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Case Study: Mr. Roth

Grand Canyon University

Cassandra Young

Dr. Karin Johnson

August 25, 2021

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Case Study: Mr. Roth

When we enter a teacher’s room to observe a teacher, we need to make sure we walk in

with an open mind. By doing this, you are letting the teacher in that room shine instead of

comparing them from room to room. We must remember that each teacher is different, which

means their personalities are different, and by taking that from them, we are taking away pieces

of them for their instruction. Now, they do need to reach the framework of the school but should

be able to get it in their way. As coaches, we want to give feedback to keep increasing the

teacher’s growth abilities for the students. Good leaders “not only gain insight regarding where

the teachers and students are and where they need to be but can hold teachers accountable to take

the necessary steps for increasing student achievement” (Childress, 2014). If we want to be good

leaders, we need to be where the teachers and students need us, not behind desks. 

Observations Reflection Questions

Mr. Roth has many great qualities as a teacher with the best interest of the students in

mind when he is teaching. To make sure that he has the student’s respect and positive

relationships, he stands at the door of each class to greet the students when they walk in. As he

greets them, he has conversations with them about non-curricular topics to have ordinary

conversations. Then, he focuses on the material he is teaching to create an inviting room to have

students learn about the social studies material being covered. Many times, the instruction is

provided by students talking and processing instead of teacher talk. He drives the instruction

based on how he knows the students, which creates an environment that allows each student to

feel welcomed and cared about. 

He used multiple strategies to keep students engaged in the material about the judicial

branch and a specific case that influenced the branch during the class. The different approach
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allowed students to have multiple conversations and share out instead of just him talking to keep

the course moving forward. He often had them answer their own words or process a reading

based on guiding questions he provided to the students, which was done in small groups. Then

moves to a class discussion where each group can share the guiding questions, then other groups

explain why they agree or disagree with what was stated. He does a great job with having

students write what specific topics mean in their own words then react to a given statement, but

by the end of class, he has them going back to the original and reworking parts to add on with

what more they know. It keeps the students on their toes with bouncing between individualized

work to small groups then class discussion to partners talking. Students always need to be paying

attention, so they know what they are discussing and with who.

Mr. Roth wants to make sure that his students are engaged in the lesson that is being

taught; therefore, he creates multiple opportunities for students to understand. One great strategy

he does is to give processing time for students to think on their own first, then partner or write

their thinking to share out in class. Doing this allows students to get their thinking going before

the student that knows lots about the topic tells everyone about it, then they get to hear other

perspectives on the material. If he finds students off-task, he uses a few different strategies to

gain their attention, proximity, and reminders of expectations privately. These are great strategies

because sometimes students just need the simple reminder of the teacher looking over their

shoulder to push them to get back on track or reminders of the expectations for the class or

activity at the time. Ensuring that he is standing at the door to greet students is a type of

engagement strategy since he gets to see all their faces to see what kind of day they are having

and check in on students. Having multiple methods throughout the class allows him to keep
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students engaged in the material and have them take ownership of what they are doing instead of

just him doing all the material covered. 

Observation Reflection: Different Strategies, Higher-Order Thinking, Technology

Watching Mr. Roth in action showed many different instructional strategies but was

missing a few elements to make the lesson accessible for each student. Mr. Roth did not use any

different strategies for differentiation for all learners. It was very mainstreamed with how it was

presented. It helped that he gave multiple opportunities for student talk instead of having the kids

listen to him cover the material. As he focuses on writing his lesson, this area needs more

processing to create opportunities for each student instead of the mainstream. Wanting to keep

watching Mr. Roth grow is an area we will discuss during the post-observation conference.

Another area of growth that we will focus on will be the usage of technology that way. He can

differentiate more in unique ways for all students. By providing more technology during the

lesson, he can have the students focus on multiple case areas to understand the ins and outs that

made the change in the supreme court. With not having any technology, there is not an effective

use of it. 

He presents the material well and makes sure students are engaged in the lesson with

multiple discussion areas. However, there need to be areas of pushing the students past the

standard thinking to drive them to the next level. He does this a few times throughout the lesson,

once during the first part of the lesson, asking the students to provide synonyms to the

vocabulary words found in the reading they have just done. This allows the students to

understand what the vocabulary means, not only in context but out of context, since the synonym

word may not fit the context well. Another area he does excellently is to have the students

process at the end of the court case results have switched how it would change the United States.
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He requires students to think as if they were applying the court case rules from a different

perspective by asking this question. Higher-order thinking questions could happen multiple times

during the lesson or even when the students are in small groups.

Post-Conference Preparation: Questions and Providing Feedback

Wanting to provide feedback to Mr. Roth that will help him drive his planning to create

better instruction for the students, I must start with a few questions to ensure I have a clear

understanding. When we are working together to see what he feels about the lesson, there are

some questions that I would need to be answered to make sure we are focused on the exact

outcome of the class. I would ask the following questions:

 What did you use to gauge the effectiveness of this lesson?

 How did you know the students understood the judicial branch and how the court case

change the department?

 Where do you plan to go next after the lesson that I just observed?

 Are there different strategies you could have used that you see now that would have been

more impactful for all students?

 How do you think you could have differentiated the lesson to provide access for all

students?

 How do you think technology could have increased the meaningfulness behind the

lesson?

This will allow both of us to understand the meaning behind his planning that way; we can use it

as a growth tool. Even though these were some of my walk-away questions from the observation,

Mr. Roth did some great things during his lesson that was good for students. 
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Throughout the lesson, you could tell there was excellent preparation done in many areas

for students’ success. He effectively managed the class, which allowed little to no downtime,

thus staying engaged and not getting distracted. It had a great flow to the lesson, making it easy

for the students to follow along. When redirecting students, each redirection was meaningful,

effective, and personable never made the student feel out of place in the setting, which allowed

them to follow through with the redirection. You were available to all students throughout the

class since you were moving around. This will enable you to ask students questions and watch

for misconceptions that they may be creating. Best of all, the waiting at the door to meet the

students to welcome them into the room, you talked with everyone, which made them feel

comfortable to enter. It creates positive relationships and importantly allows students to open

about themselves. These are all great things you are doing inside the classroom, and taking what

you have pushing on, those strengths will support the areas of refinement. 

There were so many positive situations happening in that room today, but there are

always areas we need to work on to make sure we are providing the best for our students. As you

are planning another lesson like the one you did today, make sure to think of a few specific areas

that you could point out with my clarification questions. First, make sure to create multiple

opportunities for the case law to be presented; by doing so, you allow all students access to the

content that is being offered. This may be sharing it differently by reading it to them, or even a

broken-down version of the case. Second, if you were to have students do different types of

presentations on the case law, you could use different engagement strategies to make the students

more responsible for the learning. Another excellent way for students to dive into the case laws

would be for each group to have a different court case centered around a specific law, then use a

compare and contrast tool or a jigsaw method where students present their case, not you. Finally,
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create higher-order thinking questions that can lead the discussion during the class, pushing

students past the basic concept of how the judicial branch was created. This will allow our

students to pull in different perspectives of case law to develop the conceptual understanding

they are going for and create critical thinkers. Be creative in ways to have students present the

material to keep growing their capacity of thinking.

Post-Conference Preparation: Technology and Additional Comments

Knowing that our goal is for student growth in each content area, we also must make sure

they are engaged, which means sometimes we have to move from our comfort zone. Mr. Roth,

you may not be comfortable with using technology regularly, but students now are highly driven

by technology activities. I was thinking about different ways you can incorporate technology into

a lesson like this for the future, and they are some thinking areas for future assignments. If you

were to use technology, you would easily present the material for students in different methods,

giving you the differentiation ability. This could be the other case laws, different levels of the

reading, or even various articles on the sides of the case. Another great way to engage students

would be to show the documentary on the development of the judicial system with background

information as well, but have the students do the background information and research what

changes were made due to the case law. Finally, have students present their specific guided

questions to their peers and research those questions to ensure they have all the details covered.

Since your lesson had excellent components, these are ideas for you to think about to support

areas of refinement and make sure you reach your students in all possible ways.

As you plan your social studies units or follow the team’s layout, make sure you always

work with the end in mind. If you are working with the end in mind, each lesson will be built to

focus on the next, which means you always know the end objective. Keep working hard and
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never stop working on those positive relationships with students that will drive them in your

class each day they walk in. It pushes the students to want to be successful in your style, not to

let you down. When we focus on the whole student instead of just the academics in front of

them, we can get more from a student. There needs to be focus beyond the classroom on students

since they are looking for teacher acceptance. Make positive relationships with students, drive

expectations home, but always have the end goal in mind when planning. Backward planning can

save you time since you know where you need to get now, thinking about what roads to take to

reach it. Remember, I am here for support, and if you have any questions or need clarification on

things we have talked about, please let me know.

As leaders, we need to make sure that if we give suggestions, we follow them up with the

tools to make sure they can achieve that suggestion. According to Bill Gates Ted Talk Education,

if we want teachers to improve them, we need to give them the tools to make that happen, find a

video or another teacher that does it well, ad have them watch (Gates, 2013). This will allow

them to see the practice in action. Driving home the idea of making sure the tools are there for

teachers, good leaders should be suggesting figuring out issues in the curriculum together to look

over other areas it might lake to brainstorm together to have students gain the knowledge

(Brookhart & Moss, 2015). Want your teachers to be successful for the students, then be in the

trenches with them to help them drive all concepts home.

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Reference

Brookhart, S., & Moss, C. (2015). How to Give Professional Feedback. 72(7). Education

Leadership. https://web-a-ebscohost-com.lopes.idm.oclc.org/ehost/detail/detail?

vid=2&sid=e103e361-9def-49f2-8f0e-

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aXRl#AN=102241638&db=ehh

Childress, M. (2014). Building teacher Capacity (Cover Story). 93(5). Principal. https://web-a-

ebscohost-com.lopes.idm.oclc.org/ehost/detail/detail?vid=2&sid=1665fc96-b8b8-422c-

a13d-

84318381d315%40sessionmgr4007&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZSZzY29wZT1z

aXRl#AN=96290443&db=ofs

Gates, B. (2013). Teachers need real feedback. Www.ted.com.

https://www.ted.com/talks/bill_gates_teachers_need_real_feedback

Grand Canyon University. (2021). Case Study: Mr. Roth. Gcu.edu.

https://halo.gcu.edu/resource/6b3dab6b-6761-483d-8fee-043bdab58956?

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