The Reflection:

What aspects of your lesson were implemented differently than you planned? Why did that

happen?

In my lesson a few things were implemented differently than I had planned. Originally, I

had intentions of asking more ‘higher order questions’ throughout the story. At 2:15 in my video,

I asked the students a comprehension question; “What was the full name of the transformation

the butterflies go through?” They could not answer my question therefore I reread the page. I

think this was happening because I did not read the story under the ELMO and project it for the

students to view. When 1st graders are seeing words like Metamorphosis for the first time, they

need to actually view the word. I intended to ask them more comprehension questions, but after

each page the students were doing a good job of asking their own questions to understand the

butterfly life cycle. At 10:30 in my video, there was 9 students raising their hands with questions.

Since so many students were asking their own questions, I decided to answer their personal

questions instead of asking my own higher order questions.

What surprised you in your lesson?

In my lesson, at 15:24 in my video, S.R. got a bloody nose in the middle of the class

discussion on the carpet. This was very surprising but I felt as if I handled it very well. I told her

to stand up, I tilted her head back, and walked her over to my CT. I did not make it a big deal so

that my students would not make it a big deal either. At 16:01 in my video, I gave another

attention grabber to get the students focused back onto me instead of my CT dealing with S.R.

and her bloody nose. Another thing that was surprising in my lesson was at 20:13 in my video,

J.M. was in my small writing group, and he decided he was not going to write or do this

assignment. This was surprising because we left for specials and came back and he wrote me an
entire page of writing that met all the objectives for the writing sample.

Describe an instance or particular encounter that comes to mind. Why did you pick that

instance? What is so perplexing about that particular moment?

A particular moment in my lesson that comes to mind was at 16:19 in my video. At this

time a student asked me the question; “How long is the egg an egg before it hatches into a

caterpillar?” I told this student that I did not know the answer to his question but I would look it

up and get back to him. I also complimented him on his question and how it was very advanced

and a great question. This was perplexing and I picked this moment because you never plan a

lesson with intentions of your students asking a question you do not know the answer to,

especially in 1st grade.

The Analysis:

If you were going to teach this lesson again to the same group of students, what would you

do differently? (Consider: grouping, methods, materials, evaluation, activities) Why? What

would you do the same? Why?

If I was to teach this lesson to the same group of students, I would change a few things in

my lesson. At 6:53 in my video, D.H. asked me the same question directly after another student

asked the same question. Instead of giving the student more of an explanation such as; “Please

make sure we are listening to our friends when they ask questions so we don’t ask the same

questions”, I said “He just asked that, we’re moving on”. I felt if I might have shot the student

down, and I would address the double question differently next time. Another thing I would do

differently would be at 19:42 in my video, I began calling students back to their tables from the

carpet. Next time, I would call my small group first and give them instructions to go to the table

and then I would release students by their tables individually and I would put the papers on the
actual table instead of handing them to someone to bring back to the table. I think if I made those

minor adjustments during transitions, that it would have kept it quieter and made an easier

transition. Last, I would add more turn and talks into my lesson so that the students could think

deeper about the content and make those learning connections themselves and between their

peers.

If I was the teach the lesson again, I would keep many things the same for it. When I

began my lesson at 1:37, I gave the students a look forward of the entire lesson. I do this so the

students know what to expect and it usually keeps them calmer if they know the plan of the

lesson. I do this for all my lessons, and would do it the same way for this lesson. Another thing I

would do the same in my lesson would be using the same visuals. At 10:35 in my lesson, I had a

graphic organizer on the board labeled as First, Then, Next, and Last. I asked my students to

place visuals of the steps of the cycle into the correct column. This really engaged the students

into the lesson and it also worked as a formative assessment for me to see what my students

know so far before their writing. This also ties to FEAPS 4B because I am matching my

formative and summative assessments to each other. I formatively assessed my students using

First, Then, Next, and Last organization and then I applied the same rubric into their summative

assessment of their final writing sample. I was summatively assessing them on their writing and

organization of First, Then, Next, and Last.

CLAIM: Students are more engaged in lessons and have higher achievement scores when

visuals are incorporated into a lesson.

In what ways did you access prior knowledge? What misconceptions were revealed during

this lesson?

I accessed my student’s prior knowledge from the very beginning of my lesson. At 1:43

in my video, I asked my students, “are you ready to find out what is going happen with our

caterpillars?” This was a prior knowledge connection because we actually had caterpillars in our

classroom and the students’ were unaware of their life cycle and what was going to happen with

them. I also connected their prior knowledge at 17:49 in my lesson, I referred to the butterfly

sucking up nectar as us using a straw. I related their proboscis to a straw for the students to be

able to understand how the butterflies drink from the plant. I also accessed prior knowledge by

using the students previous writing samples as data to inform their learning for this lesson. This

connects to FEAPS 5B because I assessed and examined their previous writing to improve the

instruction for this lesson. I needed them to practice their informational writing and I knew that
by examining their previous work.

CLAIM: Accessing students’ prior knowledge as the introduction of a lesson is a great way

to immediately engage them into the lesson because they are making connections to lesson.

Also during this lesson, there were a few misconceptions that were revealed during the

lesson. I researched and planned for misconceptions about the butterfly life cycle but the

misconceptions actually came from the writing itself. Since we were practicing informational

writing, the students knew they should not include their opinions since it was the facts only. I

addressed this with the students at the beginning of the lesson so that the expectations were set

ahead of time. At 14:04 in my video, I asked I.L. to explain to the class what informational

writing will look like for butterflies. He responded “only the facts, you are NOT writing about

how you love butterflies”. After assessing my students writing samples from the lesson, I noticed

N.R. wrote about how she thinks butterflies are cool. This told me that she has a misconception

about informational writing because she should have not included her opinion within her writing.