College of Arts and Sciences

Education Department
Candidate Assessment of Performance (CAP) Observation Form

Candidate Name: Madeline Fowler Date: November 18, 2021

Observation #: _2__ Type (Announced/Unannounced): Announced

Observed By: Raymond Ostendorf (Program Supervisor)

1.A.1: Subject Matter Knowledge 2.B.1 Safe Learning Environment

X (#1 Announced, #2 Unannounced) X (#1 Unannounced)
1.A.3: Well Structured Units and
2.E.1 High Expectations
Lessons
Focus Elements: X X (#1 Announced)
(#1 Announced, #1 Unannounced)
1.B.2: Adjustments to Practice
4.A.1 Reflective Practice
X (#2 Announced, #2 Unannounced) X
2.A.3: Meeting Diverse Needs
X (#2 Announced)

Date of Lesson: November 18, 2021 Time (start/end): 10:52 – 11:47 AM

Content Topic/Lesson Objective: Freshmen English

Madeline’s lesson featured three objectives – one for content, one for language, and one for social-emotional skill development.
For the content, his lesson objective was: “As a result of this lesson, students will be able to identify a character’s motivations in a
passage and make connections between a text and a previously discussed theme.”

Whole Group Small Group One-on-One Other

X X

Active Evidence Collection occurred during the observation and is synthesized and categorized below.

Element Evidence
1.A.1
Subject Matter Knowledge • Within the specific rationale section of her lesson plan, Madeline identified that her students’
abilities to close read and annotate the text are key skills that her students will need for the
rest of their education.

• The final segment of Madeline’s lesson featured a multiple-choice quiz review game with
grade-level words that will be appearing on the quiz the day after this lesson. The source of
the vocabulary words is Wordly Wise, Book 9.

• Mr. Rea completed a lesson plan content assessment for Madeline’s lesson plan. The items
on the assessment form included whether her lesson plan stated a content objective that
used clear and appropriate content, whether her strategy/materials for implementing the
lesson were effective for delivering content of the lesson, whether the plan featured content
 that was factually accurate, and whether the content was organized and modeled at the
appropriate level for targeted student population to addressed assessed needs. Madeline
earned a 4 (accomplished) which was the highest rating possible on the assessment from
across each of these items. Her high (highest) ratings on her lesson plans by her supervising
practitioners has been consistent with each formal lesson plan she has designed.

• There was clear evidence of the students applying close reading skills with the excerpt
available to them, exploring Crooks’s relationship with the American Dream. The outcome of
the close reading was seen, visually, through the students’ usage of two colors to showcase
whether or not Crooks believed in the American Dream. Then, on the second page of the
handout following the close reading, there were questions and a graphic organizer to build
the students to the point where they could summarize the character’s attitudes and beliefs
regarding the American Dream. Madeline supported the students to see how Crooks’s
positioning as a black man in the 1930s provides a unique view of this ideal.

• Madeline’s lesson draws from grade-level skills that can be developed as a result of reading
John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men. Steinbeck is on the list of recommended twentieth
century fiction authors provided on the MA Curriculum Frameworks for English Language Arts
and Literacy for Grades 9-12.

• The content and language-based skills that Madeline cites also come from the MA Curriculum
1.A.3 Frameworks for English Language Arts and Literacy.
Well Structured Units and
Lessons • The assessment evidence from the lesson (the close reading and the graphic
organizer/discussion question on the second page of the handout) was perfectly aligned with
the content objective. Therefore, Madeline will be able to gauge whether her students were
all successful when she reviews the assessment evidence at the end of the lesson.

• Madeline’s lesson provided her students with appropriate engagement strategies – both with
the content and with one another – and were also outlined in her SEL objective on her lesson
plan. Students were working individually, discussing with a partner, and many were
participating/sharing in the whole group summarizing discussion.

• Madeline’s lesson featured a Kahoot! vocabulary review game – it was delivered seamlessly
and it was very clear that the students knew what to expect when it came time for the game,
accessing it through their own phones or Chromebooks.
1.B.2
• Madeline was keenly aware of her pacing and timings for this lesson, as evidenced
Adjustments to Practice by the aim section of her lesson plan (that emphasizes her SMART Goal, which is
pacing). She also tracked her pacing through her use of a timer on her phone that
she kept for her own monitoring. Because of the need to attend to the curricular
pacing within the book, as well as the vocabulary review (that is separate from the
words that might be appearing from Of Men and Men) for a quiz on the next day,
she knew pacing would be important.

• Within Madeline’s lesson plan, she cited that the theme of the American Dream, as
well as the “universal idea” of loneliness/isolation, have been previously discussed
and this lesson would provide the students with the opportunity to reflect on one
particular character (who is black – Crooks) and grapple with his relationship with
the American Dream.

2.A.3
Meeting Diverse Needs • Madeline’s lesson featured multiple ways for her students to be engaging with the
content, with one another, and with her. This included the students using two
different colored highlighters to capture evidence of their close reading, a graphic
organizer/chart to help the students gather the evidence – including the use of
images/plants/animals that are associated with “achieving the Dream.” It all
concluded with a discussion where the students were to write their responses, after
working through the close reading and graphic organizer.

• There were three students that Madeline prepared me before the observation, all
of which were engaged and their needs appeared to be met – one student whose
first day of the class was today (he transferred in from an honors course), one
student who is just beginning to return to general education settings with behavior
modifications, and another student who is repeating the course and tends to also
express a need to leave in the middle of the class.

• Each individual student (and pairs of students) got some time with Madeline, as she
checked-in while they were highlight evidence from the excerpt or summarizing
Crooks’s relationship with the American Dream.

• There were no specific IEP of 504 Plan type of accommodations indicated within
Madeline’s lesson plan, she did draw from the UDL Guidelines at least three times
indicating how particular practices that she featured within the lesson, also
represent best practice/accessible practices.

2.B.1
• Madeline provided several instances of positive reinforcement to her students
Safe Learning when they were sharing in the whole group discussion, saying such supportive
Environment comments as “I like it, yeah…”

• The lights were on in the classroom during the bulk of the lesson. Keeping the
lights on during Period 5 was actually one of the goals that we had set in place
during the formative assessment meeting, with Madeline demonstrating more lead
classroom managerial roles within the classroom.

• There were a few instances where Madeline read directly from the text to provide
some context/further evidence to share with the class and some of the language
included “swear words” that the characters were saying to one other. The students
did not respond or react, suggesting that Madeline had done some work to prepare
the students for the type of language that would be exchanged between the
characters in the 1930s. Madeline indicated in our post-conference that this would
also include the use of the “n-word” to describe an African-American character
from the book.
 • Madeline did not shy away from a frank analysis of whether Crooks would be
included or excluded from the American Dream as a result of being African-
American during the 1930s.

• Madeline uses clear voice projection and is audible throughout the classroom when
presenting key information and directions during the lesson. There were a small
handful of instances when a student or two would be speaking while she was
speaking (not maliciously, but still noticeably).

2.E.1
High Expectations • There were a few instances where Madeline affirmed an answer or contribution
shared by a student in the whole class discussion and also probe some to deepen
the contribution… “What makes you say that?” she had asked more than once to
students within the lesson.

• Madeline was supportive of her students as they completed the Kahoot! review
game and, based on her quick reading of her students’ scores after each word,
would help clarify/elaborate on the correct responses, as well as any distractors.
There were a few instances where all students got the definition matching totally
correct, like with the word “recuperate.”

• Throughout the lesson, the students had all of the resources available in order to be
fully successful.

4.A.1
Reflective Practice • Madeline used her phone to record the time allotted for certain segments of the
lesson, including the time when the students would be working together on the
close read, analyzing Crooks’ beliefs for and against the American Dream. She was
using her phone to monitor the time, as part of her SMART Goal for the pacing of
her lessons during the practicum.

• Madeline has been reflecting on her own classroom management and has been
conscientious about circulating around the classroom to monitor her students’
behaviors throughout the lesson and it was clear that she was doing this during the
segments of the lesson when the students were working together and during the
Kahoot! – projecting her voice so all can hear her summaries of each vocabulary
word.

• Madeline has been using Aspen and overseeing the other clerical responsibilities for
the classes she is lead-teaching. She recently attended a professional development
led by Dr. Adolph Brown, focused on teacher self-care and “unpacking” teacher’s
own baggage as a way to help students.

• Madeline has also developed a Measure of Student Learning which she has been
implementing now that she is in the midst of Total Teach. She is also regularly
responding to journal prompts in the student teaching seminar that go into more
depth with each essential element of CAP and other responsibilities that teachers
face.
Candidate Name: Madeline Fowler
Focused Feedback
Reinforcement Area/Action:
(strengths)
Refinement Area/Action:
(areas for improvement)
Date: November 18, 2021
Subject Matter Knowledge
Well-Structured Lessons
Reflective Practice
Please see the evidence provided earlier in this observation document. Madeline is so
incredibly fluent with her English content and knows how to develop effective, engaging
lessons for her ninth-grade students, providing them with a variety of ways to interpret the
content and to work together as a class. She is remarkably reflective of her teaching
practice and is well-aware of her strengths, as well as areas for refinement. With the
assistance of the personal timer, etc., this lesson (and I assume many others) were well-
paced and there were no significant down-time or lost time.
Safe Learning Environment
To be clear, the environment is never unsafe, it is that Madeline is still actively practicing
managing a whole class of ninth-graders and all that comes with it. There were no instances
of significant inappropriate behavior - there was one student who was goes for an extended
period of the class that Mr. Rea and she were well-aware of. One recommendation for
practice is to pause at key times during the lesson to be sure all of the students are “with
you” - looking up at you, not talking to a neighbor, and listening (during these key times) - it
wouldn’t hurt to have a student or two repeat back the expectations to you/the whole class
before releasing them, too.
Please include any individual student accommodations that relate to the lesson in the lesson
plan, too. You could use student initials or another system so that the students remain
anonymous/and it’s confidential.