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: Ashley Rhodes Date: 11/18/17
1. To what extent were learning outcomes appropriate and achievable to your students?
They were appropriate as they were the current standards that students are
working on in literature. Most students did very well- they were able to tell me
the authors purpose and write in complete sentences. Some struggled with
writing in complete sentences.
2. How effective were your instructional strategies? What changes would you make in
your instructional approaches if you taught this lesson again? Why?
My instructional strategies were mostly effective. I believe the actual
instructional part went well. For classroom management, I should have been
more stern with students. I think I let them get away with too much and too
many off task behaviors.
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 like how before I read the book, I told students to be thinking of the authors
purpose as they were listening. Before the assessment part, I reminded
students to write in complete sentences and even reminded them that to do
this, they could rephrase the question in their response. My directions could
definitely have been clearer. When students broke off to think of their promises,
some started writing them, others just discussed it. I should have been clearer
with what I wanted them to do. Our discussions went well. The hardest part was
knowing when/how to cut off students who still wanted to share when I know we
needed to move on because of time.
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.)
The students were incredibly engaged during the read-aloud -- more so than I
ever would have thought! The students worked well together in the groups, it
just took forever for them to move into the groups and get settled into starting to
actually discuss. I think clearer instructions would have sped this up and kept
students more engaged. During the actual building of the classroom promise,
students did great being respectful of their peers. As soon as they started
getting distracted, I moved into the next part of the lesson, which I thought was
a good idea.
5. How effectively did you use instructional materials, resources, and/or technology?
I had the statements ready during the hook activity and had the book readily
available. During the book, I had questions prepared throughout so I did not
have to think of them on the spot. **I should definitely have had pre-formed
groups when students were to get into the groups of three. I did not use any
technology.
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?
I could have assessed how well the students were able to identify the authors
purpose in a more concrete, formal way. However, I did not want to overload
them and did want to keep it as more of a discussion. I like how even the final
assessment did not seem like an assessment to the students. I would have
given more time for the final assessment because I felt like students were
rushed.
7. To what extent was your feedback to students accurate, substantive, constructive,
specific, and/or timely?
While the students were collaborating with others I was able to circulate and go
to each group and ask them what they were thinking about adding to the
promise. It was neat because I was able to guide them if needed and talk to
every student! I could give them personal feedback if necessary. During the
building of the classroom promise, I was able to answer questions and also give
positive feedback on each promise added. During the assessment, I wish I
would have had more time to go to each student! I tried to go to as many
students as I could.
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.)
Like I said before, I could have been more stern and given clearer directions.
With that being said, I am still happy with how everything turned out. The
students did very well and I think they all learned something from this lesson.
There was minimal yelling out and students remained engaged for the majority
of the lesson.
9. Did you make modifications to your lesson plan during the lesson? If so, what were
they and what motivated these changes?
I did not call out all of the statements during the engage part. I could tell I
needed to cut it short because the students were starting to get less engaged
and a little too rowdy. That was the only major modification.
10. Was your Teaching Behavior Focus goal met?
This is something I will always be working on! I think the students felt
comfortable and enjoyed sharing out in front of their classmates. I tried to
handle all problems to the best of my ability. One student started crying (he
does this a lot) and I maybe could have handled this better, but giving this
student too much attention when he is crying just makes it worse.
