Information About the Teacher to Be Observed:
Teacher: Teacher A
Gender: Female
Race/Ethnicity: White
Licensure Area: Elementary 1–6
Information About the Classroom to Be Observed:
Grade level: 4
Subject: Math
Number of students: 15
Gender composition of the class: 8 males, 7 females
Racial/ethnic composition of the class: 2 Hispanic, 4 African American, 1 Asian, and 8 White
Percentage of students classified as economically disadvantaged (in the school): 25%
Number of students with IEPs: 3
Number of English language learners: 2
Number and roles of other adults in the classroom (if applicable): Not applicable
Information About the Lesson to Be Observed: Priority Academic Area and Focus for the Lesson:
Teacher A is reviewing the fourth grade standard CCSS-4.NBT.B.4: Fluently add and subtract multi-digit whole numbers using the standard algorithm. Teacher A analyzed 4th grade benchmark test data, which assesses addition and subtraction at the skill level, in isolation from words. She used these data to decipher if the priority area was more related to problem solving or to the skill itself. These data indicated that 80% of the students in this class were unable to subtract with regrouping or across zeros in isolation and within word problems. Individualized computer practice problem assessments confirm that less than 20% of students successfully completed all subtraction problems in isolation. She will focus this lesson on addressing the concept of subtraction in isolation from word problems.
Relationship between the intended focus and school/district goals or priorities:
Teacher A has used quantitative data to develop a lesson that includes targeted review of necessary skills for all students. This aligns with the district's priority to engage in data-informed lesson planning. The focus of the lesson will be for students to gain a deeper understanding of what subtraction means, to share understanding, and for students to engage in mathematical discussion with their peers. In an attempt to reach all students, Teacher A uses the District Curriculum Accommodation Plan (DCAP) to help her develop a lesson that accommodates all learners in her general education classroom. She has also developed Tier II supports for her learners in the special education and EL student groups.
Our district and school improvement plan prioritizes "Engaged Learning: Equal Access for All Students – Inclusive practice refers to the instructional and behavioral strategies that improve academic and social-emotional outcomes for all students, with and without disabilities, in general education settings." It continues to state, "In all content areas, staff will implement and practice Tier I and Tier II levels of support that will be embedded in lessons and assessments, and they will be able to identify these strategies in order to determine the effectiveness of the instructional practices in order to increase student achievement."
Relevant student performance data:
Teacher A plans to deliver this lesson because a majority of students are showing a need for improvement in this area.
Data from our [brand name] diagnostic test was key to identifying the priority focus for this lesson. This test is structured to gain rigor or drop down in rigor depending on how students respond to the questions. For the group of students in this class, the program placed 12 as "Not Ready" in the topic of addition and subtraction at the 4th-grade level. This means that these 12 students answered questions tagged with the 4th-grade standard "Fluently add and subtract multi-digit whole numbers using the standard algorithm" incorrectly. Further, Teacher A examined performance on individualized computer practice problem assessments assessing standard CCSS-4.NBT.B.4. Only two students correctly answered all problems. The two students in her EL group and three students in the special education group had the most difficulty on these questions, successfully completing less than 30% of the practice problems.
Intended common instructional practices for use in the priority academic area (including practices observed in visits to other classrooms and research-based practices in the content area):
Teacher A is incorporating a Number Talk into her lesson. Number Talks are a research-based strategy that our district began incorporating in the math department several years ago. Many elementary and 4th-grade teachers attended training on the strategy using the book Number Talks: Helping Children Build Mental Math and Computation Strategies by Sherry Parrish. Teacher A is using this book to help guide her lesson. The strategy of using Number Talks is a shift from "teaching-by-telling" to a focus on allowing students to reason, make sense of problems, and construct their own strategies built upon numerical strategies. There is an expectation for students to communicate their thinking, listen to one another, use patterns, and justify their thinking.
Teacher A's lesson will apply the characteristics of Number Talks to help students form a better understanding of the math. In previous observations in classrooms, I have seen three other teachers incorporate aspects of a Number Talk into their lessons, most commonly strategies for computation of addition, subtraction, and multiplication across large numbers. Teacher A and I discussed that the 4th-grade math team meets once a week on Wednesdays for one hour. In this time the grade-level department discusses student observation, performance, and plans for upcoming lessons. The 4th-grade math content team has identified multiple standards for targeted review including multi-digit addition, subtraction, and problem solving.
Teacher's pre-lesson self-assessment in this focus area, including strengths, areas in need of improvement, and goals:
Strengths
2.B.1. Teaching All Students—Safe Learning Environment
Teacher A has indicated that she believes that one of her strengths is the ability to plan effective lessons based on formative assessment data. She collaborates with the members of the 4th-grade math team to create appropriate Tier I and Tier II levels of support. Another strength is her ability to create an environment where children feel safe sharing their strategies in a group setting. She works hard to scaffold lessons for different learners to help them all feel more confident and successful. Teacher A often uses sentence frames and visual models to help her EL and special education students to access group lessons. She also mentioned that she often references the District Curriculum Accommodation Plan (DCAP) in order to help all students be successful no matter their skill level.
1.A.1. Curriculum, Planning and Assessment—Subject Matter Knowledge
Teacher A has been teaching 4th grade for 15 years. She has a strong background in math and is working toward a master's degree in Special Education. She feels confident in her ability to teach math concepts to all students due to her training and experience.
Areas of Improvement
1.A.3. Curriculum, Planning and Assessment—Well-Structured Units and Lessons
Although teacher A has a strong background in math concepts, she would like to focus on expanding her ability to implement strategies for incorporating math vocabulary into her lessons. She hopes to develop lessons with more meaningful incorporation of math language and encourage her students to use math language throughout the lesson.
1.B.2. Curriculum, Planning and Assessment; 1.B.1. Variety of Assessment Methods
Teacher A wants to incorporate more formative assessment into her planning. Although she uses summative data well for long-term planning, she thinks that it would be beneficial to use more daily assessment to help inform her day-to-day instruction. We discussed her creating and using an exit ticket that assesses student learning to help accomplish this goal.
2.B.2. Teaching All Students—Collaborative Learning Environment
Teacher A would like to incorporate more opportunities for student engagement in the classroom such as:
- Small group instruction
- Center rotations
- Differentiation of lessons
- Cooperative learning opportunities
- Peer collaboration and discussion
Goals
With her areas of improvement in mind, Teacher A has set three goals for this lesson:
1.B.1. Curriculum, Planning and Assessment—Variety of Assessment Methods
- She will use at least one method of formative assessment of student learning to inform her planning.
1.B.2. Curriculum, Planning and Assessment—Adjustments to Practice
- She will incorporate purposeful mathematical vocabulary into her lesson.
2.B.2. Teaching All Students—Collaborative Learning Environment
- She will incorporate opportunities for peer discussion and will work on incorporating more small-group, differentiated learning into her lessons.
Essential Question for the lesson to be observed:
What strategies can I use to subtract large numbers?
Objective for the lesson to be observed:
Students will connect conceptual strategies for subtraction to the standard algorithm to fluently subtract multi-digit whole numbers.
Summary of Pre-Observation Meeting:
Teacher A and I had a pre-observation meeting in her classroom on May 5 from 2:30 to 3:30 PM. Prior to our meeting, Teacher A pulled together some preliminary information about her class for me including student demographic information. Having this information prior to the meeting allowed us to focus our meeting on the data analysis and lesson planning.
We spent the first 10 minutes of the meeting discussing how the year has progressed and how the work of the 4th-grade math team has supported her instructional practice.
Next, we talked about her group of students and the lesson to be observed. Teacher A has 15 students including three students with IEPs and two students who are English language learners. She wants to focus on encouraging accountable talk, where students share their thinking orally, and is mostly concerned with her students in the EL and IEP groups. She would like feedback on their engagement and participation in discussions and their overall understanding of mathematical concepts.
We discussed the topic of her standards-based lesson CCSS-4.NBT.B.4. Teacher A will be teaching students how to subtract multi-digit numbers using a traditional algorithm. We discussed that this class struggled in this area on both the Edmentum diagnostic test as well as the benchmark test. We also discussed data that showed EL students and those with IEPs were most in need of additional supports to master subtraction.
She showed me on the whiteboard how subtraction is incorporated into the partial quotients model that she intends to use to teach division.
I suggested the use of a Number Talk to help guide her lesson. The 4th-grade math team had begun using Number Talks to help review necessary skills. The lesson objective is for students to understand the meaning of subtraction, be able to articulate subtraction strategies, as well as develop more accurate computation skills. I provided a text—Number Talks—and together we used it to select appropriate problems to challenge all students and to anticipate student strategies that she will be able to build upon in her lesson.
Next, we discussed the makeup of the class and I asked her if there were any students she wanted me to look out for in my observation. She said that she has both EL students and IEP students in this group. A strength of Teacher A is engaging all students in a safe and collaborative learning environment, but she was hoping I could give her feedback on whether they seemed to be understanding the lesson. I asked her if she had any method of formative assessment for the lesson to analyze after to see which students "got it" and which will need more review and direct teaching of this topic. From this conversation, Teacher A decided that an exit ticket would be an appropriate addition to this lesson. We would use this exit ticket as a point of discussion in our post-observation meeting to help set new goals for student learning in this area.
Lastly, we discussed her goals for the lesson and what areas she specifically was hoping for feedback. Teacher A is working hard to incorporate more academic vocabulary into her math classroom. She is also hoping to incorporate formative assessment routines more regularly in her classroom to inform her instruction. She is also concerned at the lack of student conversation and collaboration by all students. Her goal for this lesson is to incorporate more student discussion. The choice to teach this lesson using a Number Talk helps to accomplish this. I also suggested that she have students turn and talk or do a think-pair-share to encourage this sort of collaboration. We set an observation date for May 12 at 10:00 AM.
Rationale
Artifact 1—Pre-Observation Template
The candidate presented a strong rationale for the selection of the priority academic area (math), the instructional focus (fluently adding and subtracting multi-digit whole numbers using the standard algorithm), and the instructional practices that will support this learning: academic talk focused on content-specific vocabulary and formative assessments. Notably, the focus area is standards-based (CCSS-4.NBT.B.4) and aligned with district/school improvement efforts requiring teachers to embed Tier I and II supports into lessons and assessments. The focus area was selected after a thorough analysis of student performance data, including 4th-grade benchmark data, which showed a majority of students did not meet this math standard, primary among them students in the EL and IEP groups. The focus is also aligned with the teacher's self-identified areas for improvement: encouraging math vocabulary acquisition to support academic talk and the use of formative assessments to plan and adjust instruction. Additionally, the candidate described the pre-observation conference in detail. The teacher and candidate engaged in discussion and analysis of student performance data, common instructional practices of the school and the 4th-grade math team, and the specific goals of this teacher, and used that information to come to a consensus on the focus for the observation. Finally, the candidate provided evidence that this two-way discussion resulted in changes to the proposed lesson plan.