Teacher Observation

I observed two lessons throughout my field experience at Whitman Elementary school for

30 days. The first one Mrs. Bennett was teaching her students how to write and opinion on a

book that they have been reading over the course of a month. They were reading the book

Moonshot by Brian Floca, the objective of this lesson was students will understand and perform

all the components of an opinion essay and successfully writing it. During this time the students

learned how to write an introduction, two body paragraphs, and a conclusion paragraph and all

using transition words to flow the paragraphs as well. Mrs. Bennett had a wonderful lesson using

many different ways to explain how to successfully write and finish an opinion essay about the

book they are reading.

At first, the students had to read and fully understand the book before even starting to

write their essays. So, Mrs. Bennett had many activities to help the students fully understand the

text, some of her students struggle with understanding the readings so she had to help them a lot

more to actually understand the book, so that they were able to start their essay. First, she taught

them how to use transition words and when exactly to use them and how to start the paragraph

after them. So, they learned how to do an introduction and first two topic sentences of each

paragraph. There were some students where all this information came easily and then there some

who struggled a little throughout this process. Mrs. Bennett tried her best to make this lesson

very fun with the content she was given. No matter which student it was, Mrs. Bennett treated

and taught every student the same way.

After been given the directions clearly, the students started to write their essays, and once

they started it became more easy for some students. Then Mrs. Bennett successfully taught her

students the conclusions, the students were able to successfully write their essays with the help
and courage of Mrs. Bennett and myself. She also used flipgrid and other websites to help them

write and understand the book and essay.

Another lesson that I observed with Mrs. Bennett is when she was teaching a grammar

lesson. She started teaching about metaphors and similes one day and I got to even participate in

the lesson. She used Newsela and flipgrid to help her students understand the grammar she was

talking about. Each student got to watch videos from youtube about metaphors and similes and

then they got to post a discussion post where they came up their own similes and metaphors,

which helped the students understand them fully.

After this the entire class had a discussion and read their similes and metaphors out loud

to the class and everyone was able to comment on their sentences. It was an amazing lesson to

watch, to have her students not even know about similes and metaphors and then the next 20

minutes they fully understand and can identify and make their own sentences.

The most important thing about these two lessons are that Mrs. Bennett met all the needs

of her students. You can be a fun teacher but, in some situations, you must be stern so that your

students still take you seriously. There are many different students with many different learning

styles and Mrs. Bennett made she that she met every student need. You have to make sure that

you treat every student the same and with the same amount of respect, but sometimes there are

exceptions. During these lessons you have to explain things clearly and carefully and observe

everything that’s going on in the classroom. Make sure that the students fully understand the

lesson and the directions. Lastly, make sure that it is a positive environment for the entire

classroom and the students in it.