Department of Teacher Education & Learning Sciences

Elementary Education Program

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: Whitney Illing Date: March 17, 2017

1. To what extent were learning outcomes appropriate and achievable to your students?
I think the learning outcomes were very appropriate and achievable to my
students. Looking back over their main idea worksheet and talking with
students after the lesson, it was clear to me that the students had a better
understanding of how to find the main idea and key details.

2. How effective were your instructional strategies? What changes would you make in
your instructional approaches if you taught this lesson again? Why?
I think the instructional strategies were effective. The students enjoyed our
introduction game. We had a whole group discussion, turn and talk, and a
read aloud. The students worked in groups and completed a graphic
organizer (main idea tree). All of these strategies were used to help the
lesson flow together. A change I would make for the future is not necessarily
an instructional strategy, but I would spread the groups out more around
the room. Some groups were getting distracted sitting so close to other
groups.

3. Evaluate the effectiveness of your oral and written communication with students.
(Consider how well you communicated learning objectives, clarity of directions, use of standard English, quality of
questions and effectiveness of discussion techniques.)

I believe there is always room for improvement and in this case I could have
communicated better with the students. I am continuing to work on guiding
the students to the right answers instead of just telling them. I feel I
provided clear expectations to the students in order for them to complete
the task.

4. Evaluate the level of student engagement in your lesson . (Consider how you presented the
content/skills, the activities and assignments for students, grouping of students, and structure and pacing of the
lesson.)
I personally thought student engagement was excellent! The students
seemed to enjoy our introduction. While my partner was reading, the
students helped her fill out the main idea tree. Lastly, as I walked around
the room students were engaged in their books they were reading as well
as filling out the main idea tree worksheet.
5. How effectively did you use instructional materials, resources, and/or technology?
I think our use of a variety of books kept the students engaged. The first
book we read the students had read the day before so they thought it was
cool we were going to be talking about it again. We then used a variety of
books during small groups. This kept the students eager to learn about their
assigned topic as well as others. We also used a pre-made main idea tree to
keep the students thoughts organized.

6. To what extent were your assessment strategies effective? What changes would you
make in your assessment approach if you taught this lesson again? Why?
Our assessment strategies were somewhat effective. Looking at the main
idea worksheet completed by students, the majority of them could pick out
the main idea and key details. We also talked to two students after the
lesson that was able to tell us the main idea and key details from the book
they were reading. Both of these could be problematic because the
students were working in groups and one person could have been doing all
the work as well as, we could have picked two students that understood it
better than others. To fix this, I think we could meet with each student
individually after the lesson to talk about the main idea and key details in a
book they are reading. This would help us see who truly understands the
concept by retelling it using his or her book. We could have also used an
exit ticket in which each student would do his or her own main idea tree so
we could see who understands the concept.

7. To what extent was your feedback to students accurate, substantive, constructive,

specific, and/or timely?
I would hope my feedback to the students was mostly accurate, but no one
is perfect and I am sure I made a mistake. I would try to guide the students
to the right answer without telling them by using questions such as Where
will the key details go? I kept my feedback short so I could help other
groups and stayed on topic for what the group needed help with.

8. To what extent did the classroom management and environment contribute to student
learning? (Consider your classroom procedures, your use of physical space, and the students conduct.)
The classroom management and environment allowed for students to be
engaged and focused. The students were very well behaved and worked
well together. We used a call and response to get the students attention
back from turn and talks and working in groups. We set clear expectations
to the students of what they need to accomplish. We gave praise for good
behavior and redirected students when needed.

9. Did you make modifications to your lesson plan during the lesson? If so, what were
they and what motivated these changes?
The first modification we made during the lesson was to take out the
second part of I do which is modeling to the students how to complete the
task. My partner read a few pages of the book and modeled how to fill out
the main idea tree. She felt confident that the students had a good
 understanding of how to do it. The second modification made during the
lesson was to end after each group had completed two main ideas and key
details. This modification was made for time sake. The students were
focused on the task, which was taking a little longer than we had
anticipated (which is great).

10. Was your Teaching Behavior Focus goal met?

I believe my teaching behavior focus goal was met. I used my mentor
teachers call and response technique to get the students attention back
on me. The students were engaged and well behaved throughout the
lesson, which created a positive learning environment.