Classroom Observation

Observation Report for Sarah Line

Date and time observed: November 17th, 2017 - 8:00-8:50 a.m.

Sycamore Hall 200

Dear Sarah,

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Thank you for letting me come to observe your class. Please find below a recap of the class I observed, along with some comments and suggestions regarding your teaching practice.

You were already at the podium and working on setting up the day’s PowerPoint when I arrived - you told the students that you were glad to hear that things had gone well with their substitute on Wednesday when you were injured (glad you are okay!). As this was the class just before Thanksgiving break, you had kindly made your students some baked goods and had labeled them up on the board so that they could come up and choose a breakfast treat.

Just before class began at 7:59, you were observing the students present (only 12) from the podium. Although you unfortunately have the older style desks, this room is quite wide, so as we discussed afterwards, don’t be afraid to ask the students to move into groups when you’re asking them to do group work - you have plenty of maneuvering space. At 8:01 you greeted students with “Good morning” and invited them to step up to the front table and take a cookie while you went through and took attendance. You have an engaging way of waking them up and taking attendance by asking them an “attendance question”: today’s was “What is something that is a big fad/very popular that you just don’t get/don’t care about?” You finished that up by 8:03, and I think that activity is definitely indicative of your teacherly ethos as someone who has a genuine interest in her students and also knows that bringing in real-world examples is a good way to get them interested in the subject matter.

You then turned to today’s lesson, which was on the evolving thesis. You asked them to bring out their annotation from MT6 that had been due Wednesday, and reminded them that you were giving them a slight extension on MT6 due to your unexpected absence. As you then asked them to partner up and look over each other’s annotations, you walked around with pre-prepared post-it notes with each student’s number of absences thus far, to remind them of their standing. Several students did not have their annotations, and even those who did were looking over the quality but not really giving a great deal of feedback. If you do this partnering again, I might suggest giving them a couple of specific questions/items to look for in their peer’s draft before asking them to partner up.

At 8:10 you moved to the Writing Analytically reading, and you asked them “What is an evolving thesis?” There was a pause, and then a student in the back replied “a claim that gets stronger as you move through the paper”. You agreed, but clarified that it is a claim that gains complexity, not only strength, as it encounters new evidence throughout the essay, and moved them through the chart on pg. 159 that progresses from a working thesis to a revised thesis. A few of the students sitting in front of me were doing non-W131 work on their computers at this point, and as we discussed afterwards, since this is such a vital part of E3, this might be a time to ask them to close their computers. You want to watch your usage of repeating “Does that make sense?” - it is a useful clarifying question, but after it is asked several times, students will not respond either way, even if it did make sense to them.

After slightly snarkily reminding them that you “highly recommend that they take time to reread this section”, you then asked them to choose a group of 4, and then clarified that they should choose people to survive on a desert island. They were a bit confused, but intrigued. Unsurprisingly for an early class, none of them actually moved though, so they ended up in slightly weird groups just based on seat proximity (also slightly hindered by me sitting in the middle in the back row). After they had (kind of) gotten into groups [Gavin wanted to survive alone on the island, a la Tom Hanks in Castaway], you turned to the Lifeboat Dilemma PowerPoint. After seeing the first set of slides, you asked them to decide in their groups which 6 people they were going to save. Some debate happened, and several of them fell into the old adages. At 8:20, you asked each group who they were going to save, and why (your class is overwhelmingly convinced that the people with no profession are children and that women & children have to be saved first). By 8:24, you were drawing the family ties on the side chalkboard, and then asking students to again choose their 6.

This active discussion continued throughout the presentation, and I want to compliment you on pushing them to uncover their own assumptions (about gender, about marital status, about age, nationality, ethical standing, etc.) as they moved through their discussions. You do want to perhaps hover about more during this group work - you remained up in the front or side front for almost the entire time and thus didn’t get a chance to ask some students towards the back to get off their phones/to more fully participate in the activity. By 8:30 they were applying further complicating evidence, and making their ‘final’ lifeboat choices after having seen the last pieces of evidence on the slides.

After that, you asked them to come back together as a class and think about what lenses they’d been using: jobs/value, families, women and children first, etc. At 8:40 you’d moved to have them consider tension between pieces of evidence and how their inquiry questions require a thesis that is not just one easy “right” solution. You then asked a couple of volunteers to share their inquiry questions - one student had one about the relationship between the media and the police, while another was thinking about Facebook and media surveillance. You asked them to think about how they might integrate contradicting evidence into their Essay 3s, considering how two sources even on the same topic may have vastly different arguments. I like how you ten turned to calling on students here, because they should all know their own IQ, as they’ve already gotten MT5 back.

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At 8:43 you asked if there were any remaining questions about MT6, and let the know that the Essay 3 assignment sheet was already posted but that you would go over it in more depth upon their return from break. Just after 8:45, you dismissed them and wished them a happy Thanksgiving. A couple of students approached you at the podium to ask clarifying questions, but most scampered off quickly.

Overall, it was evident that your students both liked and respected you - they seemed comfortable (perhaps at times too comfortable and not on task - but you can remedy that) because of the amiable and enthusiastic (even at this hour on the day before break) nature of how you progressed through class. Even though they were quiet, the majority remained on task and were listening to you and enjoyed your moments of humor and the careful way that you led them through how the Lifeboat Problem helped them to understand what an evolving thesis should do.

I’m happy to talk more with you about any of my observations and suggestions. Thank you again for welcoming me into your classroom!

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Mary Helen Truglia