ALVERNO COLLEGE

LTM 621 FIELD STUDENT SELF-ASSESSMENT FORM

Candidate: Emily Michi

Assessor: Pamela Lucas

Advisor: Aubrey Vogel

Date: 4/16/2015

Grade/Subject: 4th grade reader/writers workshop (ELA)

Topic/skill taught: Comprehension Strategy Character Quote

School: Glenwood Elementary School

Cooperating teacher: Theresa Buhrandt

Observation: (check one) X 1st observation

Completed by: (check one)

___ 2nd observation

___ Other (specify) ________________

Candidate

Overall Performance: _____Inadequate

X Emerging

_____Proficient

Planning (conceptualization/diagnosis/coordination)
Reflection Questions:
Using your knowledge of students background knowledge, learning
styles, skills, and abilities justify the educational decision making you
engaged in for this lesson.

Inviting (communication/integrative interaction)

Reflection Questions:
Explain what you did to create a positive, inviting, brain-compatible
learning environment.

_____Distinctive

Comments
There are a lot of students in a small space in the classroom. My
cooperating teacher always mentions that they are a chatty bunch. I knew
that part lesson would benefit with having the students interact with each
other in a social manner. As long the students could stay on track with the
lesson they would mostly work well being in small groups. The students
who had a better understanding of the strategy could help the other
students who might have struggled. I also see how the students are at a
stage where they are drawn to engaging with other people. This strategy in
particular fit nice because it gave them a chance to engage with a
character pre-reading.
I created a positive environment by listening to students ideas. If their
ideas were off track I tried to lead them back on track through questions
and prompts. I created an inviting environment by never shutting down
their ideas no matter how off they were. I respectively answered students
questions and offered positive feedback. I also created a brain compatible
environment by encouraging them to expand on their thinking. I was also
flexible with the plan so that students had multiple ways to share what they
are written with other students. This way students who are not comfortable
getting up in front of the whole class could did not have to more than once.

Teaching (communication/diagnosis/integrative interaction)

Reflection Question:
Explain the educational theory, or theories, that guided your
development and implementation of this lesson. Consider: The Seven
Conditions of Learning, The Zone of Proximal Development, Ecological
Theory, Multiple Intelligences, Transformative Learning, The Comer
Process, Experiential Learning, Scaffolding, etc. Provide explicit
examples of how your teaching illustrates the theory you choose.
Explain how the learning activities actively engaged students in learning
and to what degree (think about Blooms Taxonomy as it relates to the
affective and cognitive domains).
Explain how you built on students abilities to comprehend, learn
vocabulary, or create a piece of text.
Explain how the content area strategy (ies) you used in the lesson
supported student learning and met their needs.

This lesson was designed based on the constructivism paradigm. Students

constructed their own subjective interpretation of the authors descriptions.
They did this by relating their quote or part of the quote to their own
experience with someone saying something similar. They were able to make
personal connection to what they have experienced to what the character
might be saying. This helped them to make connections to the reading
before they actually did the reading.
This strategy also helps to support Gardners Multiple intelligence because
benefited students who have different strengths. It was beneficial to students
who are interpersonal learners because they worked in groups to generate
ideas. By working in groups they were able to work off of other students
ideas to help them expand their own thinking. It is also beneficial to
students who are linguistic learners because they analyzed authors word
choice. As a linguistic learner they are sensitive to the different meaning of
words and what they imply.
To introduce the students to the comprehension strategy I discussed with
them their impressions of a character in a book they had previously read. I
knew that they would have pretty strong feelings about this character and
wanted them to explain reasons why they felt the way they did. In drawing a
connection to what they were going to do to what they had already done
drew their interest. The lesson was set up in a way that allowed students an
opportunity to work with other students. They discussed different ideas and
even had to decide between the ideas what made the most since. Students
demonstrated their understanding by giving descriptions and they applied
the knowledge in a new way by creating personality profiles. They also
analyzed the quotes to find evidence for their adjectives and evaluated other
students ideas.
I had the students work on formulating an opinion of a character before
they read. This gave them an opportunity to make predictions about the
character and major themes of the reading. They also practiced tuning into
how the author was using voice to express a character. This helps them to
become critical readers and deepen their understanding.

Assessing (diagnosis/integrative interaction)

Reflection Questions:
Explain how the assessments used for this lesson were designed to
monitor students progress toward the learning objectives.
Explain how you analyzed evidence of student learning.
Explain what you did to know what are the next steps in planning for
instruction. (Include what the next steps are.)

What I had planned for my assessment changed as the students began to

actively do the strategy. The objective was for students to be able to identify
ways to describe the character based on different what they wrote them
saying. As I created my assessment I did not think that some students would
decide on adjectives based on how they were feeling about the quote.
Listening to some groups I realized that that was something that should be
part of the assessment. Along with that I analyzed how I knew the students
were learning by discussing with the groups how they described their
character and why. Listening to students I was able to determine if they
were able to create a description about their character from the quote. Were

Final remarks:

Wisconsin Teacher Standards as they relate to LTM 621 Course Objectives

1. DPI: Teachers know how children grow: Clearly articulate an understanding of the modes of communication central to the development of
literacy: speaking, listening, writing, reading, viewing, and representing.
2. DPI: Teachers know how to teach: By providing explicit instruction, modeling and guided practice, demonstrate the ability to effectively
teach adolescents of varied backgrounds and developmental levels to use reading strategies effectively.
3. DPI: Teachers know how to teach; teachers are able to plan different kinds of lessons: Effectively incorporate a range of reading and other
literacy strategies to support student learning in the content areas.
4. DPI: Teachers know how to teach; teachers understand children learn differently: Thoughtfully design, select, modify and evaluate print and
non-print materials for individuals and groups of students including those for whom English is a new language.
5. DPI: Teachers know how to test for student progress: Design meaningful performance assessments that engage students in literacy and the
content areas.
6. DPI: Teachers communicate well; teachers are connected with other teachers and the community: Develop clear explanations, for adolescent
students and their parents, of the results of standardized literacy assessments and the implementation of instructional plans.
7. (DPI: Teachers know how children grow; teachers understand that children learn differently: Thoughtfully apply an understanding of
linguistic, cognitive, psychological, social, and cultural factors that influence literacy development in planning for individual and group needs.
8. DPI: Teachers know the subject they are teaching; teachers know how to teach; teachers are able to plan different kinds of lessons:
Effectively use technology to enhance literacy instruction in the content area.
9. DPI: Teachers understand that children learn differently: Clearly articulate how cultural beliefs and expectations shape the learning needs and
goals for students, including those for whom English is a new language.
10. DPI: Teachers are able to evaluate themselves: Evaluate relationships between WI Teacher Standards and the Alverno Education Abilities,
and their teaching practice.

Scoring Rubric
Level One
The reflection is vague
and lacks details; there is
little or no elaboration.

Level Two

Level Three
The reflection is
moderately detailed and
elaborated. Contains
examples to explain the
candidates thinking about
the lesson and justify the
educational decisions
made for this lesson.
Reflection demonstrates
suggests revisions that
need to be made to
improve this or other
lessons.

Level Four

Level Five
The reflection is very
detailed and well
elaborated. Clearly,
contains examples
sufficient to explain the
candidates thinking about
the lesson and justify the
educational decisions
made for this lesson.
Reflection demonstrates
revisions that need to be
made to improve this or
other lessons.