Obervation 2

    For our second observation, I observed a 10th grade history class. Although a major goal of the school seems to be to help students graduate, there are many other goals that were demonstrated in the classroom. The teacher seemed to be promoting self-reliance of the students. For the lesson, the students used laptops to research war technology throughout history, as well as current war technology. By allowing the students to independently research this topic, the teacher demonstrated the importance of self-reliance and accountability. Use of technology in the classroom also prepares the students for real world experience.

MICROTEACH II

Observation: Assessment

   The first classroom that I observed was a 10th grade English class. The students were finishing reading the novel, The Lord of the Flies. The student teacher read the last paragraph of the novel out loud with the students. After finishing the book, the teacher asked the class as whole some very basic questions, in order to assess their understanding. The questions would probably fall at the bottom of Bloom's Taxonomy and were about details of the story. There were no questions about the deeper thematic elements of the novel. There were some students who were engaged, but there were many who were not paying attention. After this, the students watched the movie version of the novel.  I think, at this point, it would have been beneficial to the students to provide a questionnaire about the film in order to keep the students engaged. I've seen that film and it is very boring. Aside from engaging the students, it would also allow the teachers to have concrete evidence of whether or not the students understood the novel, and to what extent.
    The second classroom that I observed  was an 11th grade English class. They were reading the short story, "The Devil and Tom Walker," by Washington Irving. This class was a bit more structured than the last, and the teachers provided concrete ways to assess their understanding of the story. The students were given a worksheet with questions about each section of the story. As the students worked on the assignment independently, one teacher went around the classroom to check in on each student. Between sections, the other student gathered the class back together and read passages. He then would throw out some basic questions about the story for any student to answer in order to make sure they were engaged and on the same page (ha!). I think this was a more successful form of assessment, because it allowed the teachers to evaluate each students analytical understanding of the text in addition to the basic plot details.

Microteach I

My Classroom

I imagine my classroom to be one that is lively and intellectual. As someone with a background in anthropology, I have an interest and passion for culture and would like to convey that through my classroom, both in the layout and through my teaching style. I would prefer a smaller, more intimate setting and would like my class to be led by classroom discussion and debate. I think the best way to do this would be to arrange the classroom so that the desks are in a circle.

My main goal as a teacher is to bring culture to the classroom. Literature is the perfect medium for transmitting cultural and social ideas, which can broaden a student’s learning experience and expose them to concepts that go beyond the classroom. I would like to teach the way that I was taught. In many of the classes where I have been a student, teachers have treated the students as pupils, but also as equals on an intellectual level. I also hope to conduct my classroom as a seminar style college class. I think that this is the most effective way of learning. I hope to one day teach in a classroom that is diverse so we can share multiple real life perspectives. In addition to teaching from the conventional literary canon, I would like to be able to use literary materials that are diverse and can relate to students on a personal level. Although it still holds significance, I hope to demonstrate to students that English class goes beyond studying Shakespeare and Dickens.

As an English teacher, I also think it is important to not only teach students about literature and how to read and analyze text, but it is important to teach about the English language and language itself; how language works on a social and cultural level, syntactic level, and historical level. Having some background knowledge of linguistics will be something that is beneficial when comes to teaching English. I believe that I did not gain enough of this knowledge in high school, and it is something that is important. I think these aspects will help to cultivate students that can think critically, not just about literary texts, but about culture and the way that it can relate to literature.