Lesson Self-Assessment for ED 215R

Name: Haley Williams

Literacy Objective:
The students will recall what describing words are and identify describing words in a piece of
writing in order to recognize that an authors purpose of using describing words is to create a
picture in the readers mind.
Balanced Literacy Component:
Modeled Reading Mini-Lesson into the Independent Reading Workshop with Conferring
Date: 4-1-15
School/grade level/ number of students: Brookfield Elementary/1st/25
Name of Cooperating Teacher: Katie Johnson
Planning and preparation:(AEA:Conceptualization,DiagnosisWTS:1,2,3,4,5,7DISP:
Respect, Responsibility, Collaboration, Communication) Clearly identify the range of
literacy development of the learners in your classroom and describe how you planned to
address that range throughout your lesson plan. Thoroughly explain how an effective
theoretical model such as Holdaway or Vygotsky guided you as you planned your lesson.
Explain what worked well in your plan and what you would have changed/did change and why.
The range of literacy development of the learners in my classroom is from a level C to
a level L. When referencing the reading continuum these levels put the children in a range of
emergent to transitional readers. I planned to address this range of readers through various
aspects in my lesson plan. For this lesson on describing words, in order to practice identifying
them and seeing them in a text, I wrote a poem called A day at the zoo, to read during the
mini lesson. This poem included vocabulary that would be mostly familiar to the vocabulary
that the range of readers in the classroom would be able to understand and even read. I
wanted to make sure that I did not have to surround that aspect of my lesson on trying to
teach some understanding of vocabulary, when what I really wanted to do was zoom in on the
describing words present in the poem. During the mini lesson we also made two post-it notes
together which showed how we zoomed in on a sentence, found the describing word, noted
the type of describing word, and then drew a small picture. I thought that in order to help
meet the needs of the students who may not have totally grasped what we were working on, I
planned to allow the students to take one of the post-it notes back with them to their desk to
reference during independent reading time if they needed a reminder of what they should be
trying to accomplish. I think that this provided as a great resource for students in lower
reading levels, who need to take more time to really focus on the text, in that they would not
also have to remember what task to accomplish because they would have some type of
reference right in front of them. I planned for the students to do independent reading, which
would allow for all of the reading ranges to be met as the students have book boxes with their
appropriate leveled books in them. I really wanted the students to be able to find describing

words in their own books and be able to focus on that and not on trying to read or struggling
through a text that would not have met each childs individual literacy need. I also planned to
meet the range of literacy learners during independent time when I would be conferring with
the students. Here I planned to confer with each student and work to see if they needed
prompting or modeling and work to best give each individual the guidance that they needed.
As I planned this lesson I was continually thinking about Vygotskys Socio-Linguistic
Theory. I feel that my entire plan really exuded his theory. I used language as one of the main
tools and a large scaffold of my lesson. This is also where the aspect of how I addressed
academic language comes into the planning as well. First, much of my academic language
revolved around the students being able to identify, recall, and recognize describing words.
The vocabulary that related to those function words included describing words, purpose,
detail (color, texture, feelings, actions, shapes, sizes) of person, place, or thing, picture in
your mind, and purpose. I continually worked to use and emphasize that vocabulary
throughout my entire lesson. I used it multiple times as I went through the mini lesson, had
the students use that language as they were participating during the mini lesson, and also had
them engage independently with some of that vocabulary during independent reading. The
way that I continually emphasized that vocabulary throughout the lesson really does relate
back to Vygotskys theory and the importance of language in order to organize the students
thoughts. Just like we have talked about many times in ED225, I truly wanted the students to
be able to hear me use the language over and over again so that when they walked away from
the mini lesson carpet, they would be able to hear my voice and that language in their mind
to apply to their own work. Although the students have had a small introduction to describing
words before, I really wanted to work to emphasize their importance, especially since they
are working on writing poetry. My goal was to help the students move through their ZPD,
taking what they were already familiar with about describing words or precise words as they
have sometimes called them, and working in between their ZPD and the level of the known.
My intention was to deepen their understanding so when they receive a follow-up lesson on
describing words or word choice, they will have a more clear understanding of what to be
looking for. I was also the more expert other in this situation in that I was more
knowledgeable about the topic and worked to explain it to them in a way that they would
understand. The idea of scaffolding and gradually releasing the students was another huge
part of the planning of my lesson that relates back to Vygotskys theory. It was clear in the
mini lesson when I had the students watch me and understand how to think when trying to
identify a describing word in a sentence (I do-You watch), then I had them do an example
with me (I do-You help), then I let the students try to complete identifying a describing word
on their own with their turn and talk partners (You do-I help), and then the students were
released to go and try identifying the different aspects of describing words on their own (You

do-I watch). There was a clear goal in my mind for having the students slowly be let go from
my support to being independent. This type of scaffolding also occurred in my conferring with
students. If necessary I would once again have the students observe me (during conferring)
and my thinking when trying to identify a describing word, then let them try, and then work
to see and question them in order to understand if the concept was any clearer after I had
either modeled for them again or prompted them. As I noted above, I also allowed the
students to take one of the post-it notes that we worked on together to their tables to
reference during independent reading time as a type of scaffold to support their own
identification of describing words and writing the different aspects on their own post-its. One
more scaffold that I worked to provide for my students was the anchor chart that I created. I
think that this provided as a great thing for students to reference in relation to what they
were to be looking for during their own independent work (I wish I would have turned in
during independent time, but forgot to). I think that all of those different aspects show how
my lesson was constructed with the help of Vygotskys theory.
One thing that I think worked really well in my lesson plan was the transitions that I
worked into the different parts. I felt that I effectively incorporated transitions that allowed
me to have the students attention when I needed it; for example, using the countdown
transition to get the students back onto the mini lesson carpet for the closing activity. I also
think that I planned the thinking-aloud well in my lesson so that I was fully prepared to give
the students the lesson. This served as a great practice tool for me as well. Another part of
my lesson that I thought was strong was how I tried to work in various amount of explicit
teaching, participating, as well as talking, so students could have a balance of all three in an
effort to keep them engaged. I also thought it was good that I planned to make connections in
my lesson between the students learning in reading and their learning in writing and how
describing words are also a large part of their writing. There are some things that I would
have liked to change in my lesson. There was potential for splitting my lesson objective into
two separate lesson objectives. I also think that there was potential in my lesson for
eliminating the aspect of teaching students about the importance of describing words
providing a picture in our mind as readers. However, I thought that it was important that I at
least started to plant the seed in the students minds of why describing words help us
understand what we read as well as what we write. There just was not an especially large
emphasis on it during the lesson it-self, although the connecting moment at the beginning of
the lesson about the dinner meal provided students with a little bit of context for describing
words and making images in ones mind.

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

DISP: Respect, Responsibility, Collaboration, Communication)
Explain how you set up a positive learning environment and encouraged student participation
in the learning. How did you focus student attention throughout the learning experience to
engage them productively in the learning the lesson objective? Evaluate your interactions
with the students and their interactions with each other.
My goal for every lesson that I teach is to be enthusiastic in front of the students so
that they see how happy I am to be there with them and so they also know how excited I am
for the learning that we are doing together. I think that some of the motivation for learning
comes from the teachers own excitement and readiness to show the students something new
and valuable. For those reasons I started off my lesson by making the students aware of how
excited I was to teach them. I wanted to make sure that I was also helping the students to
establish a positive learning environment among them. This was done by immediately telling
them the behaviors and expectations that are appropriate on the mini lesson carpet. This
included the expectations for the use of the clipboard as well.
There were various things that I did throughout the entirety of my lesson to keep the
students engaged and participating. Right in the beginning of my lesson I worked to grab the
students attention by vividly explaining to them what I had eaten for dinner the previous
night. I think what made that connection a little more fun was that I asked the students to
close their eyes and really think about the words I was saying to them. I think that this was an
overall solid introduction to describing words, how the words describe different aspects of
something like shape, size, color, etc., and also how important they are for being able to
picture an image in your mind-which was my lesson objective. I was able to focus student
attention and get them to engage productively in the learning objective with the anchor chart
that I made and provided them with. It depicted exactly what a describing word is, the
different types of describing words there are (I provided this in hopes that it would give
students ideas of what kinds of words they should be looking for when trying to identify
describing words), and how they are helpful in putting an image in the readers mind. I also
created a word jar which would serve as an interactive tool as the students and I worked to
find describing words, what they described, what type of word they were, and a small picture
of what they helped us to see in our mind. Aside from the anchor chart I think that the poem I
created helped to spark student participation in the questions I asked based off of it. It also
showed the students that I am a writer too and I do the same types of writing that they do
during writing workshop. Another tool that I used to encourage student participation and
engagement with the lesson was the use of clipboards and post-it notes. I thought that it was
valuable for the students to be able to watch how I used the post-it notes to put down the
important information and then they could have the chance to do it right on the mini lesson
carpet. The activity that I had the students do during independent time also mirrored what

we had done during the mini lesson. In this way the students could keep engaged with the
objective which surrounded the idea of describing words while they read on their own.
I think that my interactions with the students were all positive and motivating. I was
enthusiastic as I interacted with them during my explicit teaching of the mini lesson. I also
served as support during the mini lesson when I had the students turn and talk and went
around to the various partners to assess initial understanding. My interactions with the
students continued during the time I was conferring with them. Here, I also served as support
for students who needed remodeling, used compliments to affirm students learning of the
objective, and also included teaching points to continue childrens thinking. The students
interactions among one another were also positive and meaningful. During the mini lesson
aspect they got to share their ideas with one another and work together to find the describing
words in the poem, what they described, what type of word it was, and then what small
picture it helped them to see in their mind. This sharing worked well between students who
did not completely grasp the idea with help from those who did. There were these same
positive interactions on the mini lesson carpet for the closing of the lesson.
Instruction: (AEA: Communication, Coordination, Diagnosis, Integrative Interaction WTS:
1,2,4,5,6,7,10 DISP: Respect, Communication)
Thoroughly explain how you taught this lesson to meet your literacy objective. Evaluate your
implementation of your plan in relation to student learning/performance and the theory. Did
it have the effect you intended? Were the needs of your literacy learners met? Explain what
you found most difficult in teaching this lesson. What changes would you make if you
repeated this lesson? Why?
I taught this lesson in a readers workshop format to meet my literacy objective of
understanding what describing words are, what they do, how to find them in a piece of
writing, and how they help us to picture an image in our mind as readers. I started my lesson
by connecting to the students with describing words and imagery in ones mind. After that I
used my anchor chart to give a thorough overview of the different aspects of describing words
that we would be talking about. During that time is when I tried to keep reinforcing the
language of the lesson so the students would have it engrained in their brain-the language
that is heard when discussing and identifying describing words. After that I wanted an
opportunity for the class and me as a group to work through identifying the various parts of
describing words in a text. To do this I wrote my own poem and after I read it I worked
through telling the students how this poem was filled with describing words in an effort to get
the students to notice the importance of using describing words when there are no pictures
with a text. My purpose for doing that was to connect what we were doing in reading to their
writing of poetry in writers workshop. It was my intention to plant the idea in their mind that
describing words are not only purposeful in reading, but also in our own writing in order to
allow our readers to see in their mind and better understand what we are writing. It was my

hope that the students would carry a little bit of that idea with them when they went into
writing workshop. With the poem I took the time to give an example of finding a describing
word, let them participate with me, and then doing a post-it note on their own. In this way I
was gradually releasing them to working with describing words independently. I continued to
state the objective many times throughout the lesson so students would also know exactly
what we were learning about. After I closed the mini lesson the students were to go and
experience zooming in on their own texts and working to identify describing words, what they
described, the type of word, and what small picture it helped them to make in their mind.
This was yet another way that I worked towards the students becoming successful with the
objective. During independent time I worked to confer with the students to check on
understanding. Finally, I brought the lesson to a close by having the students return to the
mini lesson carpet, sharing what we gathered, and then closing with one more explanation of
the objective.
As I reflect on the implementation of my lesson in relation to student
learning/performance and the theory, I think that I succeeded in receiving the effect that I
intended. Vygotskys theory notes the importance of language as a tool to scaffold-which is
what modeling is. I think that through my thorough modeling, the students were able to grasp
and apply some of the information I was showing them. I noticed this when I first went around
the carpet during the mini lesson. Some of the students had in fact grasped how to identify a
describing word, what it described, the type of word it was, and the picture it created in
their mind. There were some students who did not initially get the concept during the
example with their partner, but that served as a good time for me to try and make my way
around to some of the groups to remodel them the task. I understand now that it would have
also been effective to restate the objective again after that turn and talk was over, as not all
of the students did understand right away. I was also able to take this aspect of modeling and
gradual release of responsibility into my conferences with the students. If they could not
zoom into a sentence and find a describing word, I once again modeled what we were looking
for, how to focus in, and what kind of word we were seeing (shape, color, size, etc.)After
doing this the students could then be successful on their own. I truly think that my modeling
as well as allowing the students to take an example post-it from the mini lesson with them to
independent time (a way of scaffolding) they were able to succeed at the objective. I was
able to see the students success with the post-it notes that they brought back to the carpet
during the closure.
There were some difficult parts in teaching this lesson. For example, as I noted above,
the lesson objective could have been broken into two objectives; separating the overview of
describing words from the idea of describing words helping a reader to picture an image in
their mind. Both of these objectives together made for lot of information in one lesson.

However, it was my thought that to initially introduce the idea of describing words making
imagery in a readers mind would be helpful to the students poetry writing. It was just a lot
to introduce to the students at once. I also think that it may have been difficult in the
beginning for the students to realize that describing words are shape words, size words, color
words, texture words, feeling words, and action words, but after the modeling and
participation it seemed that the students successfully grasped that concept. I just felt that it
was important that the students have a way to distinguish a describing word from any other
normal word by defining them as shape words, color words, etc. If I repeated the lesson I
would consider removing the describing words make pictures in a readers mind, and do
that in a totally separate lesson. In a repeat lesson I also may consider not writing quite as
many facts on the post-it note because it may have been hard for the students to remember
all of those items (if it was not for the post-it I allowed them to take back to their table for
reference). Instead it may have worked to just have the students write the describing word
on the post-it and then have the anchor chart clearly visible so they could check themselves
to make sure the type of word that they picked out was a describing word.

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

Explain how you knew if the students learned what you taught them. What did you learn from
listening to student responses, examining their work or listening to their interactions? What
were your assessment procedures and how well did they inform you about student attainment
of your lessons objectives? To follow-up this lesson, what would you teach next? Why?
I implemented a couple of ways to assess the students understanding of the objective
throughout the lesson. After I initially introduced the lesson and went over what we were
going to learn about describing words I went into the modeling/participation part of the
lesson. As I was working to model the thinking of identifying a describing word and the other
processes of what type of word it was, what it described, and the drawing of an image, I was
also working to prompt the students to help me answer the questions and they were
successfully answering the prompts. All of the students seemed to work together well as we
did an example together as well. However, when I asked the students to turn and talk to their
partners to do the final example on the last post-it note some groups seemed to struggle with
it. It may have been because the last sentence of the poem I had them work with was
structured a bit differently than the others we had analyzed together. I spent a little extra
time during that initial turn and talk so I could move to a couple of different turn and talk
partners and remodel for them how to zoom in on a sentence and identify the describing word
I wanted them to be able to find.
Even with that initial struggle for some students I found that many students were
successfully identifying describing words in their own books. During the conferences of

independent time I used a checklist type chart to record the behaviors that I wanted to be
seeing as I conferenced with the students. Those behaviors included the child successfully
zooming in on a sentence and picking out a describing word, the childs understanding of what
the word describes (person, place, thing), if the child could note the detail the describing
word helped them to see, (shape, size, texture, color, feelings, looks, actions), and if the
child could explain/draw what kind of image this helped to put in their mind. About three of
the five students I conferenced with successfully completed the post-it notes with the
information I asked them to write. For the students who were not 100% independent I took
the time to remodel some thinking processes from the mini lesson. (I think it was helpful for
many students that I allowed them to take with them an example of a post-it that we did
together on the carpet. I also think that the mid-teaching point was a helpful reminder for
the students and focused many of them, which led to their success.) I thought that the post-it
notes informed me well of the students attainment of the objective. I wanted students to get
an overall understanding of describing words and how they are used and identified in a text.
The behaviors that I was looking for told me if the students found a describing word, if they
knew what it described, if they knew the type of word, and also if they could use it as a tool
to make an image in their mind. Those behaviors held a direct connection to my objective so I
could really see if the students were successful in its attainment or not. I think that the chart
provided a clear showing of the students success or difficulties.
To follow-up this lesson I might actually work to reteach some of the content that I
taught with this initial lesson in order to make it even more concrete with the students. I
would also want to do another lesson going a lot more in-depth on how describing words helps
us as readers to visualize and understand better what we are reading. This may include me
using another poem full of describing words and asking the students to see what words
(describing words) helped them to visualize what the poem was talking about and then tell
them that those words are in fact describing words. I think that doing this would emphasize
how describing words to help us as readers to visualize. I would also want to do a lesson that
worked to apply what they would then know about describing words to their writing. In my
initial first lesson I worked to spark an idea of the connection between describing words in
reading and the students writing. So, for the next lesson I would want to work more closely
in a writing workshop of presenting sentences that had the opportunity to be more interesting
with the use of describing words.

Professional responsibilities: (AEA: Communication, Integrative Interaction WTS:

1,2,6,7,9,10 DISP: Respect, Responsibility, Reflection, Collaboration, Communication
Explain how you will apply what you learned from the feedback you received on this lesson to
teaching future lessons.
After speaking with Robin (you) my professor, we discussed making many of the
changes that I suggested earlier in my lesson. This would include breaking up my lesson
objective in order to state it more clearly in more than one objective. Also, I could have
removed some of the content in this lesson, like the visualizing aspect and just focus on that
in a different lesson. Aside from the objective of the actual plan, there are a lot of other
things that I will take away from our meeting to teach future lessons. This includes my
preparation and my in-depth knowledge of the content of the lesson. I worked really hard to
create thorough think aloud pieces that would help me prepare to give the lesson to the
students with confidence and with a pace/flow that would keep the lesson moving along. I
also liked some of the engagement pieces I included like the connection at the beginning with
the dinner meal, the poem that I wrote, the word jar on my anchor chart, and the clipboard
that I used with the post-it notes. I think that these key engagement pieces helped the
students to stay interested and a part of the learning. These are things that I always want to
make a part of my lesson in some way. After meeting with you I also took away the
importance of emphasizing the lesson objective throughout the entire lesson continually, so
that the students clearly knew what we were learning about. This is something that I want to
do when I teach future lessons.
After reviewing and talking with my CT about the lesson she immediately noted the
importance of setting the behavior expectations right away in the lesson which would help to
set the positive tone of the lesson. Setting behavior expectations are important for any lesson
and I think that putting them at the beginning of a lesson is most effective. She also thought
it was important when I conferred with students while we were still doing the mini lesson
during turn and talk times. It was a good way to end the struggling for some students before it
was time to move onto independent work. She also liked the idea of the word jar and how it
all came together in the closing of the lesson. These are some things that I think are
important for teaching any lesson in the future.

Reflection: (AEA: Diagnosis WTS: 9 DISP: Reflection)

What did you learn about teaching an effective literacy lesson from this teaching experience?
How will it affect your planning for future teaching of literacy? Describe, with examples, how
your learning in ED 225 or ED 325 and/or from prior ED215R literacy lessons you taught
improved your performance on this lesson. Explain how this lesson demonstrates your growth
in ONE Wisconsin Teaching Standard and ONE Alverno Education Ability. (Make sure to state
the WTS and AEA in your own words in your explanation.)
From this first literacy lesson teaching experience I learned that in order to be
effective for the students their needs to be explicit teaching and modeling with language as a
strong scaffolding tool. I purposefully worked to include various points in the lesson where I
would restate the objective, which incorporated the vocabulary of the lesson. I also wanted
the task and interactive parts of my lesson that I did with the students to include that same
language I used with them during the lesson. This included them being able to find describing
words, explicitly label the type of word (shape, color, size, etc.) and if it was describing a
person, place, or thing. These words are the words that I wanted to see the students using in
their own independent learning. It was my overall goal to create a voice for the students in
their mind of the language that could be used when they took the learning away from the
mini lesson carpet. I believe that explicitly restating the objective and talking with the
academic language of the lesson is crucial to an effective literacy lesson.
One important strategy that I took away from both ED225 and ED325 which improved
my performance of the lesson plan was the use of an anchor chart. I was actually able to
make my own anchor chart for this lesson so I made it to reflect the objectives of my lesson. I
learned that it is important to have the framework of an anchor chart premade and some
aspect of it to fill in with the students. For this reason, I created the anchor chart so there
was a part that we could work to accomplish together, which was the word jar that we
filled with describing words. From ED225 and ED325 we talked about how an anchor chart
should be a tool that the students are able to refer back to many times in their learning. I
created the anchor chart so that it could be that clear reference for the students and I know
that it worked because during independent time many students felt comfortable and did use
it as a tool for their independent learning.
For this lesson I believe that I showed growth in WI Teaching Standard #6. WTS #6
means that the teacher can effectively use different modes of communication like verbal,
nonverbal, and media to create active engagement, and collaborative learning in the
classroom. I truly think that I was successful with the use of both verbal and nonverbal
communication in this lesson. I was continually using language as a scaffold for the students in
my mini lesson modeling as well as during the conferencing. My explicit transitions also
effectively communicated to the students when we needed to progress from the different
parts throughout the lesson quickly and efficiently. I also used nonverbal language with the
students as I reaffirmed their answers and showed my enthusiasm of the lesson overall. I

think that this lesson really showed my understanding of the important role of language in
learning.
I also think that this lesson demonstrated my growth in the Alverno Education Ability of
Coordination. The AEA of Coordination means that the teacher is able to manage all of the
situations during a lesson or learning activity like the time, resources, assessments, and she
also has the willingness to be flexible if a change needs to be made in the plan. A large aspect
of this ability is setting clear goals for the learning experiences and I continually repeated the
lesson objective and the learning happening as the students and I made our way throughout
the lesson. Another part of this ability is to monitor the students progress toward goals and
maintain clear records. I think that the assessment chart that I used was an effective way to
maintain those records of students progress toward the goal. I also know that reflection of
performance is a part of the expectation for the AEA of Coordination and I think that this selfassessment shows how much I value reflecting on my own teaching and learning from it.