Samantha Catalano

Fall 2016
TERG
Lesson Week

Individual Lesson Assessments Refection

Background Information
1. Discuss briefly in a paragraph the focus of your lessons (learning objectives)
in all 4 contents.
My lesson week took place at the end of October when the students were mostly
discussing fall and preparing for the Thanksgiving season. October 9 th was
Christopher Columbus day and my cooperating teacher was unable to discuss him as
a historical figure, so she asked me to do that in my social studies lesson. My
overall theme throughout the week was pumpkin exploration! Through different
discovery lessons, the students were able to collect knowledge on the structures of
pumpkins as well as using them in different content areas. For language arts, we
read a book entitled Spookley the Square Pumpkin and the students completed an
exit slip/ worksheet in which they were to describe the main character and how he
responded to the different problems that arose throughout the story. In science, the
students each shared a pumpkin at their tables. The pumpkins varied in size, shape,
and the amount of lines on the outside. We began with two predictions, 1. How
many seeds are on the inside of this pumpkin? 2. How many lines are on the outside
of this pumpkin? The students explored the different textures of their pumpkins and
verbally described them using purposeful adjectives as they gutted their pumpkins
to collect their seeds. This continued the next day into their math lesson. In math
they had a discovery/ introductory lesson on place value by using skip counting
(2s, 5s, and 10s) in order to count the amount of seeds that were in their
pumpkins. In the end, they found out how many seeds and lines their pumpkins
included and with that they were able to compare their predictions to their final
conclusions. I then concluded the science lesson by explaining the discrepant event.
Although the students were shocked that the smallest pumpkin contained the most
lines and seeds, they found through discovery that the amount of seeds within a
pumpkin is not dependent on the size of the pumpkin, but is indeed based upon the
amount of lines that are on the outside of it. We concluded the week by learning
through a read aloud about Christopher Columbus. The students did community
writing in order to create a timeline of Christopher Columbuss accomplishments
leading up to Thanksgiving.
2. Describe how you pre-assessed to know students were
ready for each content lesson. Readiness is critical in moving
forward.
I relied a lot on my cooperating teachers previous scores, advice, and expertise
while planning my content lessons. At the beginning of the year the students were

assessed in all content areas and the majority of the class I was paired with were at
a first grade level still. My teacher advised me to follow the curriculum map whilst
planning my lessons, so that is what I used. They had previously discussed topics
such as Johnny Appleseed, plants and their life cycle so my lessons used their
background knowledge and built upon that. The goal was to use discovery lessons
that built off of prior knowledge and ultimately built off of one another. By using
the 8 different multiple intelligences, they were more able to make deeper
connections in order to understand the content better this time around.
3. Describe your formative assessments and scoring guides for each content.
For my language arts lesson the students were supposed to fill out a
worksheet in which they described the main character and how he related to
challenges (problems) throughout the story. I used a rubric to grade their work and
returned it to them with written feedback.
For the science, math, and social studies lessons I used checklists in which students
were graded upon their ability to make predictions, use adjectives when describing a
pumpkin, count pumpkin seeds using a skip counting method, and lastly, their
ability to work together as a group to effectively create a timeline showcasing the
events in the biography about Christopher Columbus.
4. Describe the 2 children based on your observation logs.
The first child I observed throughout the semester was a young Hispanic boy who was
diagnosed with ADD and ODD. He is extremely bright and has a passion for reading nonfiction
books about wild animals. When he is on course, he gets his work done and loves to make
connections to the other books that he has read in his spare time. However, once he starts to go
off course he usually stands up, walks around the room and yells out inappropriate things. This
usually led to him flipping a desk, yelling at one of his classmates or breaking something in the
room. Once it reached that point his next move was usually to exit the classroom and run the
halls. Once chased by the school counselors, he would run away, or rip different classrooms
artworks off of the hallway walls. Once he left the building altogether, which had happened in
previous years because his picture was sent out on a list to all of the teachers in the building in
which he was listed as a runner. Throughout our time together I rarely saw him in the
classroom learning, he was either in the back of the classroom hiding, in the hallway running
around, in the counselor or principles office or altogether absent either from ISS or OSS.
The second child I observed was a young African American male student who was above
average in content knowledge, but struggled indefinitely with behavioral issues. He identified as
Muslim and brought it up frequently when refusing to participate in music class, certain math
activities that he saw as gambling, and standing to pledge allegiance to the American flag in the
morning. The teacher and I always made sure to vocalize our respect for his religion and to allow
accommodations in order for him to practice it the way that he saw fit. Almost every day I
observed him defying the teachers directions purposefully. In simple ways he would show
defiance such as when the teacher asked the class to join together criss-cross on the carpet he
would stand in the back standing. When she asked the class to place their names on the paper he
for weeks decided not to place his name on the paper, even though the teacher allotted specific
time for that. He classified as borderline gifted, but by the persistence of my cooperating teacher

it wasnt by much. He often shouted out mean things to other students who were unable to grasp
concepts of knowledge the first time around and was repeatedly marked red for behavior for
acting out in disrespectful ways to the teacher and his classmates. The teacher and I worked
together to provide extra higher learning activities for the child to do so that he would always
have engagement to learning. We brought both of his parents in at different times and had an
ongoing communication with them nearly every day. In the end the students behavior became
mostly manageable and he was able to participate in the daily classroom activities.

Reflection in Action
1. What were the formative assessment results each day and how would you use
it the next day in your planning?
On the first day I introduced the read aloud of Spookley the Square Pumpkin the students
filled out an exit slip/ graphic organizer in which they identified Spookley as the main character
and described the different ways in which he responded to the challenges and problems that arose
throughout the story. The students seemed engaged throughout my formative questioning and
partner discussions within the allotted story time. Their engagement showed within their score
results on their exit slip/ graphic organizer where 17 out of 19 students scored a 90% or higher!
This told me that I did not need to go back over the content.
On the second day I introduced the science lesson in which the students were to explore a
pumpkin and empty out the seeds. Through the formative assessment of questioning I was able to
build their skills with using appropriate adjectives which we had previously done when exploring
apples. My assessment with them didnt come until after the third day in which they completed
the entire project and were able to compare their estimations with their final results. It was then
that they were told the scientific explanation to their discrepant event. They were later tested
using an exit slip in which the majority of the students didnt answer the discrepant event
correctly. This told me that I needed to explain further so that way they would understand better.
I did this the next day and retested them. This time around over 80% of the students were able to
explain that the number of seeds inside of a pumpkin was correlated not to the size of the
pumpkin but the number of lines that were on the outside of it. The more lines there are, the more
seeds that are inside of it.
The third day I taught the math lesson in which the students used skip counting by 2s, 5s,
and 10s in order to group the pumpkin seeds. This is a concept that took them a long time to
grasp. I wanted them to discover that counting by 10s was the quickest. In the story that I read,
the students in the classroom figured that out by the end, so I was hoping that the majority of the
groups would count by 10s however I had one group count by 2s and another count by 5s.
Both groups were drained by the end of their counting and it took the class as a whole a very
long time to complete the project. I decided to do the lesson again using pinto beans while
discussing jack and the bean stock a few weeks afterwards and the students were able to grasp
the concept fully after having the experience with the pumpkin seeds. Throughout their exit slip
the first time 50% of the class scored below a 70%. After re-teaching the material with a different
set of manipulatives over 80% of the students scored 100%,

The last day I reiterated the concept of the discrepant event, assuring that each student
understood that the amount of seeds inside of a pumpkin is dependent on the amount of lines that
are on the outside of it. I also read a biography about Christopher Columbus and had the students
discuss the concept of a timeline. We created a simple timeline involving 3 pieces of our own
lives. 1. Past 2. Present 3. Future and then from there I had given each table a date and asked
them to put together a picture and a sentence on a sentence strip to explain what happened on
that day in Christopher Columbuss life. In the end, the students all placed their pictures and
sentence strips on a timeline that we placed out into the hallway. The students all participated in
the activity cooperatively and 100% of the students scored a 100% on their checklists that were
shared individually with them.
2. What type of feedback did you give to the children each day? Be specific
with the 2 specific children that you observed. Was this feedback appropriate for the
needs of the children? Why?
The majority of the feedback that I provided the children with was verbal. I tried to work on
my feet quickly in order to assess their needs and meet them throughout the lesson. I wanted to
test my ability to be flexible to their needs. This worked in reference to my two students I
observed because I was able to accommodate lessons to their needs in order to prevent a poor
event from happening. On top of the immediate verbal feedback I also handed back their exit
slips/ checklists and graphic organizers every day with the written feedback. For some students I
met personally with in order to discuss their grades and help them better understand the material,
and for a few others I had to call home in order to talk with their parents in order to tell them
how they were behaving in class.
3. How did you or will you help students use this feedback?
I used this feedback in order to assess if I needed to reteach information, and for some
students that was the case. In the future I will continue to use these different types of
assessments and feedback in order to show students that they are responsible for their learning.
One habit I would like to pick up is giving students the ability to correct their papers for partial
credit. I once had a professor grant me this opportunity and I learned more from it than I had in
the first place. I found that it helped because my learning didnt stop once I found out which ones
I got wrong, instead I had to find out why I got it wrong and how I could fix it so that next time it
wouldnt happen. Obviously the exercise would be differentiated towards elementary, but I still
feel as though the practice would be beneficial.
4. Describe what you learned about teaching and learning related to
assessment and feedback?
I learned that some assessments dont always show what students have genuinely
learned. A lot of my students struggle with writing out responses, but if you
verbally asked them the question, they would all most likely get 100% because they
are able to explain better verbally than in written form. But also that you should
teach towards the objective and the assessment should all correlate together. Using

frequent formative assessment helps teachers understand where their students are
educationally and allows them to teach content accordingly.
5. What would you have done differently during this lesson week? Why? Be
specific about teaching and instruction.
I would have allotted more time on the instruction with the math lesson. Next time that I
teach this lesson I will recall the students in the 2s group who could have used a table to place
their seeds into; they did try to organize them into an array which was exciting to see that
connection lay over. But when they went to count them I could have assisted them into taking
them from 2s to groups of 10s. I could have even made 2 rows of 5s which would have equaled
a single group of 10. These are the steps that I will take in the future to further assist and help
students in their discovery learning. I will also provide them with poster boards designating
places for them to separate their seeds in order to be more purposeful and organized. If I could
sum up my desires for being better it would be with that statement: making more organized and
purposeful activities that met my objectives sooner without the need of reiterating.