Observation #4...How Would I Assess Student's Knowledge?

In observing Lisa’s classroom, I would determine if student’s can meet the objective by giving the student a poem, breaking the poem up into its stanza’s to make it more readable, and then ask students to write at least a paragraph of what they believe to be the objective summary as well as writing the details of the poem “Who/What/When/Where/Why”.

1) What do you think the objective is?

            Have students be able to read and analyze information in a given poem.

2) What level of Bloom’s Taxonomy is that?

Comprehension and Application.

3) How will you assess it in 10 minutes or less?

By only having the students expected to explicate one poem, and if there are difficult vocabulary within the poem, I would offer definitions at the end of the worksheet.

Observation #3: Classroom Management!

During my third observation, I found various examples of classroom management. It was period 1 and Lisa explained to me the unfortunate reality that many students in this class had failed the test regarding the explication of American romantic poetry, and so she must reteach it.

            When the students walked in, each sat at their designated assigned seating. While Lisa was taking attendance, students were conversing and joking—the beginning of the class was more so a time for students to clear tired and anxious minds and socialize, but it wasn’t a bad thing because when Lisa started the class by her energetic and passionate voice, the student’s were alert and ready to learn.

            Because the students did not perform well on the poetry assessment, Lisa dedicated this period to re-teaching it. Prior to the class, Lisa had explained to me how she made the worksheets separate pages as opposed to back to back, because for some reason if a writing assignment is back to back filled with directions, it can overwhelm students—another interesting tip I had learned from Lisa.

            While students were engaged in the “cold read” (teacher and class alike read the poem together as a whole before breaking it up), there was an announcement to which students may inform parents of ILP appointments.

            Lisa had taught me that it is important to not speak too quickly, and that every little thing regarding information being presented must be thoroughly explained. In example, students may confuse the meaning of a word in a poem, and so Lisa will dedicate her time to having the students as well as her pull out classroom dictionaries and all look up the word together.

            Lisa’s first goal was to have students identify the meaning of a poem, and then discuss alliteration. I adored Lisa’s dedication and patience with her students—

She refused to accept failure and refuses to move on to another lesson until every student is on board and that is the type of teaching I wish to implement in my classroom.

Observation #2: Reflection

	Lesson Plan Template pt. 3 = reflection
WHAT?	What went well?   Cooperative learning!
	What area of weakness needs addressing? Making sure students understand the assignment!
	Which objectives were met? What is the evidence? Students understanding what it means to analyze a poem. Lisa wouldn’t move on till all students fully understood.
	Which students did not meet objectives? The student’s who did not (a various few) still had time.
	Was time managed appropriately? Yes
	Did any teacher mannerisms or actions detract from the lesson? No
	*What were the strengths and weaknesses of classroom management? Strenghts were cooperative learning, yet weakness was making sure students were actually doing the assignment or at least understanding, I could notice a lot of confused looks (especially from the ELL students)
SO WHAT?	Was the lesson engaging? Yes, but was it just because I love American literature and Poe?
	*What did I learn from my peer observation (address at least one aspect)  That what may be fun and simple for me may take more than a class or two to fully get students to understand!
NOW WHAT?	How will this experience influence your professional identity?  To not assume that students understand even though they say they do.
	How will it influence how you plan/teach/assess in the future? To definitely slow down in my presentation of information and to be careful in my assumptions.

Observation #2: Action

(Boxes expand as you type)   Lesson Plan Template part 2 = action
Bell-ringer: How will you get students seated, and ready for academic work? (without your voice) Although she uses her voice, she hands out worksheets.
Anticipatory Set: How will you introduce the material, interest the students, show relevance of topic?
Phase (change as needed)/Time	Teacher action	Student action	Questions/Assessments
e.g. Intro/5 min.	Teacher hands out worksheets.	“Cold read” Students all read aloud together.	Are all students engaged in participation?
Presentation or Open-ended/
Guided Practice or Convergent/	Teacher walks around and observes student’s cooperative learning.	Students works together to write an objective summary of Poe’s “Annabel Lee”	Are the students understanding the objective of the assignment?
Closing/	Teacher has student’s finish up the most they can.	Students working on assignment, can finish at home.	How far have the students gone ?
HW/Application/	Finishing up analyzing.	Finishing up Annabel Lee explication.
Review and Reflection: How will you review for students who are still having trouble?  Cooperative learning, teacher walks around.
Extension: What will you offer to students who have mastered this? All students were more or less still working on the same assignment.
*Closing: How will you review the material, and draw conclusions? (may be listed above) By observing how far each student successfully completed the work.

Observation #2: Planning

My First Observation :)

Walking into Mount Pleasant High, I immediately felt inspired. When one walks in, they see paintings that express diversity and culture. I walked upstairs to the main office and was received my pass to visit a teacher’s room—I was originally arranged to a certain teacher, but by some strange twist of amazing fate I was set to observe Lisa Wilcox’s room. It was eight in the morning in room 305. I immediately fell in love with my surroundings. Lisa’s room (she prefers that I refer to her as that) was filled with books, pictures, and although the standards were listed on the wall, she decorated it with inspiring photos of higher education and an “American romanticism” timeline.

When the students walked in, I could see it was a diverse class. Lisa had shown me a seating chart, and on this seating chart Lisa had labeled certain students in order to help with Lisa’s teaching. In example, Marcos* in seat number two in the second row is an ELL student, whereas Celina* in the third row has a bladder problem and so she can be excused for her various trips to the bathroom.

When Lisa was teaching the class, she told funny anecdotes to help the students with engagement. She knows one student used to have a drug addiction and so her temper is short, so Lisa paid careful attention to her to make her laugh and feel welcomed.

What I loved about my first observation is how welcomed I felt in this class. Lisa and the student teacher, Mrs. Fallon, were so warm and friendly and offered me so much information, not just regarding their classroom but teaching in general. The class was filled with at most 20 students, yet I felt as if it was a smaller classroom for everyone was involved and there was a shared responsibility between teacher and student. Lisa would discuss and explain, and leave the students to analyze poetry cooperatively, yet she would always be available to help should a student need it.

I left my first observation with a smile on my face, excited to return again to learn more from Lisa and her students.

Professional Development Conference...RIWP

           

The professional conference I attended was the RIWP conference with host speaker Barry Lane. In the beginning of the conference, much of it was Barry speaking and playing music with the guitar. I found the introduction to be one of the many inspiring pieces regarding the RIWP conference.

Barry Lane went above and beyond with his introductory speech. I remember him stressing the importance of sticking to the values of what it truly means to be a teacher. Even though I always believed in the value of what it means to be a teacher, I learned through Barry that just because the CCSS may inflict our state and hinder many things, it doesn’t have to hinder a teacher and their students. Barry expressed that we can go beyond standardized testing and still firmly stick by the roots of what it means to be a teacher—and it goes beyond teaching to the test.

The introductory piece and the conference in general was also dedicated to the amazing RIC professor Dr. Jennifer Cook. Cook is an exemplar of what it means to be a teachers, and so when they played her video of her expressing what she sees in her students as future teachers, the room was filled with nostalgia and tears. It was moving and inspiring at the same time. It felt amazing to be in a room of teachers and future teachers alike who are so passionate about the career.

One of the workshops I attended was held by a middle school teacher named Brittany* that was titled “Talking Back to the Media”. Brittany’s conference was inspiring as well, because as a middle school teacher, she dedicates her time to have her students switch the degrading messages of the media and change them into something positive. From being a young woman surrounded by the plastic images of woman in the media, Brittany truly reached out to me, because like her I believe magazine covers, lyrics, and all kinds of advertisements really can hurt any woman—especially young adolescent girls. Although “Talking Back to the Media” stands for men and woman alone, Brittany’s main focus was to help the young girls who are surrounded by degrading images of women such as Kim Kardashian, or any other blow up doll who is rich just because of going under the knife and their performance in bed.

Brittany represents the kind of teacher I would like to be. She shows her students that one doesn’t need to conform to society’s expectations. Culture is always changing, so why should one stress to follow the trend when one can find peace in being happy with who they are—no matter what the appearance.