2nd Formal Observation

Last week I had my second observation. I taught a shared reading and warm-up lesson. Being observed while teaching a full group lesson for the first time, I was nervous. Teaching to a full group takes a lot more awareness.

I started my lesson strong, by discussing with the students how they are supposed to behave during group reading time. I think this warm-up was successful because I had the students demonstrate examples of proper and wrong behavior. My talk-and-turn activity also worked well, as I made sure everyone had a partner before we began and walked around as they talked to make sure the students were on task. I also successfully handled a student who did not want to work with a partner and was able to get her to participate with little discussion. I also made sure not to let wrong answers during the group discussion go unchecked, and tried to stop misconceptions. When students were having a hard time coming up with responses I went back to the text and helped students use the text to find the answer. I was happy I was able to keep from becoming flustered when students were giving wrong answers or becoming disruptive.

With that said, I think I still have a lot of room for improvement in my teaching. When reading the book, I was unaware that I was giving my back to the students, not watching the students. I am still working on being aware of what all my students are doing at all times. Sometimes I would notice behaviors, but did not stop to fix small behaviors. Unfortunately, afraid of stopping the lesson for little things, some of these behaviors left unchecked became contagious and escalated to bigger distractions. I want to work on keeping students engaged to limit fidgeting and inattentive behaviors. When correcting students’ answers, I need to make sure I am helping students understand why a response is incorrect and help guide them to the right answers more smoothly. I also need to voice and rephrase correct responses so all students hear and understand them clearly.

In the future, my biggest goal is to work on being more aware — having more “with-it-ness.” I want to make sure I take the time to address small behaviors as well as the big ones. I also want to remember to praise good behavior as a form of behavior correction. With practice, I want to work on anticipating possible student responses and misconceptions, so I am more prepared to guide responses during discussions.