My Last CT Observation Reflection! (#3)

*Discuss student learning. What did students learn? Provide evidence for this learning (discuss student work, observation data, video, etc.). How do you know that students learned?

Today, I conducted my last observation that was observed by my classroom teacher. For this lesson, we compared and contrasted two different texts that they had read earlier this week. One was a narrative in their textbooks and the other was an excerpt from an informational piece of writing. Both texts and to do with making friends. I had the students turn and talk with their neighbors and discuss the differences between the two texts. I know that the students understood this concept because of the answers that they gave me to write on the Venn Diagram.

Afterwards, I modeled how they would begin writing a narrative that they had previously planned for the previous day. The students helped me write the sentences as I modeled for them what their stories should look like.

*What do you feel worked well and what would you refine if you were to teach this lesson again to the same class?

My students have compare and contrasted before so the lesson went fairly smoothly. The students also wrote a narrative about themselves the previous weeks so they knew what was expected of them in their writing this week. I feel as though the students have more to say when I ask them to turn instead of asking them individually. The same students raise their hands to give their input on what should go on the Venn Diagram. When they turned and talked, they had more to say because they feel more comfortable thinking about it first with their peers and then raising their hands.

Something that I have been trying to work on was my timing during the lessons. I would let to many students share out during the lesson and had trouble not picking on students and just moving on. For this lesson, I timed how long each portion of the lesson should be and kept fairly good timing during the lesson. I gave the students brain breaks during the lesson and had them moving around in the classroom to move to a different area so that they wouldn't get restless. I can see that my time management during lessons is getting better.

Something that I would refine in this lesson if I were to do it again would be to have the students have their own copy of the texts so that they could refer back to it as I asked them to compare and contrast. After turn and talk, they had some idea but I could see that in the beginning of the lesson there was a little bit of a memory block because they didn't have that reference to look back on.

*Based on student learning of the objectives, what are your next steps/goals?

For the writing portion of this lesson, I had the students experiment with using transitions in their narrative writings. Based on the learning objectives in this lesson, my next goals with the students in writing would be to have the students vary in their transitions. The students use a lot of "then's" and "and's" in their writing as transitions. I will conference with the students and create new writing goals with them to strengthen their writing as well. Some of the students who have most of their writing goals met will focus on strengthening the variety in their writing, whether that be transitions, the types of sentences they use, or adding more detail.

*As you reflect over this observation cycle, what ideas or insights are your discovering about your teaching?

Some insights that I am discovering about my teaching is that I am good at making things relatable to the backgrounds of my students. If a text has vocabulary that is unfamiliar to them, I am able to present the explanation to them in a way that is understandable to them.

I am also getting better at not calling the same students. At times, the same students are always raising their hands to answer the question. I like to use sticks to randomly call on students. I am also getting better at making sure that all the students are engaged and listening to their peers.