I.

II.

Observation 2:
Planning Observation
Grade:
1st Grade

III.

Students:
15 students

IV.

Setting:
1st Grade Classroom at Clinton Public School. Multi-Age (6-7 year old)
classroom, 15 students, 1 head teacher, and 1 student teacher.

V.

Pre- Observation:
The teacher seems to know what she is doing, and has plans ready every day
before I walk in to the classroom at 8:00 in the morning and informs me of how
the day is planned to go.

VI.

Data:
The teacher has a scoping sequence that she follows with the other first grade
teachers. All of the first grade teachers meet once a week so that they can all be on
the same page. The teacher can deviate from the plan if it does not seem to be
going well. The teacher can also tweak and adjust the lesson if they want to as
long as they follow the core of the lesson. The teachers of each grade level also
have the ability to change the lesson plan if they feel as though the students
havent fully understood the lesson and need more time to have the students
comprehend the lesson. They can also change the lesson for student interest in
order to help the students understand the concept better. My cooperating instructor
uses Go Math for her math lessons and planning. They use workbooks that are
broken up by units with each book as a unit. They have just started using
Fundations for the first time this year as a way to teach their reading skills and
phonics. The students have workbooks to go along with the letters and everything
that they associate with each letter of the alphabet. Each students guided reading
is based on their skill level individually and as a group. The teacher also uploads
her plans to google documents, and the students are not involved in the planning
process at all.

VII.

Analysis:
The planning process seems nominal as they plan week by week and also take
consideration from their students what they are planning such as if they are
excelling at the lesson or if they need more time to fully comprehend or teach the
material differently. The teacher has a harder time with the Fundations as she is
also learning with them as this is her first time teaching it. The teacher however

knows Go Math well enough that she doesnt need to look at the instructors
workbook to have to understand what is required from the students.
VIII.

Recommendations:
One recommendation I would make is to give the students are part of the planning
process even if it is a really small part of the weekly lesson. This would make the
students more interested in what they are learning as they were a part of the
planning for it. They dont even have to know if they are helping with the
planning process. The teacher could just ask them a few questions and then use
those answers to plan with the other teachers. The teacher could also just use the
answers to slightly change or tweak the plan so that her specific students would be
interested in something she feels as though they may not be as excited for.

IX.

Post Observation:
From what I get is that all of the first grade teachers know what they are doing
and meet from week to week just so that they all stay on the same page and
discuss if the plan will be effective or if changes should be made to help make the
lessons more interesting to the students.