Heather Calliham ECED 329

TWS 8
Reflection on Showcase Lesson Whole Class:

I taught a lesson that required the students to be able to identify facts and opinions and
distinguish between the two. I read a story to the class about Thanksgiving and
throughout the story I would stop to ask the students if they can identify facts or opinions
mentioned in the story. After the reading, I gave them a worksheet to complete. They
had to write at least 5 facts relating to the topic Thanksgiving, as well as 5 opinions. I
started off by asking questions and providing examples, followed by a reading where I
would again stop to ask questions, and ended the lesson with a worksheet for the students
to complete. For the students that finished early, I gave them a fill-in-the-blank
worksheet requiring them to label given statements as facts or opinions. This assignment
was not assessed. There are no accommodations for my students as far as ELLs or IEPs
so I did not have to make any changes. I thought that the overall lesson went well
because over a third of the students mastered the objective. However, I had students who
made no progress. In that case, I feel it made no impact on the students learning. As a
whole class, I had more students who were successful. I would change how I assessed
them and try to give more background knowledge and examples before asking the
students to identify their own facts and opinions. I had to change the amount of facts and
opinions they needed to list because of time constraints and most students were having
difficulty coming up with 5 facts and 5 opinions. When I made these changes, the class
seemed to be less stressed and they started coming up with strong responses. To improve
student learning for the future, I will give more background knowledge on facts and
opinions and provide more activities for them to complete before having them come up
with their own examples.

Reflection on Showcase Lesson Individual Students:

My high performing student responded during the pre-assessment by stating that an

opinion is something that we think. This student strengthened the response by giving an
example of an opinion. For the during-assessment this student stated a fact from the story
saying that Thanksgiving is celebrated in November. For the post-assessment, the
student was able to correctly identify three facts and three opinions that related to the
topic Thanksgiving. This student was successful in all three areas for pre, during, and
post. I feel that this student was most successful because she paid attention throughout
the whole lesson and already had prior knowledge on facts and opinions. The student
gained no knowledge on the subject because the student was already knowledgeable on
distinguishing between facts and opinions.
My medium performing student did not respond during the pre and during assessment but
was able to correctly identify at least two facts and one opinion about Thanksgiving.
This particular student didnt identify at least 3 facts or opinions but the ones that were
stated, related to the given topic. The other facts and opinions made were not related to
the topic. The responses were average and expected for a student who had no prior
knowledge on facts and opinions. After the lesson was over, the student gained more
knowledge on the topic. When asked to give me more examples, the student was able to
do so. I feel that this student was successful because they started out with little

Heather Calliham ECED 329

knowledge on facts and opinions but ended by being able to provide their own examples.
This student remained engaged throughout the lesson and listened when I was giving
instructions. Because of her ability to retain information, she was a successful learner.
My low performing student did not correctly identify facts or opinions related to
Thanksgiving. For the pre-assessment the student stated what they thought was an
opinion but was a fact. I asked the student to make the statement into an opinion by
changing the wording but he could not do so. The students responses were incomplete
and very vague. The student could not correctly distinguish between facts and opinions
even when asked and given examples. The student gained no knowledge on the content
and needs to be given further instruction presented in a different way. I feel bad that the
student gained no knowledge but he is one of the students who misbehaves and gets
distracted very easily. To make sure this student is more successful in the future, a
different approach to the objective should be made. This student learns better when you
are guiding him and can give him hard examples to look at and relate to. If I provided
him a list of statements and had him determine which ones were facts and opinions he
would be more successful.
o Once I realized the students were struggling coming up with 5 responses for facts
and opinions, I reduced the number to 3. The students were more successful
when I reduced the number due to them not being overwhelmed or stressed.
These changes stemmed from the post assessment. For the pre and during, the
students were engaged and remained on topic.
o Next, I informed the students that they only had to do 3 facts and opinions if the
responses were strong and related to the topic. This went well with them and I
started seeing more responses and positive feedback from their performances.

Additional Lesson Reflections and Analyses:

Lesson 1: The strength of this lesson came from it being a group lesson that only
involved 5 students from the class. It was an outside lesson that involved the students
exploring the playground to find evidence of animals that live there. Since this was such
an advanced lesson, only students who would behave and take the lesson seriously were
allowed to participate. The cooperating teacher chose which students were allowed to
participate. This was a peer lesson where I and two other clinical students lead the
activity. Each group of students participated fully and completed the activity as
expected. I feel as if Savannah, Emily, and I gave clear instructions and all of the
students learned from this lesson. The sheet given for them to write down their
observations couldve been modified and tailored to be more developmentally
appropriate. Also, I would have given them more background knowledge on animals and
the environment and certain things for them to look for while exploring. Some of the
students were playing on the equipment so we should have been clearer not to play
during this time. For future instruction I would change the grouping of the selected
students to where there was at least a high, average, and low performer in order to see
different results and different ways to modify the instruction.
Lesson 2: I taught a lesson relating to the fall season and the different activities that are
associated with fall. I discussed the fall season with the students and had them discuss
the different things people do during fall. I then read them the story, Now Its Fall.
After the reading, we discussed activities in the story that we didnt mention beforehand.

Heather Calliham ECED 329

The students then wrote about their favorite fall activity with three reasons to support
their answer. They completed this reading response on a fall story template that I put
together as a class book when all work was completed and illustrated. For any student
who wasnt familiar with fall activities, the story I read to them provided many examples.
For those students that had trouble coming up with a response for the writing part, I
guided them by asking questions that would help them generate a response. All students
were successful with this lesson so no accommodations needed to be made. I would try
to use a larger book next time because the one I used for this lesson was really small
making the pictures hard to see. Before the lesson I made sure I had specific questions
that I wanted the students to answer pertaining to fall. I made sure I would allow an
appropriate amount of time to answer but not give them too much to where they would
get off topic. For future lessons, I will more than likely use the same strategies since the
students were successful for the lesson.
Lesson 3: This was a math review lesson that I taught to help the students prepare for an
upcoming math test. Part of their test will consist of skip counting so I based my lesson
off of that. We reviewed what skip counting was and discussed what we have been skip
counting by (2s, 3s, 5s, and 10s). We then played a game on the smart board that
allowed each student to skip count by popping the balloon that would be the next number.
Each student got to choose which number they wanted to skip count by. After they
completed the game, they worked on worksheet to test their knowledge. We reviewed
the answers to make sure everyone had them correct. Also, since this lesson was a
review, there werent any specific accommodations that needed to be made. All students
were knowledgeable on the content. For faster finishers, they could color the worksheet
while waiting on the other students to finish. Overall the whole lesson was successful
because all students played the game and completed their worksheets. Some students
needed assistance with the worksheet, but when we went over the answers as a class, they
filled in the correct answers. The only thing I would do differently would be selecting
another game for them to play. The game for the lesson was educational and fun but it
was very basic. I like to use games that require more critical thinking. For instructional
decisions before the lesson I made sure I tested the game out before allowing the students
to play it. I wanted to be sure the game was stimulating and served the right purpose for
my objective. During the lesson I had to keep the students focused since each child
played the game. Towards the end they started to lose interest so I could have dealt with
that in a better way. For future lessons, I will manage time better and provide a more
engaging way to keep the students interested.
Lesson 4: This lesson related to the SSCA standards. I chose to teach mine on selfesteem and promoting positivity within the classroom which allows for a civil learning
environment. I read a story related to self-esteem and had the students define what it
means. We followed up the reading by doing a self-esteem activity. The students traced
their hands and wrote on each hand one thing they liked about themselves and the person
sitting next to them. We cut the hands out, glued them to construction paper and made a
class book. I made sure there were accommodations made for students who needed
assistance with things such as tracing or cutting their hands out. We had left handed
scissors available for those that needed them. Also, I allowed the students to choose their
own colors of construction paper to express their own creativity. To keep students from
choosing to write about classmates they only like, I had them write about the person

Heather Calliham ECED 329

sitting next to them. This decreased confusion and allowed everyone to be written about.
The students responded to defining self-esteem way better than I expected them to.
Before the reading their responses were scattered but after the reading, they responded
accurately and had more understanding of the word. The activity part of the lesson went
well also and I enjoyed it as much as the students did. I found it to be a very simple and
fun way to promote positivity amongst each other. I would change the amount of time
spent on the lesson. It took a lot longer than I had planned. I should have been clearer
with directions and better at keeping the students on task. For future instruction I will
allow a student helper to pass out the materials to the other students so I can spend my
time assisting and giving directions.
Professional Development Goals:
1. Time management and classroom management go hand in hand which is something I
noticed myself struggling with throughout my clinical experience. For some of my
lessons I would run out of time or I would end earlier than planned resulting in the
students having nothing to do. Also, I had trouble keeping the class under control during
some of the lessons that got to be too long. The students would lose interest towards the
end when the time got lengthy. From my experiences, I need to plan time better and try
not to make the lessons as lengthy. For classroom management I need to be clearer with
my expectations from the students and keep them engaged so they dont lose focus. I
think that by better preparing myself for lessons and having additional activities will help
with my time management. In order to improve my classroom management, I think it
will just take more practice in the classroom. Also, I will read articles on classroom
management and even videos posted by other teachers.
2. Preparing my lessons and giving myself a substantial amount of time to complete them in
order to receive necessary feedback is also a goal I plan to work on. I need to have these
lessons completed within three days of performing them in order to be confident and
prepared to teach them. Some of my lessons werent as detailed as I would have liked
them to be due to me not giving myself enough time to complete them and make changes
in time. I need to put more thorough thought into my lessons and put myself in the
mindset of the students. Doing this will allow my lessons to be more successful and
more detailed to match my instruction. To attain this goal, I need to work on my
procrastinating habit. It would also benefit me to sit down with my cooperating teacher
and have her examine my lesson more closely in order to help me make changes that will
benefit the lesson and the students performance.