Language Arts Unobserved Lesson Reflection

Deana Anderson is my cooperating teacher as well as my observer, so both were

technically observed, and I’m not sure which one she chose to submit to Jodi. However, my first
lesson was the one I viewed as the “unobserved” lesson so I will talk about that. The students
were learning about water and had just started talking about informational writing. I had the
students listen to facts as I read them, they picked out the ones they felt to be most important
from the online resources, we worked as a class to write them in a graphic organizer, and then
they wrote a short piece of informational text on their own using the graphic organizer to help.
I think this helped students take away some organizational tricks and introduced different types
of resources to them.
Overall, I thought my lesson went really well! I always reviewed behavior expectations
with the class before I began teaching my lessons and I think that helped a lot. I was able to
adapt my teachings on the spot for students who were not grasping the content or the
assignment setup. One of my favorite parts was assessing their prior knowledge on water and
seeing how much they actually knew! This group of students is very high. I liked reading their
work afterwards. I was lucky enough to have Deana in there to work one-on-one with two of
my students who are not yet able to read or write. I want to learn how to be able to do all that
is necessary to assist them in the class all on my own.
If I was going to do the lesson again I would more thoroughly go over the lesson with
Deana. She was confused as to yet my end goal was and because of that she interjected when
she thought it was helpful, which led to a little confusion on both of our parts. It just had to do
with writing in their science journals or writing in their writer’s workshop folders and what I
wanted them to write specifically. We ended up figuring everything out eventually but it just
turned me around for a few minutes. Other than that, I thought everything went really
smoothly.
A few questions that I had about this type of lesson is how do you get the students to
not write exactly what is on the graphic organizer, but to embellish on those small facts? I had a
lot of students who attempted to just write what we had written as a class. Is that okay for first
graders to do? I was thinking that maybe for another topic it would have been okay but I feel as
though they are all fairly familiar with water, at least how it is used in their own lives.
Lesson Title: Write About Water
Grade Level: 1st Grade

State Standards:
Writing Standard 2 - Write informative/explanatory texts in which they name a topic,
supply some facts about the topic, and provide some sense of closure.
Writing Standard 8 - With guidance and support from adults, recall information from
experiences or gather information from provided sources to answer a question.
Specific Lesson Objective:
Guide students in finding interesting facts about water and organizing thoughts to then
write about the subject.
Lesson Purpose:
Students will be able to use a graphic organizer to plan out their writing.
Students will be able to pick out relevant and interesting facts from resources.
Essential Questions:
How will knowing facts about water influence how students use it?
How can students use resources to write their own stories?
Vocabulary Focus:
 Pollution
 Bacteria
 Fresh water
 Salt water
Materials:
 Computer access
 Smart board
 https://climatekids.nasa.gov/10-things-water/ “10 Interesting Things About Water”
 http://www.fun-facts.org.uk/earth/water.htm http://www.fun-
facts.org.uk/earth/pollution.htm “Kids Fact Sheet”
 http://easyscienceforkids.com/all-about-where-water-come-from/ “Water – Where
Does It Come From”
 http://www.kidsworldfun.com/interesting-facts-about-water.php
 Graphic organizer (one for each student)
 Paper
 Pencil

Anticipated Time Frame:

30 minutes
Adaptations for SPED and ELL:
Enlarge text, put pictures on smartboard, group students who need more assistance with peers
who grasp the assignment, give more time, model each step…

DAP:
Developmentally appropriate, going along with the grade standards, every student can
participate, hands on and minds on…

Phase I: Exploration and Explanation

Ask students to come to the carpet in front of the smart board. Pull up the resources and go
through the preselected portions of information that will be given to the students. Read aloud
and discuss the information with students. Ask for volunteers to make comments or tell
personal connections. Make sure to discuss the important for clean water and water
conservation. Review information on pollution.
Transition to Phase II:
1. Review new concepts
2. Give directions for Phase II
3. Discuss how behavior has been so far

Phase II: Guided Practice/Differentiation:

The students will go to their desks and the teacher will place the graphic organizer onto the
document camera. Students will help to fill it out by recalling facts that they learned from the
resources shown. Students will copy the information onto their own graphic organizer to aid in
their writing later on.

Transition to Phase III:

1. Review new concepts
2. Give directions for Phase III
3. Discuss how behavior has been so far

Phase III: Independent Practice/Assessment

Students will write an informational piece discussing the importance of water. Their written
work and their graphic organizer will be their formal assessment. The teacher will observe the
kinds of questions and comments students are asking and will walk around during writing and
informally assess.
Lesson Title: Paint Chip Sensory Poems
Grade Level: 1st Grade

State Standards:
Writing Standard 5 - With guidance and support from adults, focus on a topic, respond
to questions and suggestions from peers, and add details to strengthen writing as needed.
Reading: Literature Standard 4 - Identify words and phrases in stories or poems that
suggest feelings or appeal to the senses.

Specific Lesson Objective:

Students will be able create their own sensory poems using colors.

Lesson Purpose:
Students will be able to observe objects in the world around them and the
characteristics about them.
Students will be able to use their creative to build a poem.

Essential Questions:
How will creativity be used in writing?
How will observations affect what is written about?

Vocabulary Focus:
 Poetry
 Creativity
 Senses

Materials:
 Smart Board access
 Document camera
 Sample sensory poems
 Paper
 Pencil
 Pen
 Paint Chips (many different colors, more than enough for double the class because
students may want the same colors)

Anticipated Time Frame:

30 minutes
Adaptations for SPED and ELL:
Enlarge text, put pictures on smartboard, group students who need more assistance with peers
who grasp the assignment, give more time, model each step in close proximity…

DAP:
Developmentally appropriate, going along with the grade standards, every student can
participate, hands on and minds on…

Phase I: Exploration and Explanation

Ask students to come to the carpet in front of the smart board. Ask students about the five
senses and evaluate their prior knowledge. Talk about words that we use in sentences to show
what we felt with our senses. “Sounds like…” “Tastes like…” “Feels like…” “Looks like…” “Smells
like…” Share sample poems that include these phrases. Pull up document camera and show a
final version of a pain chip poem. Show them the phrases that it uses and the inspiration is the
color that they are writing on. Create one as a class.
Transition to Phase II:
4. Review new concepts
5. Give directions for Phase II
6. Discuss how behavior has been so far

Phase II: Guided Practice/Differentiation:

Student will create their own paint chip poem but first they have to create a draft. They will get
a piece of paper and get to choose a color of paint chip. While they are drafting, the teacher
will walk around to assist. When they have gotten their draft checked off, they will be given
their paint chip to write on in pen.

Transition to Phase III:

4. Review new concepts
5. Give directions for Phase III
6. Discuss how behavior has been so far

Phase III: Independent Practice/Assessment

Students will create another paint chip by themselves if they finish early in class or for a take
home project. The class will get to hear a few volunteers the next day in class.