Reflection on Mentor’s Observation
Class Title: Land-Grant and Organization introductions
For this class period, the main goal was to discuss the land-grant reading and to have informal presentations about the different organizations they can choose from for their assignment #3 essay.
- Welcome & Agenda. PowerPoint to show students what was due today, what we will do in class, and what the homework will be.
- Students spilt into groups (first groups are students who did the same readings). Students discuss main points from their reading and write them down. Then students get into groups with people who read different sections and share the main points from their section.
- Students share the most interesting points with the class (one section shared all their main points, this was done because one student was missing and therefore one group did not get the information from one section).
- Briefly explain the informal presentation and have students get into pairs or groups of 3 (with people who were assigned the same organization). Students then had time to share information and prepare for their presentations.
- Students give the presentations.
- Class discussion on organizations, WOVE, and audience.
My impressions of the class:
Overall I thought the class went well, but there are definitely some things I can do to improve it the next time I teach. The first problem I ran into was the amount of time the groups were taking to share their readings. Many students brought in a full page summary of their reading. I had told them to write down the key points, but I should have given them a specific number to limit the amount they shared. I would tell students to write down 5 key points form the assignment and then in their first group they should share and decide on a new top five (since each student might not come with the same five the first time). The students did do a good job at staying on topic while in groups but some groups took longer than others, so students began to chit-chat while we waited for the last group to finish. I think limiting the number of key points will help with this problem also.
I think that the informal presentations went well, but it would be nice to give them a little more time on it. Giving them time in the lab the class before to look up information and divide what each student will be in charge of. Then giving them the weekend to meet if they wanted. Then I could ask them to bring in a visual or something a little more detailed. I was very happy that every student spoke. I had told them that everyone should speak, but I was happy that they followed through with it. It was a little last minute that I decided to have them do these presentations first, but I really liked it. I do see that further planning could allow them to be even more successful.
Reactions to comments:
I had not noticed that I was might be too quiet, so it is helpful to have this feedback. I do know that I am a quiet person in general and I thought I was being loud enough. This is definitely something I need to work on. It will be difficult for students if they cannot hear me and hear the directions.
I do think that I could benefit from working on transitions. I have not thought about this before, but I can see how having smoother transitions can help the students feel like the class flows instead of just having activity after activity without fluidity. I liked the idea of posing questions to the students to help with transitioning. It would not take long and would be an easy fix. It could also me another element of getting students to talk during class.
My class is very quiet and I appreciated the suggestions of trying to interact with them more. I have already started to try and go around the class more and specifically talk to students that I know might be struggling or that I can tell are not working. I have also made a plan to do a mid-semester icebreaker to make sure that students are getting more familiar with each other. Some students have formed friendships with the people sitting around them, but they could benefit from getting to know all of the students. I have been trying to mix the groups up sometimes to help with this.
Another comment was about the jig-saw activity. I had also noticed that this did not go as smooth as I had planned. Limiting the number of key points, they were supposed to find and then share will help with this. I also liked the suggestion of having extra things for students to work on if they finish before other groups. This could be as simple as having a discussion question to pose to them, or just asking them to talk about how they might use their section to help with their own essay.
This observation/discussion was very helpful for me. It showed me things that I didn’t know I needed to work on like transitions and speaking clearly, and reinforced some points I knew needed work like the jigsaw activity. I was able to get some good ideas that will help me with my current class and future classes. I wanted my students to get to know each other and I think I was assuming that mixing the groups up would automatically help with this. I am definitely going to work on incorporating this more. In future classes, I will have them do icebreakers and name games more in the beginning of class and as well as a mid-semester icebreaker.