ALVERNO COLLEGE

SUPERVISORS OBSERVATION
OF ED 215-R Field Student
Candidate: Haley Williams

Check One:
1stObservation _X_

Assessor: Robin Gleason

2nd Observation __

Date: April 1, 2015

Cooperating Teacher: Mrs. Johnson

Number of Students: 22

School: Brookfield Elementary Elmbrook School District

Planning and Preparation (AEA: Conceptualization, Diagnosis

Grade: 1

WTS: 1,2,3,4,5,7 DISP: 1, 5)

Plans instruction that addresses the range of the students stages of literacy
development.
Plans instruction that is coordinated with the prior and future learning
experiences of the students.
Plan includes a list of appropriate academic language tied to the lesson
objective.
Plan includes an introduction that clearly connects the lesson objective with
prior learning experiences.
Materials are well chosen for meeting the lesson objective and the
developmental needs of the students.
Plan reflects use of an effective theoretical model, such as Holdaway,
Cambourne, Vygotsky, etc.
Plan includes the teacher think aloud and questions/prompts to engage the
children in the thinking.
Plan reflects the gradual release of responsibility of the learning to the
students.
Plan includes adaptations for students with specific needs and learning
styles.

A meaningful closure that restates the lesson objective and sets

expectations for the learning concludes planning process.
____Inadequate

____Emerging

____Proficient

Subject(s): Reading Workshop

Evidence (Candidate)

You were well prepared to teach this lesson, Haley. Your plan clearly and
thoroughly addresses all of the areas listed on the left. In addition, you
authored an original poem designed for this lesson and wrote it out in
enlarged text. You also created a meaningful anchor chart to support the
learning, not only in the mini-lesson, but throughout the entire workshop.
You knew your lesson so well that you did not need your lesson plan in front
of you as you taught.
We had a challenging time figuring out the exact language for the objective
for this lesson. Sometimes, it is helpful to write two objectives instead of
one instead of trying to incorporate everything into one large objective. The
challenge is in putting the objective into kid language and to identify the
thinking you are focusing on in this objective. It is always helpful, I think, to
think about what real readers do and how this objective will help children
develop as readers. A tricky part also, is realizing that this one lesson is in a
series of others and that not everything needs to be taught at one time. Your
objective focused on children identifying describing words in their reading
and using those words to create a picture in their heads. Your lesson plan
clearly and thoughtfully included detailed procedures for how you planned to
teach to this objective while releasing the responsibility of the learning to the
children. You detailed specifics about how you planned to meet the
individual needs of the students throughout the workshop as well.

__X__Distinctive

Copyright 2015. Alverno College, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. All rights reserved under
U.S., International

ED FORM 708
0210 ED

School: Brookfield Elementary Elmbrook School District

Grade: 1

Subject(s): Reading Workshop

Classroom Environment (AEA: Coordination, Integrative Interaction WTS: 1,2,3,4,5,6

Evidence (Candidate and Student)

DISP: 4,5,9,10)

Clearly communicates expectations and procedures for behavior and

learning experiences.
Focuses student attention by engaging them productively in learning
experiences.
Offers explicit praise to students.
Teachers and students connect to one another by smiling, sharing and
helping.
Respects each child as an individual, addressing the children by name.
Supports students as they work independently and collaboratively.
Manages transitions efficiently.
Effectively uses resources and curriculum materials to develop the ideas
being taught.

You took over for your CT after the morning meeting. The children settled
themselves on the reading carpet with their clipboards that had two post-its on
them. You were equipped yourself with the microphone. You quickly set a
positive and productive learning environment and kept it throughout the
workshop. For example, you set the expectations for learning and kept the
children focused throughout. Right at the beginning of the mini-lesson, you
reminded the children of their good learning behaviors and explained how to
handle the clipboards. During the workshop, you gently refocused a couple of
the children by calling on them by name. You modeled the thinking
expectations in the mini-lesson. You also did a great job of setting expectations
for the independent reading at the close of the mini-lesson and again in the
mid-point of the workshop. You engaged the children in the learning
throughout the workshop as well. You smiled and showed enthusiasm for the
learning and called the children readers. You kept strong eye contact with the
children and used a solid teaching voice as well. You kept the lesson going
especially when it came to the drawings on the post its by giving them a time
limit. You engaged the children through questioning and turn and talks. You
were aware of one child who disengaged at times, and attempted to refocus
his attention, providing him with specific praise when he did so. Effective
transitions were employed to move the children from one aspect of the
workshop to another. After giving a series of directions to transition the
children to independent reading, you checked in with individual children to
make sure they followed up appropriately. You used a particularly effective
transition (the countdown) to call the children back to the rug for closure. As
you conferred with each child, you squatted down next to him/her to get to
his/her level. You maintained a positive and supportive attitude as you
conferred, using strong eye contact as you did so. It was clear that the children
related easily to you. Just a few suggestions:
The children organized themselves at their tables as you began to
confer with individuals. You may want to scan the room to make sure
that all of the children are settled before you start in on conferring.
Rescan the room each time you move to confer with another child to
monitor the learning.
Think about how you could have enlarged the text even more so that
the children in the back of the group could more easily see it. Was it
necessary to write out your whole poem for your purposes?
Make sure also that the poem is displayed so that all of the children
can see it.

Copyright 2015. Alverno College, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. All rights reserved under
U.S., International

ED FORM 708
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School: Brookfield Elementary Elmbrook School District

Grade: 1

____Inadequate ____Emerging ____Proficient __X__Distinctive

Instruction (AEA: Communication, Coordination, Diagnosis,
Integrative Interaction WTS: 1,2,4,5,6,7,10
DISP: 4,5,8,9,10)
Relates learning to students previous learning and/or to students
personal experiences.
Focuses student attention on lesson objectives throughout the lesson.
Clearly develops understanding of academic language.
Demonstrates knowledge of content throughout delivery.
Presents content in developmentally appropriate ways.
Explicitly teaches the lesson objective through modeling the thinking of
the lesson objective using the think aloud approach.
Actively engages students in the thinking and keeps them on task.
Consistently demonstrates enthusiasm.
Models and supports active listening, discussion and thoughtful
responses.
Challenges and supports student thinking by using:
o different types of explanations
o various levels of questioning and/or prompts
o techniques that repeat and/or extend student responses
o a variety of modalities (visual, auditory, kinesthetic)
Adapts plans as needed.
Varies role in instructional process (instructor, facilitator, coach,
audience) in relation to content, purposes of instruction and needs of
learners to gradually release the responsibility of the learning to the
students.
Respects cultural and gender differences.

Subject(s): Reading Workshop

Make sure that the anchor chart is easily accessible for all of the
children in the class. Some of them actually got up from their desks to
go over to the chart to use it. Displaying it prominently in the
classroom after the mini-lesson would help to alleviate this.

Evidence (Candidate and Student)

You kept your focus on your objective throughout the lesson.
You began your lesson by describing your dinner last night and asked
the children to close their eyes while you described it. You then asked
the children to open their eyes and told them how you used describing
words to describe your meal and went on to explain the importance of
describing words in helping readers to picture what is going on in the
story. You made a really nice connection to writing and then went into
detail with your anchor chart for the different types of describing words
they might see while reading. You then went into introducing your poem
and yourself as the author. (Could all of the children see the poem?
Was the print large enough?) You read it aloud (maybe ask them to
close their eyes again to visualize?) You read the whole thing and then
talked about how the poem didnt have any pictures but that you used
describing words to create those pictures in their minds. You went into a
think aloud at this point zooming in on the describing words. You
were very explicit in your teaching here, using your anchor chart as a
guide. You showed them how to determine what to put on their post-its
the word, the type of word and kind of describing word. (If you were to
focus more on the visualizing aspect of your objective, this might have
been a great place to think out loud about how those describing words
created a picture in your mind and that helped you to understand the
poem better even though you wrote it.)
You read on and stopped at the zookeeper example. You engaged the
children by having them write the three things on their post-it for
zookeeper. You then asked them to flip their post-its over and draw a
picture of the zookeeper smiling. You asked a few children first what
they pictured and why. (The why is the important part) You used a turn
and talk on your next example for the children to participate in the
learning. You conferred with a few of the partner groups and redirected

Copyright 2015. Alverno College, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. All rights reserved under
U.S., International

ED FORM 708
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them, as needed. (The children were referring to the poem again at this
point could all of the children see it to do this, if needed?) You gave
feedback to the children after the turn and talks and closed the minilesson by giving explicit expectations for what the children would be
doing during their independent reading.
As the children began their independent reading, you transitioned into
conferring with individuals. (I noticed that a few of the children
consulted with the anchor chart during their independent reading a
nice use of this scaffold.) You did a great job of stopping the workshop in
progress and using a childs thinking on her post-it to provide another
model to reset your expectations for the children regarding what they
needed to place on their post-its. The children were engaged in reading
and completing their post-its as you conferred. Toward the end of this
time, your CT passed out the April reading calendar to the children and
then you called the children to attention to transition them to the carpet
again for the closure of the lesson. As the children assembled, you
placed their post-its on the anchor chart jar. You took one good
example from a child and used that example to set the expectations for
what the children needed to do when turning and talking with their
partners. (It might be a good idea to restate the lesson objective first at
this point.) After this, you called the children back together, restated the
lesson objective, and made a nice connection to using describing words
in their writing. You then turned the class over to your CT.
Your preparation for this lesson clearly paid off as you taught it. You
were comfortable (yet maybe a tad nervous) and confident because you
were so well prepared. You used the academic language youd
identified throughout the lesson and even on your anchor chart. You
varied your role throughout the workshop from instructor to facilitator, to
guide and back to instructor. You also varied your level of support as
you assessed the children during their conferences with you.
____Inadequate

____Emerging

____Proficient

__X__Distinctive

Copyright 2015. Alverno College, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. All rights reserved under
U.S., International

ED FORM 708
0210 ED

Assessment (AEA: Diagnosis, Integrative Interaction WTS: 1,2,3,7,8,9

DISP:7)
Focuses the students attention on the process of learning rather than
just getting the correct answer or finishing an activity.
Provides specific feedback to learners (oral and/or written).
Assessment relates directly and is appropriate to the lesson objective
and the levels of development of the students.
Students self assess (oral and/or written).
Evidence of student learning is gathered and used along with
additional information/ feedback from lesson to plan future lessons.

Reflects on own performance in relation to student learning and WI

teacher standards and the Alverno Education Abilities.

Evidence (Candidate and Student)

You planned for many opportunities to assess throughout the lesson. One
of these, in particular, was during the turn and talks. After listening in to a
few of the partners, you used an example from the children to give another
model of the thinking you were teaching the children to do. (I noticed that
you needed to do some clarifying/reteaching for one of the partner groups
at this point. It may have been helpful for you to do a bit of remodeling
after the turn and talk to the whole group as well since perhaps other
children may have needed more clarification.) You also assessed as you
conferred with the children, using your prepared checklist of behaviors to
jot down your observations. Your checklist really was designed to also give
you a place to jot down how much support the child needed in order to
meet the lesson objective. (Nice work!) (How did the behaviors you listed
on your chart match up with the behaviors you taught in your mini-lesson?)
You used this opportunity to provide additional support to the students, as
needed. (Your CT and another adult were conferring with the children as
well.) What did you notice about the childrens learning as you conferred
with them? How could you have incorporated student self-assessment
into your plan/teaching? How will you use what you learned about your
students learning to plan future lessons? To reflect on your own teaching
practices?

____Inadequate

____Emerging ____Proficient __X__Distinctive

Professional Responsibilities (AEA: Communication, Integrative Interaction WTS:
1,2,6,7,9,10 DISP: 1-10)

Copyright 2015. Alverno College, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. All rights reserved under
U.S., International

Evidence (Candidate)

ED FORM 708
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Demonstrates professionalism through timely completion of quality work for field

classroom and seminar.
Demonstrates professionalism through appropriate dress and regular attendance,
arriving on time to the field classroom and seminar.
Relates professionally and effectively with students, cooperating teacher, staff, and
supervisor (including initiating conversation, and problem solving). (Social Interaction at
Level 4)
Completes self -assessments, reflecting on planning and implementing of lessons in
relation to student learning and the theory.
Is willing to give and receive help.
Demonstrates Effective Citizenship by attending a school/parent event and thoughtfully
completing an accompanying log.
Actively participates in seminar by coming prepared and offering ideas, sharing
materials and supporting peers. (Social Interaction at Level 4)

____Inadequate

____Emerging

____Proficient

You consistently conduct yourself in a professional manner in a

variety of contexts. You are thoroughly prepared and thoughtful in
your practice. You strive hard to put into practice your learning
from ED 225. You support your colleagues and offer your thinking
in appropriate ways. You also have established a strong working
relationship with your CT and with the children in your classroom.

__X__Distinctive

Additional Comments: Haley, this was a very strong literacy lesson. You clearly are intentional in your practice as you
thoughtfully apply your learning from ED 225 to your own teaching. You recognize that teaching is a complex process and
that reading and writing are complex processes as well. Breaking down the thinking involved in these processes so that it
makes sense and is developmentally appropriate for the children is a challenge sometimes. In addition, you are beginning to
think about the effectiveness of your lessons in relation to student performance and the theory. You are open to feedback as
well a sign of a true learner! My one hope for you is that you can relax a bit and enjoy the teaching process. Be confident!
You are already developing into a strong teacher!

Overall Performance: ____Inadequate ____Emerging ____Proficient __X__Distinctive

Copyright 2015. Alverno College, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. All rights reserved under
U.S., International

ED FORM 708
0210 ED