Emily_CO_2

My second classroom observation was Calyn Stringer’s group 2C composition class.  The class started out with her quickly taking roll, having me introduce myself to the class, and writing the agenda on the board.  She reminded the class that if they have three days with everyone present, then she would bring doughnuts.  Unfortunately, there were some absent students today, but she used this scenario as a way to explain the phrase “preaching to the choir.”  (She needs to be preaching to the people who are absent because the choir already knows what to do and is always on time, so preaching to the choir would not be very helpful to them).  This was a good analogy, and the students will remember it better because it pertains to their own lives.  Next, they reviewed transition and connection words.  After talking about them, they did a pair work fill-in-the-blank activity.  The teacher walked around and helped anyone that needed help while doing this.  When time was up, she called on students to answer, and she typed in the right answers for the projected image.  Students were alert because they let her know when she typed something in the wrong blank.

The students had previously been given an outline sheet to work on for their next essay.  They worked on finishing their outlines and asked questions while the teacher made sure to walk around and check on everyone.  She was tied up for a few minutes with catching up some students that weren’t there the previous day, and during this time some of the students were on their phones or talking amongst themselves.  One girl started speaking Portuguese, and the guy sitting beside her said, “Hey, only speak in English please.”  The kind of feedback that the teacher gave was on thesis statements and content. 

After giving them time to finish their outlines, she told them to begin working on their first draft.  She played soothing music as they wrote, which was cool.  Most of the things I heard her correct was making words into adjectives (ex: traditional, classical).  She also had to make sure that their topic sentences were basic and that more details were included in the body of the paragraph.  To get them to include more details, she told them, “Pretend that I’m stupid and you have to explain everything.”  Some of the students were using electronic translators.  One student included the word “zillions’ in his essay, and she explained that that word is used in conversation but not formal writing.  She gave him a synonym, ample, and made him look it up himself. 
At the end of class she collected their papers and assured them that it’s okay if they didn’t finish because they will have two more days.  She just wanted to check on their progress and give them feedback on content.  I noticed that she was very encouraging and enthusiastic.  She made sure to tell them the great things about their essays and then made suggestions such as, “I would just work on your verb form.”  From what I saw, Calyn Stringer’s class will give students a positive washback.