Doering 1

Jennifer Doering
Rosemarie Michaels
Active Inquiry Pt. 2
18 April 2016
Creating a Respectful Classroom: Discussing Primary Sources
Several weeks ago, our class observed a language arts lesson on slavery in a combined
fourth and fifth grade classroom. The teacher asked her students to analyze primary sources on
the topic and demonstrated mastery of Teacher Performance Expectations (TPEs) 11, creating a
learning environment, 7, instructing English Language Learners, and 1, making content
accessible to students. I felt that she used at least one model teaching strategy for each of the
TPEs, with two strategies for TPE 11.
The activity the students participated in was analyzing primary sources relating to
slavery, including written accounts and maps. First, the students were given a short lecture about
slavery. During this lecture, the teacher explained where to find dates on primary sources. She
told students to look for the date whenever they started a new source and gave them ideas for
where to look. Then, she passed out their first primary source to analyze. It was a first-hand
written account of the living conditions of slaves on slave ships. Students read quietly to
themselves before reading the document together as a class. While reading as a class, the
students came to an unfamiliar word, sustenance. The teacher led them in figuring out the
meaning of the word. She encouraged them to use context clues and substitute in other words
that would make sense in place of sustenance. They figured out that it meant food, and
moved on to the worksheet associated with the document: finding the main points about the

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living conditions of slave ships using textual evidence. After they had completed that worksheet
in groups of four to five students, they discussed and debated their answers as a class. Finally,
they opened their Chromebooks (a special kind of laptop used in many elementary classrooms)
to look at a PDF of several more primary sources and complete another worksheet.
There were two teaching strategies that created a positive learning environment, TPE 11:
an agree/disagree protocol for class discussions and an expectation board. When the students
were discussing the worksheet on their first primary source, their answers didnt always match.
Some groups had chosen main points that others felt were just details. The teacher had
previously implemented a protocol for class discussions that made students feel comfortable
debating and supporting their beliefs on this assignment: when students gave an answer,
everyone was allowed to either agree or disagree with a hand signal. If there were disagreements,
students were allowed to calmly and respectfully share why and discuss with each other until a
consensus was reached as a class. This went hand in hand with the other strategy that created a
positive classroom climate: an expectations board on the wall. There werent any rules about
how students were supposed to act, just expectations of respect and kindness to their peers and
teachers. This, combined with the agree/disagree protocol, created a respectful, positive learning
environment where all students felt comfortable sharing their ideas.
There was also a teaching strategy for TPE 7, teaching English Language Learners: when
the teacher had students working in groups, she had created groups that corresponded to
students reading levels. She also grouped all of the ELLs together to give them support and a
supportive group of like-minded individuals.

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Finally, there was a teaching strategy that helped make the information accessible to
students, TPE 1. When finding information in the text, the teacher required that students
highlight where they got their answer in the text. This is an important skill for students to have
and really teaches them how to support their answers with textual evidence.
In this lesson, students learned how to communicate and work together as well as how to
find specific information in texts. They were placed into groups and instructed to work together. I
was able to see that they knew how to work cooperatively by observing them in these groups. I
was able to see that they learned how to find specific information in texts by looking at the
worksheets they completed and also listening to their discussions about what to highlight during
the group work. I hope to implement a positive classroom environment in my own classroom by
using the agree/disagree protocol and expectations chart. I also hope to create group work where
students feel supported and respected.