Reflection on Instruction and Student Learning

Candidate: JeLisa Ashby

School: Whittaker Elementary

School Year: Fall: 2015-2016

Robinson

Cooperating Teacher: Mary

At what appropriate point in the unit and did this lesson fall?

_____ Beginning
___X__ Middle
______ End

Instructions: Please reflect on one of your lessons that occurred while you were
being observed. Make your responses brief and to the point. Examples may be
attached, if appropriate.
1.

What were the objectives of the lesson? Provide evidence to confirm that
your students understood the overall purpose and relevance of the lesson?
(APS 4-A-C)

The objective of my lesson was to identify text structures within a

given text and to organize that structure in an appropriate graphic
organizer. Students were able to display their learning orally (as we
conducted guided practice), in written form (independent practice
including homework), and I was able to conduct a summative
assessment with their weekly test and an art based activity where
students noted the 5 text structures and drew the appropriate graphic
organizer.

2.

What effect did your teaching strategies have in terms of promoting

student learning and keeping your students meaningfully engaged? Provide
evidence to support your answer. (APS 5 A-C)

The strategies that I used during the lesson included personal stories
as examples. This strategy captivated students by letting them witness
their teacher as a person. I also relied on repetition for this lesson.
After learning the 5 text structures we repeated them each day after
we read the objective of the day. I believe this was an effective
strategy because I had full class participation during the lesson as well

as, well structured responses. Incorporating movement in anyway, I

allowed the students to come up and highlight or underline important
key words or phrases that supported the text structure they selected.
Lastly, I included the entire class during my formative assessment. If
one child gave an answer I would ask the class to give a thumbs up or
down, whether or not they agreed. Having to be accountable for an
answer gave everyone an obligation to be involved in the lesson. If a
student was wrong I allowed another student to correct or better
explain the right answer. Encompassing all of these strategies help
scaffold the information and the large volume of reading that took
place during this lesson.

3.

How was the content of the lesson appropriate for the students, and
describe how you effectively organized the content to ensure that students
would learn? (APS 6 (A-C)

The content of this lesson was appropriate for students in the way in
which it was demonstrated and practiced. I had to preview the material
in depth, before I even began to plan. I selected passages that
explicitly highlighted the text structured to be covered. The content
was dissected during our guided practices which featured close
reading. Close reading, I learned from Mrs. Robinson, is a purposeful
reading where previewing the story is conducted as well as critical
thinking during the passage being read. For example, what evidence
in the story helped you identify that this passage is structured in
chronological order? At the end of the lesson, as a professional
disposition, I would revert back to my pacing guide and support
documents, and reflect on what the class displayed that they had
learned. Further confirmation for mastery or need for modification of
the delivery of content was measure based upon the homework that
we will review the next day.

4.

How did you assess student learning during the lesson? Provide a
summary of the results? (APS 7 A)

During the lesson students had their own copy of what we were
covering on the board they had to first, read the passage on their own,
circle at least key words that help you identify the text structure and to
underline two supporting details. Copies of these are attached.

5. Did you make any adjustments during the lesson? Why or Why Not? (APS 7
B)

Some adjustments that I made during the lesson were the order in
which I asked some of my questions. At times I would get ahead of
myself and skip over a question that was pertinent to the lesson. I
adjusted by telling the class to put their hands down and say, I
apologize let me ask you this question first. Once I did that, more
students had that ah-ha moment and the lesson continued as
planned.

6. What types of feedback did or will you provide to the students regarding
their performance. Discuss the relevance of the feedback that you
provided or will provide. (APS 7C)
The types of feedback that I provided to the class, was through formative
assessment. For example, if we were going over te
7. In what way(s) and to what extent did the classroom environment impact
your instruction and student learning, either positively or negatively? (APS
8-A-C; APS 9 A-C)

The classroom environment played a mediocre role during student

instruction. The way that learning materials were displayed was out of
my control. I did like the fact that displays were not displayed until
content was covered, but on the other hand, I feel that they were
displayed way after the fact of being tested on the material. I would
have created them with the class (charts/graphs) or displayed them
the day before testing. These materials do not verbatim give answers,
however they can assist with some test taking strategies so I would
have displayed them then. Also for hands-on activities I feel that
sometimes the students did not have enough time to connect with the

materials and that structure was more important. I would have allowed
a bit more leeway with experiments. I do understand and believe in
setting clear expectations prior to an activity by constant structure
control, to me, is not my teaching style and I feel that a more positive
influence from utilizing the materials could have been achieved.

8. What decisions did you make regarding subsequent instruction for these
students, and why? (APS 4-9)

Some subsequent instruction that I made for the students was to

include a proper ratio of the text structures that were more difficult to
grasp, versus the simpler models.

9. What did you learn as a result of teaching this lesson? (APS 4-9)
After teaching this lesson I learned that I have to be clear and concise when asking
my formative questions to students. If I am not clear, they are unclear as to how to
answer the question. Also, asking concrete questions ensures that I am teaching to
the standards.

10. Feel free to make any other comments regarding your field experiences
that you would like to share. This may also include recommendations for
strengths and weakness of our program.