My Last US 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 US observation where I read to the students an excerpt from a nonfiction text about what one should do when they enter a new town and school. I had the student's think about the author's purpose and how they knew it was the purpose based upon details from the text. I knew the students learned how to do this objective based upon the turn and talk responses that they gave me during the lesson. Afterwards, I modeled for them how to plan for a narrative. I used the BMME method and had the students help me create my plan on poster paper. Later, the students created their own plans for their narratives about someone moving to a new town or school.

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?

I think that something the I could refine in my own instruction would be to better explain to the students what I am asking them to look for in the text. I felt as though the students were confused with questions I was asking them after I read the except to them. It may be that the text itself was hard for them to connect with. I felt as though the text was not engaging enough so the students did not have much to say about it when I asked them questions.

If I were to teach it again, I would say that what I would keep the same would be how I explained the difficult vocabulary to the students. The text seemed to be above the students understanding level so I tried to make it more understandable to them and their lives.

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

Based on the learning objectives, my next goals for the students would be to be able to plan in more detail. We explain to the students that we don't want them to plan using full sentences because that's all they write in their papers. I want the students to understand that they can add details to their plans and not right a lot at the same time.

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

Something that I am realizing in my teaching is that I am getting better at introducing the lesson to the students. It may sound minuscule, but I used to find it difficult to introduce topics to my students. I never knew what to say in order to get things started. Being able to better introduce a lesson to students allows me to give clearer instruction to the students and have them understand what is being asked of them during the lesson.