Katie Zambito

Formal Supervisor Observation: Shared Reading Lesson (1st grade)

My lesson was based on a shared reading lesson with a focus on note taking and
forming opinions based on a nonfiction text. My students have shown that they have difficulty
in forming opinions throughout their creative writing work. The lesson was planned to
incorporate whole group instruction, partner work, and individual work in order to meet the
needs of all students. The hook of the lesson was based on students sharing amazing animals
that they saw at Busch Gardens on the previous day. The students read the story, "Amazing
Animals" on the previous day as a read aloud while following along in their individual books
with the text. Upon returning to their seats and being assigned partners to work with, students
were to pull out the required materials for the lesson. Two students immediately began crying
when being told who their partner would be. The students were told that they had until all of the
papers were passed out to solve the problem (video-6:12). My students have difficulty in
problem solving and this is an ongoing situation within this classroom. As I continued to pass
out materials to the remainder of the class, I mentioned a previous lesson about self-discipline
that has been discussed in social studies. By reminding students what the meaning of selfdiscipline is and how to apply this trait to their learning, the two students reached an agreement.
If I were to teach this lesson again to the same group of students, I would emphasize
the importance of working cooperatively with other before beginning the lesson. By giving
students a verbal reminder before beginning the lesson, the amount of students not working
cooperatively may have been reduced. I also would have had students share sentence starters
because this seemed to be a difficult task for the majority of the class. This group of students
has shown challenges in transforming questions into sentence responses. After reviewing the
responses, students were to return to their seats and re-write their statements. After explaining

Katie Zambito
the expectations again, the students quality of work greatly increased.
The students learned how to take notes based on nonfiction facts and formulate opinions
based on the information that they learned. My teaching methods were effective in terms of
behavior management , respect for all students, and flexibility. With multiple behavior issues
occurring throughout my lesson, I made adjustments accordingly to ensure that all students
would still have the opportunity to succeed. Students showed signs that they were not working
with their partners in a way that would benefit their learning, therefore I changed the lesson to
incorporate more independent work. The activity was effective because it incorporated the use
of turn and talks, individual thinking, and whole group discussion. The turn and talks were used
throughout the lesson in order to spark students thinking and hook the learners into the lesson.
Throughout the lesson, I accommodated students nonchalantly to reduce disruptions to
nearby students. The worksheet that was given to every student was the same. However, some
students were required to write one facts while others were instructed to write two facts for each
amazing animal. Throughout my video, multiple instances are documented in which students
were accommodated during individual work time (video-16:19). By circulated throughout the
classroom and assisting students as needed, I was able to monitor behavior while assessing
student comprehension.
Based on this lesson, my next steps will be to set higher expectations prior to allowing
students to work with a partner. This lesson showed the amount of emphasis that needs to be
placed on cooperation, team work, and self-discipline. These behavior management aspects will
be implemented throughout future lessons to improve students' behavior. Their behavior may
affect the learning outcomes due to the necessity to change plans from working with partners to
working individually. Students are not able to hold conversations with each other and share thier

Katie Zambito
thinking while working individually. Therefore, a greater amount of importance needs to be
placed on partner work for future lessons.
Overall, my essential question and goals for this lesson were accomplished throughout
the use of whole group, small group, and individual instruction. The students showed mastery in
taking notes and applying their notes to form opinions about the reading. Although many
students required a second chance to correctly complete their work, the end results showed
mastery.