Kranick 1

Mike Kranick
Professor Reilly
Field Experience I
6 November 2015
Planning and Preparation Reflection
What inferences can you make about teachers (speakers) planning for a lesson (activity)
based on your observation? Include in your reflection the following areas of preparation (if
applicable):

Taking into consideration individual characteristics of students (e.g., age, interests,

concerns, background);
Establishing clear teaching goals and connecting the goals with students

characteristics; and
Utilizing a variety of resources, materials, and technology to enhance students
learning.
After the second day of observation, the teacher I was observing and I began to talk after

class about the lessons. She was very realistic with her expectations for the amount of work the
students were going to get done in her first period class, the half general education and half
students with emotional support and learning disabilities classroom. She referred to her first
period as her favorites because of the wide range of personalities, but also her most challenging
class to provide instruction to. Between the general education teacher and the special education
teacher, they planned ahead to attempt to facilitate learning across the board so that when
challenges did arise they still managed to accommodate all, or most of the students.
For individual characteristics of the students, and also establishing clear teaching goals
and connecting the goals with students characteristics one of the best observations I witnessed
was during a lesson about the different types of characters in a story. To preface the example,
one boy, Michael, who needed emotional support and had an IEP, was typically zoned out,
asleep, or not doing his work during most classes and would need almost constant attention.

Kranick 2
Realizing her audience of eighth grade students, the teacher made references to pop culture in
order to stimulate participation in the class. For the overall definitions, it appeared as though
Michael was not paying attention, but when the teacher asked for an example of a static
character, Michael was the first one to raise his hand and answer Gary from Spongebob. Both
the instructors and I were very surprised and proud of Michael, and I commend the teacher for
her planning because it did stimulate participation.
Finally, for utilizing a variety of resources, materials, and technology to enhance
students learning, the instructor used smartboard technology in order to project her PowerPoint
presentations, and also wrote clear notes, goals, and objectives on both the smartboard and
chalkboards during her lessons. At the beginning of the lessons, the instructor would pass out
worksheets and graphic organizers in order to keep the students focused on the purpose of the
lesson. While the general education teacher gave direct instruction, the special education teacher
would provide support to the students who needed it. One interesting activity that both teachers
would use to see if students were struggling with the material was asking the students to put their
thumbs up fully in their air and ask Whos got it?, halfway in the air for Halfway there?, and
thumbs down for Still confused? This facilitated learning by giving the special education
instructor the knowledge of who to help and to the general education teacher on whether she
could move on to the next part of the lesson.