Observational Story

 

It was a cold day. The kind where the sun peaks from between the empty, silent streets of small, decrepit houses while the harsh wind cuts right through your being  like a razor blade through a damp tissue as you walk down the grey sidewalk. The kind where your feet tingle with every step, and your fingers achingly ping with every pulse of blood. The kind where your ruby face feels like it has been bitten, and your ears feel like they have been burned with a white-hot iron. 

With twenty minutes to spare I had arrived. There was no parking lot in sight and the streets were aligned with cars upon cars, desperately squeezed close together compactly so as to be as close to the building as possible. After searching for a parking spot for fifteen minutes I eventually deciding to take the risk and park in a permit only zone for the forty-five minutes I would be there.
With now only five minutes until class started, my body shook uncontrollably as I quickly paced around the large building towards the main entrance which sat at the top of a flight of stairs with no ramp for handicap students. 

After signing in and meeting with a professional, I was brought down a grey,white, and baby-blue colored corridor. Students of all different races, genders, ethnicities, class, and body shapes scattered like a stampede to hurriedly get to their classes on time. The dull hallways seemed like a maze, all of the same pattern and confusingly darting off into different directions.

I introduced myself to a blonde teacher dressed professionally in a black and white colored suit with black-rimmed glasses that sat at the top of her nose against her pale face. Her smile was friendly and warm. Though she had the exterior of a hardened professional woman, she was anything but. She had the soft spoken, encouraging, and light-hearted demeanor of a kind mother. 

I took a seat in the far back right corner of the room. It was a small and claustrophobic. Behind me sat a large, iron curtain that separated one half of the room to another where a teacher could be heard boisterously navigating his classroom.  

The desks were aligned in compact rows of five or six with little to no room to walk down the aisles.  Pencil drawings of cartoons were practically carved into the white wood of the desk I sat at. 

Though the room was small, it was colorful and lively. The walls were cluttered with a rainbow of colorful encouragements, agendas, rules, reminders, artwork, vocabulary, calendars, and expectations. An American flag hung from my left. Dozens of files sat against the large window to my right filled with student classwork and assignments. A medium-sized divided white board sat at the front of the room with homework assignments and objectives written. Notes for the day were already scribed in a thick, black marker in a large and bold font. The teacher’s desk sat on an angle in the right hand corner of the front of the class perfectly organized with all sorts of folders, binders, and piles of neatly-laid assignments. A black digital clock sat on the wall above the door. Dingy off-white filing cabinets sat in the back of the room, to my left.

Despite a stack of the same large textbooks lined against the wall and a few dictionaries, there was a lack of books. Where I had expected every English classroom to be healthily riddled with dozens and dozens of books, there were hardly any that I could see.

Students began to file into the classroom, dropping their books onto their desks with a loud bang and turning around to talk with their friends. After the bell had let out a muted chime, the students took their seats, but continued to talk. The teacher waited a few minutes after the bell as a few students scurried into the classroom. Then I counted.

There were fourteen students. Ten were female and four were male. Three were white, five were black, and six were either mulatto or hispanic. It was hard for me to identify. Four students wore glasses while ten did not. None seemed to really be overweight nor underweight. Some were dressed nicer than others. I could not tell if this was a stylistic choice or one directly related to their economic classes. I assumed it was more economic. Overall the class was extremely diverse with many different kinds of smiling faces, ready for class to begin. There was still a buzz of student conversations before the teacher stood in front of the class and announced the beginning task.

As the teacher continued with class, she asked many questions. Almost all students were involved and engaged in the lesson. There might have been one or two students who did not talk that sat in the back of the classroom. They sat quietly, but never took their eyes off of the teacher or the text in front of them. It was obvious that they were paying attention and were following the material, but I wasn’t sure if they quite understood everything being taught because they never voiced their answers or opinions to the class. The student, along with all of the other students, have the ability to participate. They all have the correct materials, take notes, and do not have any disabilities that would make them unable to participate.

I was mostly impressed with the students and their reactions to the lesson plan. They were not completely ecstatic about the lesson of course, but they treated it as if they really wanted to understand and learn. This brought a smile to my face. The students were arguing their opinions, striking up conversations about what they would do in situations that characters were in, making content-related jokes, and were having fun with the content. The teacher allowed students to have these conversations, which I was actually happy about. The teacher allowed the students to talk about the content because it meant they were engaged. She did not, however, allow this conversation to get off-topic or out of hand. She held the power to control the room and how the students acted.

Though some students got out of their seat, they were quiet and quick so as not to disrupt their classmates from learning. Overall, it was a rather pleasant experience despite the extremely small space the students and teacher were provided with in such a confusingly laid-out and dingily colored school with extremely narrow, maze-like hallways.

After the bell rang, I returned to the main office where I handed back my visitor badge in return of my student ID card. Although the school might not have looked the best, it at least was pretty secure.
On my way out the door I pictured what it might be like to be a student at the school. I think it would be hard to be inspired within such a confusing and pale school. While this is true, I might be encouraged and inspired depending on my teacher and the environment the teacher set up for me. The teacher I observed was one that encourages learning and having a clean and inspiring environment.

It might be hard to get to class on time when there is hardly anywhere to park. Heck, it was hard for me to even find a parking spot with the twenty minutes I had to spare. I couldn’t imagine how many students might show up to school with only five minutes and end up being late due to the lack of parking.

As I walked around the building I saw three people who looked like students slamming on a side door for their peers to let them in. They stared at me as I walked down the sidewalk with glaring eyes, making me feel slightly uncomfortable. After a while, they looked away and continued to bang on the door. A teacher told them through the window of the door to go through the front of the school and sign in. At least I could rest easy knowing that the school took necessary safety precautions.

And even though my fingers felt like they were about to detach from my hand and fall off onto the concrete, and my nose was nearly purple from the cold wind blasting against my face, I was happy to have been able to observe a classroom in action. 

Observation Lesson Plan

This is a lesson plan I wrote in response to a lesson I observed at Central Falls High School. This information was not given to me, so I had to guess as to what her lesson plan would have looked like. 

Observation Lesson Plan: PART I (Planning)

Teacher: Illene Lambert

Subject: English Honors AP

Grade: 11

Name of Lesson: Introduction to Characteristics of Romantic Literature
Objectives:

1.) "Students will infer meaning through context clues" (she wrote this one on the board)
2.) Students will identify characteristics of romantic literature by reading Washington Irving's "The Devil and Tom Walker" with the class and pointing out and responding to the romantic techniques and characteristics the author uses. 

Students Standards:
#2.) Students read a wide range of literature from many periods in many genres to build an understanding of the many dimensions (e.g., philosophical, ethical, aesthetic) of human experience. 
#3.) Students apply a wide range of strategies roc comprehend, interpret, evaluate, and appreciate texts. They draw on their prior experience, their interactions with other readers and writers, their word identification strategies, and their understanding of textual features (e.g., sound-letter correspondence, sentence structure, context, graphics). 

Teacher Standards:
#2.) Teachers have a deep content knowledge base sufficient to create learning experiences that reflect and understanding of central concepts, vocabulary, structures, and tools of inquiry of the disciplines/content areas they teach. 
#5.) Teacher creates instructional opportunities to encourage allstudents' development of critical thinking, problem solving, performance skills, and literacy across content areas. 
#6.) Teacher creates a supportive learning environment that encourages appropriate standards of behavior, positive social interaction, active engagement in learning, and self-motivation. 
#8.) Teacher uses appropriate formal and informal assessment strategies with individuals and groups of students to determine the impact of instruction on learning, to provide feedback, and to plan further instruction. 
#11.) Teachers maintain professional standards guided by legal and ethical principles. 

Rationale:
This lesson introduces students to the characteristics of romantic literature. It is important for students to learn about and read different texts from different time periods to allow the students to create and understanding of the history of literature. It is also important that students learn how to infer the meaning of words and of literary works through context clues. This is how students begin to learnt how to analyze literature and extract meaning. It forces the student to think: "Why was this written?" and "What is the point of this work?" Theses are important skills to have for the future in order to be a functional member of society. This lesson fits the curriculum and helps achieve the common core standards, and it is located in the introduction. 

Materials:
Pre-made visual aid from previous class that lists the characteristics of the Age of Reason as a review, a white board, expo markers, eraser, a book with Washington Irving's literary work in it, dictionaries, and student self-selected reading books. 

Accommodations:
The print on the visual aid and on the board is written very large so that students with vision impairments can see them. 

What content resources support this knowledge base?
-The teacher's personal knowledge
-Washington Irving's Story
-Notes in the textbook

How confident are you as you start this lesson?
Very confident. 

Lesson Plan Observation Part II (Action)
Bell-ringer (how will you get students seated, and ready for academic work?):
Stand quietly in the front of the class and have the assignment behind me on the board so that they know to grab a dictionary automatically and sit down at their desks. 

Anticipatory Set: I will ask students if there were any words in their self-selected reading books that they did not know. I will then tell them that if they cannot find words they don't know, then they are probably reading a book that is at too low of a reading level for them. If they don't know words, I will tell them to figure them out. 

Step 1(8:55-9:00): Tell students to find at least two words they have never heard of before in their self-selected reading books and to make a chart of the word in their dialectic journals. Tell them to write the page number and date, the phrase it is located in, to circle the word in the phrase, guess what is means, and then look up the actual definition and write it underneath. 

Step 2 (9:00-9:13): Students work on this assignment individually and silently. 

Step 3 (9:13-9:16): Ask "Who didn't get a word?" Provide an example from Washington Irving's book with the word "termagant". Ask them to use that word and figure it out. Have class discuss the meaning of this word. What does it sound like? How does the rest of the sentence give them clues to the meaning? Does it have a good or bad connotation? 

Step 4 (9:16-9:17): Inform class that looking up words while reading their self-selected reading books is very important and that it helps them broaden their vocabulary. Tell the students that they are allowed to use their cell phones in class to look up words in their book. If they do this, however, they must inform the teacher. 

Step 5 (9:17-9:28): Review characteristics and beliefs that defined The Age of Reason and how they focused on logic, intelligence, law, politics, rights, success, etc. Use Benjamin Franklin as an example. Use the visual aid here. Then write on the board key notes as I talk about how people got tired of this logic-driven world and how Romanticism was on the rise. Short lecture about the newcharacteristics of Romanticism and how people of this era were focused on nature as inspiration, individualism, supernatural forces (ghosts, poltergeists, devil, God, etc.), emotion, imagination, etc. Talk about how The Age of Reason was an era set in the intelligent brain, while Romanticism was an era set in the emotional, feeling heart. 

Step 6 (9:28-9:29): Tell the students to turn to page 320 in the textbook to the literary work entitled “The Devil and Tom Walker” by Washington Irving. 

Step 7 (9:29-9:31): Ask a student to volunteer to read the note at the top of the work provided by the authors of the textbook about the background of this particular literary work. Student reads. 

Step 8 (9:30-9:32): Ask students to discuss the background of this work and how it may affect its content. Ask, “What do we infer about this work already?” and “What do we call people who do not spend their money and selfishly only want to acquire more?” Most importantly, ask “What made people so mad about this story that made Washington Irving quit writing fiction altogether?”

Step 9 (9:32-9:46): Read the work out loud to the class. While doing this pause to ask quick questions to see if students are paying attention. Pause also: point out characteristics of Romanticism and ask students to respond, to point out how the author automatically tries to appeal to our own greed by reading it, to identify vocabulary words and discuss their meaning, to ask critical thinking questions like “Why didn’t they give the horse hay?” (to try and see if they understand the economic situation these people are in) or “Would the normal people  of this town go here?”, to inquire personality traits of characters, to ask “What happened in the Garden of Eden?” to force the students to compare the imagery of the snake in this work to the serpent in the Biblical story, to compare imagery to Hamlet, to compare the plot to a story previously read in class, and and to relate to the students to the book and to have them assess the main character by asking “If you saw a skull would you kick it?” 

Step 10 (9:46-9:47): Stop reading wherever you are and review the aspects of this work that were characteristic of the Romantic era. 

Closing(9:48-9:50): Tell students there is no homework for tonight, but remind them about the upcoming assignment due in a few days. Tell the students to put the dictionaries back on their way out of class. 

Homework: NA

Review and Reflection: Create a visual aid for next class that points out the key characteristics of the Romantic era. Have them compare the different characteristics of Romanticism and The Age of Reason to really emphasize how these eras were. 

Extension: Give students more literary works to read at home and ask them to make a list of characteristics of Romanticism they found in these books. 

Closing: Create a visual aid with the characteristics of the Romantic era. 

Lesson Plan Part III (Reflection)

1.) What went well?
Students were very engaged and answered all of the questions asked. They were able to figure out what “termagant” meant using contextual clues. 

2.) What area of weakness needs addressing?
Some students were unable to find words they didn’t recognize in their self-selected books. Thus, students should be encouraged to read more books that are on their reading level. 

3.) Which objectives were met? 
All objectives were met. Students not only were able to identify what their vocabulary words meant based on context clues, but they also responded well to and identified the characteristics of Romantic writing in Irving’s literary work. 

4.) Which students did not meet objectives?
All the students met the objectives. 

5.) Was time managed appropriately?
For the most part. Class ended early and the students were sitting on their desks with their books in their arms waiting for the bell to ring. They were only doing that for about 3 minutes though. There might have been too much time dedicated to identifying vocabulary words in their self-selected reading books. 

6.) Did any teacher mannerisms or actions detract from the lesson?
No. If anything, the only thing would be that the teacher stumbled over some words when reading out loud to the class. 

7.) What were the strengths and weaknesses of classroom management? 
I thought there were quit a few strengths and weaknesses. 
Strengths: Objectives were met, students were busy for most of the class, students were very engaged and answered questions, the questions asked were very inquisitive and made the students think, and questions ranged on many different levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy (some high and some low). 
Weaknesses: At this grade level, as an AP honors course, the work was too simple. The teacher read out loud to the class instead of allowing students to either read silently or take turns reading out loud. Students were asked about vocabulary words below their grade level like “greedy” and “miser”. Students are still working on self-selected reading books which I last saw included in curriculum in grade 8. Students were also working on vocabulary and, at this grade level, they should already have the skills to identify words they don’t know and figure them out through context clues. Too much time was dedicated to their dialectic journals. The class ended early and the students got very loud and boisterous. Students from other classes kept on walking into the class and talking to other students. Other students kept leaving class or getting up while the teacher was talking. 

8.) Was the lesson engaging? 
Yes. Very.

9.) What did I learn from my peer observation? 
I learned that I can do this. As I watched the teacher navigate the classroom and recorded all the questions she asked and all of the steps she took, I thought “I could do that”. This is not to say that the teacher did something so easy that anyone could do it. It takes a lot of planning and skill to prepare for and orchestrate an entire class. What I am saying is that I could see myself doing this lesson plan, and I know I would be confident in doing it. 
I also learned new strategies in teaching characteristics of writing from different eras to a text. I thought of great questions to ask and how to relate the work to curriculum. 

10.) How will this experience influence your professional identity?
This not only showed me that I can observe classrooms all the time to get great ideas if I plan in advance, but it also introduced me to a new school, a new principle, and other teachers. Students looked up to me and thought that I was a teacher, and this gave me confidence in that I will have the ability to command a classroom. This observation also helped me see the real timing of a full-length class and how a teacher navigates through it. Thus, it will help me have a better idea of what to expect.