Individual Lesson Assessments Reflection

Background information
1.

Discuss briefly in a paragraph the focus of your lessons (learning objectives) in all 4
contents.

For my lesson week lessons, I tried to stay on one theme and have all four of my lessons relate to one
another. The theme was pumpkins since it is fall and the students were celebrating Halloween at the end
of the week. For the first lesson I taught (my math lesson), I brought in three different sized pumpkins
(small, medium, and large). The focus of this lesson was to estimate how many seeds were in each
pumpkin and then work in groups to skip-count by 2s, 5s, and 10s in order to get the total number of
seeds in each pumpkin. We then compared the numbers and talked briefly about place value with the
totals. The next lesson I taught was science. For this, the focus was the life cycle of a pumpkin. The
students completed a scramble of the interactive whiteboard and then walked through observation stations
where there were the real-life samples of a pumpkins life cycle. I had seeds, a vine with just leaves, a
vine with the flowers on it, a green pumpkin, an orange pumpkin, and even a rotten pumpkin in dirt. After
science, I taught my language arts read aloud. I read the story The Legend of Spookley the Square
Pumpkin and the students focused on how Spookley changed and interacted within the story from the
beginning, to the middle, to the end of the story. My last lesson was social studies where I taught students
about how Halloween is celebrated around the world and how it has changed from past times. We talked
about culture and how different cultures celebrate it and/or do not celebrate it as well.
2. Describe how you pre-assessed to know students were ready for each content lesson.
Readiness is critical in moving forward.
I pre-assessed students by looking at their previous work and talking to my cooperating teacher. I
knew what she had already taught them throughout the year and she suggested to me what she thought
they still needed more support with. For the math lesson, the students took a math pre-test at the very
beginning of the year to see what they knew. Students scored low on the skip-counting sections so we
both thought this math lesson would be beneficial to them. For science, we had talked briefly about what
plants need in order to grow, however they did not have instruction on the life cycle of a pumpkin before.
This lesson aligned with the curriculum map that this school has in place for the month of October as
well. For my read-aloud lesson, I chose to reinforce the concept of beginning, middle, and end because
their exit slips that they did in the past proved that they still needed instruction on this. I thought this was
a great story to do this for. Finally, for my social studies lesson, I also looked at the curriculum map to see
what they should be learning in social studies for this time of year. Within my classroom, social studies is
not usually taught as its own subject. Instead, it is integrated within the other lessons of the class.
3. Describe your formative assessments and scoring guides for each content.
Math: I had a teacher checklist where I walked around as they worked in groups and asked questions to
determine whether they were understanding the skip-counting. I also observed as we skip-counted the
seeds as a whole class. Finally, I administered an exit slip where they had to fill in the missing numbers
by skip counting. The scoring guide I used for this was a table where I checked off whether or not they
answered each question on their exit-slip correctly. I provided students with written feedback on their exit
slips and verbal feedback when I handed them back out.

Science: I asked questions during my reading to check for understanding. As they went through the
observation stations, I asked questions and made sure they understood the paper that went along with it.
Finally, as an exit slip, the students had to cut and paste the stages of the life cycle in the correct spots on
the cycle provided. They also had to label each stage. The scoring guide I used for this was also a
checklist of whether or not they cut and pasted the correct stages in the appropriate spots.
Language Arts: The students completed a beginning, middle, and end worksheet where they drew the
main character at the beginning, middle, and end as we read the story on the carpet. Then, they went back
to their seats to complete the writing portion of the paper on their own. To grade the writing they did, I
used a rubric.
Social Studies: Students completed a past and present graphic organizer. In addition, I administered a
four question quiz using the app called Plickers.
4. Describe the 2 children based on your observation logs.
Child 1: The first child who I have been basing my observation logs on is a little girl. This child struggles
mostly with reading and writing. She is Hispanic and her family is bilingual. At home, her family speaks
mostly in Spanish. At school, she becomes extremely distracted through every task that she does. She asks
questions about everything because she is unsure of herself, even though she usually knows the answers
to her own questions. Each time she asks a question, my cooperating teacher or I ask her, Is this a
question that you know the answer to? Usually, her response is a yes. If it is not, then we go and help
her. We are trying to get her out of the habit. While working at her desk, she talks with her neighbors
constantly. We have tried moving her desk to see if it would help but it has not. She has such a hard time
staying focused on her own work because she is constantly talking. Throughout the lessons that I taught,
this child stayed more focused that usual. I tried to have several hands-on materials and activities because
I thought this would keep all students more engaged and on topic. It seemed to work well with this
student.
Child 2: The second child who I have been basing my observation logs on is a boy who is also of
Hispanic background. His family knows some English, but Spanish is definitely the first language they
speak at home. He speaks, writes, and reads English very well though. This childs biggest problem is his
behavior. He has days where he does everything he is supposed to, but then he has several days where he
does nothing he is supposed to do. Oftentimes, he will just shut off and completely stop working. Nothing
seems to trigger it though. He decides he does not want to work anymore, so he will stop. Oftentimes,
when he stops, he will do things like get out of his seat, run around the classroom, throw books, try to do
cartwheels, somersaults, or flips in the air, and he sometimes leaves the room completely. On his good
days, if he does decide to quit, he will go into the classroom library and read a book. He is very interested
in reading and playing on the computer, so we try to use those things as positive reinforcement for him
when he does what he is supposed to do. In his academics, he struggles mostly with math. This seems to
be when he shuts down most often, but more often than not, his shut-downs are unpredictable. During my
lessons for lesson week, I tried to make them all engaging and interesting. I thought that if I did that, I
would be able to prevent any possible shut-downs with this boy.

Reflection in Action
1. What were the formative assessment results each day and how would you use it the next day
in your planning?
On the first day, I taught my math lesson. The focus was on skip-counting by 2s, 5s, and 10s. After
the lesson, the students completed an exit slip that required them to practice what they just learned by

determining what they pattern was skip-counting by and then filling in the blanks of the pattern. We also
talked briefly on place value in a three-digit number, so there was also a section of the exit slip that had
questions related to that. On the exit slips, I scored them out of 6 points. 80% of the students did, in fact,
score a 100% on them. This told me that the majority of students understood what we did during the
lesson that day. For the students who did not score a 100%, I conferenced with them to let them know
what to work on for next time. These results did not surprise me because I felt as though this was a good
lesson to support this task. They also have had prior learning experiences on skip counting and place
value prior to this lesson, however based on data from exit-slips they completed before, they did need
more practice with this topic.
On the second day, I taught my science lesson. As their formative assessment, they completed a cut
and paste worksheet where they had to glue the correct stages onto the correct spots on the life cycle. The
majority of students did well on this. 18/20 students scored at least a 5/7 or higher. 13 students scored a
7/7. There were only 2 students who scored below a 5/7. I expected these results because this information
was new to them. I thought the assessment was fair though because the information I put on it was
directly from the lesson we just did.
The third day, I taught my language arts lesson. Students had to complete a graphic organizer
worksheet as part of their formative assessment. I graded these using a rubric out of four points. I checked
for their comprehension about how Spookley interacted with the book during the beginning, middle, and
end of the story. The last thing I checked for was their capitalization and punctuation since this has been a
skill they have been working on during writing each day. 75% of students scored a 100% on this
assignment. I was surprised by these results because I felt as though we really went over the answers to
this paper.
On the final day I taught, students completed a social studies graphic organizer and did a Plickers
quiz as their formative assessment. Students did not do very well on these tasks. Only 50% of students
completed the graphic organizer with full accuracy and 60% of the students completed the quiz with full
accuracy. This did not surprise me because I felt like we really rushed through this lesson since we did it
at the end of the day. We were running out of time so we sped through several parts of it.
2. What type of feedback did you give to the children each day? Be specific with the 2 specific
children that you observed. Was this feedback appropriate for the needs of the child(ren)?
Why?
Each day, I provided students with both verbal and written feedback. I provided written feedback on
either their rubrics or worksheets that they completed. I told them what they did well and what they
needed to work on for next time. If students did not complete the formative assessment with 100%
accuracy, I conferenced with each one individually to explain what he/she did wrong. For social studies,
since a large group of students did not complete the assignments very well, I went over the questions as a
whole class and explained each answer to them. I thought this would be more efficient since it would take
so long to conference with that many students. For the two students whom I have been observing, I
provided them with the same feedback. Both needed verbal and written feedback each day. I thought this
was appropriate since both children tend to learn best through verbal and visual instruction. This was also
appropriate because the feedback I gave them was written and spoken in a child-friendly way. I used
words they would be able to read and understand themselves.
3. How did you or will you help students use this feedback?

Throughout future assignments, I will remind them what we talked about and things to remember for the
assignment they are completing. I will continue to provide them with this type of feedback throughout the
year as well. If I notice they are continuing to struggle with the same things over and over again
throughout the year, I will take time to reteach/reinforce whatever they are specifically struggling with.
4. Describe what you learned about teaching and learning related to assessment and feedback?
I learned that formative assessments are extremely helpful to the teacher to see exactly who is
struggling with what, and where/when differentiation needs to take place. Student learning also benefits
greatly from formative assessments because the teacher is able to help them with what they need before it
is too late. The teacher can help them as the lesson(s) are progressing rather than just at the end of a unit.
One last thing I learned was that through proper feedback, students can understand better what they need
to work on and can make greater improvements than they ever could without it. Feedback allows/requires
the students to dig a little deeper in order to understand what their strengths and weaknesses are.
5. What would you have done differently during this lesson week? Why? Be specific about
teaching and instruction.
The biggest thing I would have done differently throughout this week would be to work on more
vocabulary with them. I do not feel like I focused enough on it and because of that, some lessons did not
go as well as they could have. Another thing that I would have done differently would be the days in
which I taught them. I wish I would have taught at least two lessons per day instead of one a day. I felt
like there would have been more of a flow in between each one had I taught them all the same day.