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: Laci Throneburg Date: 4/11/19

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

I think my instructional strategies were somewhat effective because the students did learn facts
(which was obvious from their answers in the discussion) about The Wright Brothers but I did struggle
to maintain control of my small group so I deem it as a “somewhat effective.” Their synthesis of the
paragraphs was a bit lengthy, and need a bit of work. However, for an introduction lesson, this would
be considered a very effective outcome. If I were able to make any changes, I would have students
sitting in desks and not on the carpet. I would also read the paragraphs aloud, as I let students do that
but some had issues with projecting their voices and the text was a bit difficult for them so the fluency
of the text was broken every couple of seconds to decode a word. I would also spend more time
discussing what a timeline is before jumping into the lesson so that students have more of a
foundational understanding of what they are creating.

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

Most of the students worked well on the activity from the lesson, which I had thought that some
would understand it but I was not quite sure if the article they were going to read was going to be too
difficult or not. Some students finished before others and I was able to allow them to work ahead,
which became a little messy at times. I wish I could have had something for students if they finished
the entire activity before the rest of the students did but unfortunately I did not plan for that because I
did not foresee that happening. For students who needed scaffolding, it was a bit difficult because I
would be helping a student and the rest of the group would be noisy and off task. Sometimes I was
unsure of their confusion since we had talked about it as a whole group but was not able to give them
enough attention/ be given enough information to figure out how to help. If given another chance, I
would like to have the other students continuing their work ahead which allows me more time to work
with students who need a little more support.
 Elementary Education Program
Department of Teacher Education & Learning Sciences

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?

To assess whether students achieved the objective of the lesson, I planned to assess whether
students could accurately synthesize each paragraph in a concise manner and if they could correctly
place events from The Wright Brothers’ lives in chronological order. I planned on doing this by
looking at students’ timelines and from their answers within our small group. I was able to get an idea
of students’ understanding of synthesizing from their summary of the paragraph, however, I would like
to have a further assessment to ensure that they would be able to repeat that synthesis process. As far
as placing events in chronological order that part of the lesson got a bit rushed and would need further
teaching for me to be able to effectively assess it. I did not think to collect the timelines, which is how
I would have assessed so in another opportunity, I would actually collect the timelines so that I could
fully assess!

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

Before we started working, I set my expectations for my small group of students. I let them
know that I expected them to quietly raise their hand if they knew the answer and to try to stay on task
while others were reading or talking. This worked for some, however for others they became
disengaged and unfortunately, I struggled with getting their attention back. I just wasn’t able to
motivate them enough to care about the lesson and I was so busy with students who needed to move
forward, students who needed help and students who were not doing anything that I was a little spread
thin and could not offer enough motivation for all students. If I were to change anything for the next
time, I would come in better prepared for students who become disengaged and how to help them get
back on task. Transitions between the different paragraphs within the article we were reading were a
bit of a struggle because some students were way ahead and ready to move on, others hadn’t written
anything down and some were struggling a bit and still writing. Had I had more time for my lesson, I
could have been more relaxed during the transitional times which would have given students the
chance to continue to work and also set students up for the next paragraph. Also, the transition time
between working and the discussion was a mess and if I could change that I would have been more
clear with my transition expectations and discuss expectations.

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

The discussion at the end became shortened due to a time constraint. I spent a little too much
time working with students (for the allotted time I had) and did not have enough time to dive fully into
a discussion as I had hoped for, however, we did still have a quick, small one. We were able to share
 Elementary Education Program
Department of Teacher Education & Learning Sciences

out about a timeline created but did not get to use the follow-up questions: “What other things would
you like to know about the Wright Brothers? How might you find out this information? How would
you use a timeline to document your life?”

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

I feel like I half met my teaching behavior focus. My goal was to focus on keeping students
engaged throughout and encouraging active involvement. I was able to have active involvement
throughout the lesson by some of the members but others became disengaged and I struggled with
getting them back on task. I allowed students to read aloud the passages however other students often
finished reading silently before the reader reading aloud and became restless. To combat this
restlessness, I tried to allow them to move on to the next step (as we had already done one together)
but then they would either finish that become bored once again or they would finish it and become
noisy. I think for next time, while it would be great to let students read aloud if I had the time
constraint that I did and the text seemed as if though it is out of an independent level, I would read it
myself. I also want to figure out a way to allow students to work on ahead if they finish before others
so that they do not become bored and noisy. If I hadn’t done my lesson in a small group setting, it
would have been a little easier to allow other students to work ahead but with all of the students so
close to each other on the carpet, it just was not feasible. Once some students were disengaged, I found
myself struggling to regain this focus and the next time I would have some backup ideas of how to
effectively regain the engagement.