POST-OBSERVATION CONFERENCE Classroom Teacher

Teachers may respond to the six questions prior to the post-observation conference. The responses may be used as an artifact of evidence (4a).

Name of Teacher: School: Date of Classroom Observation: Date of Scheduled Post-Observation Conference:

Aleya Shehata Spry Middle School March 21, 2013 March 28, 2013

I. In general, how successful was the lesson? Did the students learn what you intended for them to learn? How do you know? (1c, 3d, 4a) The lesson was pretty successful the students seemed for the most part to be engaged in the assignment and they were able to complete it. It was difficult for them, however, but as a result, it allowed a lot of conversations to be generated between the students, which is exactly what I wanted them to get out of the lesson. Also, the students submitted their assignments to me and were able to apply their knowledge to each part of the tiered assignment; as the level of difficulty increased, students were still able to complete the assignments, although some did require quite a bit of guidance. 2. If you were able to bring samples of student work, what do those samples reveal about those students levels of engagement and understanding? (3c, 3d) They reveal that the students were engaged and understood, but had difficulty with the assignment (you would see a lot of erased and retried work). I really enjoyed seeing the types of figures the students were able to create individually. 3. Comment on your classroom environment (i.e. procedures, student behavior, and your use of physical space). To what extent did these contribute to student learning? (2a, 2b, 2c, 2d, 2e) The students were originally sitting in pairs with their desks facing the front of the room while we were doing whole group instruction (going over the agenda, correcting homework mistakes, and giving directions for the days activities). After the students were asked to work in groups, however, they turned their desks so that groups of four could face each other. Each physical setting was made to complement the needs of the particular instructional activity. The students were well behaved as a result of structured classroom procedures that they have practiced since the beginning of the school year and the fact that they are just great kids. I will need to make sure to give up some of my control over this and allow the students some more autonomy when it comes to making the classroom their own, which will be difficult for a middle school setting.

4. Comment on ways in which your instruction engaged students in learning, (e.g., activities, grouping of students, questioning). To what extent were they effective? (1e, 3a, 3b, 3c, 3e) The time students have the hardest time focusing is when we are completing group instruction, especially when we are going over homework. To make sure the students were engaged, they were asked to raise their fingers with a number corresponding to the right answer. This meant that no student could really slip through the cracks; everyone had to participate. However, when the students are working in smaller groups, they are more engaged because more responsibility falls on them. They take ownership of their work and, again because the material was more challenging, they were able to communicate with each other, in order to complete the assignment. I walked around and used guiding questions to help students realize their misunderstandings and also to generate discussion between the members of the group. 5. Comment on the resources you chose for this lesson and the rationale behind those choices. (1d, 1e) I used a task from Illustrative Mathematics; this website is geared more towards having the students complete tasks that shift towards Common Core. This is why I chose it the task was deep, meaningful, and provided students opportunities to try problems outside of the box. 6. a) Did you depart from your plan? If so, how and why? (3e) I originally was going to have the students answer questions to the homework by calling on volunteers. In the previous class, however, the students were not as engaged, which is why I had the students hold up their fingers to answer each question. b) If you had a chance to teach this lesson again to the same group of students, what would you do differently, from planning through execution? (4a) I would give the students a lot more autonomy in the classroom since the shift in the classroom is being asked to move from teacher centered activities to student centered activities.