Lesson Plan & Implementation:
Reflection and Analysis
Note: Due to atypical circumstances, I was unable to record my observation lesson
and have been granted approval to reflect on certain scenarios.
Scenario
Students were very
disorganized when coming to
the carpet. Some did not sit in
their newly assigned seats. Two
students refused to come sit on
the carpet and chose to sit in
chairs instead. Lots of talking
and grabbing of things from the
board.
Once at the carpet, one student
would not let go of the read
aloud book, one would not sit
down, another’s bracelet broke
leaving beads everywhere, and
a pair of students were playing
with markers on the
whiteboard.
I began to read the read-aloud
book. One student was placed
in charge of holding the
popsicle sticks, the beads were
taken away from students
trying to play with them.
The read-aloud in full motion, I
had to redirect some students
but also was able to remind
College of Education
Celebration/Struggle/Question:
This was a struggle. The students were
not responding effectively to my
corrections.
I feel that, in reflection, I should have
used my firm teacher voice but quiet
honestly, I was unsure and afraid to use
it during an observation.
Again, a struggle. I tried various
strategies to regain control such as
“class, class” and waiting 10 seconds.
But, this seemed to not be enough.
Celebration – I made sure to review the
content with the students and
reminding them that the story was
fictitious and we were focused on
looking at the pictures.
Struggle – While students were more
engaged with the book, there was still
quite a bit of movement and unfocused
students.
Celebration – My read-aloud book had
sticky notes so students could see that I
was thinking deeply about the book and
Claim about teaching
practice
Sometimes students are
going to be all over the
place and you have to find
new ways to manage time,
space, and attention.
(FEAP 2.b)
I feel that occasionally,
you need to just stop the
lesson and have students
start over. Again that
involves managing time,
space, and attention.
(FEAP 2.b)
By reminding students of
the purpose for our
reading, students are more
equipped to meet the
objective.
You have to plan to
address the learning
objective and ensure your
students of our learning
objective for the lesson.
The portion of the read aloud
where students had to stick
pictures on the anchor chart.
Looking at the big picture of the
read-aloud.
Transitioning to the writing
portion of the lesson. The
transition itself was done by
counting down and relaying
expectations for their writing
before they were dismissed to
their seats. Referred back to the
anchor in order to gain
inspiration.
Once at their seats, I grabbed
my assessment clipboard and
the differentiated vocabulary
sheets. I praised a student for
how they were labeling to show
the expectations to the others.
Some students were drawing
and writing about the
characters in the story rather
than the day and night sky.
At the end of the lesson, we
collected the papers and
reviewed the objective. “Today
I learned…”
its content. Also, while a little late, I instruction matches that
reviewed the learning objective. goal. (FEAP 1.c)
Struggle – Some students took the sticky
notes and tried to write on them.
Celebration – the anchor chart was an It might be best to choose
excellent resource later on in the lesson. students “at random” in
some scenarios to avoid
Struggle – Students were upset if they
these frustrations
were not the ones being chosen.
Overall, once the read-aloud had begun, This address FEAP 3.f.
students were a lot more engaged. The which is regarding the
struggle was mostly in the transition to incorporation of high-
the carpet. I was able to ask higher- order thing questions as
order thinking questions such as “what well as 3.a. which covers
evidence can you provide to support engaging and challenging
your answer?” lessons.
I feel that after the craziness of the start By using an attention
of the lesson, the students did a great job getter and not competing
of listening to the expectations leading against my students in
up to being released for their writing order to speak, I was able
task. Perhaps this was because Mrs. to effectively set
Rodriguez was back, but I feel the expectations. Setting
“We’re going to wait 10 seconds” expectations is associated
strategy helped to get students ready to with FEAP 2.c.
listen
By highlighting a student’s good work, I Having a physical way to
reinforced expectations for how I record assessment data is
wanted them to complete their work. an effective way to ensure
Also, the assessment checklist helped to you are evaluating student
guide my formative assessment of their learning. (FEAP 1.d)
acquisition of the lesson’s concepts.
While circulating the room, I was able to Due to circulating the
identify a misconception my students room, I was able to
were having. They were drawing the identify a misconception.
characters from the book, not the sky. (FEAP 3.d)
I was able to wrap up the lesson by This was ensuring
reviewing the objective. While some coherence of my lesson.
students were not finished, most were This is discussed in FEAP
able to label their pictures. 1.b.
 The Reflection: The reflection component should make you think about your overall
impressions and feelings that you had.

Questions to answer in your reflection:

1. What aspects of your lesson were implemented differently than you planned? Why did that happen?

Due to unpredictable circumstances, my CT was not in the room. This caused for me to manage
behavior in a different way in order to maintain control. Also, I ended the read-aloud early due to the
increased fidgeting seen in my students. Also, the writing portion was missing the timer and the
checklist that I had planned to display for my students. This was due simply to the fact that I was
caught up in the moment and forgotten to execute that step.

2. If you were going to teach this lesson to the same group of students, what would you do differently?
Why? What would you do the same? Why?

Something I would definitely do differently is take more time to correct behavior. I feel that I would
try to use my firm teacher voice more in order to gain control of the classroom. Also, I may have
made the assessment questions shorter so that I could get to more students. Something I would do
the same is provide the differentiation sheets. I feel that it really helped my struggling students to
focus in and accomplish the objective. Also, despite the difficulty presented and the misconceptions
encountered I would not change the read-aloud book. This is because the students were engaging
and met the objective. I would however better address that misconception.

3. What surprised you in your lesson?

The amount of behavior challenges I encountered. I felt a little overwhelmed and very nervous, and
despite my best efforts, my students continued to misbehave. Something more positive that
surprised me was how focused my students were during the writing time. Even my struggling
students met the objective; I believe this was due to the differentiation sheets. I was also surprised to
see my students had drawn the characters from the book, which was a misconception I had not
anticipated.

4. Describe an instance or particular encounter that comes to mind. Why did you pick that instance?
What is so perplexing about that particular moment?

The instance that comes to mind is when one of my students took a sticky note from the book and
snuck a whiteboard marker and began drawing on the sticky note. This instance was kind of like the
final straw in the chaos that was the beginning of the lesson. Why did that student feel the need to do
that? I believe the only thing I could done was out the whiteboard markers completely out of reach.
Well, if nothing else, a lesson was learned.

5. What connections can you make to your lesson today from your coursework, the literature, and any
previous lessons or experiences?

I can definitely connect this to what we learned in our behavior management class. Sometimes you
just have to use your “teacher face.” Also, I practice the importance of setting expectations an
witnessed the difference it made. I was also able to learn from previous lessons and try to employ a
variety of attention getters rather than just one or two.

The Analysis: The analysis part addresses the lesson’s effectiveness – to what extent did the
students meet the objectives stated in your lesson plan and how do you know? Make 2-3
 claims about student learning and support it with evidence that you gathered from the
lesson (video, student work, observation notes, etc.).

Questions to answer in your analysis:

1. Which students achieved the learning objective? Which students did not achieve the learning
objective? How do you know? Which of the following helped or hindered your students’ learning –
teaching methods, activities, instructional materials, planned differentiation strategies?

More than half of the students achieved the learning objective of labeling the objects in the day/night
sky. This was determined by the checklist I carried, but most dominantly by the evaluation of their
writing. I used a rubric (shown in the artifacts as pictures) that helped me to determine who met the
objective. I feel that the activities, such as posting what can be seen during the day/night on the
board, helped students to understand what happens when. I definitely feel that the differentiation
strategies I used were helped for those student who need a little extra guidance.

2. How did any special considerations of accommodations affect the lesson? Discuss the outcomes you
achieved explicitly with any students eligible for ELL support, gifted instruction or IEP/504
accommodations—did they meet your objectives? Why or why not?

A special consideration I made was the incorporation of a vocabulary sheet for my ELL students and
lower level students. This sheet enabled my students to stay focused and meet the goal of labeling the
objects in the sky. I believe this is because they wouldn’t be discouraged, and shut down, if they
didn’t know how to spell a word.

3. Based on what happened in this lesson, what are the next steps? What do you plan to teach next to this
class based on the data you collected? Be sure to explain how you will use information from this
evaluation in future lesson planning.

Based on the data I collected, I would clarify that Day & Night are not the characters from our book,
but that I was referring to the actual sky. Also, I would provide my students more time to label their
pictures as I feel many would have performed better with more time. I would also go over the
concept that when comparing day & night, a big difference is the amount of light In the sky.

Content-Focused Questions: Choose the section that aligns with your lesson content and
answer the questions accordingly.

Questions to answer specific to a science lesson:

1. In what ways did you access prior knowledge? What misconceptions were revealed
during this lesson?

Before reviewing the book, we reviewed the anchor we had been using all week-long in
order to activate background knowledge. A misconception that was identified was how some
students drew the characters Night & Day rather than the skies themselves.

2. Consider the extent to which you provided opportunities for your students to ‘do’
science. What process skills/practices were embedded and discussed in the lesson?
Analyze the explain phase. To what extent were the students sharing discoveries from
their exploration?
 To be honest, I feel that my lesson feel short of this sort of exploration. I could have
provided different, real-life experiences for my students in order for them to come to their own
conclusions. Yet, I feel that this being the third week of the unit, the students were ready for
something a little different.

3. Consider your scientific explanations. Were you accurate in your discussions of

science content? Were you precise in your use of vocabulary? Did you encourage
precision in students’ use of vocabulary? Did you support student accuracy (in other
words, did you correctly identify student work as accurate or inaccurate)? This does not
mean that you necessarily told a student they were wrong, but that you recognized their
lack of accuracy and took steps to support their further learning.

I would say yes. I was intentional in my use of language and prompted students into
verbalizing and writing the vocabulary associated with the content. I do wish I had done more to
address the misconception I identified in my students. I feel that my students also accurately
used the content vocabulary.

4. Consider how science was represented in the class. What explicit connections were
made to the nature of science?

I believe that I discussed how scientists record their observations and then connect text
to their pictures in order to share their findings with others. This would be the connection as I
was specifically and intentionally expressing how a scientist uses such skills.