Observation of Brenda Tyrrell

Day: Thursday

Date: October 4^th, 2016

Location: Computer Lab (Laptop classroom)

Lesson: This lesson occurred near the end of a unit about documentary films of an English 250 class. The purpose of this lesson was to discuss questions that students might have about their current papers or about their documentary and to perform peer-reviews of their rough-draft papers.

Attendance
What is happening in the coming weeks/weeks
Explain upcoming presentations and PowerPoint submissions
Quick explanation of in-text citations for films
Questions about papers, presentations, or films
Examples of different film shots
Peer-responses

Observations:

Different methods were used throughout the class. The beginning was mostly instructor lead/whole class discussion and peer-response was individual/small group. Material needed would be a chalkboard to write the agenda and sources referenced during the class. Laptop to show examples of different film shots. Laptops/computers for peer-responses.

The instructor would always allow time for questions after each topic/discussion before transitioning to the next. She also gave the students options for how they wanted to do one of the discussions. They could choose to have a general discussion/asking questions about what should be included in papers or they could ask questions specific to their film.

Students seemed to respect the instructor and were quiet and stayed off their phones. However, the quietness is also an issue that the instructor had to deal with. There were many times when the students would not answer a question. She would always try to give time for students to ask questions or to answer her question. Sometimes prompting “anyone can answer” to encourage students to speak up. Eventually she made the comment, “Wow you guys are quiet today. This is your chance to ask questions”. This was to make sure students realized that this was an opportunity to have their questions answered and they should take advantage of it. Eventually, students did begin to speak up, but only a few actually had questions.

Post-Observation talk:

After observing we mostly discussed the quietness of the class because I am struggling with this also. She informed me that they have good days and bad and there isn’t much that can be done except encouraging them to speak and giving them time. I also asked about how she handled peer-responses. During class, she told students to get into groups to do peer-reviews, but did not instruct/prompt them on what they should be looking for or doing. This was new to me because my classroom needs lots of instruction during peer-responses or they will not work. She told me that they had gone over it previously and they are expected to remember.

Application to my teaching:

One thing that I liked was how she took attendance. She passed around a paper at the beginning of class and students would sign their names. I thought this would be a good idea because it would create less work for me and give students a sense of being late or not. If a student did not arrive in time to sign the sheet as it went around, then they must come up and sign it after class. If this was the case they would be counted late and it would not be a secret to them that they had arrived late, because missing the attendance sheet would be obvious. I would also like to figure out a stable way to do peer-reviews. Currently, I am trying out different ways to find which is the most helpful for the students. Once I find an answer, it would be great to be in a place where I can teach how to do peer-responses and then not have to explain it every time. I also like that she gave students an option for how they wanted the class to run (with discussion). This is something that I like to do and I want to continue to do with my class. I think that giving them the freedom to decide somethings can help them engage with the class and feel in control of their learning.