First Formal Observation Student Teaching

Observed by: University Supervisor

Alexandra Keresztes
Grade 4
Date
Title of Lesson
Grade Level/
Content Area
Objectives

GLEs or
Common Core
Standards
(using RI
Science GSEs)

Instructional
Materials &
Resources

Instructional
Activities &
Tasks

February 13, 2015

1:00pm2:00pm
Where does the soil go? Discussing and writing about erosion and
deposition.
Grade 4
Science Discussion/Writing: Land and Water
Students will refer to their stream tables from the investigation to
verbally describe what happened to the water and the soil in the stream
tables
Students will assess what effects water speed has on the erosion and
deposition of different soil components
Students will justify why they think that some components are
deposited before others and why the water erodes more in some places
than in others
ESS1 (3-4)2-a Students demonstrate an understanding of processes
and change over time within earth systems by conducting investigations
and using observational data to describe how water moves rocks and soils.
ESS1 (3-4) 4-b Students demonstrate an understanding of processes
and change over time within earth systems by using or building models to
simulate the effects of how wind and water shape and reshape the land
(e.g., erosion, sedimentation, deposition, glaciation).
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.4.2.b Write informative/explanatory texts
to examine a topic and convey ideas and information clearly by
developing the topic with facts, definitions, concrete details, quotations,
or other information and examples related to the topic.
- stream tables must still be set up after Part II of this investigation
- science notebooks with focus question/observations written and photo
from investigation glued in
- sentence strips with writing frames
- video and writing frames provided on the Promethean Board (where I
will type a sample and later remove the information to leave writing
frames in 2 places)
- printed writing frames for Dante, Ava, Bennett, Nicole, Anna, and Eric
Lesson Introduction:
Quick reminder about what it means to have a collaborative
discussion emphasize that I would like to hear from each person
once and that we should be linking to each others ideas and
asking clarifying questions when we do not understand what
somebody says/means
Watch video (from investigation) to recall what happened in
student discussion. Ask for students to explain what is happening
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First Formal Observation Student Teaching

Observed by: University Supervisor
as the video plays.
Shared Review:
**each group will have their stream table placed in the center of the table
so they can point out evidence and use the flags from their investigations
to help guide their answers
**use brief turn and talk before calling on a few people to share out
Discussion Questions:
o Where is the most soil wearing away?
o What was the speed of the water in this area?
o Where in your stream table was the most soil dropped off?
(deposited)
o What was the speed of the water at the time the water was
deposited?
Drawing conclusions: use evidence from stream tables
o How does the slope of the land affect the speed of the
water? What about the amount of soil that is eroded or
deposited by water?
o How does the speed of the water affect the way in which
water erodes or deposits soil?
o Which soil components are deposited first?
o Which soil components remain floating in the water?
o Why do you think this happens?
Shared Writing (scaffold first in class discussion, write together as a
class, read it together, clear frames and move to individual writing):
**Frames:
Topic Sentence: The speed of the water affects the amount of soil
that is eroded and deposited.
Most of my soil wore away _________________________.
The water was traveling ________________________. (fast or
slow)
The soil components that were deposited first were __________.
I think this happened because ____________________.
Own Writing in Science Notebooks (if time allows for this group of
students, the discussion portion is essential to students understanding
and they are likely to build more understanding through discussion than
through writing):
**Frames:
Topic Sentence: The speed of the water affects the amount of soil
that is eroded and deposited.
Most of my soil wore away _________________________.
The water was traveling ________________________. (fast or
slow)
The soil components that were deposited first were __________.
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First Formal Observation Student Teaching

Observed by: University Supervisor

Assessment

Learner
Factors

I think this happened because ____________________.

Lesson Wrap Up (also, if time allows):

Students will share their writing with the class. At least one
member of each group will share their writing and we will all
discuss in a positive manner whether or not we agree with
what was written or if we think that more could be added for
clarification.
Students will have a verbal discussion with their turn-and-talk partners
and as a class, which allows me to assess if they can describe what
happened in the experiment (this is informal).
Students will use the writing frames to write a paragraph in their science
notebooks. Before handing their notebooks in, students will show their
writing to one of the teachers and we can ask them to clarify parts of the
writing if necessary. Students will be given the opportunity to share their
writing and ask one another questions/comment on their writing in
positive ways. Notebooks will be collected and feedback will be provided
back to the students about their writing (this is formal).
Whole Class hold discussion with frames, turn and talks allowing all
students to share with at least one other person; aim to hear every voice at
least one time during the discussion
Printed frames given to: D, A, B, N, A, and E
Frames will also be on the Promethean Board and on sentence strips on
the blue chart.
Writing after discussion:
A, N, B work with Karen
Z, I, S, S, M work with me in small group at the front meeting
area
D, A Dragon Speak/Dictation on the iPad (note 1: D and A will
move to Ks room where it is quiet; note 2: Anna is still practicing
so if she is uncomfortable, she can move to the group working
with me)
E Word Q on iMac in the back of the class
M, D, M, P, L, S, S, S individual writing

Environmental
Factors

Note: Z and D missed investigation so group data will not be in their

notebook.
Students will be sitting with the science groups that they are with for this
kit:
Lakes
Streams
Rivers
Oceans
D
E
P
M
D
B
S
N
S
M
M
I
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First Formal Observation Student Teaching

Observed by: University Supervisor
L

Enrichment
Activity

S
S
A
S
Z
A
Students will research areas where slow and fast moving streams/rivers
exist and how they affect the communities that surround them. They will
also look at what causes the speeds of these rivers to change.

First Formal Observation Student Teaching

Observed by: University Supervisor
Lesson Reflection:
1. How effective was the lesson plan? Explain.
The lesson plan was effective on many different levels. First, I feel that I had
enough time with the lesson plan prior to teaching the lesson to really feel comfortable
with what I was teaching the students and second, I feel that because of when I had it
completed, I was able to start giving the students the same questions that I would be
asking during this lesson as they were going through the investigation two days prior.
The pieces of the lesson plan that I feel were most successful were the Learner
Factors section, the Introduction, and the Shared Review and Shared Writing
portions. The Learner Factors section was appropriate for the students and I feel that it
shows I was able to really show my understanding of my students well enough that I can
cater to their needs in this type of lesson. The introduction to the lesson, which reminded
the students about what it means to be a good listener brought in one of the important
strategies from the topics in ELA that the class is working on and gave the students a
chance to rehash what happened during their investigation. This was also helpful to
explain to the students who were not in the room for the investigation exactly what
happened and how, but from the student perspective rather than just hearing it from the
teacher or playing catch-up during the discussion.
The discussion was much more in depth than I had originally expected it to be.
As I was asking some of my questions, I realized that they were not phrased appropriately
or were too complicated on their own for many of the students to answer. I found that I
was able to bring back the questions when necessary by either rephrasing them or giving
some examples of what I was asking the students to think about and that allowed for the
students to formulate responses to the questions. This portion also allowed all of the
students to contribute because they were working within their small groups and with their
turn-and-talk partners to describe what they noticed and point things out that the groups
may not have noticed otherwise.
I asked the same questions many times in a variety of different ways to ensure
that the major concepts of the investigation were understood which I saw to be true
during the shared writing portion of the lesson. Prior to asking students to address the
final frame (I think this happened because), I engaged all the students in a choral
reading of the writing as it was and then turn and talk about why they think that all
happened. Both of these aspects allowed me to hear from the students who would not
necessarily raise their hand during the discussion.
2. Was the pace of the lesson appropriate? Explain.
Although we were able to get through the shared writing portion of the lesson, I
wish that we could have moved farther through the lesson to the individual writing but
that was due to my own inattentiveness to time. In the future, I plan to include the
amount of time I would like to spend on each section of the actual lesson. This will allow
me to at least keep a general time to focus on each portion of the lesson and, even if the
times are not perfect, I will have more of an awareness of when I need to transition into
different portions of the lesson.
Another portion that I feel I could have improved the pacing on was the turn-andtalks and small group discussions. I realized that many of the students were straying
from the discussion I intended them to be having and that was due to the fact that I

First Formal Observation Student Teaching

Observed by: University Supervisor
allowed the discussion to go on too long before I brought them back to a full group
discussion. This will be another point that I try to shorten within future lessons.
My pacing will be the major focus in future lessons.
3. Did you implement effective classroom management strategies? (Ex: use of
proximity, positive reinforcement, etc.) Explain.
I feel that I was able to implement effective classroom strategies during this
lesson. While the full class was discussing different questions, I moved around the
classroom if I noticed that some students were distracted in the desks or with other
objects at their disposal (ex. pins from one of their valentines cards) which stopped those
behaviors. I also moved back towards the computer at certain points to allow students to
talk through without feeling that a teacher was standing on top of them.
During small group discussions and turn-and-talks, I tried to go around and talk to
every group at least once to listen in to their discussions. While moving from group to
group, I tried to look at the same things that the students were indicating and asked them
to clarify some of their points but I tried to do this while being at their eye level; although
I am taking on the role of a teacher, I do not want the students to see me only as a higher
authority and I find that the students in this class are more receptive when I am looking at
them and talking to them on their level.
4. Were all the students actively engaged in the learning process? How did you meet
individual needs of students?
For the majority of the lesson, I felt all students were engaged. Towards the ends
of the smaller discussions, I noticed that many of them were growing bored but that was
partially due to the amount of time that I allowed the discussions to go on for. Despite
the lack of engagement towards the ends of the discussion, the students were all
participating which I noticed when each time I asked a question, the entire group turned
together and into their stream tables to discuss what they noticed as well as point around
to evidence in their tables to support their thinking. This was extremely important
because I do not always see the students using evidence automatically and without
prompting but, in this case, the students really took responsibility for their own learning.
By allowing the students to talk within their groups and in partners, I found that
many of the students who do not go to raise their hand in class were sharing and
participating in discussions. Since there are a few students in the class who prefer not to
participate in discussions, I found this to be a huge point that I was extremely pleased
with. For some of these students, I asked them directly if they would be willing to share
what they found with the class and, although a few of them said no, I saw that they were
excited to have their ideas noticed. For the ones that did share, their responses were very
different than those I would normally expect because they used evidence from the
materials that I put on their desks.
5. Were the materials of interest to the students? How do you know?
For the discussions, I moved each group together around their stream table. The
students were actively using the stream table to support their answers with evidence from
their tables. In the beginning of the lesson, they referred to the video from the
investigation to explain what they were doing during the investigation for the two
students who were not in the classroom. They also referred to their science notebooks,
where they had their observations written down to further explain their points.

First Formal Observation Student Teaching

Observed by: University Supervisor
I was able to use the Promethean Board (SmartBoard) in the room to also draw
pictures to describe some vocabulary for the students. Two words which they were
having some difficulty grasping were slope and steep, I was able to draw two different
examples on the board to visually explain each of the words, and as I did so all of the
students had their eyes on the board.
6. Discuss the effectiveness/ineffectiveness of your teaching. (What worked, what
didnt, how does this inform your instruction?)
I feel that the most effective piece of my teaching was the questions that I asked
in order to support the class understanding of the discussion questions. I feel this was
the most effective part because I was able to push the students thinking to get them to
answer a higher level thinking question by pulling the questions I asked back to a more
understandable question that supported the thinking of all the students in the classroom.
Each student seemed to grasp at least one of the most important pieces of the lesson,
which makes me feel confident that I provided the supports necessary to overall
understanding of the questions.
The least effective part of my lesson was the pacing as a whole and the variation
of students that I called on. Although I felt that I gave more than enough wait time and
discussion time, the same students were raising their hands to share each time. In the
future, I would like to ask some of the students who do not share as often to share ahead
of time. For example, rather than asking in small groups if a certain student would like to
share, I would ask a question and then prep one or two students to answer by saying
(student name), Im going to come to you after the discussion. This will not only allow
different students to share their ideas, but also help me limit the amount of time I allow
before pulling the class back to the group discussion.
I expected that pacing was going to be a big issue in my teaching. Before moving
forward in the lesson, I wanted all of the students to understand what was happening and
I only intended to move on when I felt that there was a group understanding of the major
points of the lesson. From this lesson, I need to know that the entire group is not going to
understand the same content in the same amount of time and I need to recognize that it is
okay to move forward despite this because of the different accommodations put in place
for the students in the room. I know that in the future, I will not hold the discussion for
thirty minutes prior to moving onto the shared writing because it does not allow me to
then move on to the individual writing. With this lesson, I feel that the individual writing
would have immensely helped me determine how much the students retained from the
investigation and could apply into their own writing.
7. Discuss your assessment. (What was learned?, how do you know?)
Although I was unable to get to the formal assessment in this lesson because I did
not pace the lesson to allow for it, I felt that I was able to informally assess most of the
students. As I was walking around from group to group, I was asking some students to
remember points that they were making and during whole group discussion, I would ask
them specifically to discuss that point. On many occasions, I would reiterate what they
said to ensure that everyone in the class really understood what was happening.
Because of the length of the discussions and how often I was able to circle
through to all of the groups, I think that I had a firm grasp of what the students
understood and where they needed my clarification, which also allowed me to refocus
and/or reword questions when necessary.