Leigh Ann Hudson

Classroom Observation Narrative

When I visited the classrooms I visited an 8th grade math and 7th grade science.
8th grade math- I was there at the end of one class and the beginning of the
next, so I got to see a transition as well as the most important parts of the class.
When I arrived the teacher was wrapping up the lesson and assigning
homework. She repeated the assignment multiple times and was very explicit
with her instruction. She gave the students a moment to pack up- just long
enough for them to gather their belongings, and not long enough to act up,
before the bell rang. She bid them farewell with a Have a great day guys! and
we walked in the hall to greet her next group of students. They line up outside the
door and are not allowed to enter the classroom except as a whole group. When
the next class entered the classroom, they immediately retrieved their work from
their binders and the teacher began checking homework as students started with
the work on the board. There was no dead time or lost time as students
transitioned to the math class.
7th grade science- these students were learning about genes and DNA. The
teacher was leading a whole class activity where students created the genes
(represented by beads and pipe cleaners) of a martian plant to visualize how
traits are passed from one generation to the next. The students were a little more
immature and they displayed multiple attempts to derail the class. The whole-
class method of this activity resulted in various off-task behavior and about half of
the students appeared to be disengaged at any given time in the lesson.