Observation of Imelda Wistey

Day: Monday

Date: November 14th, 2016

Location: Classroom

Lesson:

This lesson took place at the end of a unit for English 250. Students were giving presentations about research they conducted over a “monster” of their choice.

  • Before class started, the front light was turned off and powerpoint for the class period were brought up onto the laptop by the instructor in preparation for the class.
  • Greeting to the class and reminder that they will continue doing presentations today (two weeks of presentations with four students per day, this was the first day of the second week).
  • Presenters names are written on the board and students are reminded of their presentation groups. Students in the same group as a presenter must ask a question.
  • Attendance sheet is passed
  • Overview of what is to come in the following weeks and time for questions
  • Reminder of the time warning instructor gives during presentations
  • Presentations
  • Reminder of what is happening through this week, due dates, and positive comments on how presentations are going.

Observations:

There was not a wide variety of methods used throughout the class since it was presentations. It was instructor led in the beginning and individual when students presented. There were moments of whole group when students asked questions.

There was one difficulty that actually occurred before class. The instructor was told the projector had overheated the class before and the room was warmer than usually because of this. The projector was still working, so the instructor kept the door proper slightly open to keep cool air circulating in the room. She made sure students were okay with this first, since students would be presenting.

There was also a time when a student was part of the presentation group but did not ask a question, which they were supposed to do. The instructor took time to ask the student if they had a question they wanted to ask. The student took a moment and then thought of something. This allowed the student to be involved even if they was struggling to speak up or had forgotten which presentation group they were part of.

Students seemed respectful of the instructor but still maintained a light atmosphere where the instructor or students could make small jokes. Everyone seemed ready for the day and knew what they were supposed to do. Students knew what presentation group they were in and asked questions after the presentation, with the exception of the previously mentioned student.

The instructor did a nice job of keeping everyone on task and presentations moving smoothly. Students knew when it was their turn since the order remained on the board the whole time. They were given warnings for when they had three, two, and one minute left in their presentation. The instructor would thank the presenter after the questions section which signaled that they could sit down and that the class should applaud. It also gave validation to the presenter that they had done well. The instructor also praised the class, as a whole, because presentations were going very well and she hoped the trend would continue.

Post-Observation talk:

We discussed some of the preparation leading up to the presentations. Every student was required to turn their PowerPoint in at the same time. This allowed for the instructor to make sure that the students were prepared and for time to set up the PowerPoints before class began to help keep transitions quick and effective. The use of time warning cards were also done to help make sure students do not go over on time but can properly adjust time to make sure they still get to their conclusion.

We also discussed the attendance sheets. Each class period has an attendance sheet created with is printed. The sheet has the class/instructor information, current date, and pre-numbered lines. This allows her to keep an accurate record that can be referred back to if a student thinks the information is incorrect. Having the information printed on prevents students from claiming that she has tampered with the date or it was from a different day. The numbering lets her easily check if a student is missing before reading through the list.

Application to my teaching:

One aspect that I want to apply to my teaching is the use of warning cards. I had told my students, during their presentations, that I would wave at them when they had one minute left. This did not work as well as I wanted. Students would not see my hand right away and then by the time they say it, they would have less than a minute but there was not an easy way for me to tell them this. I think giving multiple warnings would be a great way to fix this problem. I could have a real sign that tells them the number of minutes left. This would make sure that they did not notice the warning 20 seconds before time is up.

I also liked the idea of presentation groups. I think this is a useful strategy. They can do group work first and become comfortable with each other. They would also know when they needed to ask questions without have to be reminded every time. For my classes first presentations, I assigned two students to each presentation that were required to ask questions. I thought that it went well and it encourage other students to ask questions also. However, it was slightly confusing that I would have to announce three names before each presentation and students were a little confused about when they were supposed to evaluating/asking questions. For their second presentation, I did not require this because I was worried about going over on time and thought students might be more willing to ask since they had on the first presentations. Instead, I had only one student ask a question throughout the all of the presentations. I think using the group system will make the process less confusing and help with confidence in asking a question. It will also help that they have seen some of the material or heard about the idea before from doing pre-presentation group work with the same people.

Lastly, I definitely want to use the pre-printed attendance sheets for the class. I think passing around a paper is a much easier way to take attendance. It can be a documented record or proof of attendance that they have signed incase students try to fight the attendance record you have reported. I also like that an attendance sheet also for an easy way to keep track of who is counted late or not. If a student misses the assignment sheet while it is being passed around, then they are late to class and they would be responsible for coming at the end of class to sign the sheet if they want credit which helps them maintain responsibility for being late and makes them well aware that they are being counted late.