SETON HILL UNIVERSITY CLASSROOM OBSERVATION FORM

Student: Mackenzie Longo Teacher: Mrs. Sandy Fenton

Grade: 10th and 11th Subject: Honors Chemistry

Franklin Regional SHS

1/19/2023

CLASSROOM ENVIRONMENT
Describe the classroom environment (seating arrangements, bulletin boards, etc.):

The classroom is almost set up sideways. There is a Promethean board on the same wall as the
door, and there are lab tables in an L shape around the outside of the room, with the long side
opposite the board. The desks are in four long rows, with a few desks in the back of the room
where there is extra space. The walls don’t have too much décor on them, except for closer to the
teacher desk.

INSTRUCTIONAL DELIVERY
Describe how the teacher grabs the students’ attention at the beginning of the lesson:

All students had to come in and grab guided notes and a worksheet, and then they were given the
option (it seems to be, at least) to put their cell phones in a calculator slot. There were two
questions on the board to begin the lesson, but most students got into the classroom just in time.
The were coming from lunch/QRT.

Describe the structure of the lesson (pacing, instructional strategies, group work, etc.):

Mrs. Fenton is moving rather quickly through the material, but students have guided notes and
spent yesterday making physical representation of today’s lesson subject. Today, they are
learning about how to draw Lewis Structures, which took some quick review of other
information and references to yesterday’s activity. She also makes a lot of connections to
information that is common knowledge or that the students already know. She allows students to
just shout out answers for the most part but will answer to raised hands if students have
questions. She also will call on students by name if they were the one to shout answers out for
clarification or some positive reinforcement.
Describe how the teacher ends the lesson:

Mrs. Fenton ends the lesson by having students take a small “eval” quiz for the last ten minutes
or so of class. She also reminds them to practice their Lewis structure drawing with one of the
worksheets they picked up at the beginning of class. She also gave them a little bit of a preview
of tomorrow.

Describe the teacher’s style of classroom management:

The students very clearly respect Mrs. Fenton. She expects a lot from her students and doesn’t
leave them time to goof off too much. If a student were to get too off task, they would likely get
lost. She means business, but students have a good relationship with her and feel comfortable
asking questions. She also indulges little side conversations if they can help students learn (like
bringing a different perspective), which also allows classroom community building. The students
are clearly very invested and curious about the material and ask lots of questions.

Describe how the teacher uses formative or summative assessment:

Throughout the lesson, Mrs. Fenton uses formative assessment by checking in with students and
their class examples. At the end of the class, she does “evals” which are little lower stakes type
quizzes. At the end of units, she has larger exams.

Describe how the teacher incorporates technology:

All her notes for students are physical paper copies, but she has her laptop on a rolling cart near
her Promethean board and writes directly on the screen/PowerPoint using a smart pen. She
encourages students to put their technology away if possible.
REFLECTION
If you had the chance to teach this lesson, what changes would you make? What would you
keep the same? How would your use of instructional, classroom management, or assessment
strategies differ? How would these changes enhance student learning?

If I were to teach this lesson, I would likely slow the lesson down a little bit. I would explain a
little bit more background information on how lone pairs work in Lewis structures, but not
enough to confuse them (which is very easy to do when first learning chemistry). The
instructional strategies and classroom management were all similar to how I would have used
them. I’m not sure how far in advance the notice for this eval was given, but I would probably
have reminded students at the beginning of class. I also would have given them time to try one
example of the Lewis structures entirely on their own, instead of doing all of them as a class,
especially before having them complete practice problems for homework. I think that doing this
would help build student confidence, especially because chemistry can be tricky for many.