Classroom Observation Reflection

Title: STEM Observation Reflection #1

Class Description: This observation occurred from 8:05 to 9:30 at Pinewoods Elementary School. My participating teacher was Ms. Stephenson, the school STEM teacher for all classes & grades at Pinewoods Elementary. I was fortunate to observe the entirety of 2 class periods, the first being a 3rd Grade class, and the second being a Kindergarten class. For this observation, I will be referencing the third-grade class, which was comprised of 25 students all at circle tables grouped in groups of 3-5. While the teacher did emphasize that she must factor in children with exceptionalities throughout her lessons, this class did not appear to have any exceptional students (at least none that gave away any visual cues).

Lesson: The lesson for this class was on measurement and fractions. Me. Stephenson wanted students to develop the skills of measuring to the nearest ½ and ¼ inch. The problem with this lesson was (as Me. Stephenson described it to me) that their graders had yet to work with fractions at all. So, this lesson would have to be a math & science combination lesson. The only corresponding standard

Stephenson until the bulk of her class had found their seats before beginning the days lesson. Ms. Stephenson had mentioned to me previously that her classes are typically very good about knowing their “start of day” procedures thus making it much easier for her to get the lesson started quickly. She very efficiently gained the attention of her students to begin the lesson’s introductory information. She then engaged prior learning by asking children to think about how they had measured things in the previous lesson to the nearest inch. She asked her students some initial guiding questions about what they remembered about using the rulers. When students mentioned the “little lines” found in between the inches, Ms. Stephenson began to introduce what they are and mean as well as what fractions are and