WASHINGTON STATE UNIVERSITY TL330 1

Classroom Observation (for your Final Integrated Social Justice Lesson Plan)
To help prepare you for your group Final Integrated Social Justice Lesson Plan, please engage in
a targeted observation of the classroom, and engage in discussions with your teacher around the
following areas. Remember, these are things for you to consider so that you can ensure, to the
best of your ability, that your lesson plan is culturally responsive and accessible to all of the
students in your classroom. Some of these questions can be answered via your observations, but
many will require some discussions with your teacher. Please remember, each individual in
your group needs to submit a classroom observation sheet on Blackboard.
1. What is the general layout of the classroom and resources available for you to use for
your lesson and stations? Whiteboard, projector, laptop, document camera, smartboard,
Chromebooks, etc.? What supplies do the children generally have in their desks that they
can use?
a. The technology that is available in the classroom is a projector, whiteboard,
document camera, and 5 laptops. On desks they have pencils and paper available.
There are four table groups with around 6-8 students per group.

2. What are some of the classroom dynamics to consider? Number of boys and girls in the
class? What grouping strategies might you consider for your stations?
a. There are 14 boys and 12 girls in the classroom. Some grouping strategies that
we considered are that she has placed them into half girls and half boys at each table.
Also, she has many diverse learners, which include many students with IEPs, some
ELL students, and some high cap students. She has these students dispersed
throughout the room rather than clumped together at one table.

3. What are some of the general mathematics concepts that all of the students in your grade
level can understand/use, regardless of their math grouping? Are there particular
mathematical concepts that the teacher thinks would be useful for your lesson to use?
a. We didn’t get an opportunity to see the students work with mathematics. They
were doing a social studies lesson about how a bill becomes a law during the time that we
observed their class, and we plan to teach them a lesson about social justice.

4. What are some of the main themes in the social studies curriculum for your grade level
that might be a good tie in for your lesson?
a. Some of the main themes in the fifth grade social studies curriculum that we noticed
are how bills become laws, as well as teaching students that they have a voice in the world and
that they get to have a say in new ideas. This goes along with learning about democracy and
democratic ideas.
WASHINGTON STATE UNIVERSITY TL330 2

5. What social studies resources do you observe in the classroom (maps, texts, books, etc)?

a. Social studies resources throughout the classroom include maps on the wall, social
studies textbook, social studies songs, and videos that can be played.

6. Regarding ELL students, what is the first/home language? Are they receiving services in
the school? How many years? What strategies have teachers used that were helpful?

a. Regarding ELL students in the classroom, most exited the program already. However,
these students spoke a different language fairly recently. Nevertheless, they are not
receiving services anymore. In order to accommodate for the ELL students in the
classroom, the teacher makes directions clear rather than scattered. She says several
different kinds of words for them. She also monitors for their understanding.

7. Regarding students with special needs, what accommodations do you need to consider for
reading, math, language arts, social studies? Think about students with documented IEPs
and 504 plans as well as those that do not have official plans on file. What strategies have
been successful?
a. In the classroom there are four students with IEPs and six students who are high cap.
The teacher says that she makes sure to differentiate instruction for them. The
students who have IEP receive services for math, reading, and writing. Two of those
students go to all three. When they are in the classroom, these students will be doing
team structured activities where they have different roles that they are capable of and
can attain. Some students need a lot of redirection, and others need things read to
them.