Classroom Observation 2

Subject/Grade: Social Studies, 7th grade

I notice “Mr. C’s Constitution” prominently posted above the chalkboard at the center of the room. Four rules are listed:
1) Respect all people and property.
2) Be prepared for class and on task.
3) Remain in assigned seat.
4) Raise your hand before you speak.

The students file in and take their seats. They are quiet and orderly. Mr. C asks a couple students some questions about a quiz they are to hand in as they enter. The noise level rises, and as class time begins, Mr. C tells them to calm down. The students oblige. One student, Steve, is asked to run a paper over to another teacher’s class.

Mr. C tells the class he has one assignment for the day that will be “short and sweet.” One student returns, “We don’t want sweet.”
“Then I’ll give you more work,” Mr. C replies.
One student tells the student that is acting up to stop. The student replies, “I’ll slap your face.” Mr. C sternly tells him to stop and he does.
Mr. C starts reviewing a discussion of Pocahontas from last week. As he asks the students questions, he refers them to three outline questions written on the chalkboard. It reads: What place?
Leader of Colonists?
Leader of Native Americans?

Mr. C leads them through each point quickly. They all raise hands to answer and are responding accurately. He praises their performance quickly and moves on. Steve comes back into the class, tacks the paper to the board and takes his seat quietly. Mr. C then puts on a video of an A&E Biography of Pocahontas. They have been watching this in previous sessions and are about halfway through it. He tells them to take out a notes paper that he has typed questions on, outlining the highlights of the video. They watch the video and take notes.

Mr. C moves to his desk in the back of the room to take attendance. There is another teacher in the room who works with the learning disabled students. She walks around to make sure they are on task. After a few minutes, Mr. C pauses the tape and leads the students through a few of the notes questions. They are on task, but tired, and responses are few and far between. Mr. C praises them for appropriate answers. He re-starts the tape.

Some more time passes and he stops the tape again to go over some more note questions. Steve has many of the answers and Mr. C continually calls on him. There is not much wait time allowed for other students to get their hands up. Before he re-starts the tape, he tells them to focus on question 10, as the question “is a little tricky and (they’ll) need to pay close attention.” He plays the tape and pauses again after a few minutes. Asking questions again, this time he gets many good answers from around the room, and continues to probe for more responses. At one point, he ignores some hands and says, “Someone besides the same old people.” He picks out some students that have been quiet. They respond with good answers.

When the video ends, Mr. C hands out some paper and tells the students to write one paragraph about what they think of Pocahontas. He plays down the assignment. As they start to write, he tells them, “You guys did a good job watching that. I know it was a little rough, but we just knocked out about six chapters of the book.” At this point, both teachers are returning a lot of graded papers and other paperwork, which distracts some of the students from writing. Mr. C notices they are off task and he tells them to write the paragraph or it will be their homework. There is some chatter. One student who is very off task gets a lunch detention.
Mr. C has them pass up their notes from the video and their paragraphs and he starts another video. This is Disney’s Pocahontas. He tells them that this is mostly for fun before the holiday, but that he does want them to look for similarities, differences and stereotypes.

Mr. C provides a classroom environment that is well suited for student success. Through use of wall hangings, classroom expectations, guidelines and expectations are communicated clearly to the students. He also values safety and order, in the arrangement of the classroom. Mr. C also models positive interaction with the students, by greeting them as they enter the class. He also makes sure he maintains accurate records by following up on the students’ completion of the assignments.

Some of the students in the class are learning disabled, and Mr. C has to be constantly aware of their behavior. Right away he is tested by one student and responds appropriately by reprimanding him and quickly moving on.

By starting the new week with a review of last week’s material, Mr. C demonstrates the importance of reiterating the content, as prerequisite relationships are important to the day’s lesson. He has main ideas listed on the board to help students focus, and leads a good question and answer session to bring them all back up to speed.

The special education teacher in the class is focused solely on the learning disabled students in the room, and is discrete about managing their behavior and keeping them on task. The teachers try not to draw attention to the fact that these students need extra help.

Mr. C has designed a well balanced lesson plan by incorporating the video with short question and answer sessions between clips to help the students focus on the main ideas. During the question and answer portion, he is lacking wait time at first, and the effect is that he is constantly calling on the same student. The slower learners don’t have enough time to think of responses before the answer is given. He adjusts this as he moves along, increasing wait time and soliciting responses from most all of the students. When the students answer, even if the answers aren’t always correct, Mr. C does a good job of giving them positive feedback.

At the end of class, the students are quickly given a short essay to write. The instructions aren’t very clear and both teachers contribute to interrupting the students as they try to work quickly.

Mr. C's classroom is the epitome of a successful classroom environment, as the room is organized, procedures and expectations are posted, and content related material is displayed. Mr. C has a lot of energy and has a nice rapport with his students, as he constantly praises them for their responsiveness and encourages participation from the lower level students. He has minimal behavior issues, as classroom procedures are clearly identified. I did not identify the use of a rewards or consequence plan, which I would highlight in my own classroom. Other than that, I wouldn’t change a thing.

Mr. C does a good job of designing a coherent, balanced lesson. I like that he started with a review to ensure all students, especially the learning disabled, were on the same page before building on that knowledge with new material. I also think the teachers’ ability to be discrete about helping the learning disabled students is important. Students can be very cruel to their peers when they know they are getting extra help.

Mr. C also does a good job of incorporating wait time, once the discussion gets moving. Towards the end of class, he probably should have abandoned the short essay or moved it to the following day’s activities, as it was rushed and not very productive.