Fourth and FINAL Observation!

I had my last observation this past Thursday! Finally, Dr. Shannon came to observe a period that is fairly well-behaved and rather academic. I'm not going to lie here, they're pretty much my favorite class.  The period started off pretty well...so far as I saw it, the students didn't really seem to mind Dr. Shannon's presence in the room, and they did not act any differently than they would have if she had not been there. I got the students settled down a bit and instructed them to pull out their TKAM books and reader response journals from the night before. I instructed them to split up into pairs and compare/discuss what they had written in their RRJs. After a  few minutes, I instructed them to select one passage and develop one question they had about the chapters they had read the night before. Once they had done this, I put polleverywhere.com on the screen and directed the pairs to submit one question and one passage. They were also to attach their name to the text. We used their text submissions as a structure for our class discussion that day.

The discussion was incredibly successful. The students were very opinionated on the details of the upcoming trial in the novel and Atticus's involvement/motives/intentions as lawyer for the black defendant. The students were active and engaged throughout the entire period. Though, many reminders were needed for students to raise hands and not talk over one another.

I'd say the only downfall, if you can call it that, of this lesson was that the students were so engaged and fired up about one question, that we spent the entire class discussing it. We were not able to get to any summarization activity. I'm more than okay with that though. And now, I await Dr. Shannon's post observation conference. 

Second Placement, First Observation

My first observation in my new placement occurred this past week. I was slightly nervous to have Dr. Shannon come an observe my 9th graders as they are not necessarily the most well-behaved students. Dr. Shannon cam in for my third period class on the day after the students had finished reading The Odyssey and had also completed the final test on the text. The very first part of class was devoted to going over the correct answers to the test as a class. This went fairly smoothly and we moved on to the next part of class. I wanted my students to do something more than just read, quiz, and test; The Odyssey is just too neat of a story for that. So, I created a project for my students that provided them with three different options for completion. The handout with the three options appears below.

I believe that the options provide enough diversity that the students should not have any trouble picking one that they would be interested in. During class, I explained my expectations for the project overall and my individual expectations for each of the three options. I ran into some behavior issues when it came to explaining the Fake Facebook option. For this one, I made an example so that my students would fully understand what I was looking for in their projects. Once I showed my students the example, however, several of them got off task asking me if I had a Facebook and then talking about how they were going to find it. I tried divert them from this off-topic conversation and bring them back to what we were supposed to be talking about. Unfortunately, there is always that one student who just won't let it go. In retrospect, I probably gave this student far too many chances as he continually talked. I've been working on that since the observation. After going over the individual expectations, I answered questions.I instructed the students to use the last five minutes of class to begin brainstorming and outlining their project ideas on the backs of their project papers. 

This is the example that I provided for my students. Overall, I have been pleased with many of the results that I have seen from them.




I think that student behavior will be my ongoing challenge for my 9th graders. Especially, since my co-op is having me begin a two to three week mechanics and usage unit with them.....engagement is going to be a struggle for that amount of time.