Observation

Social Studies Instructional Lesson

Classroom: Alisca
Grade: 3rd
Curriculum Area: Social Studies
What I notice
-Research China
-Reading the book Welcome to China
by
-Before reading, teacher asked
questions about non-fiction and what it
is and this text.

Observer: Erin Alge

Date: March 14, 2016
Time: 10:15-10:45
Thoughts, Questions, Connections to
Methods Classes
-We learned about all these social
studies book
--Also writing childrens books
--It is a good way to teach an
integrative social studies and language
arts lessons.

-Discussed text features with the

students

-Asked about purposes of the text

features (example: pictures, title, and
author, and table of contents) and why
they are used. This area of the lesson
tied into language ELA because
students were identifying features of
the text. I liked how the teacher
incorporated this in the lesson easily
and quickly.

-The teacher asked the students to

make observations by looking at the
cover of the book. The teacher
assessed students prior knowledge by
asking what they knew about China.

-I think the teacher used a good

strategy by having students make
observations and ask about prior
knowledge to assess what the students
already know and what they can gain
from this lesson.

-As the students read each page and

discussed then they filled out the
worksheet.
-The teacher would not just give the
students the answers but would make
them read and find them. For example,
on the first page of the book students
learned about the population and size
of the country. On their worksheet, they
had to identify the population and size

-The teacher would drop hints about

what students were supposed to be
paying attention to. She also called on
students to answer questions that were
not paying attention or were off-task.

of the country.
-After research, students went back to
seats to work on word sort.
-This is a small social studies minilesson and will be a unit that is going
on for two weeks (China Research).

-I liked how the students read along.

The teacher would read part of a
sentence and would randomly stop. The
students would pick up the sentence
and would continue to read where the
teacher left off. This helps ensure
students are following along and paying
attention.

Social Studies Observation Reflection

At the very beginning of the lesson, the teacher asked students if they
knew what research was and if they had ever done research before. The
lesson was introduced by teacher saying that they were going to be learning
about China today and for the next two weeks introduced the lesson. The
teacher also introduced their Countries Research Project. After studying
China, students were going to be able to research any country that they
wanted to. She explained to the students that it was important to pay
attention to how they were doing research for China, in order to successful in
their own research projects. I thought it was creative that the teacher told the
students that they were going to be researchers for the next month. This
seemed to get students excited about the project and different countries. The
teacher connected this to China by asking students what they knew about
China. This helped connect their prior knowledge and transition into the
lesson.
The purpose of this lesson was so that students could learn about
China and how do research on a country. Students were aware of what an
economy was and what part of United States economy consists of. Students
also knew that China was on the other side of the world and that it is different
from the United States. I thought this was important information for the
teacher to go over at the beginning of the lesson to ensure understanding. It
is easy to forget that students are sometimes unaware of other countries and
parts of the world. My teacher made this part of the lesson seem so easy. It
was easy to tell that she was prepared and followed the students lead based
on what they knew and what they did not.

My teacher taught the students new material by reading a nonfiction

book about China called Welcome to China by Caryn Jenner. The teacher and
students read only a couple pages of this book together. The teacher used a
choral reading technique where the teacher would read and then the
students would continue reading where the teacher left off. I had never
observed this technique being used before and I thought that it was very
effective in this case. It kept students attention and focus on the teacher and
content of what was being read. After the reading and discussion was
finished, students moved back to their seats to complete their worksheets.
One thing that I noted was that the students were able to access the pages
they had read online on their Canvas (Moodle-like pages) module. I think this
was an important move by the teacher because the students were able to go
back and search for the information if they had forgotten it.
This lesson was probably one of the shorter lessons that I observed
through my IMB two-week experience. The teacher didnt necessarily close
the lesson; she just had them transition their things to the language arts
lesson. She explained to me after that Social Studies is given little to no time
for instruction so she squeezes it in the best that she can. I think is very
respectable because some teachers do not even try to teach Social Studies at
all. I believe that the students were able to learn a lot about China in a short
period of time.
What I took away from this lesson that will impact my future Social
Studies teaching would be that I want to teach lots of hands on and
interactive multidisciplinary activities. I want students to be exposed to hands
on and virtual activities, as well as non-fiction texts that are just important. I

also want to make sure that I remain as positive as I can at all times in the
classroom because that definitely has an impact on your students.