Mentor Teacher Observation

I invited my mentor teacher to observe me during a 8th grade social studies class. The objective for the lesson was to have students understand the strengths and weakness of the colonial and British armies during the Revolutionary War. This lesson was also to help students practice their comparing and contrasting skills. During the lesson students read an excerpt from an alternative textbook. They then used what they learned to fill out a graphic organizer to compare and contrast the two armies. Once they have completed the graphic organizer, I had class create the chart on the whiteboard to check their understanding. Once we review the information students had two opinion questions to answer that helped my practiced the critical thinking skills. My mentor teacher gave me helpful feedback that helped to inform my instruction. She started out by naming my strengths. She explained that my biggest strength is that I have created a classroom that is safe and comfortable for students. This was evident in the students of all levels participating in the lesson and volunteering to help fill out the graphic organizers. She also explained that I did a great job of explaining and repeating the objective so all students could understand. She also explained that I did great job of using different varieties of instructional strategies and
She encouraged me to look for opportunities to move beyond having student just repeat facts. She challenged me to assist students in apply skills and content. I whole heartily agree with my mentor, this is something I have been trying to work on this year. I feel that I tend to keep the application of skill and content for my summative assessment. I want to work on having students critically think and problem solve at all steps of the learning process. I hope this will encourage students to think critically even when they are at the baseline of their content