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Alternative Classroom Observation Assignment

Sophia Trejo

Department of Education: Vanguard University

EDUG 588 Clinical Practice Fieldwork

Dr. Jagerson

18 April 2023
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The classroom that I observed in was another Composition Literature 3B English class

for high school juniors. Since I teach the same course, it was interesting to see how Mrs. Harris

was able to alternate some of the teaching techniques used for the same lessons. The first lesson

that I was able to observe was a lesson that was at the beginning of The Great Gatsby unit—a

lesson that I taught the day prior.

Classroom Management

The first classroom management function that Ms. Harris has implemented into her class

was the “Phone Home” wall. On the wall next to the door, students would come in and one of the

first things they did stop by the wall holder and put their phones in their assigned number slot. I

have seen other teachers try to implement this phone technique into their classroom to help

prevent students from using their phones in class but I have mostly always heard how this

strategy starts off strong yet it is not followed through throughout the rest of the semester. I was

pleasantly surprised to see how the majority of the students were able to fill the phone holder by

the time the bell rang to indicate the start of class. I’ve always wanted to implement a phone

management strategy like this but I’ve been afraid that it might not work as the school year

progresses. However, after seeing how Mrs. Harris was able to question students why their

phones were not in their designated pocket, I was able to see how students were able to get into

the habit of putting their phones away.

Mrs. Harris also had her classroom set up in groups rather than in rows. With this,

students are able to have mini discussions when asked questions before sharing with the class. I

like the idea of having my students work in groups for this reason but from my prior experience

with my own students, this gives students the opportunity to get off task and talk with their table

group members rather than getting them to be productive. Mrs. Harris also uses this as a tool for
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calling on students; if she notices that there are students who are talking during independent

reading time or have their heads down during the lecture, she’ll call on those students to answer a

question. I’m not sure I would feel comfortable using this as a permanent way to call on students

with my knowledge of students’ affective filters.

Mrs. Harris uses a variety of other classroom management techniques in her classroom.

For example, she has a podium that’s stood at the front of the class where she has a view of all of

her students as she teaches. She also utilizes a presentation slide deck as her main tool of

direction instruction, similarly to how I teach. Mrs. Harris has an assigned seating chart, uses

direct instruction as her main teaching strategy, and incorporates various discussion

opportunities.

Assessments

Mrs. Harris used a variety of informal and formative assessments during her lessons.

From my observations, her daily class routine is similar to mine: independent reading, mini

lesson, whole class novel reading (listening to the audiobook), explaining their assignment for

the day, students work independently until the end of the class period. These lessons are based on

students’ prior knowledge in terms of the most recent chapter of the novel they read in class for

that day. Most of her informal assessments include online worksheets that students have access

to through Google Classroom and are designed to be due at the end of the class period.

Concluding Thoughts

I believe that it was helpful for me to see how the same grade level and lessons were

being taught. While the majority of the class content went relatively the same as I taught in my

classes, there were still some factors in those lessons that helped deepen my understanding on

how to teach this course. Similarly to how I’ve been teaching my class, I found that while
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students are unable to do their reading assignments at home, it is best for students to follow along

with an audiobook in class. I also found that it was best for students to do independent work

since it allows time for students to process what they just read. I also thought it was helpful to

see how she handles her classroom (i.e. the phone home system, calling on students, etc.) as I am

still developing my style of classroom management.