Despite the high level of interest in class and the effective execution of the Turn and Talk strategy, I'm not sure whether the children's backgrounds were considered. That is, all of the facts presented by the instructor may be familiar to the majority of the students. That is, a small number of them might be unaware of crucial topics such as who Abraham Lincoln is or where the Washington Monument is located. As an observer, I'm not sure whether this material was discussed in previous lessons, so it would have been fascinating to see some students sharing facts that they knew about their home countries. This may have made the class more inclusive and sparked students' interest in other cultures. (This is just an opinion). 

The teacher does a good job making her instructional input clear and comprehensive to her students. Visual aids are used to help with understanding expectations. 

The teacher does a great job getting the kids comfortable in talking in a group.  They were dicussing Lewis & Clark expedition prior to their writing assignment.  It helped them come up with ideas, and clues and to provide evidence.  They provided  the page number to support their answer.  It encouraged the kids to read and want to participant with the class discussion.  It encouraged the kids to take notes to help them with their writing assignment. She made the learning experience fun and excited.  

I love how the students use rug partners and are of mix genders. I love the "I think" statements and how this validates the students especially with the use of the students names. I think this is a very good practice for students listening skills but also gives validation for their friends. 

Kids learning the difference between fact and oppinion is a good thing to learn they need to know the difference as they hear it in the world today everywhere they turn. What is really a fact and what is someones point of view matters you may or may not agree with an opinion but a fact is a fact.