The Reflection

For my Level 3, Supervisor Cycle 1 observation, I conducted a Kindergarten science lesson. The
objective of the lesson was for the students to be able to identify how sound causes vibrations. My
lesson overall went very according to plan, the only major thing that changed was the time I did my
lesson. We were originally supposed to start at 12:20 pm, but ended up starting earlier at around
11:45 am to ensure that there was enough time to do our Valentine’s Day party as well as
participate in the schoolwide Peace March. The change in time did not really affect the lesson at all
as my CT made me aware of it early in the morning that day so it was not a surprise.

If I were to teach this specific lesson again to the same group of students there are a couple
of things that I would do differently. Firstly, I would want to ask them more high order thinking
questions. The group of students that I did this lesson with tend to need more guidance and support
and so I wasn’t expecting them to understand the concept right away, so I was more prepared with
guiding questions. The students ended up doing better with the concept than I originally
anticipated and so I think it would have been slightly more beneficial to ask them those higher-
order thinking questions instead of me just telling them. Another thing I would do differently is
incorporate more checks for understanding throughout the lesson instead of just waiting until the
end during my planned formative assessment to see if they all understood. During the turn and
talks and the hands-on activity I was constantly circling the room and checking in but I think it
would have been beneficial to take a moment during the lesson and ask the students how they felt
about the concept and if they were understanding. Along with things that I would change there
were also things that I thought went really well that I would definitely still do if I was teaching this
lesson to these specific students again. With this group of students, they really need to be given
opportunities to talk and do many different things. I think the fact that this lesson had many
different steps and activities helped keep them engaged and focused. Also having them do turn and
talks and allowing them to talk during the hands-on activity worked out well because they were all
on task and talking about what we were doing. Another thing I would do again is the circle map at
the beginning of the lesson about sound. I loved this because it not only gave me a chance to see
what they already knew since I am not with them every day, but it also gave them an opportunity to
engage in their prior knowledge and kind of ease them into the lesson where we were talking about
a new aspect of sound that they hadn’t learned about yet.

The things that most surprised me the most were how much better they understood the
concept than I originally anticipated and also how engaged they were in the lesson as a whole. This
is typically a more talkative and energetic group and while they were still talkative and full of
energy, for this lesson it was all pretty much focused on what we were learning and the things we
were doing. I think this engagement is what helped the students understand the concept overall.
They were all engaging in their prior knowledge, watching the videos, talking with their partners,
and experimenting in the activity so they were learning in multiple different ways.

One particular moment that comes to mind is when one of my students, “I.M.”, was sharing
something about sound for us to put on our circle map. My CT had been sitting next to him and
supporting him with raising his hand and waiting for me to call on him and when I did I was so
impressed with what he said. He said that when you hear a sound the sound sends a signal to your
ear into your head. This was before we had even gone over that concept as a class. But the thing
that stuck out the most was that when he was trying to explain it to me he was really struggling to
articulate what he was trying to say. My CT was great in supporting him and I was being respectful
and encouraging the students to be respectful while patiently waiting for him to say what he
wanted to say. “I.M” is a very smart child who sometimes has sensory issues and struggles to
express himself so sometimes in class things are moving so fast that he is not always given the time
he needs to adequately express himself and his knowledge. But, this moment opened my eyes to
how important it is to really understand our students and give them what they need so they can
fully express themselves, show their knowledge, and be actively involved in the classroom because
they all have many wonderful things to contribute .

I can connect this lesson with a lot of the FEAPs that we have been working on throughout
the program. For Domain 1: Instructional Design and Lesson Planning, I started off my planning
by identifying the state standard that we would be focusing on which was, SC.K.P.10.1: Observe that
things that make sound vibrate, and then choosing an appropriate objective which was, students
will be able to accurately identify how sound causes vibrations. This relates to FEAP 1a: aligns
instruction with state-adopted standards at the appropriate level of rigor. I was also able to
demonstrate FEAP 1b: sequences lessons and concepts to ensure coherence and required prior
knowledge; because I consciously structured the different parts of my lesson in a certain order,
beginning with a circle map to engage their prior knowledge and ending with an individual hands-
on activity and formative assessment. This order helped the students gradually build up to being
able to work independently to apply what they learned. Another domain that I can connect to this
lesson to Domain 2: The Learning Environment. During my lesson I demonstrated FEAPs 2c:
conveys high expectations to all students, and 2b: manages individual and class behaviors through a
well-planned management system by using an attention-getter (class, class, yes, yes) as well as a
callback for expected behavior (hands and eyes). I also encouraged students to raise their hands to
speak as well as raise their hands to get my attention if they wanted me to come to their table.
Another thing I did was set expectations before handing out the materials for the hands-on activity
and expressed how they were “science tools” to be used appropriately, not toys. Lastly, I can
connect this lesson to Domain 3: Instructional Delivery and Facilitation, specifically FEAP 3a:
deliver engaging and challenging lessons. This lesson was pretty fast paced and engaging. I was
mindful not to have the students doing the same thing for too long and start getting complacent or
bored. I gave them multiple different things to do and many opportunities to talk to their peers and
share their ideas with the class. This helped with overall engagement and made it easier to manage
behaviors.

In this picture demonstrates some of the elements of our lesson that relates to FEAP 1b. The students are
watching a video and observing what happens, after the video the students did a turn and talk with their
partners to discuss their observations. To the right is the circle map that we made at the beginning of the
lesson about sound.
Analysis

By looking at their formative assessment exit tickets as well as taking into account what I
observed throughout the lesson I would say that most of the students were able to achieve the
learning objective, one student partially achieved the learning objective, and one student did not
achieve the learning objective. Below, are some pictures of the student’s exit tickets.

Student A Student B Student C

I can tell because for the formative assessment I asked the students to draw on the picture the
part of their ”instrument” that made a sound and vibrates. While they were drawing I went around
and made it a point to ask the students who I could not easily tell what they drew to explain it to me
verbally. Student A was able to explain to me exactly how when you pluck the rubber bands they
vibrate and make a sound. Student B could tell me that he heard a sound when he plucked the
rubber bands but did not recall the word “vibration” and associate it with the sound. Student C
explained to me that she drew her own picture instead of drawing on the one that I printed for her
but she still was able to accurately explain what her picture represented. I think the various
learning strategies used in the lesson and the way things were structured definitely contributed to
my students learning. By starting out having the students engage in their prior knowledge, then
introducing and discussing the concept with them, then having them observe the concept in the
video and talk about it with their partners, and then finally having them do some hands-on
application they were able to slowly build up through the levels of cognitive learning. Basically,
each activity/part of the lesson was able to prepare them for the next one. Also, the many different
elements such as a circle map, online videos, turn and talks, and a hands-on experiment were able
to keep the students engaged and support many different types of learners. For the student who I
feel like did not meet the objective some things that I think I could do differently for him would be
that after I give the class directions to go over to him and take the time to explicitly explain to him
individually what we are doing and to frequently check for understanding so that I could clear up
any misunderstanding or misconceptions as soon as possible.

For my lesson, I had some special accommodations for students. There were no gifted
students in my class but I did have six EL students and two students with IEP/504
accommodations. For some of the EL students (pre-production and early production), I provided a
visual of a guitar during the hands-on activity so that they could use that as support to guide their
thinking. For my students with IEPs/504s, I encouraged them to talk with their partners and I used
guided questions when asking them about their observations and the concepts. Out of all of the
students with special accommodations, six of them met the objective and one of them did not. The
student who did not meet the objective was a pre-production EL student who I think had trouble
following along and understanding some of the directions. Reflecting on that I know I could have
been better about checking in on him and guiding him through the lesson/activities.

Based on what happened in class during the lesson I would first use the information I
gathered from the assessment and pull the two students aside who did not meet/fully meet the
objective to do a quick reteach. Then, the next whole group lesson would focus on how sound
vibrations are a form of energy and that energy from sound can transfer and actually move other
things. They saw it briefly in the videos that we watched but I did not go in-depth in explaining
exactly how it worked because it wasn’t the focus of our objective for this lesson. For the next
lesson, I would start with a quick review of what we learned about sound and vibrations and then
go into the concept of sound vibrations moving other objects more in-depth.

Questions to answer specific to a science lesson:

1. In what ways did you access prior knowledge? What misconceptions were revealed
during this lesson?

I accessed their prior knowledge at the beginning of the lesson when we did a circle map so
the students good think and tell me what they already knew about sound. I also asked them to use
their senses (something they learned about at the beginning of the year), and asked questions such
as: What do you see? What do you feel? What do you hear? I also asked them what the things we
were doing reminded them of, for instance, the “instrument” they made during our hands-on
activity reminded them of a guitar. I would say the biggest misconception, or thing that they had the
most trouble understanding, was the connections between sound/what they were hearing to the
movement. It took some reinforcement and consistent use of vocabulary for them to fully make the
connection, but by the end most of them did.

2. Consider the extent to which you provided opportunities for your students to ‘do’
science. What process skills/practices were embedded and discussed in the lesson?
Analyze the explain phase. To what extent were the students sharing discoveries from their
exploration?

I think I gave the students a good amount of time to “do” science. I did things in a specific
order for a reason. I first just wanted them to learn a little bit about the concept, then I wanted them
to observe it happening, and then I allowed them to do something hands-on and explore. I talked
about things such as observation, experimenting, and exploration. I told them that they were
scientists and they needed to use those skills like a scientist. I also gave the students a lot of
opportunities to talk with their peers about their discoveries and explain to me and the class their
thinking.

This picture show the students during the activity as they are exploring and experimenting with the
materials I gave them.
4. Consider your scientific explanations. Were you accurate in your discussions of science
content? Were you precise in your use of vocabulary? Did you encourage precision in
students’ use of vocabulary? Did you support student accuracy (in other words, did you
correctly identify student work as accurate or inaccurate)? This does not mean that you
necessarily told a student they were wrong, but that you
recognized their lack of accuracy and took steps to support their further learning.

As far as my accuracy in explaining and discussing the scientific concepts, I think everything
I said was accurate but I do think I could have explained it clearer and more concisely to them.
Something I need to work on is taking what I know and finding the best way to explain it to a
student as they are hearing it for the first time and do not know what I know. I struggled with the
balance of not overexplaining to the point of confusion but also not underexplaining and just
assuming they know something already. In regards to vocabulary, I think I was accurate in my use
and I continually encourage the students to use the vocabulary as well as their accompanying hand
motions. I also did my best to rotate the room and check in on students throughout the lesson. I
would look at their work and have them explain their thinking so I could clear up any inaccuracies
while also acknowledging when students were being accurate and reinforce that thinking.

5. Consider how science was represented in the class. What explicit connections were
made to the nature of science?

I think I was able to incorporate a lot of connections to the nature of science I just wish I
would have been better about explicitly stating those connections to the students. The students did
a lot of things such as collaboration, observation, exploration, application, and creating a visual
representation of their findings. I connected these things to the nature of science a little bit like
when I introduced the hands-on activity where they were to use the materials given to them to
create something that made a sound and vibrated. During that part of the lesson, I expressed that
they were scientists and they should explore, experiment, and try new things like a scientist. But, I
could have been more explicit throughout the entire lesson about how what we were doing related
to the nature of science.