WESTERN

ILLINOIS
UNIVERSITY

I 0 November 2015
During my observation of Kate Kellner' s ENG 180 class, on October 2, 2015, I found Kate ' s
interaction with students to be friendly, while still maintaining authority, and her in-class
activities to be appropriate and varied. Overall, Kate presented an upbeat demeanor, a good sense
of humor, and an excellent rapport with her students, which are all important attributes of an
effective instructor.
Kate's lesson was very well structured, beginning with a clear agenda, which she wrote on the
board and reviewed with students at the beginning of class. Class began with a quiz, which Kate
did well to use as a means of structuring a follow-up interactive lecture on giving an oral
presentation. Kate called on students by name, asked excellent questions to encourage students to
think more deeply, and did a very good job of writing answers on the board to help the class keep
track of their ideas. At the end of this interactive lecture, Kate easily transitioned into group work
by explaining that they would practice what they had just discussed .
The group activity was a thoughtful one that involved just enough play to keep students
interested. Kate did well to move around the classroom to answer questions as they arose. Each
group was given sufficient time to prepare their mock oral presentations, and those presentations
showed that students had taken the activity seriously and attempted to use the tools for giving an
effective oral presentation that they had recently discussed. One thing that could have been
improved would be to pause after each mock presentation to discuss what went well-and
why-as well as what might have been improved. Though Kate did do this at the end of all of the
presentations, students found it difficult to recall details from those groups who went first.
After the group activity, Kate had a few minutes of class left, which she used to help students
start thinking about their real group presentations. She passed out an invention worksheet and
asks each group to review the worksheet together and consider how they would work together to
complete the worksheet before the next class period.
Overal I. Kate led an engaging class. Her interactions with students showed she has developed a real
rapport with her class. and based on my observation of her class, I am confident that Kate will
continue to work hard to ensure that her students are provided with quality instruction .

Department of English
College- of Arts and Sciences, Simpkins Hall 1 24, 1 University Circle, Macomb, IL 614n - 1390
Tel 309.298.1103 Fax 309.298.2974 www.wiu.edu / english