Running head: LESSON PLAN CRITIQUE 1

Claudia Alvarez

Lesson Plan Critique

September 1, 2017

TED 635

National University
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Abstract

This paper will discuss my personal reflections on the co-teaching experience I had in Mrs.

Ralphs kindergarten classroom. The co-teaching lesson was on the body’s 5 senses. Together we

instructed a group discussion based on the 5 senses. Using a Pictorial Input Chart, we were able

to engage students into learning the 5 senses. Informal and formal assessments were done in

order to assess students learning.

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Reflections

Went well

The teacher and the students in the class were very welcoming. I felt right into place

while teaching next to Mrs. Ralphs. The lesson was done during morning circle. Mrs. Ralphs had

prepared the blank pictorial input chart before starting the lesson. This was really helpful during

the actual lesson because everything we needed to go over was there but the students were not

able to see it. We started by singing a song the students had previously been learning on the five

senses. The students had already been exposed to hearing about the 5 senses through singing.

After singing the song I moved on to opening up discussion by asking the class if anyone of them

knew one of their senses. Everyone stayed quiet for a while, but Amy raised her hand after a

while and said “see.” I acknowledged her correct answer and asked if anyone else knew any

other senses. No one else replied. Mrs. Ralphs then asked the class as a whole, “What does your

nose do?” The class responded “smell.” Eby et al. mentions “teachers who are committed to

creating authentic learning for their students do so by planning discussion that stimulate higher-

level thinking processes, problem-solving skills, critical thinking, and creative thinking and that

acknowledge the multiple intelligence of their students” (2011, p. 174). Mrs. Ralphs knew that

the class would probably not answer open ended questions, like the ones I was asking and moved

on to asking single subject questions. This was a smart move to do since the class was not being

very responsive to my open ended questions.

After we moved on to the actual pictorial input chart. I sat down on one side and Mrs.

Ralphs sat down on the other side of the chart. Mrs. Ralphs told the students we were going to

fill the chart together and that she was going to need the help of everyone. We started by

coloring in the picture of a girl that was in the middle of the chart. We were going to use her as a
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model for body parts and senses. We asked the students what color they wanted to color in her

hair, shirt and pants. After we moved on to the senses. We started by asking the children for the

body part. For example, the first one was eyes, so Mrs. Ralphs asked the class “what is this?”

pointing to the girl’s eyes. The class responded and Mrs. Ralphs then continued by asking the

students “what do we use our eyes for?” The class responded, “to see.” We went through the rest

of the senses in the same way, asking the students what each if the girls body parts were

pertaining to the 5 senses and what they did.

The over all discussion and pictorial chart was a success we had some students come up

and help us color in the chart. The students became active participants in the class discussion

after a while. Informal assessments during the lesson gave Mrs. Ralphs and I the impression

most of the students were learning the 5 senses and the body parts related to the senses. The

formal assessment that I was able to participate in was matching labels to the correct sense in the

pictorial input chart. Since the label had the exact same word and picture the students were able

to identify them.

Needs to be changed

Teachers start to reminisce on the lesson they taught and what they could have done

better after finishing a lesson. For me this happened after finishing the lesson, while I was

driving to work. I started to ponder on what we could have changed in order to make it more

productive. I began to think about how many times we had to tell the students to sit down, stop

talking to each other, pay attention etc. Looking back at how much time was lost re-directing the

students I would have changed my pictorial input chart to be more hands on. Eby et al. suggests

“the teacher’s goals should be to connect with students rather than attempt to control them”

(2011, p. 20). I would have brought actual items to the students could have practiced the senses
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while discussing them on the pictorial input chart. This would have students more engaged and

willing to listen to directions and be more focused.

Something that I would also change is having the students move more around. I think the

students were tired of sitting in the circle for most of the lesson. By the middle and end of the

lesson we were loosing the student’s attention. During the lesson, we did some physical

movements but they were minimal. At the kindergarten age, the students need to more around.

Learning outcomes

Learning outcomes were met. By the end of the lesson most of the students knew the 5

senses and understood what they were. The students that had the most difficult time learning

theses concepts were the student with Autism and three students that when asked a question only

stared with no question. Through informal assessments such as picking on individual students to

answer given questions and through formal assessments like matching the labels onto the

pictorial input chart we were able to understand where the students stood on the knowledge they

had learned.

For the future, I would change the learning outcomes to something that is more hands on.

Eby et al. mentions something crucial to teachers, “standards and outcome statements are useful

guides for educational planning, but they must be adapted to fit the needs of a particular teacher

and class” (2011, p. 52). Kindergarten students can sit and listen for a short period but teaching

most of the lesson having five year olds sitting down in the carpet is not ideal. The age range of

the students should determine how much time a lesson plan needs to be and how much time the

students need to sit in the same place. For future lesson plan on the 5 senses I would still have

the pictorial input chart because I do think this chart is a great way for all students to be able to

see and learn. But I would also add more interactive activities for the students. I think children
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learn by doing. The best way I think the students would be able to learn the 5 senses is by

experiencing the senses themselves.

Plans for the Future

Activities

Activities I would add in the future are hands on activities. This lesson can be taught with

hands on activities in order for the students to be able to identify their senses using their own

body. For example, I would like to add different material around the class that the students can

use. Eby et al. suggests “when possible, in your curriculum, bring in photos or objects realted to

the subject you are studying” (2011, p.178). I can create a touching board with different kinds of

fabric so the students can learn to “touch” different textures. I would also like to add a smelling

material this material would need to have different salt shakers filled with different kinds of

spices in order for the students to notice that their nose can smell different things. A material for

each sense to be experimented would be ideal, this way the students can use one sense at a time

and master their knowledge of the body parts function as well as the sense they are using.

The activity I would change in the current lesson for the future is not having the children

sitting in the circle time for most of the lesson. The lesson consisted of having the students do

physical activities through out the lesson but there was not a lot of them. The lack of movement

created students to get anxious and stop listening. I would like to change this so the students can

have more physical movement around the classroom. For example, instead of having the students

sit in circle for the pictorial input chart, I would have done the lesson outside. The students

would have liked to be sitting outside and after finishing each sense I would have grouped them

into 5 and asked each student to bring me something they used their sense in. For example, group

1 can bring me back something they used their “see” sense in. Eby et al. mentions “the classroom
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environment must be collaborative and inclusive of all ranges of ability, talents, interests, and

special needs without making a big point about it or without calling attention to it. This can

frequently be accomplished by the creation of cooperative groups, or tribes as described by

Gibbs (2001)” (2011, p. 133).

The activity I would modify for future lesson plans is the pictorial input chart. I really

like the idea of having the chart as a way for students to see and interact. The pictorial input chart

allows students to see vocabulary and practice language at the same time that they are learning

their senses. I would like to add videos to the use of the pictorial input chart. When explaining

each of the senses I would use a video so the students can see what and how they can use their

senses.

Follow up

In order to follow up with the learning that was done in this lesson, the teacher can imbed

some of the 5 senses into other lessons. For example, if the lesson is on math and the teacher is

doing her/his lesson plan on counting cheerios or fruit loops, she/he can then ask the students to

smell, see, taste. The lesson of the 5 senses can be intertwined in other activities in order for the

teacher to informally assess the learning of the 5 senses while at the same time assess other

learning lessons.

Additional help

There was a couple of students who needed the additional help in this lesson. The first

student was a moderately severe autistic student. There were also two students who were

selective mutes who also needed additional help. The autistic student had a very hard time sitting

in circle and had to leave the classroom a couple of times. This boy had an assistant with him at

all times and although she was helpful Mrs. Ralphs did most of the disciplining taking away
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from the learning time of the rest of the students. Mrs. Ralphs used a lot of sign language to

communicate with him. She also tried to engage him into the lesson plan but he was

overwhelmed very easily.

The other two students were selective mutes. There was a girl and a boy who were

selective mutes. The girl I observed talked to other peers but the boy did not talk to anyone. The

girl would occasionally participate in the singing and engage in the lesson. We went a different

approach when asking her to participate, we would ask her to come up and point to the sense. For

example, Melany can you please show me where smelling is? The question was different and she

was able to point instead of using her words. Mrs. Ralphs was able to get Melany to say the word

“smell.” For the boy he did not speak to anyone nor did he engage in any part of the lesson. We

would try to make him do the physical movements the rest of the students were doing through

the lesson but he refused. Mrs. Ralphs asked him to come up to the pictorial input chart but he

also refused to get up. Eby et al. suggests “if you consider reasons a student may not respond

appropriately to your lesson, you can begin to write variations in your lesson plan to

accommodate these students” (2011, p. 60). These three students were the ones who needed the

most additional help throughout the lesson, Mrs. Ralph and I had previously discussed the issues

that we might encounter trying to achieve interactions and learning from these students. We had

already considered variations we could try during the lesson.

Enrichment or Higher level work

There were two students that seemed to be higher level thinkers. They were proficient in

the English language. For these two students we allowed them to come up to the pictorial input

chart and help the class sound out the words. Eby et al. states “teachers who wish to

acknowledge and support the varied intelligences of their students try to provide learning
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experiences that allow students to use their special strengths in learning a subject or skill” (2011,

p. 145). This allowed the two students to use their knowledge in higher level thinking but it also

helped the rest of the students identify phonemic awareness of the words we were using to

represent the senses. For example, if we were learning about smelling, then the student would

decipher the phonemes to the rest of the class and the class would understand that the word smell

is composed of different parts.

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Resources

Eby, J. W., Herrel, A. L., & Jordan, M. (2011). Teaching in k-12 schools: A reflective action

approach. Boston, MA: Pearson Education Inc.