Microteaching II

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A story of classroom environment

                I arrived at Portsmouth High School with a good idea of what to expect. It was a fairly large building of mostly brick and concrete construction. I realized I did not have any idea where I should park, so I picked a spot only to discover I made the wrong choice upon checking in at the main office. My contact met me and showed me to the first class I would be observing.

                It was an AP Psychology class. The room contained a lot of the typical furniture: a teacher’s desk, student desks, a couple small tables, a pair of filing cabinets, and a supply closet. The student desks were arranged in two rows in a semicircle configuration, amphitheater style. The teacher’s desk was near the corner of the room and would be left mostly unused throughout the class as the teacher mostly moved around the “stage” area of the amphitheater. A digital projector was attached to the ceiling. Unlike some classrooms, there were no computers in the room other than the teacher’s laptop.

                The more interesting parts of the room were on the walls. There were typical classroom items like the whiteboard, shelves with books, maps of Asia and Central America, a United States demographic map, a clock, and cork bulletin boards. But these were boring. Slightly more interesting were the various small framed history related photographs/posters, like Lee Teter’s Reflections. The objects my eyes were most drawn to were the painted portraits of The Joker and Harley Quinn above the whiteboard. I wondered if these were made by a student and given to the teacher. The other most eye catching object was a full-sized medieval armet helm on the shelf near the books. It was a nice-looking replica, though I suspected it was not student-made and constructed from acrylic or resin, not steel.

                Other than the handful of oddities in the room this was a familiar, and thus comfortable, classroom environment. The same could be said for what I saw of the entire school. It was larger, but similar to the one I attended twelve to sixteen years ago. This was probably because the majority of their construction was fairly recent and utilitarian compared to Nathanael Greene Middle School, which I assume is older with a more ornate exterior and interior.

                I had taken a seat in one of the student desks at the end of the semicircle before the students started to arrive. There were only thirteen of them, eight female and five male. It was not a very diverse group, as only one student appeared to be Latino while the rest were white. It being Portsmouth, it was safe to assume they were mostly from middle-class families. The only disability, which sounds like too strong a word, that could be identified among them were vision problems when a few of them had to move up to better see the white on grey (a choice the teacher regretted) PowerPoint slides. The teacher himself was white, and probably middle-class class too.

                The students were talking to each other a lot as they settled in, but were not out of control and the teacher was unconcerned. Some of their conversations were even about the class, and the teacher was able quiet them down quickly since it was time for a quiz. The students took a short multiple choice quiz and once they finished, the teacher had them exchange quizzes and began to go over it. The teacher called on a student to read the question and the answer on the quiz they had, he would tell them the correct answer.

                Up to this point the class was everything I had expected it to be, but here was where things changed. Many of the answers the students had were wrong, but, unsolicited, the students were asking why the answer was wrong and explaining to each other why. A particular point of confusion was the concept of negative reinforcement, but the students with a better grasp on it were able to help the others. This kind of interaction continued throughout the remainder of the class, with the teacher asking short, open-ended questions and letting the students discuss them. Each student sometimes spoke for over a minute at a time. This teacher had control of the class, but let the students dominate the time.

                The environment seemed ideal and it was clear the students were fully engaged and had a good relationship with their teacher. That is not to say it was perfect. Though they were paying attention, four of the five male students did not participate much in the class discussion, so the female students overwhelmingly dominated class time. The students were courteous, allowing one another to speak often without being prompted or called upon, but this was partially a result of the small class size. It would be difficult to be so informal in a class with twenty-five or more students.

                As the class closed, the teacher reminded the students of an assignment where they were to plan a way to solve a theoretical problem in the school cafeteria through the use of conditioning. After the class ended and I was leaving, I was a little surprised with how great of an environment that teacher created in his class. This classroom was similar to some of the better college courses I have taken and I would have enjoyed being in this class in high school. However I had to temper my enthusiasm, as this was the accomplishment of just one teacher with an AP class, meaning all these students likely exceeded the expectations of the school. I was right in my assumption, as the teacher in the next class I visited had not cultivated the same impressive environment. Still, even with my small sample size, I think most of the students like the school and receive a better than average education in it.

The Reverse Engineered Lesson Plan

Lesson Plan Template for SED 406 and 407 part 1 = planning
Teacher Candidate: NC	Subject: European History	Grade(s): 12
Name of Lesson: The Age of Absolutism: The Reigns of Peter and Catharine the Great
Learning Objective(s), including Bloom's taxonomic level: (label A, B, C, *D) *optional Analysis Students will analyze a document for evidence of how Peter the Great changed Russian society. Synthesis Students will, in groups, create biopoems for Peter or Catherine the Great demonstrating an understanding of the motivations and accomplishments of the two monarchs.
Student Standards (GSE or/GLE or Common Core-in draft for math/science- list which): GSE: C&G 1: People create and change structures of power, authority, and governance in order to accomplish common goals.
Teacher Standards (professional society and/or NETS  and RIPTS-list which): RIPTS: Teachers create instructional opportunities to encourage all students’ development of critical thinking, problem solving, performance skills, and literacy across content areas. Teachers use appropriate formal and informal assessment strategies with individuals and groups of students to determine the impact of instruction on learning, to provide feedback, and to plan future instruction.
Rationale: Why this lesson? How does it fit into the curriculum and context? Is this the introduction, conclusion, or somewhere in the middle of the unit of instruction? This lesson will allow students to understand how a powerful leader can shape a society.
Materials/Resources needed, including technology: Student “Bell Ringer” notebooks.  Projector. Paper. Textbooks.
Accommodations and Modifications (special needs and learning styles) For example:  Dr. Kraus has poor vision and needs written material to be at least 12 pt. font.  He also reads two grade levels higher and needs appropriate reading material.  The guides for notes, which eliminate a good deal the writing necessary for note taking, allows all students to keep up.
What content resources support this knowledge base? (list at least 2) Class Textbook, Vasili Klyuchevsky’s Peter the Great
How confident are you in this topic as you start this lesson? 5/10 I think I could teach this lesson, but I do not feel like I have enough knowledge of Russian history to be comfortable with it.

Lesson Plan Template part 2 = action
Bell-ringer: How will you get students seated, and ready for academic work? (without your voice) Have Bell-ringer assignment written on the whiteboard, letting students know they should get their bell-ringer notebooks for the bell-ringer assignment.
Anticipatory Set: How will you introduce the material, interest the students, show relevance of topic? Write the Essential Question (What role did monarchs play in shaping their countries politically, socially, and culturally?) and a rough outline of class along with the homework assignment.
Phase (change as needed)/Time	Teacher action	Student action	Questions/Assessments
e.g. Intro/1 min.	Remind students to get their bell-ringer notebooks and distribute the document needed for the assignment.	Retrieve their bell-ringer notebooks and get seated.	N/A
Bell-Ringer/10 mins	Review things on laptop. Wait for students to complete Bell-Ringer.	Students examine the bell ringer document and answer the questions associated with it.	N/A
Bell Ringer Discussion/ 10 mins	Review key terms. Ask questions related to Bell-Ringer document.	Answers questions.	What is absolutism? According to Klyuchevsky: What did Peter the Great do to control the Russian people? What effect did Peter the Great’s reforms have on Russian nobles?
Presentation or Open-ended/ 20-25 mins	Hand out guides for notes. Deliver note presentation using projector/PowerPoint slides.	Takes notes, answers questions.	Why were ports so important to a country? With trade comes? Why is access to the Baltic Sea important? How do you think nobility felt about Peter’s changes to Russia? What does domestic mean?
Instruction for Biopoem/ 5 mins	Pass out sheet with directions for how to construct a biopoem. Give directions for creating biopoem: -You may work with a partner. -Choose either Peter or Catherine the Great as your subject. -Use your notes, textbook, and bell-ringer document to help you construct the poem.	Listens to directions, distributes direction sheet.	N/A
Biopoem/ 25 min	Walk around the room, checking on student progress and answering questions.	Students work with a partner or individually to create their biopoem.	N/A
HW/ Closing 1 min	Tell students they should read pages 99-105 in their textbook and finish their biopoem if they did not finish it in class. (Also on the whiteboard). Tell students to put away materials that are left in class (borrowed textbooks, bell-ringer notebook).	Listen to directions, put away materials.	N/A
Review and Reflection: How will you review for students who are still having trouble? The Bell-Ringer assignment is discussed within class and reviewed.
Extension: What will you offer to students who have mastered this? N/A
*Closing: How will you review the material, and draw conclusions? (may be listed above) The Bell-Ringer was reviewed through a class discussion, much of the class content was left to be reviewed by the students on their own through the creation of their biopoems.

	Lesson Plan Template pt. 3 = reflection
WHAT?	What went well?   The Bell-Ringer assignment is a solid. Since it is a part of every class, it gets the students into learning mode right away. The biopoem is a nice, but not too involved, to hit the synthesis level on Bloom’s Taxonomy. The guides handed out for notes were a good way to go through the lecture/notes portion of the class quickly.
	What area of weakness needs addressing? Questions asked were generally low on Bloom’s Taxonomy. Some higher level questions should be added.
	Which objectives were met? What is the evidence? The Bell-Ringer notebooks and the biopoems, once they are all turned in, are evidence the objectives were met.
	Which students did not meet objectives? None that I could see.
	Was time managed appropriately? Time was managed fairly pretty well. Even with a minor delay due to some technical difficulties with the projector the lesson plan was completed. It is possible too little was planned.
	Did any teacher mannerisms or actions detract from the lesson? None that I noticed, other than some technical difficulties with the projector.
	*What were the strengths and weaknesses of classroom management? One student in particular made some comments to test the teachers’ patience, but at the beginning of class she let him know today was not the day and did not let the few subsequent comments bother her. That student still participated in the lesson activities so it was not problematic.
SO WHAT?	Was the lesson engaging? The students seemed to be fairly well engaged by the bell-ringer and biopoem assignment. The lecture/note taking portion was not particularly engaging for the students but perhaps could be made more interesting with higher level questions even if it ends up devoting more time to that portion of the lesson.
	*What did I learn from my peer observation (address at least one aspect)   The way in which the teacher used the bell-ringer assignment was my favorite part of her lesson. With some changes made to the questions/discussion to boost it to the top of Bloom’s Taxonomy it could be a very useful part of almost every class period.
NOW WHAT?	How will this experience influence your professional identity?  I will try to plan with questions high on Bloom’s Taxonomy since the other class I visited emphasized higher level questions and was engaging for students throughout.
	How will it influence how you plan/teach/assess in the future? I would likely use a similar bell-ringer assignment in future lesson plans. It gives students something to do right as they walk in the door and I like the idea of having a record of student document analysis. There are a lot of document types appropriate for this, from primary documents to a current news article related to the topic of the lesson in some way.