Literacy Lesson Observation, Reflection, & Recommendations

Location: First Grade Room Date: 3/30/23

Grade Level: First

Topic or Focus of Lesson: Determine the Theme of a fiction story

Objectives: What objectives were apparent in the lesson? If there was a lesson plan
available, did the objectives in the plan match the ones you observed being taught?

The objective posted on the board was: I can determine the theme of a story to
help me understand the author’s purpose for writing the book.

The teacher stated: Ask yourself what this author wants me to learn from this
book? How does the main character change?

No lesson plan was available however, the lesson did match the objective posted
on the board.

Teaching: What did you see the teacher do? What teaching techniques were used? Pay
attention to materials, grouping options, instructional strategies, pacing…

 To begin the lesson, the teacher had the students come to the carpet.
 She stated: “Clap your hands together and put them in your lap”, before she began
her lesson. All students complied.
 Held the Invisible Boy book up for the children to see.
 Asks students: “Ask yourself what this author wants me to learn from this book?
How does the main character change?”
 Begins reading the book and stops at intervals to model thinking and to ask
questions:
o What just happened in the story
o What prediction can you make about what will happen next,
o How do you think the character is thinking/feeling now?
 Teacher allowed students to respond, acknowledged their answer with positive
affirmations or by repeating their thinking.
 Pacing is good, pauses after two to three pages to give students the opportunity to
respond to the story.
o Questions asked during the story:
 Has anyone ever taken away your shine?
 How is the character feeling?
  What does the character want?
 Show me how he was feeling? (the students all made a face)
 Be thinking about what the author is trying to teach us – refers
back to original purpose for reading
 Is that nice?
 Is getting laughed at worse than being invisible?
 What is Bryan trying to do?
 How is Justin feeling now?
 Justin is being what?
 How does Bryan know Justin can draw?
 After the story, the teacher provided some theme ideas on sentence strips. There
were eight ideas.
o Be responsible
o Be true to yourself
o Friendship
o Self-Control
o Kindness
o Perseverance
o Honesty
o Bravery
 Students were asked after the introduction of each one if they felt that particular
one fit the story they just read.
 The students agreed on two possible themes.
o Friendship
o Kindness
 Teacher asked students to go stand in a certain spot in the room if they thought it
was theme A and stand in another spot if they thought it was theme B.
 She asked for one volunteer to share why he or she felt that was the best theme for
the book. She did not confirm or deny either child’s response.
 She then had children come back to the carpet and explained their independent
work.
 She asked students what questions they might have?
 She called three students to the carpet to provide them with support on the
independent work.

Students: What were the students doing? How were they engaged in the learning? Were
they engaged in the learning? Any off-task behaviors?

 Students were seated on the floor facing the teacher.

  They were engaged in the story and were given opportunities to share their
thinking through teacher prompts and questions.
 Students raised their hand to answer. The same five or six children answered
most of the questions.
o Some student responses:
 When people are treating him nicely his color is coming back.
 He’s being nice.
 Being laughed at is worse.
 Bryan wants to play.
 He’s feeling sad.
 Three students went to the bathroom during the lesson, but there was no
misbehavior even when there were two interruptions by resource teachers coming
to the door to pull students.
 Students understood the routines of the class and were able to get right to work on
their independent work.
 Students were self-directed and on task with their MAY DO work.

Interesting observations: What did you see that was interesting, unusual, surprising…?

 I found it interesting that turn and talk was not utilized during the lesson.
 I was surprised by how independent the students were during independent work
time.
 I loved the Theme cards used with the students!
 I also loved the poetry book that students were working in when I first arrived.

Questions you have after the lesson about the teacher, teaching techniques, students,
content of the lesson, literacy learning, literacy instruction, etc. What did you leave the
lesson reflecting on, wondering about, etc.?

 I’m wondering why students were not given a sentence stem to use and the turn
and talk model was not utilized. Was there not enough time with this lesson?
Have you tried it before?
 I’m wondering why there was no discussion about which theme was most correct
or at least have the children work together to defend their thinking as a group.

Positives: List two positive things (related to literacy learning) you observed from each:

Teacher Students
 Was very clear in her instruction – Were on task and focused. They were
1. provided students with Theme able to talk about the story and how
Ideas to help them determine the the character was feeling and
theme of the Invisible Boy. changing.
Stopped throughout the story to ask Students were able to identify two
2. thought provoking questions to important themes in the story.
provide students the opportunity to Students clearly understood the
respond to their reading. concept of theme.

Support: List two areas in which you could assist or support the teacher with the
instruction of the lesson in Ideas 1 and 2 below. Include the specific standard # you
would be assisting the teacher with, a thorough description of your suggestion and
support, and cite a resource the teacher could use (this could be a textbook, article,
website, video, book or any other resource that could enhance or extend their
lesson). Even if the lesson is absolutely wonderful, consider what adaptations for
individual literacy needs (both high and low) might be made, what extensions could
follow, etc.

A link to the ILA Standards is included with the assignment directions in Canvas.

Support:

Idea 1: ILA standard #

1.1 The student will develop oral communication skills.

a) Participate in collaborative and partner discussions about various texts and
topics.

This is a high EL class and the students could use practice speaking often. My
justification for offering this support is to help students communicate more often
during reading lessons to practice their language skills.

Description of support you intend to provide.

 Model the turn and talk strategy for the class.

 Provide teacher with examples of ways to set up the turn and talk strategy
for her students. Suggest she sit children next to their determined partner
and give each partner a letter – either an A or a B. Explain to teacher that
when she teaches children how to turn and talk to teach them to know their
letter so they know if it’s their turn to talk or listen.

 I would suggest that the first few times of doing this model to determine
which partner will talk and which one will listen. Then have listening
partner share out to the group. The next round have partner B talk and
 have partner A share out. After several practices, and when students seem
to understand the concept of turning and talking, then have them each
have the opportunity to talk in one share.

Resource the teacher can use to assist their implementation of the new strategy
or idea.
 Provide a sentence starters poster that she can use to help students know
what to say with such starters as;

I noticed that…
I think … because …
I wonder if …
I predict that… because …

 Provide teacher with A and B cards that she can distribute to the children
so they can remember which partner they are.
 Reading Rockets Video = https://youtu.be/-9AWNl-A-34
 Reading Rockets Site = https://www.readingrockets.org/strategies/think-
pair-share

I chose this model, because I noticed that the same 5 or 6 children responded to the
questions being asked during the story. Hopefully this strategy will help all students
have a way to participate. It may be difficult for some to write their thinking, but as
long as the expectation is there and students attempt to make sense of the book on
their own rather than waiting for classmates to answer the questions, I believe it will
be beneficial.

Idea 2: ILA standard #

1.9 The student will read and demonstrate comprehension of a variety of fictional
texts.
f) Identify characters, setting, and important events.

Description of support you intend to provide.

 Model comprehension strategy: Reading Guide

 Reading guides help support students during reading. This class is
studying Theme. Students can use the reading guide to help them
organize their thoughts so they can determine the theme of the story.
 Use the book:
  Create a reading guide for students to use while reading this book to them
aloud. This is a class of first graders who are mostly English learners and
who have never used this strategy so the majority of the questions will be
explicit questions. These questions will help guide the students to
understanding the theme of the story.

o What do you think this book with be about?

o Who is the main character?
o What was CJ unhappy about?
o Where is the story taking place?
o How was CJ feeling on the bus?
o What helped CJ feel better?
o What did CJ see in the sky?
o How did CJ change at the end of the story?
o Why do you think the author wrote this story?

Resource the teacher can use to assist their implementation of the new strategy
or idea.

 Reading Rockets website to support this strategy =

https://www.readingrockets.org/strategies/reading_guide

 A list of general questions that can be asked for any book. These
questions can be used to help students understand theme, story elements,
retelling and summarizing.

o What do you think this book will be about?

o Who are the main characters?
o Where are the main characters?
o What problem does the main character have?
o How is the main character feeling?
o Who helps the main character?
o Does the main character change?
o How did the main character solve his or her problem?
o What lesson did the main character learn?
o What is the theme of this story?
 I would make a poster and have it laminated so the teacher could write on
it with dry erase and use it over again.