Literacy Lesson Observation, Reflection, & Recommendations

Location: Date: 3/38/18

Grade Level: 5

Topic or Focus of Lesson: “Guided Reading”- whole group

Objectives: What objectives were apparent in the lesson? If there was a lesson plan
available, did the objectives in the plan match the ones you observed being taught?

 Summarizing/main ideas/ headers

 Using non-fiction text features to comprehend a text- reading
 Brainstorm information to create a plan- writing

Teaching: What did you see the teacher do? What teaching techniques were used? Pay
attention to materials, grouping options, instructional strategies, pacing…

 Group responses (hand on head if that’s what you had, raise hand if you had
something different, ect)
 Modeling of glossary creation
 Used small groups to complete tasks and group sharing (“think-tanks”)
 Count downs to bring class back together
 Expects students to stay quiet while she is instructing
 Constantly roaming the room

Students: What were the students doing? How were they engaged in the learning? Were
they engaged in the learning? Any off-task behaviors?

 Students engaged in whole group discussion, small group discussion, and

individual work
 Most students are engaged in the lesson there are a handful that are
disengaged/disinterested (two of which are Hispanic- EL’s?)
 Two students keep playing with money?
 All students are working diligently and quietly during independent work- she
must have spent a lot of time on behavior management and setting these
expectations

Interesting observations: What did you see that was interesting, unusual, surprising…?

 She verbally modeled what to do but didn’t physically model the example
 No set post-work activities- IXL (but no set instructions)
  I don’t see much scaffolding in place. Everyone is using the same text and
completing the same activity.
 The room is very quiet
 Has broken this same packet into various days- repeated exposure to text and
chunking

Questions you have after the lesson about the teacher, teaching techniques, students,
content of the lesson, literacy learning, literacy instruction, etc. What did you leave the
lesson reflecting on, wondering about, etc.?

 Do you try to incorporate a lot of cross-content knowledge with your literacy

lessons?
 Since this was mostly a whole group activity- how do you best reach those
students who aren’t as engaged?

Positives: List two positive things (related to literacy learning) you observed from each:

Teacher
She reviewed important terms
1. related to the activity, like glossary,
consistently within the lesson.
She probed students to provide
2. reasoning within the text for their
answers to prompts.
Students
Students were very willing to answer
questions about their text that Ms.
Harper presented.
Students were able to show proof of
their answers straight from the text.

Support: List two areas in which you could assist or support the teacher with the
instruction of the lesson in Ideas 1 and 2 below. For Ideas 3, 4, and 5, list support
specific to the standards listed in the idea. Include the specific standard # you would
be assisting the teacher with, a description of your suggestion, and cite a resource
the teacher could use (this could be a textbook, article, website, video, book or any
other resource that could enhance or extend their lesson). Even if the lesson is
absolutely wonderful, consider what adaptations for individual literacy needs (both
high and low) might be made, what extensions could follow, etc.

Support:
Idea 1: ILA standard # 2.2
Description of idea. Visual modeling
During the lesson, the teacher modeled the thought process of choosing a
word to include in her glossary and how she found the definition. To better
improve this, she could project the reading onto the screen and walk
through the modeling while also showing students what she did. Although
her modeling was thorough, having the visual aspect added with it adds
 another dimension to the activity that will allow students to connect to the
process. Being able to completely immerse themselves into her example,
instead of having to quickly sift through their own papers to follow along,
and allowing their full attention will better ensure that students are really
getting the point of the exercise. Here, the teacher can directly use the text
and point to important points within the text when explaining her thought
process. She can also use this to model how the students should be
structuring their own glossary after they have chosen a word and found the
definition.

Resource the teacher can use to support this idea:

This blog post gives some general information about the importance of
modeling and the process of it as well. It goes a little in depth about the
method itself. The post also provides us with examples:
https://www.edutopia.org/blog/nuts-and-bolts-explicit-modeling-todd-finley

Idea 2: ILA standard # 2.1

Description of idea. Extension activity: Glossary Jigsaw
Instead of having a verbal share at the end of the activity and simply
having students agree or disagree, have the students break out of their
groups that they sit in, form new groups, and share two words that they
chose for their glossary. Not only does this encourage student cooperation
and engagement, it also allows students to recognize different ideas and
viewpoints. They will also be exposed to words that they may not have
identified- increasing the size of their glossary! This is a quick and easy
activity to get students up and working with each other while sharing their
own findings helping them to take ownership of their work.

Resource the teacher can use to support this idea

This article speaks to the importance of collaboration amongst students while

learning, which is what this jigsaw activity is meant to do! It also provides other
examples of collaborative activities that the teacher can use in the future/

https://www.cte.cornell.edu/teaching-ideas/engaging-students/collaborative-
learning.html

Idea 3: ILA standard # 5.1

Description of idea. Library Area
The students are already sitting in a productive arrangement with basic
reading and writing materials immediately available to them. The
improvement that I would suggest is to shift the room around in order to
create a designated library area. There is a large bookshelf full of reading
materials for the students, but no area for them to stay. This is not a
necessary thing to have in any room but, going to the “library” will be
 more fun than grabbing a book and then going back to your seat. This will
encourage students to go to the library and engage with new texts than the
ones that may be at their desks. The library area should allow for students
to sit and interact with their reading there without having to worry about
being distracted by their peers or distracting peers that may still be
completing an activity. By having a library, you can also set up a check
out system. This encourages students to take books home that they may
want to read and then bring them back. By checking out and back in, the
students are gaining a sense of responsibility. They are also given choice
with their reading- something that is so often lacking.
Resource the teacher can use to support this idea
Here is an article by a fellow teacher than outlined how she created her
classroom. She goes in depth about the many details of an effective
library:

http://www.thethinkerbuilder.com/2014/07/how-i-arrange-my-classroom-
library-part.html?utm_source=feedburner#_a5y_p=2030532

Idea 4: ILA standard # 5.2

Description of idea. Giant Glossary
This would be an extension of the glossary jigsaw mentioned earlier. After
groups have had their opportunity to “jigsaw” and have returned back to
their home seats, the students will share, again, in this low-risk small
group. The students will then review each other’s glossaries. They will
choose 2 people’s glossaries to review (ensuring that all glossaries are
reviewed) and read over their entries- particularly the new ones. Using
post-it notes (and correct writing rules), the reviewers will make notes on
their peer’s work. After the review period is over, each group will come
together to make a glossary of their 5 favorite terms. This will be the giant
glossary.

***An even further extension would be to have the students work as a

class to create a whole class glossary***
Resource the teacher can use to support this idea
This book speaks to the importance of peer feedback and helps make this
task accessible in your classroom:

Sackstein, S., & Berkowicz, J. (2017). Peer feedback in the classroom:

Empowering students to be the experts. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.

Idea 5: ILA standard # 5.3

Description of idea. Free-write block
I did not see a lot of writing going on in the classroom, so I recommend
that at least 3 times a week, students have a free-write block. This could be
structured as a sort of writer’s workshop. If the teacher sees fit- introduce
a mini lesson. I think that because these students are still so young and
 eager, they would benefit from RAFT papers. This is a fun strategy to use
during free-write time. Students will get to pull a slip of paper for each of
the categories of a RAFT paper. Then, they go back to their seat and use
those guidelines for topic, audience, format, and role of writer to let their
imaginations run wild and create a great informal story. These stories can
then be used during a more formal writing instruction period to revise,
edit, and present their story.

Resource the teacher can use to support this idea

You can learn more about RAFT papers and their benefits/implementation
here:

Gunning, T. G. (2018). Buidling Writing Strategies. In Assessing &

Correcting Reading and Writing Difficulties (6th ed., pp. 443-476).
New York, NY: Pearson Education.

ILA Standards linked to this assignment:

 5.1: Design the physical environment to optimize students’ use of traditional
print, digital, and online resources in reading and writing instruction.
 5.2: Design a social environment that is low risk and includes choice, motivation,
and scaffolded support to optimize students’ opportunities for learning to read and
write.
 5.3: Use routines to support reading and writing instruction (e.g., time allocation,
transitions from one activity to another; discussions, and peer feedback).