Today I observed my first of four
observations of my assigned teacher's class. I arrived at the school at 8am,
and stayed for the first period class which lasted 70 minutes. The class I was
observing was an ELA inclusion class that consisted of 12 tenth grade students.
There was also another teacher present who was there to assist with students
who had IEP's. When I arrived I sat down at a desk in the back to blend in the
classroom. The class begun with the teacher handing out worksheets that
contained sentences that were taken from the novel The Lord of the Flies. Students were told to try to find
the meaning of each underlined word by using context clues or a dictionary. I
noticed that the teacher explained the directions first to the students, and
then did the first question with the students. I thought this was well executed
because it allowed students the chance to fully understand what they were being
asked to do. The students then took about 15 minutes to finish up the worksheet
while one teacher coached students one by one on the sentences. While observing
the class, I noticed that student engagement seemed high, which was exciting.
Every student seemed to be on task completing their work. I also noticed the
room was arranged in a horseshoe shape, which I liked because I was able to
view every student in the room’s face, with the exception of the two students
sitting in front of me.
After
each student has finished their assignment, the teacher took the time to go
over the sentences as a class. She read the sentences out loud one by one, and
then asked students to share their answers. I thought this was nice because it
gave students a voice, and I noticed that almost the entire class had taken a
turn to speak by the time the worksheet review was over. There were a couple of
shy students, but the teacher sought them out and had them share their answers
just like the rest of the class. This was nice to see because it enabled each
student to learn because every student was expected to speak, everyone was
required to be alert.
After the worksheet review was
finished, the teacher had students read the novel The Lord of the Flies aloud, with each student having a different
character to read. This started off well, but then I noticed that only three
students had the opportunity to speak at this part of the book. I noticed that
during the 20 minute reading session, two students had their hands down on
their desk and their books closed. Another student was drawing a picture and
had his book away. Other than three students, the class seemed to be engaged in
the text. I also noticed that the teacher would stop from time to time and
discuss what was being read, and would stop and ask predications before reading
a new chapter. This ties into the pre-reading and during reading activities,
and this teacher was doing well keeping most students engaged with the text. After
finishing up the chapter, the books were closed, and the teacher quickly gave
out homework instructions before the bell rang. I think this class over all
went smoothly. However I think there is room for improvement with the read aloud
assignments because I believe every student should have a line to say during
each class in order to stay alert and engaged in the text.
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