Lesson Self-Assessment for ED 215R

Name: Katherine Pook

Literacy Objective: Students will be able to make inferences based on pictures and
words to find he authors message in order to understand the story.
Balanced Literacy Component: Interactive Read Aloud Inferring the Authors
Message
Date: 4/23/14
School/grade level/ number of students: Brookfield Elementary, 1st grade, 19
students
Name of Cooperating Teacher: Katie Johnson
Planning and preparation:(AEA:Conceptualization,DiagnosisWTS:1,2,3,4,5,7DISP: Respect)
Clearly identify the range of literacy development of the learners in your classroom and
describe how you planned to address that range throughout your lesson plan. Thoroughly
explain how an effective theoretical model such as Holdaway or Vygotsky guided you as you
planned your lesson. Explain what worked well in your plan and what you would have
changed/did change and why.
The range of literacy development in my field classroom is between emergent
and self extending. To address this range throughout my lesson I did a few things.
First, I made sure the book I was reading was easy to follow and was easy for all
children to understand. I also made sure students would not be asked to do things
beyond their level. I did this by doing all the reading myself and just having the
students do the thinking. I also did a lot of modeling in this lesson. I modeled often
and showed the students what I was thinking and why I thought that so that all
students would have the chance to see and understand what I was asking them to
do. Last, students had opportunities to turn and talk which allows them to teach
eachother and hear other ideas.
The theory that guided me as I planned my lesson was Holdaway. I really
believe in Holdaways model which includes demonstration, participation, practice
and performance. I really wanted to use this model to guide me as I planned my
lesson because I believe that children learn best when they see demonstrations and
then get to try the thinking themselves. I incorporated a lot of demonstration into
this lesson. I knew this would be a hard concept for students to understand so I
modeled my thinking often. I used think alouds three times during my lesson to
demonstrate. The students then got to participate by turning and talking to their
partners and answering questions that I was asking them. If I had had the
opportunity to teach a whole workshop I could have also incorporated practice and
performance. I would have students practice by trying the strategy during
independent reading time while I went around and conferenced with them. They
could then perform by getting back together as a group and sharing what they had
learned and how they applied it.
I think my plan worked very well overall. It worked very well that I did so
much modeling during my lesson because by the end I could really see that a lot of
students were getting it. While modeling it also helped that I was very detailed and
specific with what I said. It also worked well that I had a book that had very strong
illustrations that students were interested in and gave a lot of information. This
helped students stay engaged and achieve the lesson objective. It worked well that

I had students explain their thinking when they answered questions. This seemed to
really get students to think more deeply about what they were saying. Last, it
worked well that I had students turn and talk to partners. The students had some
very good discussion during this time and students who were not getting the
objective as well could hear other students thinking and this could help scaffold
them.
There are some things I would have changed in this lesson. First, I would
have used a visual aid such as an anchor chart. I think this would have helped
students organize their thoughts and give more evidence for their answers because
the anchor chart would guide them in remembering which clues to use in what way.
I also would have added more places for students to do their own thinking in the
plan. I realized after the lesson that I did almost all the thinking during the lesson. I
would like for students to have more of a chance to do this thinking so they get
more practice with the strategies.

Classroom environment: (AEA: Coordination, Integrative Interaction WTS: 1,2,3,4,5,6 DISP:

Respect, Responsibility, Collaboration, Communication)

Explain how you set up a positive learning environment and encouraged student participation
in the learning. How did you focus student attention throughout the learning experience to
engage them productively in the learning the lesson objective? Evaluate your interactions
with the students and their interactions with each other.
To set up a positive learning environment and encourage student
participation I did a few things. First I made sure to be open and encouraging to
anything the students had to say. I wanted them to be comfortable participating so I
was sure to give them praise and encouragement. I also made sure I responded to
their ideas thoughtfully and helped them elaborate and think more deeply. I tried to
repeat some of what they said so they knew I was listening to them, and then build
onto it to further their learning. I also did things like my CT does so that the
students would be comfortable. I had the lesson in the same areas she would have
and had the students talk to the same partners that they are used to. Last I
encouraged all students to participate by giving them many opportunities to talk
about their learning both with partners and with the whole group. If they were not
as comfortable sharing with the whole class they could still participate with partners
during turn and talks.
To focus student attention throughout the lesson I did a couple different
things. First I had many opportunities for students to participate. Along with turn
and talks I also asked students questions as a group a few times and asked students
to share out loud what they talked about with their partners. I also involved
students by asking them little questions throughout the lesson. For example do you
know what burn rubber means? or which car do you like best? I had students
repeat the words Burn Rubber with me as well. When students answered questions
I made sure to focus their attention by asking them how they knew what they said.
This had them think more deeply in order to cite specific evidence. Last, to focus
students on the specific learning objective I made sure that I repeated it multiple
times. I said it once in the introduction, a couple times during the lesson, and once
in the closure. All these things really helped the students focus on the lesson and
the objective.
The interactions during my lesson were very positive. When students
interacted with each other they were mostly on task and talked about what I asked
them to. The students who are usually quieter in class participated during the
lesson through turn and talks which was also very positive. My interactions with the
students were also good. I made sure to call each student by name when I spoke to
them and encouraged them when they got involved. I made sure that I was very
clear when I spoke to the students and clarified anything if I needed to. I also think I

did better in this lesson of asking the students to think more deeply. I asked them to
expand on their answers and had them think more about what they were saying.

Instruction: (AEA: Communication, Coordination, Diagnosis, Integrative Interaction WTS:

1,2,4,5,6,7,10 DISP: Respect, Communication)

Thoroughly explain how you taught this lesson to meet your literacy objective. Evaluate your
implementation of your plan in relation to student learning/performance and the theory. Did
it have the effect you intended? Were the needs of your literacy learners met? Explain what
you found most difficult in teaching this lesson. What changes would you make if you
repeated this lesson? Why?
I taught this lesson to meet the literacy objective of students will be able to
make inferences based on pictures and words to find he authors message in order
to understand the story by doing a few things. First I made sure to make the
objective very clear. I repeated it several times during the lesson and if it seemed
like students might be confused about it I made sure I was ready to clarify by I also
gave students many opportunities to see the strategy I was teaching by thinking
aloud and modeling. Next I gave the students a lot of opportunity to participate.
There were many times during the lesson for students to discuss and talk about
their thinking. All these things help students understand the strategy and be able to
use it which meets the learning objective. First I made sure to make the objective
very clear. I repeated it several times during the lesson and when it seemed like
students might be confused about it I made sure to clarify by modeling and
remodeling.
The implementation of my plan worked well. The students did well with the
lesson and for the many of them were able to meet the objective from what I saw
and the assessment that I did. I think this is because the plan followed Holdaways
model which says that learning occurs when students are demonstrated to, get to
participate, have a chance to practice and finally get to perform the skill that they
are learning. This lesson did have the effect I intended. Students were able to use
the clues in the book such as pictures, words, and character feelings to make
inferences about the authors message. Some students were also able to make
connections to their own life in order to infer the message. This shows me that
students did understand the objective and therefore I think the lesson had the effect
I wanted it to.
I think the needs of the literacy learners were met. There were many chances
for students to answer questions and have discussions and at these points students
could work at their own levels but still be doing the thinking. I also modeled a lot to
make sure students at lower levels of development would be able to see and
understand what to do and how to achieve the objective. Students who were at
higher levels of development also had their needs met because they were able talk
to their partners or share out loud in the lesson and by doing this they acted as a
scaffold for other students. They were also able to start thinking more deeply
sooner than other students. By the end of the lesson it was clear that many
students had achieved the learning objective which shows that their learning needs
were able to be met.
The thing I found most difficult in this lesson was understanding the lesson
objective well enough myself to be able to teach it to the students effectively. While
writing my lesson plan I struggled to understand what I was actually teaching and
this made it very difficult for me to plan a good lesson. However through feedback
and revision I began to understand better and was able to effectively teach the
lesson. While teaching the hardest thing for me to do was remembering what to say.
I knew I had to say things very clearly and specifically if I wanted students to
understand so I had to make sure I remembered my plan and did said all the

important things I needed to. I think practicing the lesson beforehand helped me do
much better at this than I would have otherwise.
If I repeated this lesson I would change a few things. First I would change how
I responded to what I heard from students. While I think I did a good job responding
to them and having them elaborate on their thinking, I could have responded to
other things as well. For example I heard some students who were talking about
what the story was about instead of the message and I did not address this. If I had
this situation again I would have talked about the difference between these things
after I heard this and restated what the authors message was more specifically. I
could have also followed this up if I was doing a workshop by checking in on
students who were unclear on the idea during the lesson. I would do this because I
want all the students to be clear on the objective and be able to understand the
strategy being taught. Another thing I would change is how fast I talked. In future
lessons I would like to plan more times where I repeat myself and this will remind
me to slow down when I teach. This is so that students will get the chance to
understand me and will be able to think about what I am saying while I talk. If I talk
to fast they will not have time to think about what I say. The last thing I would have
changed would be to give the students more of the chance to do some thinking. As
the lesson went on I saw that students were starting to get it so I wish I would have
done a little less of the modeling at this point and let students try doing more of the
thinking.

Assessment: (AEA: Diagnosis, Integrative Interaction WTS: 1,2,3,7,8,9 DISP: Reflection)

Explain how you knew if the students learned what you taught them. What did you learn from
listening to student responses, examining their work or listening to their interactions? What
were your assessment procedures and how well did they inform you about student attainment
of your lessons objectives? To follow-up this lesson, what would you teach next? Why?
I knew students learned what I taught them from watching and listening to
them. By the end of the lesson many students were able to state what they thought
the authors message was and say how they know that. This was the objective of
the lesson. I also saw that most students were able to talk about the strategies and
their learning to partners or to the group. This shows that they understood what I
was teaching them. Through listening to the responses and interactions from
students during the lesson I learned that there were varying levels of development
in the class and if I was actually the teacher I would have had to follow up with
another lesson and with conferencing with students who were not meeting the
lesson objective. I also learned that it is sometimes necessary to stop and explain
the lesson objective again because some students did not talk about quite the right
thing during turn and talks.
My assessment procedure was to listen to students throughout the lesson and
then use a chart to check off whether I saw them doing certain things such as
stating the authors message and giving evidence for their thinking. I also wrote
down brief notes on the chart for a few of the students. These procedures informed
me pretty well about the students attainment of the objective. I could see which
students were getting it and which were not when I listened to them during turn and
talks and sharing times. The one thing that was negative about my assessment
procedure was that I was so focused on listening to and assessing the certain
students I had decided to assess that I did not pay enough attention to the other
students. During turn and talks a few students got off task and I was too involved in
checking off things on my chart that I did not realize this.
To follow up this lesson I think I would teach another lesson on authors
message. I did a lot of the thinking in this lesson and I would like for the students to

have more of an opportunity to do the thinking because this would show me more
specifically if they understood this concept.

Professional responsibilities: (AEA: Communication, Integrative Interaction WTS:

1,2,6,7,9,10 DISP: Respect, Responsibility, Reflection, Collaboration, Communication

Explain how you will apply what you learned from the feedback you received on this lesson to
teaching future lessons.
There are a few things I will do in future lessons because of the feedback I
had on this lesson. First, I will learn to slow down and repeat things when teaching.
I consistently have trouble doing this and for students to be able to understand my
teaching I need to get better at this. Another thing I will apply in the future is that I
will be more responsive when I hear students who are confused during the lesson.
From my feedback I learned that some students were not talking about exactly the
right things during discussions and that some of them got off task. I would like to
learn to notice these things more easily and respond to them during the lesson so
students dont miss out on the chance to learn. Another thing I learned from my
feedback is that I need to adapt better to the students responses. In this lesson the
students got the objective much more easily than I expected and I should have
changed my plan a little as I went to give them more chance to so the thinking. This
is something I will be more aware of and ready for in the future.

Reflection: (AEA: Diagnosis WTS: 9 DISP: Reflection)

What did you learn about teaching an effective literacy lesson from this teaching experience?
How will it affect your planning for future teaching of literacy? Explain how this lesson
demonstrates your growth in ONE Wisconsin Teaching Standard and ONE Alverno Education
Ability. (Make sure to state the WTS and AEA in your own words in your explanation.)
From this teaching experience I learned how important effective modeling is
to teaching a literacy lesson. I found that through my detailed and specific modeling
the students really got it. If I was not able to think aloud and model like this I think
the students would have struggled much more with this concept. I also found that
the way the modeling is done is very important. If it is done too fast or not clearly
enough it will not be effective and will not help the students in the literacy lesson. It
must be slow, clear, detailed and specific. In the future when I am teaching literacy I
will make sure I add clear and specific modeling throughout my lesson. This way the
students will get lots of opportunity to see and understand the modeling.
The Wisconsin Teaching Standard that I grew in through this lesson was WTS
number one. This standard says that the teacher has a good knowledge of what she
is teaching and can use this knowledge to design and teach effective lessons for
students. I grew in this standard because I really saw how important it is to know
what I am teaching. At first I was confused about this and my lesson plan was very
unclear. It would not have been an effective lesson. Once I finally started to
understand what I was teaching however my lesson became much clearer. This
made my lesson much more effective than it would have been.
The Alverno Education Ability I grew in through this lesson was
Conceptualization. This ability says that an education student can think of, plan,
and prepare a lesson that meets the needs of her students and that effectively
teaches her lesson objective. The plan for this lesson was difficult for me to write
and I went through a lot of revision but once I finished it and taught it I realized how
much I grew in my planning abilities through this lesson. Going through this process
made me realize how strong a plan has to be in order for it to be effective for all
students and for it to teach them the objective. I was able to make this lesson plan
so that it met the needs of all students by planning in things that would make it

possible for all students to do the learning. I also made sure I did a lot to ensure that
students could achieve the learning objective.