Assignment 4 - Formal Classroom Observation
A formal observation was conducted on a tenure history teacher, using the McRel Evaluation tool. Prior to the evaluation, the teacher met with the administrator to discuss the lesson objective and talk about the dynamics and make-up of the classroom. This classroom is a 9th grade inclusion classroom, consisting of a total of 21 students, ten with individual education programs. There are two teachers in the classroom, a general education teacher and a special education teacher. The teacher observed was the general education teacher.
The Lesson
The lesson objective is, the student will be able to define the electoral college and determine how many electoral votes each of the states is appointed. The
…show more content…
The first is how to apply what I observed in the classroom to the McRel Evaluation Tool. There are five standards addressed in the McRel Evaluation Tool. I found it challenging to be present in the lesson, and at the same time, be sure I was looking for all of the standards, and how I can reflect this on the evaluation tool. I did find it very helpful to use the worksheet provided by my administrator. This worksheet highlights the standards, and what they mean. Using this as guide to record notes, kept me focused of what I needed to be looking for during the …show more content…
We talked about the objective of the lesson, the use of technology, the way the tow teachers complimented each other in the classroom. The administrator stated that he felt the initial part of the lesson was too long. That the students spend too much time on the background information leading up to the activity. His opinion is that any direct instruction lesson that lasts more than 20 minutes is too long for the students. He stated that he planned on discussing this with the teacher. The administrator was complimentary about the lesson as it relates to the real world. He stated, that anytime a lesson can be related to what is happening is the world today, has much more meaning for the
For this field assignment, I chose to observe a seventh grade self-contained math class at William A Morris I.S 61 on Staten Island. I am currently a substitute teacher at the school and has worked at this school for approximately two years. For the purpose of this observations, I worked with Mr. Karl Knutsen, a 6th and 7th grade math, special education and technology supervisor at the school. Mr. Knutsen has been a teacher for seven years and has worked in I.S 61 for five. He currently teaches all self-contained math classes and is the "tech guy" for the building, meaning he is the go-to guy for all SmartBoard or computer based questions and emergencies. I am currently observing and working with Mr. Knutsens first and second period 7th grade class, 717. This class has 12 students, 11 boys and 1 girl, ranging in ages 13-14. Each student has an IEP for varying
Marshall, K. (2005). It's Time to Rethink Teacher Supervision and Evaluation. Phi Delta Kappan, 86(10), 727-735.
John Henry is a 15 year old 9th grade student who suffers from ADHD and anxiety disorder. John frequently makes inappropriate verbalizations during teacher’s instructional time. This behavior causes distractions for himself and his peers. The teacher would ask John to stop talking out of turn, but the student only stopped for a short amount of time. The teacher would then pull John out of the classroom to speak one-on-one on some adjustments he can make with his behavior to make his learning more successful. After pulling John out of the classroom, he would be complaint for 2-3 days, but not for a week long period. Afterwards, the parent/guardian were contacted, but the target behavior was still not altered in any way.
Standard #6: The teacher understands and uses multiple methods of assessment to engage learners in their own growth, to monitor learner progress, and to guide the teacher’s and learner’s decision making.
It has been said that people will do what is inspected not what is expected. I believe that teachers want to teach. As an administrator it is my duty to ensure the teachers have opportunities to improve and receive training. Good teachers want to be treated as professionals. As an administrator I feel teachers should know how they would be observed and evaluated, the goals of the process and the results of the evaluation. Teachers that are not being effective need to have opportunities to use data to help them understand how they can improve. The idea of value-added gains is an idea that can be used to inform teachers of their effectiveness. The administrator needs to poll and track teacher and student data to be sure that the observations
Effective classroom teachers use a variety of assessment instruments on a daily basis to determine student progress. Assessing the students is the easy part and can be ongoing or at specific times during the year. After any assessment is given, it is vital for the teachers to analyze the results of the assessment. Finally, teachers much continually monitor student progress in order to ensure student success. The assessing, analyzing, and monitoring requires planning on the teacher’s part. If teachers fail to plan, they plan to fail; this is the result in many classrooms today because teachers access their students and then do not analyze the data in order to monitor and document students’ learning.
Following attending the class room teaching session, I learned about the assessment and feedback from In Black et al[6] “working inside the black box”, which has ways of assessment in questioning, grading, clicking, peer assessment, feedback and self-assessment. A few questions such as what are the effects on learning, what do we mean by assessment using SMART outcome were mentioned. Silverman et al has described a new way of giving feedback—called agenda-led the outcomes-based analysis [7]. In this method, we should establish the learners' agenda and try to understand what problems they had experienced, and facilitate with time frame and outcome. Next you encourage them to solve the problems and then get the trainer and eventually get the whole group involved. Feedback should be descriptive rather than judgmental and should also be balanced and objective. Pendleton's rules are rules that help trainers give balanced feedback to trainees. [8]These give positive feedback to learners and teachers first and then say what they could have done better. Chowdhury R.R& Kalu G (2004) [9] menti...
Some administrators use clinical supervision or peer coaching to determine from which it is obtain the most feedback and some other uses this methods or the combination of both (Hooker, 2014). It is important the comparison of both methods in order to identify the benefits of each. The clinical supervision includes a developmental evaluation that is meant to assist and improve the instruction of teachers (Glickman, et al., 2010). It is necessary to do a preconference, lesson observation, analysis of the information and interpret the teaching observed, and a post conference to determine the effectiveness of the process. In the clinical supervision are steps to follow: first, during the preconference the administrator and teacher identify the process, purpose or reason of the ob...
Cooperative learning and feedback are also key strategies within this instructional unit. Students will use rubrics, a form of feedback, to observe each other’s performance. Students will then discuss the rubric with the peer observed in order to praise correct techniques demonstrated. Likewise, the use of this peer observation will allow students to have an insight the techniques they are displaying that are improper and offer advice on how to correct these errors.
Marzano, R.J. (2007). The art and science of teaching. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.
As teachers, we have to monitor the progress our students make each day, week, quarter and year. Classroom assessments are one of the most crucial educational tools for teachers. When assessments are properly developed and interpreted, they can help teachers better understand their students learning progress and needs, by providing the resources to collect evidence that indicates what information their students know and what skills they can perform. Assessments help teachers to not only identify and monitor learners’ strengths, weaknesses, learning and progress but also help them to better plan and conduct instruction. For these reasons, ongoing classroom assessment is the glue that binds teaching and learning together and allows educators to monitor their efficacy and student learning.
The teachers were giving the students positive reinforcement throughout the day. In class we talked about how positive reinforcement helps the students to succeed in their classes. Another ah-ha moment was the environment of the classroom. The classroom had no windows at all. In class we talked about what kinds of things are distracting to students with ASD in classrooms and one of those things are the windows in classrooms. The third ah-ha moment was the parent sheets that the teacher and the school provide for the parents. In class we talked about how parent involvement is very important for the students with disabilities. The teacher fills out the parent involvement paper that lets the parents know how the child did in school this week and what their child needs to improve on. The students must give their paper to their parents to look at when they get home. The things that I had learned during my observation experience that I will use in the future for my classroom will be including student learning objectives in the classroom, using positive reinforcement, and get the parents more involved in their child’s education. I will go over with the students what the student learning objectives are in the beginning of class so the students will know what they will be doing and what they will be learning throughout the day. I also will use positive
The teacher will also make norm-referenced and criterion referenced interpretations of assessment through this website. They have graph and color-coded bands that show widely held expectations for children’s development and learning. The teacher will use this website and graph to communicate twice a year with the parents about the child’s strength, weakness or any area of
The students that I observed in the classroom were of middle to high school. I went to see 8th, freshman, 10th , and seniors classes, they seemed excited and very curious to why I was there. The middle school was more alive and rambunctious while I observed them. The High school kids were more relaxed, more comical. Some were paying attention while others seemed tuned out to the lecture or involved in socialization with friends within the class. By the end of the class Mr. Hasgil had restored the attention of everyone by using tactics such as history jeopardy with candy as the prize with the high school kids. In both he middle school and high school the kids were mostly Caucasian with a mixture of black, Asian , and Hispanic in the classes.
Through the implementation of my lesson, I learned I have to work on the assessment and the details of lesson planning. During the planning of this lesson, the assessment was an aspect that needed more thought. The students had a problem with reading the words for the word sort and understanding the writing section. If I were to reteach the lesson I would add pictures to the words on the word sort to help the students to read and understand the words. In addition, I would include a sentence strip for the assessment that the students could copy but then finish the sentence on their own. The writing prompt was too hard for the students, I received various answers some students copied the prompt only while other students understood it and wrote appropriate answers.