Victoria Glover

Professor Lyra Hilliard

ENGL388V
February 21, 2017

UTA Observation

I observed Elysas ENGL101 class with Professor Joshi on Tuesday, February

21, 2017. I arrived to the class about 5 minutes early, and Elysa was already there. She
had picked a desk in the front corner of the room. After greeting me, Elysa told me she
would be giving a lesson plan on plagiarism for the beginning of the class.
Before Professor Joshi arrived, Elysa had minimal contact with the students, but
she began gathering her materials and seemed to be prepping for her lesson plan. While
she did so, some students were quietly looking on their phones, and others were talking
among themselves. When Professor Joshi walked in the door, she and Elysa
immediately greeted each other and went over a quick game plan for the days class. I
noted Professor Schatz and I typically do the same thing, especially if he and I havent
met in his office before heading to class.
Elysa seemed very prepared for her lesson plan, and it was obvious she and
Professor Joshi had collaborated before class. I would have been interested to see what
this collaboration had looked like outside of class. Professor Schatz usually gives me a
lot of freedom when I have delivered any sort of lesson plan, or if I teach something in
the class. Occasionally he will ask me to go over or teach something on the spot while
he writes things on the board. This might scare some people, but I like that he keeps me
on my toes.
The class knew class officially began when Professor Joshi started speaking.
She told them the agenda for the day, made some brief announcements, and then
handed it over to Elysa. Elysa went to the front of the room and Professor Joshi took
her spot in the front corner. Before she began, Elysa introduced me and told the class I
would be observing today. I really appreciated this, and I noticed nobody seemed
distracted by my presence in the back (except for a couple glances from the professor),
and I think introducing me and telling the class why I was there may have helped.
Elysas lesson plan on plagiarism did not seem like it tied in with a prior lesson,
but the topic is very important to address, and Elysa did a good job of putting it into
context by referencing upcoming assignments. While she was delivering her lesson plan,
students were very calm and not overly enthusiastic, but they were not exactly falling
asleep. I believe this was Elysas first time giving a lesson to this class (Professor Joshi
reminded them she was just another teaching figure and not to clap after her lesson), so
it seems they were just trying to give her respect. Some students seemed more
comfortable than others and were quick to answer her questions, so overall the lesson
went very smoothly. Best of all, the students all seemed prepared and ready to work.
Elysas lesson plan focused on plagiarism and how to avoid it. She began with an
activity. She gave the students an article about a real life incident where a graduate
plagiarized, and asked half the students to tackle one set of quotations from her work
(accompanied by the source the student plagiarized from) and gave the other set to the
other half of the room. Her question to the class was if they thought she plagiarized on
purpose. Some said yes, others said no, but Elysa pointed out that regardless of intent, it
still happened and it was wrong. When the students didnt exactly know what to say or
were more reserved, she would give them some leading questions to help facilitate
discussion. I appreciated Elysa beginning with an interactive activity that not only
required the students to internalize the information, but also form their own opinions and
use the article to back it up.
After the activity, Elysa gave a quick powerpoint presentation to define plagiarism
and look at how to avoid it (including how to paraphrase and summarize correctly). After
defining the terms and giving some definitions, she had the students practice in groups
where they had to summarize or paraphrase a quotation from a TED Talk. Again I
appreciated Elysa having an interactive activity. By the end of her lesson plan, I could tell
students were more engaged and focused. At no point did I see students on their phones
or computers; all their attention was on Elysa and her lesson.
After her lesson plan, Elysa returned to her seat at the front of the room. I noticed
she sat sideways while Professor Joshi continued her lesson, so her back was not to the
students. She was very attentive to the professor and kept eye contact the whole time.
Although students seemed more open to asking Professor Joshi questions than they had
with Elysa, Elysa would still chime in with a comment or take initiative to elaborate on the
answer to a question. I find I do the same thing while I TA. Last semester, I would sit in a
front desk, but turn it sideways so I could both pay attention to the professor but also
address the students without having my back to them. This year, we are in a classroom
in the architecture building, so there are tables and not desks. I opted to sit at the front of
the room but still angle my chair sideways. As for communicating with the class, I too
sometimes jump in to answer questions or elaborate on Professor Schatzs answers.
Occasionally he will defer questions to me as well.
This leads to another observation I had. Professor Joshi and Elysa seem to have
a professional but also comfortable relationship with each other. They each took their
own turn speaking and dont do a lot of tag-teaming, but they would occasionally
elaborate on each others contributions to the class. I would say Professor Schatz and I
have a similar relationship, but we have more tag-teaming than Elysa and Professor
Joshi do. He and I will typically take turns talking about a topic, and occasionally have
different opinions (which we are not afraid to share with the class). I could understand
where having more than one person teaching would be distracting (especially for
freshman), but I think our approach is 1) for a more mature and experienced group of
students and 2) enables our students to feel comfortable expressing their own opinions,
even if they dont align with ours.