesson materials to make sure that the students would not struggle with the wording of the lesson. I think this is critical. Ms. Pelsis knows her students much more than I do, and it is an incredible resource to be able to have the cooperating teacher review my lesson and materials. I think knowing the students is critical to your lessons success. The next lesson I presented, using the internet to gather factual information, required a little less assistance from Ms. Pelsis as I am getting to know the strengths of the class. REFLECTION: I learned not to underestimate setting the classroom culture at the beginning of the year. The students in Ms. Pelsis classroom are held up to a set of expectations regarding classroom decorum. It may sound simple but that firm establishment of the laws helps make the classroom successful. I also learned that I need to work on my teacher withitness. While I was helping or praising one side of the classroom, there were some disturbances on the other side of the classroom. I love the idea of using student self assessment before turning in an assignment, but the hows and the whys would need to be explained explicitly prior to the lesson.