Cycle Background - 4/5Th Blended

¶ … Cycle Background - 4/5th Blended Classroom of Highly Capable Students in a Suburban School. Demographics and psychographics listed below. Teacher is Mrs. K., a 18-year vetran teacher who has been working with HC children for the last three years. The Student Teacher, Mr. R., is finishing up his Master's in Teaching, and will graduate in 6 weeks. This is his 3rd career. The Principal, Dr. J., is a secondary observer of interaction with Mr. R. The lesson in question is a critical thinking lesson in preparation for the student's annual standardize progress tests (50 minutes).

CW Elementary

Gender -- 53% female, 47% male

Ethnicity -- 59% Caucasian; 28% Asian (including East Indian); 3% Latino; 2% African-American, 8% Other

Community Income: Average $69,400

Educational Level of Community: 44% College or Advanced Degree

Classroom Characteristics: Enriched classroom, 20 students, 12 girls, 8 boys; 40% Asian, 60% Caucasian. Room is arranged in a rather traditional manner, 3 rows of desks facing the front. Teacher area is small computer/smart board section in the front of the classroom.

Preliminary Conference -- Mrs. K states that Mr. R. is a natural teacher, engaging with the children, full of enthusiasm and ideas. She indicates that Mr. R. sometimes does not move as fast through the lessons as she would like since there is so much to cover prior to the standardized testing. In prior observations Mr. R.'s school supervisor has observed and expressed concern that Mr. R. is going "too fast" through the lessons, which seems a conundrum. The primary goal of this observation is to assess pacing and make some suggestions for accumulating signals that will help Mr. R. balance the two approaches. Dr. J. is also attending to assess Mrs. K's role as a mentor teacher, and Mr. R's progress through his student teaching experience.

Class Description and Purpose

Instructional Strategies

P

Presentation/lecture

PM

problem modeling

PWD

presentation with discussion

RSW

reading seat work (if in groups, add SGD)

CD

class discussion

D

demonstration

HOA

hands-on activity/materials

CL

coop learning (roles)

SGD

small group discussion

TIS

teacher/instructor interacting w / student

AD

administrative tasks

LC

learning center/station

UT

utilizing digital educational media and/or technology

OOC

out-of-class experience

A

assessment

I

interruption

WW

writing work (if in groups, add SGD)

SP

student presentation

Other

Student Role:

HE

high engagement, 80% or more of the students on-task

ME

mixed engagement

LE

low engagement, 80% or more of the students off-task

Time in minutes:

0-5

5-15

15-25

25-40

40-45

45-50

Instruction

Type

PWD

I

PM

SGD

I

PWD

I

PM

HOA

I

PWD

P, TIS, CD,

I

Student

Role

ME

HE

HE

ME

ME

HE

Observational Notes - Mr. R led the class through a series of critical thinking issues by using a mystery "The Mystery of the Missing Cookie," as a case study. He introduced the lesson, structured it so the children were given an overview, bits of information, then small group discussions, then more information, more discussion. He modeled the types of charts and graphic organizers that would be helpful to discover the culprit. The lesson was interesting in that it was multi-dimmension: elements of critical reading, writing, mathematics, some science, and even a bit of basic psychology. His method was almost entirely Socratic; very little actual information was given, rather he used guided questions to elicit information from the students based on clues from their handouts. The learning goals were clearly stated at the beginning of the lesson, and the last 5 minutes were a review of the lesson, the goals, and in the student's own words, what they learned and why it was important.