Josh Schulhoff

03/15/16 Observation of Chilton

Objective: Operations on polynomials- law of exponents
Enter
9:55 students are seated grouped in 3s. T advises Head up so I dont need to
repeat these people will trade spots Students switch tables.
9:56 T- everyones name on the chart for class gradeI should see everyones
handwriting . These three should have chart 2, these chart 4if
expanding isnt practical, use the laws makes things easier and quicker
10:00 I notice middle front group has been discussing how one student writes a
#4.
10:02 T providing target support to individuals within groups.
10:04 T- time out, they are both 4ssit down and do your chart
10:05 T- Guys seriously, ladies and gentleman, back on track pause for a
second Grab your notesmake sure we are all on the same page..
10:06 T calls on student in middle front group who is chatting with another
group member to answer a question.
10:07 class choral response to a broadcasted question. 0 wait time due to two
called out responses.
(Whenever T is presenting via the document camera, the student behind her is
on his phone.)
10:08 Students resume working in groups with T providing targeted support.
All groups are off task except for the group with whom T is working.
10:11 students from middle front table move toward middle of room near
students from the far 2 groups and hold a discussion.
10:15 T- Are you all done with your charts? Students- yes. T- Go to
schoolspace and start on your homework
10:16 T advises this is not social timemake sure all names are on the
chartsturn in both charts that you did.
10:17 Targeted support to other group
Some comments students made throughout the group activity:
Do you understand this?
What are we supposed to do?
I dont know where to start.
I did one but its not right.
10:17 T- you all have time to finish your homeworkin schoolspace I have
4 charts I need more.
(4 of 17 students in the class are working)
10:20 T- So I have one chartI need four more by the end of class I need
the two charts per group that you worked on
(4 of 17 students working)
Students: Which folder (in schoolspace)?
How do you make an exponent? (on an electronic document)
10:22 10 of 17 students are working- 6 of those have the screen up but
are not actually inputting anything
10:25 6 of 17 working, student in group seated in far corner tells someone to
shut up. T- Guys, Nice words please!
10:26 T- Luke, different table please3rd strike
Observation end 10:27, course block end 10:40.

1. Giving directions prior to students

2.

3.

4.

5.

moving should ensure they are

paying more attention to your
directives
From student reactions to the chart
activity, it appeared students were
not ready to practice in groups.
--In this case, a quick online
summative assessment may give you
a better gauge as to whether or not
enough people are understanding
the topic to make group work
beneficial. polleverywhere.com,
socrative, edueto or other virtual
polling could be a quick way to
assess basic comprehension before
practicing further or to aid in
determining individuals to group up.
Questions you posed during the
lecture could be used to gauge
understanding; however, in this
instance your questions solicited a
choral response or a response too
soon from two individuals without
allowing processing time for others
to participate.
-- you could call on random students
or groups rather than addressing the
class as a whole
You were clear as far as your
expectations. I liked that you
pointed out the different
handwriting you expected to see. It
appeared that the students were
each supposed to fill in part of the
chart. As I observed, this resulted in
only one individual on task within
any given group at one time.
--perhaps each individual within the
group working with a different color
pencil on the same problems would
allow collaboration and for you to
assess who provided what
information.
You provided targeted support but
while you were with individuals or,
at times, a group, the other groups
were off task. There appeared to be
too much unstructured time (for the
chart/to do homework) which
contributed to disruptions that you
handled.