In the first video at John Smith Middle school, on Friday, April fifteenth at 12 pm, the classroom observed was in Mrs. Blue’s middle school class. This class was not as ethnically diverse; there were only Caucasian and Hispanics visible. From what was shown there were eleven boys and ten girls. In the second video at Luther High school, on Wednesday, April thirteenth at 11 am, was Mr. G’s high school class. This was a larger ethnically diverse class, with ethnicity ranging from, African American, and Hispanic. There were relatively ten boys and eight girls.
Knowledge of Content & Pedagogy: In Mrs. Green’s class during the lesson, she did a great job of making sure the students understood her question. She had students answer what they thought about it and said it was a good thought even if it wasn’t quite right. She spent most of the time asking the questions and creating scenarios, while the students expressed their thoughts and ideas. This helped me realize that to enhance the lesson the teacher could have set up a visual to help them make a further connection.
In Mr. G’s class he made sure to see if the students understood him as he moved through the lesson. On multiple occasions he told the students they should be able to handle getting those words done in time. He did most of the reading and describing the activity, while the students listened along to the story. To better his lesson, the students could have been allowed to work in groups to discuss what they read, and answer the questions together. Both expressed way to help students reflect their understanding of the content.
Environment of Respect and Rapport: In the middle school classroom, Mrs. Blue made sure to see that the students were receiving positive feedback. When each of the students entered the room, they retrieved their binders and all sat down quietly. Each of the students were very respectful to each other in that whenever someone raised their hand to speak, they were the only ones who spoke. There was no character development program or a posted set of rules displayed in her classroom. In her classroom she did the majority of the talking while the students listened and answered her questions.
In the high school classroom, there was quite a bit of talking and disruption among the students in the beginning. There were many students who were up and walking around while he was discussing the homework. There was no character development in the classroom. Mr. G didn’t seem tell really be listening to his students, one student had to repeat his question three times. Each teacher provided a way to show respect and understanding to their students, and then the other showed a class room that didn’t have much respect for each other.
Clear and Accurate Communication: During Mrs. Blue’s lesson she asked the students to write down the question and answer it in their journals. She told them if they didn’t know the answer that it would be okay, and they would discuss it in class. Also she allowed for her students to put in their input, like with the young lady who asked if they could read the questions first to help them understand. The students showed understanding by accurately discussing the topic amongst each other when answering the questions.
To add clarity, she could have had something more hands on for them to do, maybe build a small boat. In Mr. G’s class he was effective in communicating with his students have about when each assignment was to be finished by and when the homework would be due. To ensure that they knew how to pronounce the words he had the class say them aloud together. They both represented ways to clearly and accurately communicate with the students. Student Engagement in Learning: At the beginning of Mrs. Blue’s class she reminded them of the
Bill Nye video that they had watch, and the kids remember lots of things from the video. This was a great way to get the students engaged and to help with a visual representation. She also gave each of them a chance to explain their reason and definitions with the whole class. She kept the students engaged by having them all take turns reading and highlight as they went along. Her role was to present questions for the students, who were to think about the answer and then share with one another. It was a good idea to spilt the students in to partners to discuss.
In Mr. G’s he explained that the students had only been giving him work that was about fifty percent effort. He did allow for students to take out there phone and take pictures of the board to make sure they had the information. They also were very good at reading along with him and answering his questions out of the book. I think it was a good idea to get the students more engaged in the learning process, by working in smaller groups together. These are both great examples of their responsibility as a teacher to create good creative and instructive strategies.
Conclusion: Whether it is for a middle school class or a high school class it is very important to be able to keep the students actively engaged with the lesson. However at the same time it takes a certain skill to accomplish that while at the same time keeping a level of respect in your classroom. It’s essential to make sure your students understand what is going on, and to have a trust in the classroom to ask questions if they don’t understand. Both classes had great examples of all of these qualities; however they also displayed examples of where they were lacking such qualities.
