Running head: INSTRUCTION

Education Field Experience: Instruction Observation

Samantha Hess
Raritan Valley Community College
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I. Observation 5:
Instruction

II. Grade Level and Subject Area:

2nd grade

III. Setting:
Rural private school, in the elementary building. 1 head teacher, 8 students.

IV. Pre-Observation:
When a teacher introduces a new lesson that is difficult to teach, it is
beneficial to have different ways to teach this skill to the class. This will
benefit the students and their learning needs. Even when teaching a difficult
lesson, the teacher needs to keep the students interested and engaged. My
cooperating teacher has previously told me that he tries to tie his lessons into
different subjects. This is known as cross-curricular lesson planning. I have
observed my cooperating teacher instruct other lessons that have tied into
multiple subjects. This keeps these new skills relevant. It also enhances
students’ problem-solving skills because they can refer back to an example or
a way this idea was taught in a different lesson or subject (Byrne, 2017). My
cooperating teacher is great at involving different manipulatives and hands on
activities into his lessons. I am interested to see what manipulatives and
activities he can come up with to teach fractions.
V. Data:
My cooperating teacher plans his lessons based on major themes. He makes
his lessons relevant and has them cross over to different subjects for better
understanding. After they finished language arts for the morning, the class met
their teacher on the front carpet for math. The teacher already had colored
square tiles out on the carpet. They have been learning and discussing
fractions the past few days. He made larger squares out of the small square
tiles and asked the class a few questions such as “how many tiles make up half
of the square?” He also displayed and reminded the students that 2/4 is the
same as 1/2. He asked a few questions just to have the students recall what
they have been learning before he added on to the fractions lesson. Then the
teacher read them a few pages out of a math story book. The main character in
the book “Mrs. Prime” was showing how sets can be broken up into fractions.
Then the teacher used the students as examples for fractions. He asked the
students to tell him what fraction they would be out of all the students. Since
there are eight students, most of them were able to come up with 1/8 because
they are one person out of eight. The teacher asked a few more questions such
as “what fraction of the students are sitting on a chair?”, “what fraction of the
students have hair longer than their shoulders?” and “what fraction of students
are wearing a hat?”. The teacher then introduced a fraction challenge
worksheet. He read the instructions aloud to the students. They had to use
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these colored square tiles and follow the directions one step at a time to
complete the shape and have it match the fractioned colors. For example, one
of the problems stated “I am a square. I am made of 16 tiles. 1/2 of my tiles
are blue. 1/4 of my tiles are red. The rest of my tiles are yellow”. Then they
had to write how many tiles of each color they had in the final product. The
teacher went over the first two problems with them step by step to show them
how to do it. Most of the students were not paying attention so he had to reel
them back in and start the problems over again because he explained to them
that he does not want to keep repeating himself and have the students ask how
to do this when they go back to their seats. After he finished showing them
how to complete the worksheet, the students had to go to wellness. While they
were at wellness, my cooperating teacher and I stayed in the classroom and
put together individual bags of tiles for each student to have for their
worksheet. When the students got back, the teacher had them meet him back
on the carpet. He explained the directions again. Then he had each student
grab a bag of tiles and a worksheet and sent them back to their seats to work
on it.
While the students were working on their fraction worksheet, my cooperating
teacher told me that usually they have social studies in the morning and math
in the afternoon, but today he decided to switch them because he feels that
what they are learning in math will help them with their social studies lesson.
In social studies, the students are also using the colored tiles to create
classroom maps. These tiles represent measurements and different areas of the
classroom. My teacher is hoping that getting more involved with fractions will
help them understand that they broke up the classroom into different parts for
their map, like a fraction. This math lesson will help them be able to
comprehend the map lesson more. After working on these fraction worksheets
for a bit, the students had to go to lunch. The teacher told his students that
they will review the worksheet when they come back from lunch.
.
VI. Analysis:
My cooperating teacher explained to me that he finds the fraction lessons the
hardest lessons to teach because it is difficult to explain. The teacher knows
that his students learn differently, which is why he included differentiated
instruction in his lessons. He made sure to show fractions in different ways for
the students including using the tiles, using the pictures from the math book,
using the students as fraction examples and even asking fraction questions
about the students such as “how many students are wearing black shoes?”.
These examples covered different ways for the students to understand
fractions. Differentiated instruction covers multiple learning needs and should
fit most students. My cooperating teachers knows his students well enough to
plan out different examples and ways to explain his lessons (Masten, 2017).
My cooperating teacher plans most of his lesson in a way that they flow into
other subjects. He explained to me that this fractions lesson would help his
students better understand their map lesson for social studies that they have
been working on. He used the same materials, the colored square tiles, in both
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the fraction lesson and the map lesson. This cross-curricular method improves
students’ comprehension. They get familiar with skills, materials and ideas
that they use throughout the day within different lessons and subjects (Byrne,
2017). This method keeps these lessons relevant. They will use recall skills
later during their social studies lesson by using what they learned earlier about
fractions, then implementing it into their maps. Cross-curricular lessons also
help students improve their thinking skills. They are able to think about
problems differently because they have more knowledge and understanding
about different ideas (Byrne, 2017). These students will be able to fix their
classroom maps because of their understanding of fractions and breaking up
the room into different parts.

VII. Recommendations:
My only recommendation for this lesson would have been to make the
worksheet easier. They only just started working on fractions the past few
days. The problems on the worksheet called for a lot of tiles and the students
had a hard time trying to figure out 1/5th of the square, or 1/4th of the rectangle,
when they were using so many tiles. The shapes should have been a little
simpler and more friendly to beginners (Nelson, 2015). Fractions are a hard
concept for students to learn. The teacher used visuals, different examples,
used books but then pulled out a more difficult worksheet that did not flow
with the lesson as well. The rest of the lesson went well, and the teacher kept
the students engaged for the most part by using visuals, manipulatives, and got
the students involved in using themselves as a class as fractions and they
really enjoyed that and participated.

VIII. Post-observation:
Overall, my cooperating teacher put a lot of thought into how to go about
teaching this lesson. I appreciate how much time he puts into coming up with
multiple ways to demonstrate and explain a concept. He made it fun for his
students by showing them in multiple ways how to use fractions. The teacher
also made this lesson relevant because it will help them with their social
studies lesson. My cooperating teacher thinks ahead and plans out all possible
ways to teach the lesson so that the students get differentiated instruction. This
benefits all the students. I could tell that they were interested in the lesson and
they were all comprehending the new information.

IX. Citations:
Byrne, R. (2017, September 27). The Benefits of Cross-Curricular Learning.
Retrieved April 10, 2019, from
https://www.kidsdiscover.com/teacherresources/the-benefits-of-cross-
curricular-learning/
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Masten, M. (2017, April 17). 7 Reasons Why Differentiated Instruction

WorksASCD Inservice. Retrieved April 10, 2019, from
http://inservice.ascd.org/7-reasons-why-differentiated-instruction-works/

Nelson, K. (2015, December 9). 5 Ways to Make Teaching Fractions WAY

Easier. Retrieved April 10, 2019, from https://www.weareteachers.com/make-
teaching-fractions-easier/

X. Appendix: