TRACK I AND TRACK II
POST OBSERVATION FORM
Name Justin Busch School Hempstead High School Grade/Subject English 3-4
Observation Date April 16th, 2018 Time/Period 6th hour
Post conference Date April 17th, 2018 Time/Period 7th hour
1. Did the lesson go as you planned? Why or why not? If I had the opportunity to teach this
lesson again to this same group of students, what would I do differently? Why?
The lesson didn’t go exactly as planned. There was a lot more confusion on what was expected
of students than I had anticipated. By no means did that derail the lesson, but I did have to do
more individualized explanation of what the task was. If I were to teach this lesson again, I
would have modelled exactly what I wanted them to do in regards to highlighting and underlining
parts of the song. I also would have modified the writing aspect as well. I think that I could’ve
gotten what I wanted out of the students by having them do a worksheet instead of write
paragraphs. The worksheet would have been able to more explicitly state the expectations in a
way that I think students would have better understood.
2. Did the students meet the learning targets? How do you know?
Yes, the students met the learning targets. I know this because during the class discussion
and the pod talks students were able to identify how the attitude towards music has shifted
over the course of the book and why this specific instance of listening to music was bad for
Ishmael. Also, in the three paragraphs that they wrote they were able to analyze both sets of
lyrics from the perspective of Ishmael in both the underlining of key ideas and in the written
paragraphs.
3. Were your materials and resources prepared and appropriate? Did you have to make any
adjustments to the instruction or materials during the lesson? If so, why?
The materials were appropriately prepared and did not require any adjustments during the
lesson. However, in the materials that I prepared I had to delete verse 3 in the song “I Need
Love” because it was inappropriate.
4. In which of the 12 Touchstones and in which of the Iowa Teaching Standards are you most
confident?
I am fairly unfamiliar with the 12 touchstones but I would say that number 1 and 5 are the ones I
am most confident. I use standards to guide my lessons on a daily basis and even display the
standards for each day on the board. Engagement is also something that I try to do with every
student on a daily basis and prove that in this lesson since they worked with a song that is
significant to them in some way. The Iowa Teaching Standards that I am most confident are
W.9–10.1 (writing argumentation) and the Key Ideas and Details standards for Reading
Comprehension (RL. 10.1-10.3) are the areas where I am most comfortable. I am very confident
in the reading standards because these are standards that I use to guide my lessons frequently
because they are so important to reading and understanding literature. Furthermore, I am
confident in teaching writing argumentation because a majority of the papers that I have written
are argumentative, even analysis essays of literature. Because I have had so much practice
writing in this style, I think I am able to guide students towards improvement very well.
5. For which of the 12 Touchstones and for which of the Iowa Teaching Standards do you want
more support?
Touchstone 2 is one that I think I can improve on. I often challenge students by having high
standards for them but I don’t always feel that I am challenging students to be intrinsically
motivated to better themselves. I think that standard SL.9–10.2 (Integrate multiple sources of
information presented in diverse media or formats (e.g., visually, quantitatively, orally)
evaluating the credibility and accuracy of each source) is something that I need to improve on. I
do a lot of class discussion and writing activities; however, I feel that I need to find other means
to present information and for students to present their findings.
Teacher’s signature/date Administrator’s signature/date
