SSTELLA PROJECT STUDENT TEACHER OBSERVATION FORM

Student Teacher: Sarah Lecus

Cooperating Teacher or Supervisor: Ed Lyon

Date: 3/17/2016
Time: 2:03 p

School District: Santa Rosa

Grade: 9th
School: Elsie Allen
Subject: Academic Biology
University where student teacher is enrolled: Sonoma State
Instructions: For each SSTELLA practice, mark an X for present or non-present. Record and document
evidence for each area demonstrated in space provided below. Be sure to include concrete examples of
practices for each category marked in the space provided. Use SSTELLA Practices Progression as a
guide here.

SSTELLA Practice
1

Contextualizing Science Activity - Evidence of practice:

Present NonPresent
x

Lesson is framed in a locally relevant problem (finding out

who stole the jackalope). Opportunity for Ss to share
contributions (have you ever been accused of something you
didnt do?), which is connected to ongoing learning (how can
advances in molecular genetics help) this was a great
example of making student matter more comprehensible
(TPE 1) and engaging students (TPE 5).

Scientific Sense-Making Evidence of practice:

Warm up allows students to preview prior learning on
forensics and there is consistent reference back to DNA
fingerprinting handout and other prior activities.
Clear essential question and expectations collect evidence
to defend claim about who did it, which will be a useful fomr
of assessment (TPE 3).
Ss are solving problem, although they are still provided with
instructions/procedures. I wonder how they will learn to
interpret the MULTIPLE pieces of evidence this would
really make it more student centered.

Science Talk Evidence of practice:

Big focus on evidence-based arguments. Supported Ss in

understanding what will be the claim as well as what they will
use for evidence
Wondering what are the scientific principles you want them
to use to help explain the evidence. You mention that
reasoning is the most difficult and provide supports to make
content accessible (TPE 4), but part of those supports
should make clear tie ins to concepts being learned.
Since they were working in group for such as long time,
could there be more structure set up for them to collaborative
with each other, like check in questions or a summary after
each station where they need to explain the evidence
collected to each other. (TPE 2)
4

Language Development and Literacy in Science - Evidence

of practice:

Ss read background information and lab introduction and

multiple types of texts at the stations. There are supports set
up for the explanation they will construct. Are there ways to
further support vocabulary while at stations? Again, giving
them a chance to summarize after each station and use key
vocabulary could help you check on their accurate use of it.

EL Students: (make a note of interactions between student teacher and EL students at

regular intervals during the lesson)

Post-Observation Reflection
Strengths: Particular strengths that emerged during the lesson:
The lesson itself was framed in an engaging context where students really got to collect
evidence that will be used to generate an explanation (or argument really) about who
done it. I wish I could see how it turned out!

Areas of improvement: Questions/Suggestions toward Improving SSTELLA

Practices (drawn from evidence above):
I think it could be clearer what the conceptual focus is here (beyond seeing applications
of DNA technology what are they learning ABOUT molecular genetics and its
interaction with technology and society. This could be embedded into the expected
reasoning portion of the CER. Since there is so much time devoted to station work,
having some structure set up for students to summarize/synthesize what they learned
would help instead of just moving from station to station without this reflection. This
would promote more collaborative talk.

Goal-setting: SSTELLA areas to focus on for next science lesson (developed in

collaboration with student teacher):

Clear ways to tie scientific principles into students explanations (to explain the
evidence
Structure set up for students to be talking productively to each other and actively
listening during whole class discussion