Wheelock Supervisor's Response to First Lesson

Lesson Observation

October 10, 2012 @ 11:40

Re: Catherine Schrager

Supervisor: Shoshy Collins

Writing Lesson

The students came in from recess and met at their desks. Catherine brainstormed with her SP re: whether to move the students to the rug, where she had originally planned to meet with them or to keep them at their desks to avoid another transition. They decided that keeping them at their desks was best so Catherine quickly organized the notes on the smart board for the writing lesson.  She was able to change her plan and regroup in a way that was not distracting to the students.

Catherine typed notes on the smart board reminding the students what strategies they’ve been using for personal narratives.   “Who remembers from yesterday?” The new strategy for the day was using a strong feeling to help you write your personal narratives.  Catherine shared a story about a time that she was embarrassed and asked the students to share a time when they were embarrassed or had a strong emotion or feeling. Students were asked to share with partners.  “What other feelings can you think of that are strong?”

A few students shared what they had talked about with partners and then students were asked to get started. Students wrote independently while Catherine met with a number of students 1:1. She listened intently to their ideas and often probed with further questions to get at the ‘seed’ story vs. the watermelon. 

The lesson concluded by having a few students share what they had written that particular day. The SP began to wrap the lesson, reminded everyone what the purpose of the lesson was---to use writing about a strong emotion to write personal narratives; adding to their growing bank of personal narrative strategies.

Commendations:

Ø  Catherine appeared to have command of the students’ attention.

Ø  She had an appropriate flow of the lesson: including a mini lesson, 1:1 conferencing, and sharing

Ø  She worked comfortably 1:1 and students appeared to respond to her feedback and attention

Ø  She was able to change midstream re: the placement of the students (rug or desks)

Ø  She was able to change her plan and regroup in a way that was not distracting to the students.

Recommendations:

Ø  Refer students to visuals on smartboard so they can be clear about the focus for the lesson

Ø  Tell students at the beginning of writing time exactly what you want them to do “while you’re writing today, I want you to try to use a strong emotion to help you write your personal narrative”, etc.

Ø  Make clear “a similar emotion to feeling embarrassed” vs. let’s brainstorm some strong emotions

Ø  Use specific feedback “I really liked how you…in your writing today”

Ø  Wrap up the lesson revisiting the original goal. Help students check in to see if they’ve met this goal.

First Observed Lesson (ELA), 10.10.12

LESSON PLAN TEMPLATE
Subject Area(s): Literacy / Language Arts / Writing
Date: 10/10/12	Time Allotment: 11:40–12:30 (50 min)			Grade Level: Grade 4
Conceptual Goals/Essential Questions: 1.     What are strategies for generating personal narratives? 2.     What are strategies good writers use to make writing more powerful? 3.     How can we raise the quality of our writing?		Learning Objectives: 1.     All students will build stamina as independent writers by writing for an extended period of time without interruption. 2.     All students will know how to use strategies for writing personal narratives. 3.     All students will know how to use strategies to make writing powerful, such as repetition, dialogue, and using strong verbs.
Wheelock Teaching Standards: Standard 2. Understanding all children in their many dimensions 2.4 Aware of range of students’ special needs and seek out information concerning strengths/resources to address developmental and learning needs Standard 3. Knowledge of Content and Integrated Curriculum 3.2 Create meaningful learning experiences to develop children’s understanding of subject matter and age/grade level Standard 4: Educational practices that foster learning, development, and achievement in all of the nation's children
MA Curriculum Frameworks: Writing Standards Grade 4 Text Types and Purposes 3. Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, descriptive details, and clear event sequences.      b. Use dialogue and description to develop experiences and events…      c. Use concrete words and phrases and sensory details to convey experiences and events precisely.
Prior Knowledge Needed: Social-emotional competency – must be able to recall different feelings Knowledge of what a personal narrative is Fine motor stamina
Implementation:
Prior Knowledge Assessment: In the first few minutes of whole group instruction, students are asked to -recall previous strategies for generating personal narratives -share examples of strong emotions (sad, worry, embarrassed)
Lesson Plan Procedure: Agenda- -       Whole group instruction (assigned seats, stadium style on the rug) -       5-10 min: Partner work during whole group instruction -       20 min: Independent writing -       10 min: Whole group share out Materials: -       Chart paper -       Markers -       Writers notebooks -       Pencils -       Microphone Whole group instruction: “We have been learning about strategies for generating personal narratives.  What are some strategies we have learned so far? Today we are going to learn another strategy.  We are going to think about a moment in your life when you felt a strong emotion about something.  I want you to think about a strong feeling.  What are some strong feelings?” I will write student responses on chart paper in one of two columns. “I remember at time I felt this way…”  I will come up with one or more examples of times when I had some of the class generated strong feelings.  I will write the example(s) in the second column on chart paper. Partner work: “Can you remember a time when you felt one of these feelings?  Turn and talk with your partner.  Share a small moment where you have felt a strong feeling.  Afterwards we will share some of our stories to the list.” Pre-assigned partners turn and talk. Partners will be called upon to share their partner’s stories. Stories will be added to chart paper. Independent writing: Students will be asked to return to their desks and write independently using this strategy or one of the old ones.  They will be reminding about stretching during writing and what to do when they finish a piece or can’t think of one. Whole group share out: After 15-25 minutes, students, chosen at random using popsicle sticks, will be asked to stop writing and share out a piece of what they wrote.			Differentiation: Students who struggle with sitting without support can sit on chairs near the rug or crates on the rug. All children are given specific rules for how to do partner work (make eye contact, sit crisscross with knees touching partners knees, share partners answer to make sure they actively listen). Goal setting and outlining for students who struggle with regulation and organization. * During independent writing children are given the opportunity to stand and stretch and are given verbal and nonverbal reminders to keep writing. A microphone will be used during the share out.
Assessment/evidence of learning: Evidence- their writer’s notebooks			Other evidence: Share out
Post-Lesson Reflection:

Intro to ELA

Truly effective language arts instruction has to cover all the many dimensions of literacy.  There are almost too many to list.  There are two essential milestones for children to reach to become readers: phonological and phonemic awareness.  Having said that, it is similarly important to include whole language instruction, so that children are not only learning to decode and spell but are also learning in context and meaning.  Children need to work on fluency, have experience with serious vocabulary, and work on comprehension.  For english language instruction in elementary school to be most effective, children need to begin with emergent literacy, learning concepts about print before they even enter the school building.

Intro to Science

There are several components to quality science instruction.  First, it is important to choose a specific learning goal so that students are not overwhelmed and/or unsuccessful.  Because science covers such a vast array of topics and ideas, even the most joyfully planned, hands-on investigation can yield little in terms of what the students' actually take away.  Teaching science needs to extend beyond just learning from a speaker or a mentor text as well as just doing an exciting experiment.  It's important that the learning surpasses just facts and dates and really asks questions of children that makes them think and lead them toward critically examining the world around them.  In science, children should be gaining experience in making observations, asking questions, hypothesizing, finding evidence, discussing and recording, making claims based on that evidence and the scientific knowledge they already know.

Intro to Social Studies

Really stellar social studies education appears in context and in relation to the students learning it.  The goal of social studies should be to enable students to understand, participate in, and make informed decisions about their world.  If children are subject to only learning social studies in a text book, it is highly unlikely that critical thinking skills will develop.  Furthermore, social studies instruction opens up significant opportunity for children to hone their sense of justice and can provide a platform for activism and gaining broader perspectives.  Key social studies concepts, such as culture, time/continuity/change, people, places, and environments, power, authority and governance, should serve as guidelines by which teachers can expand what is called upon them in state standards and frameworks.  Once again, it is, as with other disciplines, really important that teachers utilize a variety of modes for learning to eliminate the tendency toward boring, "text-book teaching".

Intro to Math

There are three main components to rich math ed.  The first is varied instruction, that relies more on implicit than explicit teaching.  For math content knowledge and understanding to stick, it should be built upon schemas children develop individually, and in the context of other learners.  If it relies solely on route memorization of algorithms and processes as presented by the authority on all knowledge (the teacher), the concepts fall to the back-burner and many children leave math without an understanding of why the processes work.  Furthermore, although there is no obvious negative to teaching children explicitly, using that as your only mode for instruction runs the risk of having children who are both without ample opportunity to explore and to draw conclusions on their own.  If you approach conclusive math understanding as being able to convince yourself, convince the like-minded, and convince skeptics then you are almost always ensured that you have critically thought about math.   Similarly, it is imperative that children gain ownership over a registrar of strategies in general and in specific math processes.  The second main component deals with the integration of math into other disciplines taught in the classroom.  The idea that math is a blocked off subject that only occurs on worksheets during one period of the day paints a very boring, one dimensional view of something children will inevitably use throughout their lives on a day to day basis.  The third component is culture.  Along the same lines as seeing math in a one dimensional light, seeing math without culture continues to impress upon children that math is un-relatable and unimportant.  If multiculturalism does not permeate all aspects of the school experience, can we really conclude that we are teachers of real multicultural ed.?