Uriel Gutierrez

National University

TED 623

February 18, 2018

Mark Ryan
 School information

The school I visited for my classroom observation was Alisal High School in Salinas

California and belong to the Salinas Union High School district. From visiting the School

Accountability Report Card (2017) "To continue with academic success, we have implemented

Small Learning Communities (SLC) in the ninth and 10th grade with a focus on student needs.

The SLC provides student academic support, after-school tutorials, university field trips and

opportunities for parent involvement. Additionally, we have college preparatory programs such

as Advancement Via Individual Determination (AVID), Gifted and Talented Education (GATE),

Advanced Placement (AP), Engineering Academy, Computer Science Academy, Media Arts

Academy, and a Health and Human Services Academy” (p.3). The school has implemented

programs that enable them to give their students a chance to succeed regardless of their

background. It contains multiple programs that help students focused on after school help with

after school tutorial, which allows students to get extra help from the teachers if they are falling

behind in any class. The school of Alisal High also offers AVID, AP and GATE programs along

with field trips to colleges. These programs enable students to see life after high school and

prepare them for college and the real world on how to be successful. The school is offering

students multiple resources regardless of their education path on deciding their decisions after

high school.

Taking a look at the demographics from the SARC report, 97.4 percent Hispanic or

Latino students and the second largest race is White at 1.5 percent of the population. The total

population for the 2016 - 2017 year was 2,585 students. 90.5 percent of the student’s population
come from a social economic disadvantage and 28 percent of the students are still classified as

English learners.

First Observation

The first class I analyzed was Ms. Rodriguez 10th grade English class, teaching students

who are English learners as most of them appear to be from Hispanic descent. Ms. Rodriguez

has today’s activities written on the board and that lets students know what they are doing for the

day. As they walked in they had to grab a short quiz with 5 questions as a warm up, to see where

they were understanding the vocabulary from the book they are going to be reading. They went

over the quiz as a class and over the correct answers. Ms. Rodriguez was engaged with the class

and called on individuals for answers. She asked by a raise of hands how many students

received a score 5 out 5, 4 out 5 and if they didn’t a score they liked that they needed to work on

studying the vocabulary words. She followed up with a PowerPoint presentation that

acknowledge what students would be able to learn today and what they would be analyzing,. She

had a student read each one. They read as follows: Learning goal I will understand the characters

events and cultural references in Thing Fall Apart by using my notes and discussion with peers; I

will analyze cumulative impact of using words and phrases from Ibo language on the tone and

meaning of the novel. Learn domain specific vocabulary to use when speaking and writing about

the novel.

Students had an assignment of identifying words from the book they are going to reading.

The book is called “Things Fall Apart” by Chinua Achebe and the author is from Nigeria which

some of the vocabulary in the book would be difficult to understand. The words were listed in
their notebook that each student is assigned to have. Ms. Rodriguez read each word out to the

students and had them repeat the words for clarification on the correct pronunciations of the

words.

The assignment gives student instruction on placing the words into certain criteria of

what the words would be classified as. For example, one of the words was “Osu” which means

outcast. Students then worked in groups of three to four students figuring out where the words

belong to. With the word “osu” it was either placed in law or gender role depending on the

groups understanding of the word. In The 5 Minute Lesson Plan by Serdyukov (2013) states

“Skills develop in a different way, through continuous practice in applying new knowledge in

realistic situations. For instance, in order to learn the new word, the student has to use it in

various communicative situations, listening, speaking, reading, and writing it many times. Any

skill gets better with practice.” (p.261). Ms. Rodriguez calls on certain groups for answers as a

class set on the board for further understanding and clarification. Ms. Rodriguez follows up by

showing visuals of what each word represents in her power point slide. The students are able to

understand the Nigerian words that are used in book by a visual presentation. She also gave

example of the items that would be called to the students in their own culture/ main language in

Spanish for further understanding. Ms. Rodriguez also demonstrated the housing of the character

with an image and explained which each building was for including the houses of his three wives

and shrine for his god.

The breakdown of the method that Ms. Rodriguez used to teach her English class I would

classify it as she was using SDAIE. She was able to provide students with skills of vocabulary

and talked about the story they were reading. The students were also able to bridge the

connection between what the words meant and relate them to their own primary language. The
lesson plan also had contextualization demonstrating with media and pictures of the vocabulary.

Ms. Rodrigues was also able to model the sound clearly and slowly the words for students to

understand and they would repeat.

Second Observation

The second class I observed was Mr. Mendez 12th grade senior English class. Again

most of his students were of Hispanic decent except for an African American student. Mr.

Mendez handed out and assignment/ questionnaire. The questionnaire went over an author’s

main idea about bullying and asked student’s questions about certain situations. In The 5 Minute

Lesson plan by Serdyukov (2013) it states that “Lesson procedure is focused on developing

student understanding of the material, building new knowledge, creating concepts, developing

appropriate skills, and constructing personal meaning.” (p. 199). The activity objective from the

lesson was for students to use their own personal experience about bullying so they can relate to

the author in similar situations. It would provide a safe classroom environment for students of all

cultures and backgrounds. The learning goals for the module and objectives were to identify the

main ideas, including the author’s main argument/claim in multiple texts, working individually

and collaboratively. Analyze the structures of texts with particular attention to headings and

graphs and design a document that makes use of such features and Summarize key arguments

and evidence in multiple texts and incorporate evidence of texts and other research in their own

writing. Mr. Mendez first gives the students the assignment he goes through first two questions

with the class and makes them write down their response. It is followed by having the students

work on the assignment by themselves. Then they are to share what they wrote down with a

partner and compare their opinion based questions. In Strategies for ELL Students by Cargill
(2007) it states “The second phase calls for strategies for cooperative grouping and multiple

avenues of communication. Students are able to explore content through interactions” (p. 55).

Students are able to work with each other and explore learning from each other. After all the

students have completed all questions and shared with their group member, Mr. Mendez askes

the each question out loud and wants to know who agrees or disagrees and why. He looks for

both different answers from each question to create a debate. Students share their own

perspectives based on the questions. The classroom gets very interesting sharing their stories and

justifying their opinion on the bullying questions. This allows students to open up about their

opinion creating a safe classroom environment. Mr. Mendez didn’t use any electronic devices for

his lesson.

Mr. Mendez English class was very discussion were about their own experiences and

connecting their stories with stories from the book they will be reading. The lesson plan and

learning strategy that were used I would say focused on would be similar to the video we saw

week one using SDAIE learning strategy. Mr. Mendez is able to relate the lesson content from

the literature to students to draw interest in the topic and reading of the story. Gets students into a

learning mind by keeping their interested in something that is relatable to the students. Students

were engaged shared their stories and opinions very similar to the video of Universe of

Obligatory.

Interview

I was able to ask a few question to Mr. Mendez about the school and learning strategies

and effective ways of his teaching since he has been teaching at Alisal High School for 14 years.

First question I asked his teaching strategies and how often he has been using SDAIE into his

teaching. He told me he has been using SDAIE or modified version that are similar throughout
his teaching. He needs students to participate and engage into the learning for them to be able to

learn. The days that he teaches lesson focused on giving students the tools to be able to take the

test and feel confident in what they know. For example, he said that providing students with the

steps on how to do things is important for them to build their own independent into learning what

they want to learn. He sets the foundation on how to do things that they can carry on throughout

their learning days in high school and in life. Mr. Mendez was also a student at Alisal High

School so he can easily relate to his students and teach effectively because he has been in their

shoes and wants them to succeed like he was able too. In these recent years MR. Mendez said he

has been focusing on more and more of using technology to help students master their skills that

they have learned in English. Brushing up on what they need to perfect in order to be successful

in the college level.

Comparison/ Suggestion Improvements

Both English classes were very well taught. The lesson plans were very well developed

and effective to draw students into learning without any disruptions, which impressed me. Ms.

Rodriguez lesson was very effective into engaging the students into learning the new vocabulary

and students did seem they were into learning the new words for their reading. Mr. Mendez class

was the older students and had a more free range of discussion since it was a different

assignment. The discussion part of class are always my favorite because we are able to learn

from each other and the class is engaged into learning without feeling like a task. Some

improvements that both teachers could have done was ask students for understanding. Usually

asking students how do they feel about doing the assignment as they continue to teach if they are

able to do the work with a simple thumbs up to check their progress. Another suggestive
improvement I would advise to both is to relate back to the learning objective through the lesson

plan for students to understand what they are learning and why. I felt it easy rushed through at

the begging of class and students do not get an idea of what they are actually learning the goal

for. Especially with English learners introducing new vocabulary or authors ideas for a better

clarification. A suggestion would be an exit ticket of what did you learn today in class. Did you

achieve your learning goal? Sort of an assessment to evaluate students’ knowledge. In Content-

Based Second Language Teaching and Learning by Haley (2014) it states “Assessments of

student progress and achievement provide information not only about how well students are

doing but also how well the curriculum is serving students” (p.129). Just a quick assessment on

their teaching strategies too, see if they are being effective to their students. Overall I really

enjoyed both class observations and I would learn to use the SDAIE strategies they used in their

lesson plans to be more effective teacher.

References

Cargill, Hermanda. (2007). Strategies for ELL Students.(Brief article). Childhood Education,

84(1), 55.

Haley, Marjorie Hall; Theresa Y. Austin. Content-Based Second Language Teaching and

Learning: An Interactive Approach (Pearson Resources for Teaching English Learners)

Serdyukov, Peter, and Mark Ryan. 2013. The 5-Minute Lesson Plan: A Practitioners Guide.

Boston: Pearson Learning Solutions.

School Accountability Report Card for Alisal High School. (2015-2016). Retrieved February 18,

2018 from: https://www.salinasuhsd.org//site/default.aspx?PageID=346