Department of Teacher Education & Learning Sciences

Elementary Education Program

Pre-Observation Form

Directions: This form is to be completed prior to every lesson that will be observed by the mentor
teacher or university supervisor. It is to be submitted no later than 3 business days prior to the actual
observation along with your lesson plans.

Name: Jenni Davis

Date: 11/6/17

1. What is the topic of your lesson?

The topic of this lesson is community service, empathy and giving back to others.

2. Why are you teaching this lesson? What is your rationale for teaching it?

In this lesson, I will be teaching students about the importance of giving to others
who may be in need of something. For example, students who may not have
enough food at home can use some help by getting groceries from other
members of the community. My rationale for teaching this lesson is to create
empathy among the classroom community as a whole. Going into November and
Thanksgiving, it is important that students are able to understand that their peers
may not have the means to buy many groceries during the holidays.

3. What is your Teaching Behavior Focus? Why did you choose this?

My teaching behavior focus is to ensure students are not sitting at the carpet or
the table for a long period of time. Sitting in one spot for a full 30 minutes will
cause students in Kindergarten to become antsy and unfocused. To combat this,
I plan to break up the time students are at the carpet and at the tables. I chose to
focus on this teaching behavior focus based on working with this group prior to
this lesson. During a prior lesson, I noticed students would become unfocused
when they were sitting down listening to me talk for a long time. I think focusing
on this will create an environment for all students to learn successfully.

4. Why did you design your instruction in this lesson the way that you did?
Why did you choose this way of teaching the lesson (e.g., Was the idea
from a methods course? From your mentor teacher? Another source?)

I chose to design my instruction of the lesson from ideas from my mentor teacher
and methods courses. My mentor teacher informed me that their grade level was
doing a community service project in which they would collect canned food from
the neighborhoods surrounding the school. This project helped me develop the
 extension of my lesson as well as create an action plan for students to get
involved. The read-aloud instruction in the lesson came from our study of this
strategy in our readings methods course. I believe that given the service project
and 30 minutes in class, this was the best way to design my instruction for this
lesson.

5. As you are thinking through this lesson, what do you believe will be the
most challenging part of this lesson for you when you teach it? Why?

I think the most challenging part of this lesson is going to be the assessment.
Making sure students understand the importance of giving to others will be
difficult. Since this lesson is so subjective, assessment will be difficult because I
wont be receiving concrete answers from each student.

6. How will you know if your learning outcomes for the students are met
successfully?

When asking students questions such as: What would you do if you knew a
friend needed help? I will be able to know that the learning outcomes for the
students are met successfully if they answer in a way that involves them talking
to an adult or creating a plan to help that friend out in a positive way.

7. How will your classroom management support the learning outcomes?

While doing the read aloud, students will understand that it is time to listen and
not talk. Not your turn is the answer until it is time for students to turn and talk.
During turn and talk time, students will use sticks that show who is listening and
who is talking to keep one person from speaking the whole time. Using popsicle
sticks with students names on them to draw on who will speak in a whole group
setting allows students to listen carefully to the answers of others rather than
raising their hand and waiting to be called on. I believe all of these classroom
management strategies will support the learning outcomes for students by being
able to communicate respectfully with each other.

8. List 1-3 areas which you would like for your observer to pay particular
attention. Why do you want your observer to focus on these areas?

1) Class management I worry sometimes that I am unable to control students

tendencies to shout out and interrupt during a whole group setting. I am
hoping that students will be able to focus on the learning goals by using the
cooperation sticks (listening/talking) during turn to talk time.
2) Transition I am hoping to be able to transition smoothly from whole group, to
turn and talk, to table work and then to the conclusion of the lesson. I think
transitions are a big part of a successful lesson so one of my goals is to work
on this.
3) Connecting standards Through my detailed lesson, I have outlined the
specific standards that connect with this lesson. I am hoping to connect
standards of social studies, math, and literacy through my lesson. Did I do
 this correctly in my lesson? How can I improve focusing on standards
throughout the implementation of my lesson?

9. Is there anything else you would like your observer to know before the
observation?

I have been a little unsure as to how I would be able to assess learning goals for
this lesson. If you could provide any feedback on this, or anything else during the
lesson, that would be greatly appreciated!