An Administrator's Guide to California Private School Law Compendium

D OCUMENT 5.C

S AMPLE W RITTEN C LASSROOM O BSERVATION Yesterday, I visited and observed your 11th grade American History class from the start of fourth period at 11:00 a.m. until it ended at 11:50 a.m. When the bell rang at 11:00 a.m., all of the students were sitting at their desks and when you began to talk they immediately quieted down. You started the lesson by explaining that you were going to go over the material in chapter three of their textbook, which they were supposed to have finished reading the day before. You then handed out an outline of chapter three, a copy of which is attached. You proceeded to spend thirty minutes discussing the concept of a global economy and explaining how and why economic factors in other countries impact the U.S. economy and vice- versa. You asked the students to break into groups of five and identified which five students would be in each group. You gave each group fifteen minutes to discuss and make a list of at least three ways in which economic factors in other countries impact their lives. You instructed each group to select a recorder to write the list and a spokesperson to read the list to the class after the exercise was completed. You told the students you would let them know when they only had five minutes left. The students quickly broke into groups and began discussing the assigned topic. The students were engaged and on-task. When ten minutes had passed, you told the students they only had five minutes left. Then after five minutes, you told them time was up and to return to their own desks. You then called on each group to have the spokesperson read the list. This took just a few minutes. You did not make any comments or ask for any discussion after the spokespersons read their lists. After the last spokesperson read the list, you commented those were some very interesting observations. You then handed out a written assignment to all students. The assignment was to write a paper on one of the ideas mentioned or another example of how the global economy impacts their lives and address the five specific sub-issues identified on the written assignment. You told the students the assignment would be due the following Friday and that the paper was to be between three and five pages typed. You told the students the bell would be ringing in two minutes, that they had done a good job in class and that they could pack up and chat until the bell rang. The lesson you gave was well planned, well executed, and interesting. The students were attentive and engaged. Your directions for the group project were clear. Your use of handouts was a good tool, but it was confusing why you handed out an outline of chapter three or what you expected the students to do with it. A simple explanation would have been helpful. Including something in an otherwise well planned lesson that is not clear detracts from the overall quality of the instruction and sometimes causes students to focus on what it is they don’t understand instead of the remaining well executed portion of the lesson.

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