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: Kelsey Badgett Date: 11/8/2017
1. What is the topic of your lesson?
The topic of this lesson is to build community in the classroom and to help each
student see how being different is not a bad thing. Students will learn about how
each unique person has meaning. Also, students will be working on ELA
standards by finding the main idea, key details, and lesson learned in a story.
2. Why are you teaching this lesson? What is your rationale for teaching it?
In this lesson, I am teaching students about differences and how differences in
people are important. Also, I am teaching about how one should not be ashamed
of what makes them different because our differences make this world what it is.
The reason I am teaching this is to strengthen the community of this class and to
teach each student how to strengthen the community around them. It is in the
first grade standards to learn about differences in communities and the diversity
of all people. I also want to help the students be the best they can at finding the
main idea and details in a story since that is crucial in ELA and throughout their
life.
3. What is your Teaching Behavior Focus? Why did you choose this?
Attend to equity, promote collaboration, and orchestrate discussion. I chose
these to focus on because of how important I believe they are. Also, I feel like
these three teaching behaviors are elaborated on in this lesson and the lesson
depends on them. If there was no collaboration or discussion, the lesson would
not be as effective and the students would miss out on important points.
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?)
I have gotten most of ideas for this lesson from observing my mentor teacher
teach whole class lessons. The turn and talk aspect is a large part of her lessons,
and I have seen children who have either learned an important idea or been able
to go more in depth with the idea by talking to their peers. Also, the stopping
during read aloud to ask questions is another idea that I have chosen by
observing my mentor teacher. Her class does well with this and talking about the
questions as they go has been beneficial in what I observed.
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 believe the hardest part when teaching the lesson will be differentiation for all
students. I have tried to account for each student, but sometimes I forget to focus
on students individual needs and focus more on what I have prepared and want
to accomplish. If I see the lesson is going good, I tend to think that each student
is getting what they need and I need to think about the students who may need
more than just the lesson. This is an important aspect and I want to work on this
before I have my own classroom.
6. How will you know if your learning outcomes for the students are met
successfully?
I am providing a sentence starter for the students to complete as they draw their
pictures. The sentence starter asks them to fill in the blank with the main ideas I
wanted to get across with the lesson, so if they can complete the sentence
successfully then the lesson must have helped them. Also, during discussion, I
will be listening for important ideas that I am wanting the students to get and I will
make sure to probe the answers or discussions out of them if they are not able to
discuss it themselves.
7. How will your classroom management support the learning outcomes?
I will be sure to reinforce good behavior and good working strategies that I see so
that all students can see what I expect of them. This will encourage them to be
on their best behavior and work well since they have seen me point it out. If there
is a student who needs more management, I will individualize that and make sure
to not take away from the rest of the classes learning. Also, the class has clips
that they move up and down and this motivates them, so if I need to, I can do so
and motivate them to pay attention, learn more, and obtain the outcomes I have
planned.
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?
Differentiation for students: I want the observer to focus on this area, because I
know I need work at this and want get better at this. I know this is important in the
classroom and would like feedback I can work on before having my own class. I
want to ensure that each individual is getting what they need out of the lesson.
Classroom Management: I want to make sure that my classroom management is
effective instead of detrimental to that class. I want to incorporate more positive
reinforcement into my strategies so that my students do not start to think
negatively of me. Feedback would be helpful on this to make sure I can work on
this.
9. Is there anything else you would like your observer to know before the
observation?
I am really hoping for a positive, effective lesson and want the students to enjoy
themselves while they learn and reinforce the ideas that I am teaching. I know
that my teaching still needs work as it is new to me and any feedback to help is
appreciated.
