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Applying Classroom Rules and Procedures Observations Report

Page history last edited by aj265117@... 6 years ago

Classroom Rules and Procedures Observation Report

 

For this observations, I have developed a scale of teachers Withitness from 1-5.

 

1 – Lowest level or almost absent Withitness

2 – Present, but needs development

3 – Proficient, practiced 50% of the time

4 – High level of Withitness, the teacher knows his/her students well

5 – Teacher is a hawk.

 

 For simplicity, I color coded all three teachers in three different colors:  

Teacher #1 Grade: 9 Subject: History Withitness level: 5

Teacher #2 Grade: 8 Subject: Social Science Withitness level: 3

Teacher #3 Grade: 8 Subject: English Literature Withitness level: 5

 

Rules and Procedures:

I did not see any rules on the wall, but that is due to the fact that classrooms belong to students and not the teacher, so putting something permanently on the walls is impossible. However, I asked the teacher, he said they have discussed the rules and implications at the beginning of the school year. While teaching I noticed the teacher referring to the rule they have set up before, he re-stated that History has no right or wrong answers as long as you justify it.

In terms of procedures, the teacher started class with addressing the behavior the moment he stepped foot in the classroom. He asked about homework, then, they reviewed the material in the homework and moved on to analysis and predictions.

 

Same as with Teacher #1, the rules were not posted on the walls, due to the movement of teachers from class to class. Overall it seemed that the teacher puts a lot of trust in his students and gives them a lot of freedom when they work on their own. In terms of procedures, the teacher started class with giving out handouts and ipads so students can fill out the literature sources analysis.

 

This class has two teachers in the room, one foreign American teacher, and one Chinese Literature teacher. The Foreign teacher was the main teacher today, normally they rotate. While Chinese teacher was helping with discipline and making sure students stayed on task. Same as other teachers, no rules on the wall, for the same reason. But it seemed the teacher had a routine set up with them, so the students knew what to do. She starts by waking the sleepy ones, checks attendance, one student changed his English name, so she asked him to stand up and introduce himself. She set up the tone of the class into a very positive one from the start and students showed great involvement from the start.

 

Organization of the Class:

In the beginning, students are organized in 3 rows, 1-row individual desks, and two other rows students are paired. That organization left students some freedom for chatter at the back of the class. Later students are moving around the classroom they are asked to pick a side. After which they sit in groups of 4 and work with cards to pick advantages and disadvantages. This layout did not let students any opportunity to stay off task, as the teacher was sitting down with every group joining their discussion.

 

In the beginning, the students were in rows, but when the Ipads have been given out, they grouped in groups of 3 based on project topics to fill out their handout forms. They worked in groups all class, teacher mostly stayed in one location, because the room is too small for the number of students they have and it is impossible to move around the room. Bad design of the classroom prevents teacher to circle around and check if students are staying on task.

 

Students were lined in individual seats in 4 rows at the beginning. During the 2nd  activity, they had to walk around the room to find the right word. And during 3rd activity, the teacher was reading a definition of a word and the student who had this word had to stand up to show he learned the new word. Then they continued reading books.

 

 

Types of Activities:

Teacher conducted Socratic seminar-style discussion from the start, he asked a general question, like: “What is Appeasement?” The students answered his questions, and then he guided them in the right direction by asking to follow up questions. Later he asked students to vote whether they think Appeasement was a good idea or not, they took different sides in the classroom. After that teacher grouped them into groups of 4 and handed out cards with various ideas where they had to find advantages and disadvantages. Later the students had to present the cards they have selected and justify their answers.

 

Students did one activity in class: using Ipads to research information and analyze sources of their reliability and bias. I do similar activities with my students because their Summative Assessment deadline is approaching and the handout is one of the requirements. The teacher gave guidelines, but some students did not understand and went to speak to the teacher one on one to get directions.

 

Class started with a question: Are movies and books the same? The class is reading Alice in Wonderland and the teacher was playing the film pausing it and asking what happens next, this allows her to check if students read the chapter or not. Then she asked if they knew what was different in the book, for example, the rabbit in the book looked different than the rabbit in the cartoon.

After that, the teacher gave out two types of papers one blue with the English word on it, and white with a Chinese translation. The words did not match, so students were asked to find the right Chinese word and exchange.  Then they moved on to find those words in the book, the teacher made sure they pronounce the words correctly.

The 3rd activity started with the teacher reading the definition of words in English and student who had that word on his/her desk had to stand up to show he/she understands.

 

 

Students Interactions and Positive and Negative Strategies Used by the Teacher

The moment teacher walked into the room he addressed the discipline issues and tried to prevent possible disruptions further since he knows his student Mike likes to chat and distract others, he gave Mike a choice, stay nearby his friends but remain quiet, but if he distracts others he will go back to his seat. Of course, Mike could not keep his word and had to move to his own seat. When the classroom was set in rows and the teacher was doing Socratic seminar style activity, 4 students in the back of the class were engaged in random chatter thanks to Mike, but teacher always point out to that, at first he was addressing it in a positive, joking, but firm way, and when the chatter did not stop, the teacher separated the students. 

 

There was another student Jude, who likes to answer all questions without giving other students any chance to speak, and the teacher appreciated her answers, but in a nice way asked her to give chance to others, and other students immediately stepped in. He rewarded them with candy and compliments.

 

With some very confident and humorous students, he would use examples from history, and say things like: “We have made the nonaggression agreement, remember? You have to pretend to be nice to me for another 30 minutes”. I thought that was a fun way to remind students of the previous material.

 

Withitness: This teacher has shown the highest level of Withitness, he knew what was happening in every corner of the classroom even when he was facing the whiteboard because he knows his students very well and can predict any type of behavior.

 

In Social Science class students had enough freedom to collaborate on topics as well as talk to the teacher. The teacher warned students to stay on task and warned not to play piano on ipads. But two students the moment they got ipads in their hands did just that, played piano, they did not even turn the volume down. It took the teacher a while to realize they were off task, but when he did, he took away their ipads. He was loud, remaining positive and gave them a little too much freedom, so a lot of students were off task. Therefore, I think this teacher’s level of withitness is 3, he could be more firm in his discipline, to make sure students follow the rules. Even when he took away the ipad from a student who was playing on the ipad, he could assign some discipline measure, instead of just taking away the ipad and ignoring him. The school’s ipads don’t have any games and even access to the apple store, the only fun tool in it is the Garage band and students play with it every time they can.

 

The teacher wrote each student’s name on the board and was giving points for the right answers, guess or any negative behavior. The teacher was very positive and fun, so students paid attention, raised hands, and seemed to enjoy the class a lot. The points motivated them a lot, they got very competitive and got very upset if someone got the point and they did not. This ensured great involvement from students. Another technique the teacher used was warning students that she is about to ask a very very difficult point, and the students would pay attention. This teacher’s tandem was set up in a good cop/bad cop scenario. The Chinese teacher was the bad cop, she had the green discipline notebook where she would write the names of students who were off task repeatedly. And when one student got the record in the notebook, she still stayed off task she had to stand up and remain standing. This method was used only in case of severe disruptions. I think this teacher’s level of withitness was also very high, she knew the potential troubles with some students and addressed them directly and draw the sleepy points for sleeping in class, but also, it was easier for her, since she had a Chinese teacher walking around with the discipline notebook and patrolled the class. 

 

References:

 

Edutopia. (2018). The Dos and Don'ts of Classroom Management: Your 25 Best Tips. Retrieved from: http://cdn2.hubspot.net/hub/94958/file-1524764724-pdf/Dos_and_Donts_of_Classroom_Management__Your_25_Best_Tips.pdf?t=1425408273000

 

Marzano, R.J. (2017). The Art and Science of Teaching. Alexandria, Virginia: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. Retrieved from: https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/platform-user-content/prod-copy/get_help_resources/activity_resources/module4/The_Art_and_Science_of_Teaching.pdf

 

 

 

 

 

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