Analyzing Observations

Case Study: Mr. Smith Assumptions:  

     After observing Mr. Smith’s class for ten minutes, I assume that the students are not engaging or collaborating with others in think- pair- share activities. Also, students are not given the opportunity to learn on their own, analyze and create artifacts to show what was learned. Thus, the teacher did not differentiate the materials for students.  The students are expected to learn at the same rate and manner. 

Questions:  

     As the evaluator, I would ask the teacher to explain the learning objective and what informal observations were used to see if the students were mastering the objectives? Next questions, what activities could students complete to demonstrate their progress of the learning objectives? How could you have used student grouping to engage students in learning? What strategies were used for differentiated instructions? How could you have expanded the lessons for those students who mastered the objected and finished the work early? How would you use the exit ticket to further the lessons for those who did not understand and those who did master the objectives? 

Positive Feedback: 

     The positive feedback would include that the teacher’s material was comprehensive, informative and had several visuals and textual items to support the content.  The classroom management were outstanding, no disciplinary problems. Also, several students asked questions for clarity and understanding. The students seemed to be engaged in their learning. 

Constructive Feedback: 

     The constructive feedback would include what I would have liked to have seen involving student engagement, grouping, peer interactions, conversations and students explaining and clarifying the concept. Since research shows that cooperative learning (Kagan.1989), engagements students to grasp the concept because it allows the students think- pair - share with each other, internalize the information, rethink, and formulate into a cohesive understanding that will allow the student to state what they understand and learned.  

     Thus, my feedback would include the question, What ideas would implement cooperative learning that you can include in your lesson plan? Also, what strategies can show differentiated instructions, higher level thinking and next step for those who understand the concept but are waiting for the class. Lastly, since I was present for only a short amount of time, which informal assessments would have worked best for the groups. This question would be asked because I would imply that the teacher gave a lot of information but did not check for understanding of the lesson.  

     Therefore, how did the teacher know if the learning objective was successful with all the students? And what would be next for those who did not understand and those who did? Thus, in my constructive feedback, I would try to get the teacher to self-reflect with the question and statements because I would want him/ her to recognize these things for themselves with an “ahh” moment.

Reflection

     My reflection on Mr. Smith’s case assumes that Mr. Smith thought it best to have student work independently because the students were not seated in groups but in rows, thus little collaborations, group discussions and pair -share were not established or ongoing in their learning environment.  I also assumed that students were not fully engaged because few students asked questions to clarify concepts, many took notes but there were no informal assessments, classwork, or projects to be completed to determine how much students knew and retained.  

     Even though the material was delivered in several ways, graphs and reading, the students were not internalizing the information because the students were not assigned to complete anything. Based on these assumptions, I posed questions for Mr. Smith to reflect upon and guide him to reasonable solutions that will encourage student engagement, cooperative learning, and different methods to teach the concepts and informal assessments.  

     I also wanted Mr. Smith to think about what lessons could be next for those students who understood or did not understand.  These lessons would help student analyze and create something tangible and reinforce the learning objectives for all. 

References
Kagan, S (1989). "The structural approach to cooperative learning". Educational leadership (0013-1784), 47 (4), 12.

Example Text