Formal Critique

Name of School: Buffalo High School

Name of Principal: Richard Grim
Name of Teacher: Rebecca Crockett
Grade Level: 9th Grade History
Title of Lesson: Decline of the Roman Empire

Planning:
The most helpful part of my planning was procedures section. The procedures section
allows you to organize how your lesson will unfold. Often times during the lesson you have to
deviate from the lesson plan to address problem areas or other topics, but with a detailed
knowledge of your procedure section it is easy to get back on topic and teach the pertinent
information to your students.

My group activity asked the students to think about the reasons that the empire was
divided, whether or not they agreed with the decision, and to support their decision with several
valid reasons. This made the students compare and analyze the decisions and think critically
about why they would have agreed or disagreed.

I would have focused more heavily on classroom discussion in developing my lesson

plan. I believe that the lack of input from the students hurt the overall impact of my lesson. I
would have allotted more time for the students to discuss the issues and I would have actively
sought to provoke responses. This will be discussed later in the Area of Improvements section of
the critique.

I find the WV CSO’s can be made to fit nearly any lesson plan. The NCSS standards are
much more specific and focus attention more so than the WV CSO’s. I could, not that I would,
teach all three teaches this semester with the same CSO’s and be correct every time. I feel that
the CSO’s range from the impossibly vague to the overly specific. I believe the CSO’s I choose
fit well into my lesson plan, but I could have used nearly five more because of their vague
references to history.

Implementation:
I think the group activity went well. I had a number of varied responses, which were all
valid to some degree. It also bodes well for my lecture in that students focused on several key
points we examined and described why they agreed or disagreed based on those points. I feel the
activity reinforced all the notes the students had taken from that day because the answers ranged
from economic implications, military implications, to cultural differences.

I believe the area that needed improvement the most was my class discussion planning. I
do plan to address that in my next lesson, and later in this critique. However, I do believe that my
objectives, strategies, and assessments were appropriate for the students I was teaching. I feel
that I focused on the information that was critical for the student success on the exam and for
progress in history all together. My objectives were important for the students to gain mastery of
the content, my strategies involved audio, visual, written, and tactile areas, and my assessment
allowed the students to show their mastery of the material we covered that day.
 The time I allotted for the lesson was nearly spot on. I feel that I could have easily
finished quicker if I had pushed the students through the lecture, but I let them work at a
comfortable pace. The class period is 90 minutes and by the time the administrative tasks are out
of the way I had a little over 80 minutes to work with. I think the time I allotted was a fair
amount because the students were allowed to work at a reasonable pace and the class still
finished with around 5 minutes to spare, which was spent studying for their exam on Thursday.

The sequence of procedures worked out very well. I ended up altering the times I had
allotted for some of the procedures in my Time Frames section, but I used that extra time at the
end to allow for more group work participation. I stuck very closely to my procedures and it
allowed a coherent lesson to be taught to the students. The group work was mildly difficult to
arrange as far as grouping students. In theory it was simple, students count to four then get in
groups, but in practice it was mildly chaotic. Students attempted to get in other groups with
friends assuming I would not notice, but after about 30-40 seconds of chaos it settled down.

My closure of the lesson came in two separate parts, but I do feel it could have been
much stronger. I reviewed by saying that the Western empire had faded away but the Eastern
empire would survive for 1,000 more years. Then I introduced some concepts that they would be
touching on, such as Roman influence in architecture, and finally the group activity was designed
to punctuate the lesson with some critical thinking. While the lesson summary could have been
stronger I do not believe that my lesson simply faded away.

The pace was not lively, as I have mentioned before, and I do not feel that it was my
fault. I was asked by my teacher to slow the pace of class down so students could take notes, but
I do not believe I was going quickly. The long pauses interrupted some of my planned questions,
and generally brought the class to a crawling pace. I feel that if I had been able to move at my
pace the students could have pulled more from the lecture than what they did.

My physical presence in the classroom varied. During the lecture I moved back and forth
across the room, and went to the projector often to move the overhead sheet down. I feel that I
kept an even balance in moving around the classroom during the lecture. During the group work
I visited with each group several times to check on their progress and make small suggestions.

Clarity of Presentation:
I believe that my tone and use of the proper English language was appropriate. I have a
habit of talking with my hands, so I gestured frequently during the lecture. I attempted to be
engaging; however I do not believe I was appealing in any form. I have some work to do with the
energy of my classroom which I plan to address in my next lesson.

I believe that my volume and speaking were appropriate at all times. I have extensive
knowledge of the material which allows me to digress while expanding student concepts, and I
believe helpful when trying to engage every student comment. I may need to work on my
pronunciation of names, or perhaps just pick a pronunciation and stick with it. I believe the
reason I asked for pronunciations is because of a fear of feeling inadequate in my historical
knowledge. I need to address this problem in my coming student teacher preparation.
 I do have some pet phrases that I wish to expel from my vocabulary and those are “umm”
and “uh”. I said “umm” with amazing frequency during my presentation, and it was not
projecting the proper image to the students, aka “the me I want to project.” I also need to slow
down my speaking in certain areas, but I feel that overall I kept a moderate pace throughout the
lecture. My voice, while not ranging a great deal, was not mono-tone, and I feel that I can work
on improving the energy of the classroom by varying my voice more.

Everyone in the class could see and hear me well. The classroom is relatively small, so no
one was ever more than fifteen feet from me at any time. I also received several compliments
from the students on the coin example I passed out, saying that it helped them to relate more with
the material. I actually had a student asked me when I was going to teach again because the
student enjoyed my lectures. I was very excited to hear this and hope I can continue to have that
response.

Attention to Individual Differences:

I believe that I had something in the lecture and activity for everyone. I had the audio
learners covered with my lecture, the written learners with note taking, the visual with my
overheads, and the tactile learners with the examples of currency I handed out. Every person was
accounted for and I believe that everyone took the material away from the lecture and activity in
a meaningful way.

I do not have any inclusion students in my classroom, but I do have a child with vision
problems. I gave him assistance when he needed it, and he sat at the front of the room to help
with the overheads. I did not make any plans for the inclusion students or early finishers in my
plans. I knew that I would not be teaching any inclusion students, so planning for them would be
a misallocation of time. I also knew that my lesson would be structured group work, so students
would be finishing together. If I had planned on doing individual activities then I would have
planned for early finishers, but with the group work I did not plan for this to occur.

Focus on Relationships and Student Response:

The students and I related with each other in a formal manner, until the group work. I
called, by name, for responses when I did not receive any, and they responded. The lecture
portion was very formal and did not build a tight relationship with the students and myself. The
result was that the students were not “with me” at all times. They were getting the material but
not actively giving it back to me when I asked for responses. This changed after the transition to
the group activity. The more personal relationship let the students open up to me in greater detail.
I did feel at some points getting a response was like pulling teeth, but I do not feel I ever full lost
any of the students.

At the beginning of the semester I had created a chart in my notebook to learn student’s
names, and over the course of the semester I have learned seventeen of the student’s names. I
had to use this chart occasionally to provoke some responses from the students. This chart has
helped me connect with the students a good deal, and a few of them greet me in the hall in the
morning when I arrive.
 I provided opportunities for the students to work together at the end of class. The activity
required that each student bring the information that they had learned and apply it to complete
the assignment. The students, for the most part, took the assignment seriously and worked
together well to complete it in an organized manner. The students considered each other’s ideas
and had several lively debates about the reasons for their choices. In general, all the students
worked together well and completed the assignment in an orderly manner. All the students were
involved in the assignment, not just some.

Planning and Implementing Higher Order Thinking Skills:

The group activity (Attachment 1 LP) allowed the students to take the information they
learned and apply critical thinking skills to interpret how they felt about the situation. They
compared the two emperors to one another and then made judgments on how they believed the
emperors handled the decisions they made. This required knowledge of the material, critical
thinking, and student opinion which allowed the students to debate with one another on why they
felt the way they did. I believe the activity was a great way to wrap up my lesson, get students
involved in the classroom, and get students thinking about developing their own opinions on
historical events.

I also used examples that allowed the students to relate with the material. I used pennies
from pre 1982 and post 1982 to emphasize that, like the Romans, the US reduced the amount of a
precious metal in currency. I also used the example of Canada attacking the United States
because Russia was pressuring the Canadians. It is a farfetched scenario, but students understand
that the United States has a larger military but constant pressure weakens even strong forces.

Assessment:
I incorporated the three main assessment forms in my lesson planning. My diagnostic
assessment occurred when I asked students to tell me what they knew about the Pax Romana. I
had questions designed throughout the lesson to make sure that the students understood the
material. Finally my summative assessment was the group activity which made students apply
the material in a meaningful way. I also will be able to view the test results from the chapter test
the students just had.

The summative assessment indicated the level of mastery each student had on the
material covered. However my formative assessment could have been designed to give a stronger
indication of how my students were mastering the material.

I gave each group back specific feedback that could be used to improve the way they
viewed the material. During the lesson my students learned the reasons for the decline of the
Roman Empire, and the influences that the reforming emperors had on the survival of the
empire. I believe that the students walked away with that knowledge and that they will perform
well on the chapter test on the material. I know this because the activities showed me that the
students had mastered the material enough to make personal decisions on it.

I learned through the experience that I have some key areas to improve on, I need to get
the students involved more, but most importantly I enjoy teaching. I think that this experience
could be the most important I have had thus far in college. It has helped me learn how I prepare
for teaching a class and my weaknesses during that preparation. I think the most important areas
I need to work on area my classroom discussion and my use of pet phrases.
Areas of Improvement

Class Discussion:
I want to get the students more involved in the classroom discussion that occurs during
each lecture. In Teach #2 I feel that I could have had more varied comments if I had focused on
this area more during lesson planning. In Teach #3 I plan to hand out a sheet with questions on it.
I am going to have the students periodically answer these questions and share their responses
with the class. I will do this in lieu of notes, so the students do not fill preoccupied with jotting
down every piece of information. I feel that this will drastically increase student involvement and
create a positive learning environment. *If I were to incorporate this into my classroom more
often I would have the students copy the questions down to save on paper costs, but for this
isolated incident I feel that making copies is not irresponsible.

Pet Phrase:
I will make every effort to not use the words “umm” or “uh” in my next teach. While I do
not realize the frequency in which I say them, it makes me look like I am fumbling through the
material. It hurts the students confidence in my ability to give them the correct information.
Upon reviewing the recording I was astonished at how many times I used the phrases, and I
believe it hurts my chances of appearing as a complete professional. This will be the second area
that I address in teaching my next lesson, The Spread of Islam.