ED414 Observation #3

1. Identification of the Learning Objective: P.O (Performance Objective)  #35 Students will practice problems involving unit rate

2.     Description of Student Body: There were a total of twenty-one students in the ICT classroom. Of those children, there were ten male, and eleven females. There was a teacher who followed the students to each class. This teacher also informed us that about seven students had an IEP. There were all 21 present today.

3.     Description of classroom environment: (Mostly the same as last time) The teacher had updated some of her students work, and so the room was full of new works the kids were proud of. This teacher has decorations, posters, student work, covering the room (front, sides, back, windows, and bottom). There is room for more student work to be displayed. The walls have inspirational quotes and motivational words. The room is organized with worksheet centers; text books in the back lockers, pencils on the side. I also remember seeing a chart that had a connecting symbol with Math & Language Arts. She put up a general guideline grading schema for the class. Still no rules posted and for whatever reason there is no where in her class that it says her name. Not on her door? or her desk or even on the students work. I had to ask a student her name. 

4.     Description of Instructional Strategies: (Similar) This teacher usually teaches direct instruction in her class. She has the kids go up to the SMARTboard and show their work and answer the problems. She uses formative assessment by asking the class if they all got that answer and if they agree  disagree on the solution. Every Friday she has them buddy up and switch papers to peer edit, using indirect instruction. Last week she said buddy up with the person next to you. But, she forgot to pair up the kids with their buddies who were absent. They paired up on their own. The same child is always by himself, students do not want to work with him and make mean comments to him. I realized it is almost like since the teachers brush him off so do the students. This week she had assigned pairs to work with and so everyone was paired together. One student was confused on the wording of question #1 on the worksheet, the teacher then clarified to the class by drawing out a visual (manipulative) and another way of wording the question. 

5.     Assessment Strategies: (Same as observation 1) The teacher uses formative instruction by having the children complete a Do Now assignment and see if they have comprehended their homework. She then calls on a few students to come up to the smart board and write and share their answers. She also uses summative assessment by having the students’ grade each other and then put into their portfolio.Last week  I thought that maybe student teacher meeting are coming up and so the teacher is preparing for it, I found out this week that Friday is portfolio day.  I also realized this teacher does not walk around the classroom, she waits for a student to raise their hand and then walks over. She does check the students work who are done first and if they have a answer wrong she says "maybe you went a little wrong here, look again". On question #2 of the worksheet a student calls he over and says the answer is not in any of the multiple choice answers. The teacher then had the class cross out the multiple choices (a-d) and had them write in their answer.  I was a little shocked and impressed that this worksheet contained both standards and the rubric for the students to know what the teach is expecting. 

6. Classroom Management: (Same)This teacher seems to have control over the class. The students all respect her, a lot more than the other classes I have seen them with.  She keeps her class on task, she is always reassuring the kids and guiding them. There is always a child who is isolated in the back of the class, and out of the entire day there, she was the only teacher besides the traveling teacher who gave him a chance to do well. This child raised his hand to show his work on the board, he has the correct work and answer and the teacher gave him a compliment. You could tell by the smile on his face that he received the confidence boost, he desperately needed.
      Side note: Today in period 2, the student who is always isolated almost got into a fight and was removed from class to talk to the teacher on the side. The teacher showed he cared and finally the child flipped out and shouted "I hate this!, they all think I'm retarded" 
       This moment reflected goos behavior for his the rest of the school day, and gave him courage to participate more.

7.     Use Technology: (Same) This teacher had a smart board in the front of the room. She uses it to teach her lesson, as well as have the students share their answers with each other. She used the smart board for her do now, objectives, notes, student work, and word problems for kids to solve. She is using the technology effectively. This class she did a lesson where the kids used fractions to bake a birthday cake, and had to figuring our how to accommodate the recipe to amount of guests.

8.  Closure: This class the teacher did not have a closure. Thinking back, I don't think any of the classes had a closure. This is an important part of the lesson, this is where the teacher and the students either do a re-cap, answer question left on the subject matter or simply reflect. I believe if this teacher did use a closure, her class might grasp the concepts of math she is teaching them better.