Classroom Observation

Classroom Level/age: Government Citizenship / 9th Grade / 14 - 15

Topic/ Content being taught: 9th Grade Government / Review of Executive Branch

Date: 11/22/2021

Observation # 1 2 3 4 5 (Circle one)

Brief discussion of what’s happening in the classroom:

I observed a high school Government and Citizenship class with students in grade 9. When I arrived,
students were settling into their seats and talking amongst themselves as well. After the bell rang the
teacher started the class off with somewhat welcoming everyone. From there he went into reminding
students of a project that was due for them on the Monday after Thanksgiving. The teacher spent time
explaining how this needed to be completed by then before being entered into the gradebook. The teacher
next passed out a review document for an upcoming test in relation to the executive branch. The teacher
had one student from each pod come grab a review handout for everyone at their table. The teacher spent
some time explaining through the review and what students should be able to do for their upcoming test;
there seemed to be a lot of redirection by the teacher to start the class. After taking about 10 minutes to go
through the review, the teacher then gives students about 5 minutes to go over their vocab list for the unit
review game. Most students work on reviewing their vocab, there were three students that were on their
phone doing other things during the entire duration of this time. The teacher spent this time walking
around to different students checking on their progress and answering questions they may have had on
different vocab concepts.After this review, the teacher prepares a Quizlet Live review game for students
to participate in. This goes for about 40 minutes. After that 40 minutes of playing the review game,
students are given an additional 10 minutes to review for their upcoming quiz. Finally, students take a
multiple choice quiz on the executive branch to end class.

Describe the racial make-up of this class:

❖ 14 male students ❖ 15 female students

➢ White: 14 ➢ White: 12
➢ Hispanic: 2
➢ Asian-American: 1

Describe the teacher:

In this classroom, the male teacher presented himself as white. The teacher has been in the school district
for about 15 years now, and has taught students ranging from 8th grade to 11th grade. This teacher was
also my mentor teacher when I was first hired in this school district. There is one specific student in this
classroom that has high needs and the teacher has appeared to make a special connection with. The
teacher has been known to have a positive rapport with students, but has expressed to me outside of class
time his frustration with this particular group this academic calendar. I could tell that there was a lack of
enthusiasm that this teacher had in teaching this class compared to other classes I have observed him
teach in the past.

Evidence of: (Describe the strategy and be specific as to how it fits the category)

Hattie “Hattie High Return” Strategies:

Practice Testing (.54)
The Quizlet Live review game served as the practice test for
students as they prepared for their upcoming vocab quiz and
unit test the following day. The review game was played 9
times (typically if I have students play this game it is maybe
2-3 times before I notice students start getting a little old of
the game)

Rehearsal and Memorization (.73) Memorization was encouraged by the teacher throughout the
review game by repetition, and students were encouraged to
work on memorization of these vocab concepts during their
review time and through their peer to peer interactions.

Study Skills (.46) It appeared that there had been a system in place for students
to review important concepts for their upcoming test. Time
was provided in class to study for upcoming assessments as
well.

5 Dimensions of Teaching and Learning:

Purpose Standards: Standards for the entire unit were written on the front
whiteboard.
Learning Target: Learning targets for the entire unit were written on the
front whiteboard, but there was no verbal acknowledgement or reference
by the teacher during the duration of the lesson.
Teaching Points: This was not observed during the duration of the
lesson

Student Engagement Intellectual Work: Students were to take ownership in reviewing

concepts for upcoming tests
Engagement Strategies: The review game of Quizlet Live was used to
engage students. As the number of times students played this game
increased, the less engagement there was collectively.
Talk: Students are encouraged to talk through definitions of concepts
during the review game they played
 Curriculum & Pedagogy Curriculum: The strategies used during this lesson revolved around
memorization of concepts as they related to the executive branch.
Teaching Approaches and/or Strategies: There was a mixture of whole
group instruction as it related to going over the tes review for students,
small group interactions during study time and the review game, and
individual assessment of vocab terms.
Scaffolds for Learning: This was not observed during the duration of
the lesson

Assessment for Student Assessment: Students were to be completing a quiz towards the end of
Learning the class period, but in the review game there was constant feedback on
which terms students were doing well with and those they were still
learning or struggling with.
Adjustments: Though Quizlet Live does give back data on terms that
students are missing often, the teacher did not use this feature during the
review game.

Classroom Environment Use of Physical Environment: This is a fairly packed classroom with
& Culture not a lot of room for students to move around. The walls are filled with
posters related to Government and U.S. History, and the classroom
overall is very bright with lightning and color.
Classroom Routines and Rituals: It appeared students had done these
study guides and review games before as there was no instructions or
explanation needed from the teacher. Otherwise no other routines or
rituals were present during the lesson.
Classroom Culture: Overall it was very difficult to grasp what the
culture was like in the classroom. There were few interactions outside of
the review game between the whole class and the teacher, and there were
multiple times at the beginning of the class where the teacher was
interrupted and had to redirect the attention of multiple students.

Culturally Relevant Teaching Strategies:

Activate Students’ Prior Knowledge This specific teaching strategy was not witnessed during this
observation

Make Learning Contextual This specific teaching strategy was not witnessed during this
observation.

Classroom Setup Students were able to choose where they wanted to sit in the
classroom. Students made accommodations to move towards
students that had physical disabilities when they were grouped
together during their review game
 Form Relationships It appeared the teacher had formed relationships with some
students but noticed there were some students he did not
engage or acknowledge at all during the lesson.

Social and Political Issues This specific teaching strategy was not witnessed during this
observation

Student Cultural Capital This specific teaching strategy was not witnessed during this
observation

Incorporate Popular Culture This specific teaching strategy was not witness during this
observation

Jackson’s High Operational Strategies:

Identifying and Activating Student Strengths -Was not observed during the lesson

Building Relationships -As mentioned earlier, it appeared the teacher had

established relationships with some students, but did
not knowledgeable during the lesson as well.

Eliciting High Intellectual Performances -The teacher verbally encouraged students to give
their best effort during the review time but was not
follow up enforcement of checking in on students
that were off task

Providing Enrichment -Was not observed during the lesson

Integrating Prerequisites for Academic -Was not observed during the lesson
Learning

Situating Learning in the Lives of Students -Was not observed during the lesson

Amplifying Student Voice -Was not observed during the lesson, even though
there could have been opportunities for this in terms
of hearing the needs of students in preparation for
their upcoming assessments.

Other Observations:

I observed that as the review session went on there seemed to be less and less engagement from students.
At one point one student was part of the “winning” team six teams in a row which seemed to upset some
students. The teacher did not really address this, other than continuing to congratulate the student who
kept being part of the winning team. In general I have heard very good things about this teacher in terms
of building student relationships and engagement, but it seemed to be lacking for all students in this
particular lesson.

Your evaluative remarks:

In general I somewhat understood the purpose of the lesson, as it provided students in class time to review
for both a formative and summative assessment aht were upcoming. But, it felt like a large portion of the
lesson was wasted on playing the same review game of Quizlet Live over and over again. Other review
opportunities or class discussion could have been just as beneficial to allow students to either ask
questions they had or to further show what they had learned so far. Also, not using the quantitative data
from Quizlet Live was a huge miss as this could have helped further direct this review time instead of
possibly throwing the same terms that several students already knew at them during the rest of the review
game. I was somewhat disappointed by the effort and enthusiasm of this teacher after hearing so many
positive things from colleagues and students about his teaching.