Level IV CT Observation#2 Reflection

To start off, the essential understanding of my lesson was for the students to be able to determine the theme of a specific story. This story was titled “Jose Born to Dance” and was an autobiography from the fourth grade Journey’s Textbook. Prior to this lesson, we had already been working with main idea and theme. Both are often confused and the objective of a previous lesson was for students to understand the difference between main idea and theme.

The students learned many things in my lesson. The first thing students learned was how to use their listening skills. The story was read to them and they were to follow along with the text in their book. Next, students learned how to work cooperatively. After the story was read, they were broken off into groups of four or five. They were given five questions to answer based on the text. These questions were made to further their understanding of the text and to ultimately help them determine the theme.

This, using details from the text to determine the theme, was the main learning goal of my lesson. Each group of students was given a red sheet of chart paper to work on. They were given a question and then given about two or three minutes to answer the question independently as they sat around the red paper. Next, they had to discuss their answers and come to a consensus for a group answer. These group answers were then recorded on a separate sheet of paper.

After looking at both sets of papers, I can see that students understood the story from their answers. Some of the individual answers were incorrect, but that was why the group work was so important. Some students may not have understood the question at first, but when it was time to discuss, their partners were there to help them. The groups were created with a mix of low, medium, and high-level learners. Once the students had a discussion and came to a consensus for each question, the answers were wonderful and well-supported with evidence.

I feel that several things in my lesson worked well. One thing that worked well was the group work. It is important for students to be able to work cooperatively. Not only that, but if students struggled on any of the questions, they had the support of their peers. Another thing that worked well was the use of the timer. It is very easy to lose track of time and the timer was a great way to make sure the students had enough time to finish all of the questions.

Lastly, I was very clear in my directions and made sure everyone understood what they were doing. In order to be sure, at 10:46 in the video, I randomly called on a students to repeat the directions I had stated. She was not able to which proved not everyone was listening. So, I had her call on someone that did know what to do and he repeated it to the whole class.

One thing I would have refined is the very beginning of the lesson. Even though I did give them a purpose for listening to the story, which was to figure out its theme, I feel like I was missing something. I could have told them what the story was going to be about and also asked them what type of genre it was. Hopefully, a student would raise their hand and tell me autobiography, and then I would ask them why they think it is an autobiography.

The final summative assessment of the lesson was for the students to write down what they thought was the theme of the story on a sticky note. Most of the students were correct in their thinking but a couple were off by a little, or confused main idea with theme. So, my next step based on student learning of the objective would be to pull those couple of students together that did not understand the theme and form a group. With this group I will do more theme-related activities until they have mastered their understanding of theme.

As I reflect over this observation cycle, I am discovering various things about my teaching. One aspect I have really improved on is on giving direction. I used to have the issue of not being very clear with my directions which would always leave some students confused on what to do and/or asking me many questions afterwards. In this lesson especially, I noticed how clear and specific I was and no students seemed confusing when they were completing their work.

One thing I still need to work on is being able to catch those students that are off task. For example, at 6:13 in the video, there was a student playing with something in desk which I had not seen. Sometimes I am so focused on my lesson that I forget to look around the whole room and make sure all the students are paying attention. It takes a great deal of multi-tasking, but I know that with time, I will get better at it.

(It is difficult to see the writing, but this is where the students recorded their answers.)