Elementary Education Program

Department of Teacher Education & Learning Sciences

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: Becca Churchill Date: 11/26/19

1. How effective were your instructional strategies? What changes would you make in your
instructional approaches if you taught this lesson again? Why?

I think our instructional strategies were very effective. We did a guided reading with the class, had a
class discussion, and then did an interactive activity to represent kindness. If I taught this lesson again,
I would change the way Mandy and I taught the lesson. Instead of one person being in charge of the
guided reading and the other in charge of the activity, I would have us co-teach the entire lesson. This
way both of us can be involved during the whole lesson.

2. Compare how students actually responded to the lesson verses the way you anticipated they would
respond. Explain how you scaffolded or extended students’ thinking.

I anticipated the students responding in a positive manner on the topic, but not to be super intrigued
initially; however, the students were very excited about spreading kindness around couldn’t wait to
share a time they were kind to someone else. We scaffolded the students’ thinking by providing
examples of ways to be kind and ways we see kindness in our lives. This may be a hard concept to
think of, so we tried to share a few examples with them to make it easier. To extend their thinking, we
asked them to continue being kind to others and to try and go out of their way to do something
different that they have not done before to be kind.

3. Describe how you assessed whether your students achieved the objective of the lesson. Was this
effective? If not, what would you change about your assessment?

We assessed whether our students achieved the objectives of the lesson by having each individual
share out a way they have been kind to someone. After they shared their story or example, they put a
stone in a jar of water and watched the ripples spread across the water. I think this was effective
because it allowed them to see the impact kindness has on others and that kindness is contagious.

4. How effectively did you motivate your students, set and enforce expectations, and handle
transitions? Would you change anything and if so, why?

We motivated our students, set and enforced expectations, and handled transitions really well. We used
attention getters when necessary and even stopped the lesson to address students who were off task and
being disrespectful. If I were to change anything, I would somehow create or move to a better area to
preform our demonstration because the circle we made got crowded as the activity went on.

5. Did you make modifications to your lesson plan during the lesson? If so, what were they and what
motivated these changes?
 Elementary Education Program
Department of Teacher Education & Learning Sciences

Based on the students’ answers to questions, we changed and skipped a couple questions during and
after the reading that had already been addressed in prior comments.

6. How did you meet your Teaching Behavior Focus? If you did not meet it, what would help you to
meet it next time?

We met the Teaching Behavior Focus by hosting a discussion focused on being kind to one another.
During the read-aloud, we also stopped, asked questions, and allowed time for students to discuss how
the book made them feel. We used a wait time of more than 3 seconds to allow students to think about
the questions and form answers. We used that discussion as a starting point in our classroom to begin a
culture of kindness that will continue for the rest of the year. We also asked them to talk about a time
they have been kind, during the bowl activity and further probed them to not only discuss kindness but
think about kind actions throughout the day.