ANALYSIS OF LESSON

Lyasha Bishop
EDUC 540-902 Week 3
 My CT in my current field placement experiment is my principal. This is a unique

experience as I am the acting lead teacher in my class. In order to help me learn each of

Danielson’s Domains and how they impact me as a teaching professional she has opted to teach

lessons in my kindergarten classroom two times a week while also observing my performance

two times a week as well.

Mrs. Drakeford opted to teach an ELA lesson this week. Prior to teaching the lesson she

sent me her lesson plan. Her lesson plan would have been described as distinguished by

Danielson. She would have earned this distinction because she heavily scaffolded while

including in her lesson plan common questions that students would have and the correct

reasoning she would need to give to help them interpret the concept. She included state standards

and clearly listed objectives. She also included differentiation in her lesson plan. She had listed

the students who would need enrichment and intervention. She used the same activity but altered

it slightly to meet the needs of the students. Her lesson plan included various resources such as

technology (tablets), large flash cards, and writing utensils. She also was sure to add formative

assessment techniques such as a ticket out experience. Her lesson plan was quite long (6 pages).

She assured me that the length of the lesson was not what mattered as other peers of her make

shorter ones. What mattered was that the teacher was comfortable with their lesson plan. She

referred to her planning as a script that she was making. She mentioned that I would find my

own flow and that once I found out what worked I should stick to it and refine it each year to

make it better. Being included in Mrs. Drakeford’s planning process adequately showed me what

Domain 1 a- f should be.

Mrs. Drakeford’s lesson was entitled “Heads, Bellies, and Toes”. She introduced her

lesson by that name and then allowed the kindergarten students to sing the song “Head ,
Shoulders, knees, and toes”. She explained that this would be a kinesthetic activity that would

allow them to loosen up. Following the warm up she began to scaffold and describe how to

identify the head (first sound), belly (middle sound), and toes (last sound) of a word. After

explaining how to do it students were asked to do a few examples together as a class. Following

the examples students received a tablet and headphones and began working on these same

concepts on skyward. Their ticket out was a worksheet that was differentiated. During her lesson

I was captivated by the encouragement she gave the students. She would say “Kiss your brains

you’re thinking” after a student would guess the answer. She was embodying Domain 2 by

creating a positive and supportive classroom community.

When I had the chance to reflect on her lesson, I noticed many positives. Mrs. Drakeford

had scaffolded and planned the perfect things to say to her class during instruction this engaged

the students via their attention span but what was missing was the engagement to their intellect.

This could have been achieved by adding a think, pair, share experience where students quizzed

one another on the first, middle, and last sounds. The teacher could have then followed up by

asking the group questions to strengthen and challenge their understanding of the topic. Another

thing was the students took a very long time to calm down after the kinesthetic lesson but were

very calm during the worksheet section of the lesson. I wondered what if she tried a gradual

release method and switched the order. Maybe scaffolding, worksheet, then kinesthetic

movement and class practice would have been a better order for the kindergarten attention span.

Lastly, although she had amazing objectives they weren’t stated explicitly to the students. By

saying “Boys and Girls today we are learning about the beginning, middle, and last sounds.

These sounds are important because they will help us learn to read” could have helped with

engagement as some students are more engaged when they know their purpose.