Observation Report for Ms Leader’s First Grade Class
November 19, 2009
Tara Giboa
This with out a doubt was one of our best lessons and yet after watching it on film I can see a number of areas for improvement. First for the most positive aspects of the lesson: Not only was 99% of the class involved they were thoroughly excited and interest did not wane because the family game was exiting and you can only get better at it with practice – I think this is due to the fact that we put HOURS of preparation into this lesson, when usually we only put two hours max into a lesson. We had rehearsed this activity, this game we created all by ourselves for a long time. It was an activity more student-centered which was really effective. They got to show us how much they knew and it was fun for the entire class to be working as a team together unlike in around the world when Tierra’s feelings could get hurt easily. It was a little hard selecting kids turns so in the future having the class list with us would make this activity run more smoothly.
I think I do a good job modeling the activity and am loud and clear and keep good eye contact with the students. Frankie does a good job keeping an eye out too for hands I don’t see or for when something needs clarification. I think we need to work on communicating better and sharing the job. Also, I feel like this activity could build up to the kids saying full sentences and not just be a focus on vocabulary. Once they have the names for the articles of clothing under their belts (haha) it would have been a good idea for me to applaud the use of full sentences because they are totally capable of it: La madre se lleva la falda morada.”
When it comes to me listening to Frankie, I need to do a better job of it: It often gets confusing when one of us wants to say something and we speak at once. In the future also it would be better to start with the clothes on the poster board instead of on the bears.
Observation Report for Ms Leader’s First Grade Class
December 10, 2009
Tara Gilboa
On the last day of class one of the activities we did included making a giant tree of all the words we know. The activity overall went pretty well: I liked that it engaged all the students and they all wanted to participate, even Tierra was raising her hand and calling out words. While the tree went on for a little longer than we thought it would we still got to prove to them how much they learned which made them all very proud. We even got to take a picture afterwards of the tree with the kids.
The transition from our TPR activities to the tree could have been smoother à If we had the tree drawn out ahead of time and then just could of “revealed” it, that would have been even more exciting with more of a build. I also did not do a very clear job describing the activity, while most of the kids got it I think it took modeling several times for them to really get into it. The only reason for them to understand what we intend to do off the bat is it will help keep their focus and get them pumped. Also, Frankie and I should have had a better system in which one of us could write the word and then the other tape it up.
