Department of Elementary Education

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:Erika Stancil Date:11/15/16

1. To what extent were learning outcomes appropriate and achievable to your students?
The learning outcomes were included in the science standards for kindergarten, and
were very achievable for that age. We mainly focused on position words, which the
children grasped easily.
2. How effective were your instructional strategies? What changes would you make in
your instructional approaches if you taught this lesson again? Why?
My instructional strategies were mostly effective, we allowed time for students to ask
questions and talk to one another and have time to do hands on minds on activities. A
big change that would have helped improve the lesson would have been more
scaffolding, the children required the I do, we do, they do model which did not
accomplish effectively. As the teachers, we should have gone through the steps
together with the students, instead of telling them what to do and letting them struggle
on their own. This would have engaged and provided more structure for the kids.
3. Evaluate the effectiveness of your oral and written communication with students.
(Consider how well you communicated learning objectives, clarity of directions, use of standard English, quality of
questions and effectiveness of discussion techniques.)
Overall the effectiveness was pretty good; there were areas that should have been
explained more effectively. Again, going back to the I do, we do, they do model, the
instructions should have been worded in a way that allowed the children to see while
listening to each step. The questions that were given during student discourse kept the
children on task, while reinforcing the knowledge they needed to learn. There were
questions that required some students to repeat what the directions, or definitions of
some of the more difficult words, that way if a child missed the meaning or directions
the first time everyone was able to hear it once again.
4. Evaluate the level of student engagement in your lesson . (Consider how you presented the
content/skills, the activities and assignments for students, grouping of students, and structure and pacing of the
lesson.)
The children in this lesson were given a considerable amount of time to build, they
were encouraged to work together, and constantly think of new ways to improve. While
there may only be two people building on one labyrinth, the other two group members
were voicing their opinions and what they think should change. Teamwork and sharing
responsibilities was constantly reinforced to ensure everyone was engaged and
actively participating.
5. How effectively did you use instructional materials, resources, and/or technology?
The document camera was not used as effectively as it could have been, as we should
have scaffolded the children through the instructions over the document camera. While
our misstep occurred with the doc cam, technology overall was used effectively
 through using the smart board for showing videos, or slide shows, and pictures of
examples of labyrinths, etc.
6. To what extent were your assessment strategies effective? What changes would you
make in your assessment approach if you taught this lesson again? Why?
The assessment of the childrens knowledge could have been more effective, only
informal group assessment was given by checking to ensure the students knew the
vocabulary and directional words. If I were to change the lesson and do it again, I
would give a more individual assessment to ensure that all the students learned the
concepts, not just the ones who raised their hands.
7. To what extent was your feedback to students accurate, substantive, constructive,
specific, and/or timely?
Our feedback to the students was always positive; we always encouraged teamwork
and rewarded students with compliments when their group was running smoothly. The
feedback given during the building stage was open ended; no student was fed the
answer. Students were often told to point out the purpose of an object on the labyrinth
then told to see if it worked, if not the children were encouraged to discuss out loud
with their team why it did not work and would could be done instead.
8. To what extent did the classroom management and environment contribute to student
learning? (Consider your classroom procedures, your use of physical space, and the students conduct.)
I learned how much classroom management is really needed in a classroom during
this lesson. There was always a student behind your back getting distracted or off task,
multitasking and constant moving around was mandatory. Children need a classroom
that is really structured, often when students do not understand the instructions it is the
fault of the teachers for not explaining it well enough. Students need to have clear
objectives in order to know how exactly to behave.
9. Did you make modifications to your lesson plan during the lesson? If so, what were
they and what motivated these changes?
Our whole lesson was constantly changing, as we noticed the pace of the childrens
work, what they seemed to learn and what they needed to be reminded of, etc. The
lesson plan we created is completely different day by day compared to what we did.
We expected to have an hour each day, unfortunately with the busy school day the
lesson ended up getting cut shorter than an hour which adjusted our schedule as well.
The children needed more structure, instead of letting them grab all the materials and
build that way we discovered we needed to separate into sections. First the children
grab material for the obstacle and build that, and then they grab the next thing and so
on.
10. Was your Teaching Behavior Focus goal met?
Our teaching behavior, 10 second wait time, was met. We tried to take longer to call on
students to answer questions. We never took the first kid raising their hand, saying
pick me, pick me. The goal was to try to call on almost every child, as long as they
raised their hand at least once, as to ensure there was no favoritism.