Lesson Plan & Implementation:

Reflection and Analysis

College of Education

Reflection is a critical process for supporting your growth and development as a

professional. At the end of each lesson, you should reflect on the experience and analyze its
effectiveness. This part of the process consists of two parts: the reflection and the analysis.

In order to receive full credit your reflection and analysis must include specific references
to the video with time correlations. For this reason, it is strongly suggested that you
complete a chart as you watch your video with the following headings and focus your
viewing on the student learning goal and/or teacher instructional goal.
Time Celebration/Struggle/Question: Claim about teaching practice

4:30 Rewarding students who are Make sure almost all students
ready for the lesson to try and get are in their seats so they can
those who are not ready. However, focus on teacher giving
most of the students are not really instructions.
paying attention because they are
using the bathroom and getting
water after specials. Spent too
much time trying to get students
to get back on task.

8:20 Student complains he can’t be with
a friend. I reassured him that he
will get to work with him and
everyone else for the lesson.
Do not waste time arguing with
students about what they want
and reassure them everything
will be okay if they follow
directions.

9:18 Putting on the costume made it Address instances immediately

very engaging for the students. where off task behaviors and
Due to the excitement of students, conversations could arise. This
I gave them five seconds to laugh will provide more time for
as much as they wanted. This gave instruction.
time for them to experience
learning in a fun way but also
prevents time taken away from
giggles and side conversations
later in the lesson.

11:30 Based on activities of the lesson, Provide balanced attention for

students are going to the fake jail. behaviors of all students so the
 My CT was handling the students
who went to the jail but I focused
my targets on those still not in jail.
If I didn’t have my CT I would need
to make sure behaviors are still
being controlled for all students.
12:30 One student got to engaged with
the lesson. She decided to skip
across the classroom.
15:10 Did not give students transition
directions so it got very noisy.
15:39 Student made connection to
school house rock video I shared
at the beginning of the school day.
15:56 Press mute attention getter used
too many times that is not being
effective anymore. Had to use it a
lot throughout the lesson where it
stopped working.
16:30 Turn and talks question was posed
as yes or no answer.
20:15 Lost focus of students because
someone came to the door.
27:48 Students are getting confused and
frustrated about what they should
be writing.
classroom does not get out of
hand.
Make sure, with even engaging
lessons, that you as the teacher
remind students of the school
and classroom rules.
Directions are essential to keep
control over noise and
behaviors of students.
Expose students to new ideas so
they have some prior
background knowledge to help
guide their thinking. Encourage
those students to speak with
their classmates.
Make sure to use a wide variety
of attention getters so students
refocus almost the first time you
say it.
For turn and talks in the future,
make sure questions are open
and not closed questions
because it promotes student
engagement and interaction
with what they are learning.
Reward students who are
staying focused to get other
students back on track.
Provide time for students to do
a turn in talk with partners so
they can remind each other and
provide one another with ideas
to support their writing.
 You do not have to answer all of these questions, choose 3-4 and answer thoroughly. They
are meant to prompt your thinking. Your reflection should make sure to address both
reflection and analysis.

The Reflection: The reflection component should make you think about your overall
impressions and feelings that you had. You also might address something that surprised
you or something that made you pause.

Questions to consider in your reflection:

1. What aspects of your lesson were implemented differently than you planned? Why did that happen?
2. If you were going to teach this lesson to the same group of students, what would you do differently? Why?
What would you do the same? Why?
3. What surprised you in your lesson?
4. Describe an instance or particular encounter that comes to mind. Why did you pick that instance? What is so
perplexing about that particular moment?
5. What connections can you make to your lesson today from your coursework, the literature, and any previous
lessons or experiences?

The Analysis: The analysis part addresses the lesson’s effectiveness – to what extent did the
students meet the objectives stated in your lesson plan and how do you know? Make a
claim about student learning and support it with evidence that you gathered from the
lesson.

You do not have to answer all of these questions, instead use these questions to prompt
your thinking and make at minimum 2-3 claims about student learning and support your
claims with data (video, student work, methods readings, observation form…).

General questions to consider in your analysis:

1. To what extend did the students learn what was intended? How do you know? As part of your
answer, please indicate:
a. In what ways were your teaching methods effective? How do you know?
b. In what ways were your activities effective? How do you know?
c. In what ways were the instructional materials effective?
d. How did any special considerations of accommodations affect the lesson?
2. Identify an individual or group of students who had difficulty in today’s lesson. How do you
account for this performance? How will you help this (these) student(s) achieve the learning
objectives?
3. Identify an individual or group of students who did especially well in this lesson today. How do
you account for this performance?
4. Based on what happened in this lesson, what are the next steps? What do you plan to teach next
to this class? Be sure to explain how you will use information from this evaluation in future
lesson planning.

Questions to consider specific to differentiated instruction:

1. What specific differentiated instruction strategies and assessments are used in this lesson? Be
specific.
2. Describe how you assessed how the lesson impacted student learning? What worked? What would
you change?
3. Identify an individual or group of students who had difficulty in today’s lesson.
How do you account for this performance?
How will you help this (these) student(s) achieve the learning objectives?
4. Identify an individual or group of students who did especially well in this lesson today.
How do you account for this performance?
5. If you were going to teach this lesson again to the same group of students, what would you do
differently? (Consider: grouping, methods, materials, evaluation, activities) Why? What would you
do the same? Why?
6. Based on what happened in this lesson, what do you plan to teach next to this class? Be sure to
explain how you will use information from this evaluation in future lesson planning.

Questions to consider specific to English language learners:

1. In considering the needs of all ELL students in your class, what have you done to ensure that your
ELL students are learning the material and keeping up with the rest of the class?
2. What opportunities have you taken in this lesson to teach specific language to your ELL students
that will be needed for their successful participation in this lesson?
3. How have the lesson objectives been adapted to meet the needs of all of your ELL students?
4. How have the lesson procedures been adapted to meet the needs of all of your ELL students?
5. How has the lesson assessment been adapted to meet the needs of all of your ELL students?

Questions to consider specific to a mathematics lesson:

1. Analyze your use of mathematics vocabulary. Were you precise in your use of vocabulary? Did you
encourage precision in students' use of vocabulary?
2. Consider your mathematical explanations.
a. Were you accurate in your discussion of mathematics content?
b. Did you support student accuracy (in other words, did you correctly identify student work as
accurate or inaccurate)? This does not mean that you necessarily told a student they were
wrong, but that you recognized their lack of accuracy and took steps to support their further
learning.
3. Consider the extent to which you provided opportunities for your students to "do mathematics."
Which of the mathematical practices did you PLAN to facilitate and which of those practices are
OBSERVABLE in student behavior?
4. Consider how the mathematics was represented in the class. Were connections made between
representations (verbal, numerical, pictorial, physical etc.)?

Questions to consider specific to a science lesson:

1. In what ways did you access prior knowledge? What misconceptions were revealed during this
lesson?
2. Consider the extent to which you provided opportunities for your students to ‘do’ science. What
process skills/practices were embedded and discussed in the lesson?
3. Analyze the explain phase. To what extent were the students sharing discoveries from their
exploration?
4. Consider your scientific explanations. Were you accurate in your discussions of science content?
Were you precise in your use of vocabulary? Did you encourage precision in students’ use of
vocabulary? Did you support student accuracy (in other words, did you correctly identify student
work as accurate or inaccurate)? This does not mean that you necessarily told a student they were
wrong, but that you recognized their lack of accuracy and took steps to support their further
learning.
5. Consider how science was represented in the class. What explicit connections were made to the
nature of science?

Questions to consider specific to a social studies lesson:

1. Describe how your instruction incorporated informed inquiry approaches, such as developing
questions and planning inquiries, applying disciplinary concepts and tools, evaluating sources and
using evidence, and communicating conclusions and taking informed action.
2. Describe how your instruction promoted the teaching of social studies as a content-rich discipline
that strengthens reading, writing, speaking, and listening skills. How did you promote social studies
disciplinary literacy (e.g., thinking/reading like a historian, geographer, economist, engaged citizen)?
3. How did you integrate primary sources into your instruction? What did you hope students would
learn from the artifacts you chose? How did you build background or contextual knowledge in your
students before you presented the artifact?
4. Describe how you integrated technology into instruction. Did your instruction actively engage
students in using technology to build their knowledge and creatively express ideas?

Questions to consider specific to a literacy lesson:

1. What data did you use to determine that the instructional strategies you used were appropriate
for these learners?
2. How did you incorporate the 8 pillars of literacy instruction (Cunningham & Allington, 2011)?
3. If you did not incorporate all 8 pillars of literacy instruction, how might you incorporate those
that were not included in the future?
4. How did you assess whether students learned what you taught in this/these lesson(s)?
5. How will you use that assessment to make further instructional plans?