Class Observations

Make a note of the organization, phrases, tones, movements and structures these teachers
use as they run their classes.
Ask yourself:
● How do these things change over the class period?
● How are distractions and interruptions handled?
● How can I incorporate these into my own classes?

(9/28/2022) Period 4 - Cheryl’s Lang D Class

● When she transitions over to something new, she briefly recaps why we’re
doing/learning something. She situates their learning and gives everything a purpose!
a. “We’re teaching you all how to analyze arguments so you can be stronger critical
thinkers, so you can examine what purpose or strategies someone is trying to
convince you with.”
b. “This goes both ways. We’re teaching you this so you can be stronger speakers
and writers to reach multiple audiences effectively. We’re also teaching you this
so that you can become stronger judges of character, especially when you’re
listening to a message being given to you.”
● Gallery Walk Activity - Modes of Writing
a. “Mode is dependent on the purpose. We use different modes depending on what
our audience is. Some writers use mixed modes in order to hit a specific
audience.”
b. While going through the answers with students, she has students provide
conflicting rationales for each example to extend everyone’s thinking. She
explains: “I can see how that is a reasonable rationale, and it can still fit as a
descriptor for this.”
● Procedures
a. She explains each station, then shows how she’s going to tell groups to switch
when the timer goes.
b. She is very explicit with the procedure, making sure everyone is listening before
moving on, so that nothing gets missed. She won’t let them go until she explains
the directions to an attentive room.
c. While groups are moving around/talking, she is constantly moving around and
talking to groups, helping to extend thinking for groups that have finished or
helping students that are still working.
d. She adjusts time to account for how students are doing on the assignment -
lengthens it if they’re not quite getting it, or shortening time if they look like they
“got it”.
i. She made decisions “on the fly” about an activity that had to be cut from
the class. She ended up choosing to do the activity that would be more
immediately important to a test they’re doing on Friday. She then moved
that activity to the start of class on Friday.
 e. She has students write their “Aha’s” at the end of an important activity, so that
they can think of the reasons that they did something, reflect on something they
learned or come up with something they’re still confused about.

● ‘Analyzing Style’ Activity

a. “The process that we go through with this test is exactly what I’m going to ask
you to do for the test on Friday.”
i. She calls back to previous learning on tropes and schemes, asking
students to then apply what they learned last time to this new activity.
b. She has students then read through the example themselves. She then shows
them the questions they should keep in mind as they go back to the text to
annotate it.
c. She gave out a question for each table to focus on and discuss with each other in
the last few minutes of class - this gave them something to think and talk about.
i. It would probably help me to come up with quick things like this as a
backup plan for when time starts to run out in class.

(9/29/2022) Teacher A’s 7th Period Freshman English Class

● They’re reading “The Interlopers” as a class.
○ She had them work individually on answering some text questions after reading
the entire story herself, sitting at the front of the class.
○ They then cut this sheet up into cards, and mingled around the room sharing
their answers with each other.
■ They moved to the music, then had to mingle with whoever they were
closest with! Teacher A would also participate in this activity with the
students, helping clear up any problems.
○ After the students shared their answers with each other, she used scaffolding to
go over all of the answers as a class, ensuring everyone is on the same page.
● She puts the Attendance question, Homework Reminders and Agenda up on the
board; keeps them there for most of the class.
○ She has a fun, jokey way of reprimanding kids that involves the entire class in
keeping other students responsible for everyone.
○ I could possibly try this with Period 3? Or even 5? Basically, be firm with my
expectations while still maintaining that fun environment.
■ Maybe I’m wrong about being so firm and hard with the kids? Perhaps
tightening my grip is only making them rebel even harder?
■ For instance, I could jokingly but firmly tell students to go back to their
seat if they’re not going to work, or take someone's phone (thus enforcing
my rules) but doing it in a joking way. In this way I am still being firm and
constant in my rules and expectations, yet I am also showing that I’m a
fun person who respects them and creating a fun and engaging class
environment rather than a hostile one.
 ● She plays ambient music while students are doing individual/group work; very soft and
mellow.
● She takes the time to sit with students and actually get into a discussion about what
they’re confused about.
○ She isn’t constantly flitting around to any students whim when they have a
question; instead she takes a longer time with each one to give them a more
detailed answer and to encourage other students to ask their peers a question.
● She joked saying “Raise your hands if you need more time!” Then, when a bunch of
them put their hands up, she jokingly said, “Put your hands down, do the work!”
○ All the students laughed and worked harder. She has good rapport with them, so
I would need to slowly make my way to this point.
○ She is constantly making jokes to the whole class and to individual students; she
clearly asks them about their lives and knows them well enough that they always
laugh at it.
■ I know it seems late, but I would like to try to ask kids about their
interests, personal lives, school activities, etc. and remember to ask them
this stuff every time I see them! This will really help build that rapport with
them.
○ She also has a really good, deadpan kind of humor (which I do as well) which the
kids respond well to!
■ Again, move slowly into this until the kids are comfortable with it.
● I want to make time for Attendance Questions each day again. This is something that I
should fit in because it is very important for engaging students into the classroom and for
giving them easy “buy in” rather than immediately getting to work.
● I noticed that whenever a student did something wrong, she would lead them to the
answer by asking questions like “why did I come over here?” “what can we do next
time?” then complimented/thanked them.
○ She also complimented students who looked disengaged/sad/gloomy/tired as a
way of helping to cheer them up and encourage them to work. Positive
reinforcement!
● I should set up a folder in my room for holding extra copies of papers and notes we did
in class. That way, students have a place they can go to for papers and stuff.
○ If students were to clear it out completely, I could jokingly talk about how they’re
working me to the bone to print more copies, etc.
● I want to try and work on coming up with a better reading voice; think of using stronger
inflection, voices, switching up tones and pace.

Reflections
● I think I’ll try my best to come into class on Monday/Tuesday to engage my class with
music, movement, and humor (with reinforcement). Do this somewhat gradually, don’t
move into it all at once as you have to slowly build that rapport back up with the
students. It’s worth it, and students will appreciate it.
○ The best class that I’ve run so far was the one that Judy observed. What was
special about that? I let the students work with each other, joked with them, was
 firm when I needed to be (in a jokey way), and gave the students plenty of time to
interact with each other. I think the only thing missing here was a movement
break! Let's try to repeat this pattern in our other classes.

Reflection Questions
● Q: How do you handle phones in this class?
○ A: First offense, I take it for lunch. After that it becomes an admin contact, then a
phone contract.
● Q: What percentage of your students are on READ/IEP plans?
○ A: Probably about 25%.
■ This is significantly less than my own classes, so maybe this has
something to do with the behavioral issues?
● Q: Do you always incorporate movement/music/interaction into your lessons?
○ A: No, it’s not super common. Most days they do seat work.
● Q: Do you always read stories aloud?
○ A: Yes! If they’re being especially squirrely, I’ll call on specific ones to read.

Teacher B’s 8th Period Sophomore English Class (9/30/2022)

● The students today are reading through Chapter 4 of Lord of the Flies.
○ He always starts off their readings himself, then he has them go off and read
silently.
■ He gives them access to an audio version of the book they can listen
along with as they read. The students are reading the physical book,
however.
■ He offers them guided reading questions that they complete online for
each chapter.
■ As other students read silently on their Chromebooks, he has other
students work on a quiz they missed. This keeps everyone working
silently.
○ Maybe I should model this sort of thing with my Freshman as we move into a
whole novel unit? It might help me to reread ‘A Novel Approach’ before I start
planning for this.
● Teacher B always makes room in his class for ‘Brain Break’ activities, especially if there
is a lot of reading/writing in a particular class, or after a particularly long stretch of
working.
○ ‘Sing this Lyric’ Activity
■ He plays a portion of 4 pop songs from the 2010s; students try to guess
and write down the next lyric.
■ Students earn 2 points from writing the lyric, then an extra point from
singing it out loud. They keep track of their own points on the sheet.
○ This activity lasts for a while and gets pretty rowdy, but it really seems to benefit
this class, especially since they’re his more ‘distracted’ or ‘disengaged’ students.
 ■ Teacher B does mention that Friday’s Brain Breaks always last longer
than the ones on Tuesdays.
○ He really takes the opportunity to crudely joke around with the students then -
giving them both an opportunity to get rid of some tension and have some fun
before they move onto other stuff.
● After the Brain Break, he moved students back onto their Chromebooks to read ‘The
Raven’ in their online reading notebooks.
○ This lets them use their Chromebooks to underline, make comments and
annotations on stories. This might be better for current students, who are more
adept at technology.
○ While reading each stanza, he had students leave a one sentence comment
summarizing it.
○ He has students slowly break into difficult texts and annotate them.
■ This would let me get my students into using those ‘Context Clues’
strategies.
■ He has them underline words they don’t know, then he models those
context clues strategies to show how he breaks down unfamiliar words.
○ He uses atmospheric YouTube readings of passages to get students into the
book!
● He’ll directly call out students to answer questions for the whole class when he’s talking,
this keeps them accountable because they know that they can be called on at any time.
● He jokes with students when he takes their phones; they even laugh with him!
○ He had one student say “I solemnly swear not to be on my phone”; everyone was
laughing. I really like this approach! He still calls them distractions, but he (and
Teacher A) approaches this in a fun way that treats the students as equals (while
still being firm in his expectations).
○ He makes every student he took phones from come back and tell him something
like “thanks for helping me remove the distraction” or “thanks for helping me be a
better student”.
● He occasionally ‘levels’ with students when they get too disruptive.
○ He reminds them that no one likes to be ignored or talked over (empathy), but he
also lets his students know that they’re better than that and people make
mistakes.
○ He knows when to actually intervene when students are talking, and when to just
continue talking and let them quiet down themselves.
■ This is all about mastering the art of realizing which fires to handle,
and which to let fizzle out on their own.