Third Observation

On my third visit I observed a 7th grade advanced language arts class and a 6th grade social studies class. In the 7th grade language arts class the students were put in groups of 3's and 4's. The group members sit at the same table and work together during group activities. One thing I really liked about the class was that the teacher encourages her students to work together to answer questions in class by giving points for class participation and correct answers. She tracks the group's points and gives them different rewards such as candy and chips. She also allows the leading group to sit on the couch she has in her classroom during silent reading time each day. It appears that her strategies have paid off because the students were extremely eager to participate during the various activities. The language arts teacher also incorporates different technology into her class everyday by using her smart board, playing music that pertains to what her lesson plan incorporates, and allowing her students to take turns using Quizlet on the computer. I wasn't familiar with Quizlet until I saw the students in her room using it, but after observing it's uses I think it is a wonderful tool that all teachers should be using. Quizlet allows teachers to create their own online learning games that incorporate the vocabulary words being taught in the classroom. The students seem to really enjoy playing these learning games and also learn a lot while doing so. I was very impressed with the vocabulary being taught to the 7th graders in particular the words perihelion, delineate, emollient, vociferous, petroglyph, and sine qua non. I don't remember learning words like that in middle school, but I think it is wonderful to expose as many words as possible to younger students.Overall, I was extremely impressed with this class. The behavior of the students was excellent and their eagerness to learn was apparent. It was hard to believe that I was in the same school due to the drastic differences in behavior compared to the other classes I have observed.
I also observed a 6th grade social studies class who was learning about Persia. At the beginning of class the students wrote key terms and definitions from their text book and then they copied notes from the smart board. During this time the students complained about having to take too many notes, and some of the students passed notes instead of doing what they were supposed to. The teacher finally caught two girls passing notes and took the note from them. She then proceeded to read it and told them that she was disapointed because they had written some very bad things in the note. I was surprised that she didn't do more to discipline them, but that must be common because her students seem to take advantage of her not being a strict disciplinarian. After they copied the notes, she told the class that they were going to watch the fight seen from the movie 300. This shocked me due to the extremely graphic violence shown in the movie. The fight seen shows the Spartans and the Persians fighting to the death, which is very brutal and bloody. From most of the students reactions I could tell that they had not seen the movie before. During the part where a person gets decapitated the students started to scream and couldn't get out of the class fast enough. I couldn't help thinking that if I was the parent of one of the students I would be extremely mad that the movie was shown at school. It was completely inappropriate to show to a 6th grade class.