Observation of UTA for ENGL101: 9010 on Tuesday, February 26

Pre-Class
Who's there first--the instructor or the UTA? Do they interact with each other when the second
one enters the room? Do they interact with students before class officially begins? Do they seem
prepared for class? Do students seem prepared for class? Are students totally in their own worlds
until the second the UTA or the instructor starts the class, or are they getting their books/
notebooks/ laptops out in preparation for the next 50 or 75 minutes of their life?

● When I arrived both the UTA and the instructor were present
● They were in conversation with one other the entire pre-class period, I could tell they
were trying to bounce ideas off each other regarding how to conduct the class period (e.g.
technical logistics, class material)
● Students were either on laptops or conversing amongst one another before the instructor
signaled the start of class

Classroom Environment
How is the room set up? Is anything on the board? Is the projector ready? How does the room
"feel"?

● Standard classroom set-up

○ Desks are forward facing, space at the front of the classroom for the instructor,
UTA, computer, and lectern
● There were guiding questions written on the chalkboard regarding how to think about
argumentation
● Towards the start of class, the atmosphere was very detached, but eventually, students
warmed up and grew more responsive to the material and the instructor

Class Time

2:00-:05
Small talk about the weather and introduces class objectives

2:05-:25
Walks students through an outline for the rhetorical analysis paper
2:25-:45
UTA presentation on stasis theory

2:45-:50
Review reading from previous assignment

2:50-3:05
Examine the reading and assess whether it effectively employed audience-based argumentation

3:05-:15
Shows students a video clip from ​The Office​ to demonstrate the significance of audience-based
argumentation

Student Engagement
How do students know that class has officially begun? How do they know what's going on for
the next 50 or 75 minutes? How does this tie into what they did for homework/ the last class/ the
larger assignment they're working on? Are students nominally engaged? Lost? Eager? Confused?
Asleep? On Mars? Are they comfortable with each other? Do they interact with each other? Do
they interact with the UTA and/ or the instructor? When the UTA/ instructor asks questions, do
the students respond without too much pain?

● Students are aware class has begun when the instructor closes the door, and the TA
passes around a sign in sheet
● Students are very passive
○ Computers are allowed and, therefore, only a few are exclusively committed to
note taking. Most are bouncing between other sites or doing work for other
classes. Some students are also on phones. No students were observed taking
handwritten notes.
● Students are generally more responsive to the UTA than the instructor
● After the UTA presentation, students grew more comfortable and were more responsive
to instructor’s inquiries in comparison to their initial indifference
● Students enjoyed ​The Office c​ lip
● At the end of class, several students went up to both the UTA and teacher to ask
questions

Facilitation
What's the objective of today's class? How is that realized? Are students responsible for knowing
anything about what's going on today? Are they responsible for any homework/ readings? What
teaching strategies are employed? Lecture? Presentation? Discussion? In-class independent
work? Partnered work? Group work? What kind of group work? Groups from a previous class,
or on-the-fly groups? Think/ pair/ shares?

● Class Objective:
 ○ Outline strategies for approaching rhetorical analysis paper
○ UTA presentation on stasis theory
○ Review audience-based argumentation
● Teaching strategies
○ Largely lecture-based
■ Uses chalkboard
■ Uses projector for presentations or visual aids
■ Provides students with guiding questions
○ Shifts to discussion when asking students opinion on the material
● Homework assignments and readings are uploaded on ELMS
● Students are expected to read assigned material before class and often refers to these
online materials in class
○ Latter half of class spent analyzing a NYT op-ed:
https://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/28/opinion/when-may-i-shoot-a-student.html
● Instructor often uses examples or materials that are related to politics or social issues

UTA Performance
What is the UTA doing throughout class? Where is s/he sitting? Is s/he taking attendance?
Interacting with the instructor? Interacting with students? Is his or her laptop out? How would
you characterize the relationship between the instructor and UTA? Formal? Informal?
Comfortable? Stilted? Is the facilitation shared, or is it the instructor's room unless the UTA is
specifically called on? How would you characterize the relationship between the students and the
UTA? Is the UTA an authority figure like the instructor? A fellow peer like the rest of the
students? Somewhere in-between? What does that look like?

● UTA is seated in a corner at the the front of the classroom

○ Her seat is positioned in such a way that she is facing both the students but also
can see the board
● UTA functions as a stabilizing force for instructor
○ Instructor is frazzled and hesitant
○ Instructor often looks to the UTA for confirmation if she feels lost, or when she
becomes flustered and needs to recenter herself
● UTA provides input on class materials easily and instructor happily welcomes it
● UTA delivered presentation on stasis theory
○ Presentation walked students through the stasis theory process using the gun
control debate as an example
○ Students were more responsive to the UTA than the instructor
■ UTA would ask questions of the students and they would answer
immediately
 ● There were instances when the instructor would interject during
the UTA’s presentation to ask students questions, and they would
not respond, but then the UTA would rephrase the instructor’s
point and students would speak
○ Instructor frequently chimed in on the UTA’s presentation to add on
○ Related how stasis theory will present itself in future assignments to establish
relevance for students
● Students obviously value UTA’s presence in the classroom given their response to her
presentation and the overwhelming number of students who stayed behind to ask her
questions about their work