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: Autumn Fields Date: 04/20/17

1. What is the topic of your lesson?

The topic of my lesson is exploring wealth and poverty.

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

I am teaching this lesson to allow students to explore cultural competence,

academic rigor, and critical consciousness as part of the culturally relevant
pedagogy. Through this lesson, students will experience the various cultures
presented in the Cinderella stories as well as analyze the similarities and
differences presented in the diverse Cinderella story that was read to the
Cinderella story that most people are familiar with using a Venn-Diagram chart.

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

The teaching behavior that we are focusing on for this lesson is building
classroom climate. I chose to focus on building classroom climate because I want
my students to feel comfortable providing response opportunities dealing with
analyzing similarities and difference of various stories as well as discussing
unique features of a countrys culture. Additionally, we plan to offer positive
reinforcements such as verbal acknowledgements and non-verbal
acknowledgements. I believe this lesson will provide great opportunity for
building a positive classroom climate.

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?)

The idea of this lesson plan arrived from my seminar class- Cultural Identity,
Social Justice, and Diverse Learners. Our class has previously discussed using
various literature resources to explore various cultures and I feel that it is a great
way to foster cultural competence. I consider the way of teaching this lesson
engages students through the activity as well allow them to reflect on how a
similar topic/story can be contrasting through cultures.
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 consider the most challenging aspect of this lesson will be promoting students
to discuss openly about their reactions and opinions of connecting the lesson to
the students cultural background. I believe this will be the most challenging
aspect due to the fact that students tend to struggle with discussing personal
topics as a class and opening up about their thoughts and ideas.

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

I will consider the learning outcomes to be met if the students accuracy analyzes
the similarities and differences of the diverse Cinderella stories compared to the
story we are familiar with. This will be displayed in the completed Venn-Diagram
chart. Also, learning outcomes will be met successfully if students participate in the
discussion about reflecting developing their critical consciousness by exploring the
different countries cultures.

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

The classroom management support will come from being conscious of the time
aspect of this lesson. Allowing time to complete the activity of the lesson to allow
students to experience the diverse Cinderella story, but incorporating enough
time for students to share a few ideas from the Venn-Diagram and have a
discussion regarding developing their critical consciousness by exploring the
different countries cultures.

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. Time management
2. Conducting and promoting class/small group discussions

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