Observations and Lesson Plans: Physical Education Item ‘D’
Teacher Observed: Audrey Levecchia / Grade: 3rd grade
Subject: Physical Education / Date: 11/15/12
Lesson Content: Hula Hoop Warm Up, Scooter Relays, Scooter Soccer / Time of Class: 9:50- 10:30am
  1. Describe the class demographics as to ethnicity, culture, and language.
  • The class was a good representation to the overall culture/ethnicity throughout the whole school. The class contained students of mostly African American or Hispanic background with some Asian students and possibly one or two students who were White.
  1. Describe the classroom environment. Was it conducive to learning?
  • The gym doubles as a cafeteria so half of the room had tables set up. The area allotted for physical education classes was small, but it works because the students are small as well. The teacher uses the space she has effectively which makes the environment conductive to learning.
  1. Describe how the students were organized for each lesson segment (introduction, main lesson activities, closure). Discuss transitions among segments when observed.
  • Students are organized into assigned squad lines behind a specific colored cone. Students performed a number of elementary stretches in the squad lines. For the other activities, students sat in squad lines between the cone and the wall. They got instruction for the day’s activities from this spot. This was done so they could see the whole gym and the area where the activities were to be performed. The student in the front of the line was the one who picked up the equipment from the closet for their squad. For closure, students were brought into a huddle underneath the basketball net. They sat as the teacher concluded class. To leave the classroom, the students lined up single-file against a wall.
  1. What methods/strategies/styles did you observe the teacher using during the lesson? (i.e. methods: lecture, demonstration, practice, and others; strategies: team teaching, interactive, cooperative, and others; styles: command, practice, reciprocal, etc.) . Be specific to content. (i.e. lecture with overhead transparency on nutrients; worksheet for reading labels, et.al.)
  • To present information and instruction to the class, the teacher demonstrated the activities while explaining them. She asked students to answer certain question both during and after the demonstration to check for comprehension of the activity. She also repeatedly the most important cues before letting the students continue with the activity.
  1. How did the teacher motivate the students?
  • The teacher motivated the students by walking around and giving feedback to numerous students throughout the duration of each activity. She also played up-beat music to get the students moving.
  1. Were all students actively involved in the lesson? Describe how this occurred.
  • For the warm-up activities, all students were actively involved because it required all students to be moving at the same time. During the scooter relays, only a few were actively involved at one time, but because it was a relay, each student had the chance to participate. Scooter soccer allowed for most students to be involved as the ones actually on the scooters or kicking the ball in from the sideline.
  1. What type of feedback was used during the lesson? Listen and provide examples.
  • The teacher gave lots of positive and corrective feedback during the activities. She did this to individual students and to the class as a whole. If a great number of students were performing the task incorrectly, she would address the whole class and demonstrate and explain what was to be done again. For individual feedback, the teacher went around to individual students and gave them compliments like the following:
  • “Good job, Conner!”
  • “You sure know how to move fast on that scooter.”
  • “Way to get to the ball by scooting the right way!”
  1. What types of informal or formal assessments/evaluations were used or discussed (homework, quizzes, examinations, projects, etc.) during this class?
  • No types of assessment were discussed during the class.
  1. What type of closure (ending to the lesson) was used?
  • Students were brought into small area and teacher reviewed what students did today. She thanked them for doing a great job and lined them up against a wall to exit the gym. A Gym Star was also picked. A Gym Star is a student who performed exceptionally well, listened and followed all directions, and was overall very cooperative.
  1. What Core Curriculum Standard and strand(s) were being met with this lesson?
  • 2.6.P.A.1
  • 2.5.P.A.2
  • 2.5.P.A.3
  • 2.5.2.A.1
  1. List 5 positive qualities/characteristics of the teacher that contributed to her/his effectiveness.
  • Flexibility with use of gym/cafeteria space
  • Very involved in the activities
  • Positive attitude throughout entire class- even with misbehaved students
  • Genuine compassion towards children/students
  • Enthusiastic while demonstrating and giving feedback
  1. List 2 things that you would change if you were teaching the lesson.
  • I would make the playing area for Scooter Soccer bigger so that more students could participate on scooters at one time.
  • Depending on time, I would add a few more fitness tasks into the Hula Hoop Warm Up activity.
Completed by:
Brooke Nessen, Shawn Mantici,
Keith Lotter, & Edward Larkin