Lesson Clarity

Lesson clarity is very important when it comes to teaching.  If a teacher is not teaching effectively, the students will not get anything out of the class.  Like I said in my previous blog, Ms. A has the students write down the schedule at the beginning of class.  This is effective because it sets out the plan for the day.  It is clear what is going to happen and the students have a direction for the day.  My teachers all through my schooling have had the lesson plan written on the board for the students to see.  This helps students know what is happening and what the objectives and goals are for the school day.  

This week in Ms. A’s class the students were reading a scary story because Halloween was quickly approaching.  It is great to see a teacher who connects lessons to real life and the seasons.  This is called inclusive curriculum, where the curriculum is culturally relevant and introduces a variety of ways to learn.  The students were listening to the story on a CD and they were following along in their textbooks.  They could read and hear the story at the same time.  Ms. A would periodically stop the tape and ask the students questions.  This is known as critical pedagogy, where teachers are encouraged to pose questions to the students and present curriculum in ways that challenge students.  This is a great lesson strategy.  It helps keep the kids focused and engaged with the reading.  My middle school teachers would do this same strategy.  I remember they would randomly call on kids who didn’t look like they were paying attention.  Ms. A does the same thing. 

After the kids finished the scary story, she had them work on writing their own frightening tales.  They had to include five different literary techniques, such as humor, figurative language, repetition, and full-circle endings.  Before they could type their stories, they needed to have an adult in the room read over their paper.  This was effective because it introduces the scaffolding technique.  When students do not understand the material, the teacher can work with them to model the skills when they are beyond their ability.  I helped a boy fit in the techniques he needed.  It is more helpful for struggling students when they receive help one-on-one.  It is also good that students of different abilities are in the same class. 

Ms. A showed a good example of lesson clarity.  However she did give the students an hour to work on their stories and several of them had finished early.  Is there a better way to manage the classroom time?  Social interaction is also important in the classroom.  Could Ms. A include partnering or group work to help the students work together more?     

Classroom Management

                Classroom management is very important when it comes to teaching.  Students need to respect the teacher and the classroom should have some control.  As students come in the door Ms. A greets them and has them write the daily schedule in their planner.  She also tells them what they need for the day, like their book or a notebook.  I think this is an effective way to start class because it gets the kids ready to focus.

                Ms. A says that discipline is her weakest point.  The day we were observing there were several kids who were misbehaving.  One kid jumped across the desks to get to his seat.  She told him to go back to the other side of the classroom and walk to his desk instead.  It was good that she called this kid out because other students shouldn’t think it’s okay to jump around the classroom.

                When she is trying to get the attention of the class she holds her hands up and counts down from 5, but she doesn’t say anything out loud.  I don’t know if this is the most effective strategy because it is silent.  Also, Ms. A tells the kids to use “kid words,” to describe the vocabulary word list.  This seems juvenile, even though they are in 7^th grade I think they are more mature than that.  It does help the students know the terms in an easier language.

                One kid was reading while Ms. A was lecturing.  She went over to his desk and asked his quietly to pay attention.  I thought this was a great strategy because it didn’t embarrass him, but it helped him focus more in class.  Another kid was loudly talking and distracting the whole class while Ms. A was reading out loud.  She asked him to take over the reading to the class.  This worked really well because it was effective.  This was a benefit of keeping the trouble maker in class, versus sending him to the hall or to the office.

                Certain students are slower, and Ms. A will help them and explain the instructions over again which is great since there are different levels of learning in the classroom.  When students are absent, she pairs them up with another student who was in class to have them explain the work they missed.  That way she doesn’t have to explain the instructions over again and it means more classroom involvement.  When the students are working on a project, Ms. A sets a timer for 10 to 15 minutes.  This means kids can’t argue with how long they have been working.

                Overall, I think Ms. A does a great job of classroom management.  There will always be several kids who are disruptive.  I think they respect her as a teacher and the classroom.  Her strategies remind me of my middle school years.  My teachers handled rowdy kids the same way Ms. A does, they try not to embarrass them but they just bring the students back to the focus of the class.