Classroom Observation

October 20, 2017

 

I had the pleasure of observing Sarah’ class on Friday, October 20. She began class by playing a kind of roll call game in which she picked a topic for the day, this day it was pets, and the students had to say what kind of pet they had, if any, when she called their name. The roll call game is an ingenious way to get students’ talking, at 8am no less, and it makes them feel as if they are individuals in a supportive community.

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After attendance, Sarah gave an overview of what she would be covering for the day: 10-on-1 with a test object, X/Y thesis review, practice with student samples, and class practice with theses.

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Sarah stated that the test object that they would be watching has traditionally been read in two ways: dehumanizing towards women and pro-violence or as creative and artistic. She instructed them to think about which camp they agree with as they watched the video. Then, she began playing the video “Animal” by Maroon 5.

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After the video, she had them sit on one side of the room if they viewed it as artsy and sit on the other side if they saw it as glamorizing violence. 21 out of 23 students viewed it as artistic, and only 2 students saw it as violent. Instead of negatively reacting to this disproportionate unbalance, she simply broke them into 4 groups: 3 artistic groups and 1 group of 2 for violence. Once they were in their groups, she asked them to do 10-on-1 and find 10 pieces of evidence for their interpretations, which they should then write on the board.

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The class was extremely engaged in this activity. Each group was discussing what evidence they could use and what were the strongest examples they could think of amongst each other. Once the groups’ decided what evidence they wanted to use, they had one member write their 10 findings on the board. As this was going on, Sarah was walking around the room and pushing each group to further develop their findings by asking them insightful questions.

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Once every group wrote 10 findings on the board, she had each group share their ideas with the class. Some groups gave really short answers as if their evidence was obvious, and Sarah would encourage them to extend or complicate their answers by asking them “why?” and replying “say more.”

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After each group presented, Sarah would summarize their findings for the class. As she did this, she would also use visual media tools to talk about specific moments the class was drawing attention to. By demonstrating how to use that language, the students automatically began to do so, as well. It was an incredibly smart way to get them to feel comfortable with the visual media jargon.

 

After every group had shared, Sarah asked the artsy groups to consider the violence group’s findings and vice versa. Initially, the groups were reluctant, and she immediately sensed that. She addressed their hesitation by saying that it does not take away from their own evidence or opinion by acknowledging that you can see another way of reading the same piece. In order to push the artistic groups to think even harder, she asked them a challenging question: “Is stalking a sexually violent act?” After much discussion, the groups decided that stalking is a violation of privacy.

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For a future suggestion, another way Sarah could have got students to engage with opposing viewpoints would be to split them into those groups. So, instead of having 3 artistic groups, she could have had some of those students try on the viewpoint of the violence group by having them join that side. As a result, students would have to find evidence for something they might not have wanted to even consider.

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After getting the other groups to think about the ways in which the video could be read as artistic or something else, she asked them: “Could it ultimately be both?” This time around, every student nodded their head. Everyone agreed that the video supported both views. This, Sarah stated, is an example of an X and Y thesis. Then, she brilliantly modeled for them how you could write an X and Y thesis for both groups. After that, she explained how their 10-on-1 findings could be used as evidence to support either thesis.

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Next, Sarah used a PowerPoint to review X/Y thesis statements. She posed some very important questions on the slides for them to think about, like: “How does a X/Y thesis look?” and “What should a X/Y thesis do?” Then, she began to answer these tough questions.

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Once she reviewed X/Y thesis statements, she let them practice finding the necessary parts and functions of X/Y theses by using examples of student work. The class really enjoyed getting to have a kind of hands on approach to X/Y thesis statements. All of her students really seemed to enjoy working with student work, too. Rather than showing them abstract work, they were able to practice with work that they could identify with.

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Sarah used four different student examples of X/Y thesis statements. For each, she asked the class to identify the X, the Y, and the “so what.” After the class seemed to really be “getting it,” she cold called on a couple of students to identify different parts of the thesis for her. When she called on one woman and asked her to identify the “so what,” the student replied, “I have no idea.” Instead of getting flustered by this response, Sarah asked her “Can you identify the X?” to which the student replied yes and pointed it out. Then, Sarah said “Can you identify the Y?,” and the student gave the same response. Instead of respond with something along the lines of, “well, now you can find the so what,” Sarah asked her, “What other places have we seen themes of alienation this semester?” The student immediately mentioned their keystone essay by Cohen and other course essays they read together. Sarah followed up by asking, “So how might those essays’ ideas about alienation help us understand the so what here?”  This was a really impressive teaching strategy that helped the student utilizie their knowledge that they had acquired over the course of the semester and apply it to this new lesson. As a result, the student was able to find the “so what” and add to it with her knowledge from the course. After finishing this lesson, Sarah reminded the class that they could e-mail her or see her in office hours if they had more questions or needed extra help.

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Sarah asked them to spend the remainder of class looking over their own X/Y thesis statements and marking the X, Y, and so what. After doing so, she asked them to switch with a partner to see if they could do the same. Lastly, they were asked to share in pairs what they could improve on. As they were doing this activity, Sarah walked around the room and answered any and all individual questions. When students were not asking questions, she offered feedback and tips for improvement as she to different pairs sharing. After checking everyone’s work, she dismissed the class.

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As my class observation summary shows, Sarah displayed supreme confidence as a teacher. She helped her students come to their own conclusions, and she also helped explain key concepts when needed. Her class was an equal balance of group work, partner work, discussion, and lecture. For an 8am class, it was impressive to see the ways in which she motivated them and got them excited about X/Y thesis statements. Sarah also showed her ability to work through difficult situations with ease, like the student who could not find the “so what.” In fact, it was in this moment that Sarah shined the most. Sarah was able to use the tools and concepts she had taught her students all semester to aide this student in finding the “so what.” It was a moment that truly showcased Sarah’s successes in all parts of the course.