Observation 2: Lesson Structure

Date: 10/15/18 Course Title: 6th Grade Math

Observer: Grace Cho Class location: Westwood Middle School
th th
Class Period, Grade Level: 5 Period, 6 Grade Teacher’s Name: Aaron Garlock

As part of your second observation, you must:

1. Observe several students individually (or a small group of students). This will involve
asking them to explain what they are doing and what results they have obtained. The idea
is not for you to teach them, but for you to understand their thinking instead. You will
need their signatures below.
2. Report briefly on your interaction, answering the questions below.
3. Be sure to collect a class syllabus, lesson framework, problem set, or other documents
handed out.

Questions
1. What were the goals of the lesson? How were they conveyed to the students?
There was not a lesson this week but students were given review problems to work on for
their test the following day. The goal of the class was for the students to work quietly
while studying/working for the test and ask any questions that they had. These goals were
conveyed by the teacher telling them that they had a test the next day and reminding them
that they need to bring up their grades. She was also sending anyone who was not
following directions out for timeout.

2. What was the structure of the class presentation—direct instruction, discovery,

group learning, etc.?
This week the structure of the class presentation was more individual and group learning.
The teacher attempted to use direct instruction where she gave the students time to work
on the problems alone and then she would go over each question with them. However,
she was unable to get the class focused and told the class to continue working without
talking.

3. What was the structure of the problem solving—modeling, discovery, collaborative,

pairs, individual, etc.—and what task was presented?

They were given review problems on a worksheet as well as a “Big 20” which is a
homework assignment due at the end of the week where students are required to show
work for the given review problems. Both the review problems and Big 20 were
individual and they were allowed to ask the teachers for help.
4. How did the students describe the task? Did they understand its purpose? What
approaches did the students use to complete the task?
They described the task as being difficult and didn’t want to complete the worksheets.
They understood that they had a test the next day but a lot of them didn’t care. They also
did not understand how to complete the task. I remember last week Mr. Garlock gave
them notes on exactly how to do these problems but the students that I talked to were in
the other classroom so I wondered if they were being given the same lessons that week.
One student that I talked to wanted to learn the material but there were so many
distractions in the classroom that she was not able to learn what she needed/wanted to.
The students depended on the teachers to work on them and also asked each other what
the answer was.

5. How were students interacting with each other?

The students were sitting in groups so they talked to each other. Sometimes about the
problems but most of the time they were just talking. When talking about the problems,
the students weren’t necessarily supportive of each other or helping each other.
Understanding a concept would be like a competition for them to see who got the answer
first or who understood how to do a problem more.

6. What was your overall impression of the interaction? What things will be important
for you to remember in planning and implementing Teach 1?
Overall, I think that this lesson was not exactly reflective of the class that I will be
teaching but I saw how important it was for me to have classroom management in this
specific period. For my lesson plan, I want to make my goals clearer and encourage
students to help one another positively. During my lesson plan, I also want to give them
extra time at the end to work on their practice problems as I go around and make sure
every student understood the lesson. I also have to remember to not give them too much
free time so that they are more focused on their work.

7. Signatures of students you talked to: