Department of Teacher Education & Learning Sciences

Elementary Education Program

Pre-Observation Form
Directions: This form is to be completed prior to every lesson that will be observed by the mentor
teacher or university supervisor. It is to be submitted no later than 3 business days prior to the actual
observation along with your lesson plans.

Name: Ashley Rhodes Date: 11/13/17 (Lesson Implemented on 11/17/17)

1. What is the topic of your lesson?

The topic of my lesson is creating a positive classroom community. We will
do this by creating a classroom promise after reading the book The Juice
Box Bully: Empowering Kids to Stand Up for Others by Bob Sornson and
Maria Dismondy. The standards addressed are ELA standards (RL 2.2, RI
2.6, SL2.1 & 2.6).

2. Why are you teaching this lesson? What is your rationale for teaching it?
I am teaching this lesson because the students could benefit from
reviewing appropriate classroom behaviors and creating a Classroom
Promise. By contributing to the Promise, students will be able to take
ownership of the promise and be more likely to stick to it. Through this
activity, I will also be reviewing key language arts standards such as
identifying a moral in a story/authors purpose and writing in complete
sentences.

3. What is your Teaching Behavior Focus? Why did you choose this?
I chose Building Classroom Environment because that itself is in-line
with the lesson that I will be teaching. I want the students to feel
comfortable sharing with their peers and that they are an important part of
the classroom. For me, this involves demonstrating with-it-ness when
problems arise, which is something that I need to work on in my teaching.

4. Why did you design your instruction in this lesson the way that you did? Why did
you choose this way of teaching the lesson (e.g., Was the idea from a methods
course? From your mentor teacher? Another source?)
We have created a Classroom Promise in many of my methods classes
and I love the community it builds, the way it holds everybody to a higher
standard, and that it holds everybody accountable. Because students are
able to directly contribute, they will be more likely to follow the Classroom
Promise rather than just a set of rules that the teacher gives. I believe
that this class would enjoy making a promise and it will be a good review
of the behavior expectations, as well as important Language Arts
standards.
5. As you are thinking through this lesson, what do you believe will be the most
challenging part of this lesson for you when you teach it? Why?
I always struggle with planning for classroom management because it is
always so unpredictable! Keeping students on task and having them be
exactly where they need to be is something I will try to directly focus on
during this lesson. I intend to have students engaged as much as possible
and allow for each person to participate and share their opinions.

6. How will you know if your learning outcomes for the students are met
successfully?
At the end of the lesson I am having students write in their reading
response journal. They will have the chance to share their responses in
front of the class. (See Assessment section in lesson plan.) I will also
be implementing several informal assessments simply by observing
student discourse and responses.

7. How will your classroom management support the learning outcomes?

Because one of my main goals is encouraging students to decide how
they will make the classroom a better place, I will constantly be modeling
appropriate behavior and how I expect them to act during the lesson. If I
am able to keep students engaged throughout the entire lesson (like I
intend to do) they should have no problem with the final assessment
question.

8. List 1-3 areas which you would like for your observer to pay particular attention.
Why do you want your observer to focus on these areas?
I want Mrs. Fowler to specifically watch how I handle unexpected
remarks/comments, etc. I sometimes have the tendency to ignore
comments that I do not know how to respond to. This goes along with the
classroom management that I always get so nervous about! Any
tips/feedback on this would be greatly appreciated!

9. Is there anything else you would like your observer to know before the
observation?
Please just give me whatever feedback you can!