I.

Observation 8:

Religion

II. Grade:

Fourth Grade

III. Students:

9 girls, 10 boys

IV. Setting:

Classroom at St. Matthias School in Somerset, NJ

19 Students, ages 9-10, one teacher

V. Pre-Observation:

The purpose of this observation was to analyze the teachers religion lesson and its effectiveness

The teacher had students review and discuss what was covered the day before. Prior to this

observation, I read the article Benefits of Technology in the Classroom by Janelle Cox.

VI. Data:

The teacher began the lesson by having students open their religion textbooks and read about

Lent. As the teacher read, she would ask questions to the students. After reading the passage on

Lent, the teacher played a movie about The Bible. The students really enjoyed the colorful

animations and the different voices. Every student was quiet and absorbed in the movie. After

about a half an hour, the teacher paused the movie to continue later on. After the movie, the

teacher has the students play Quizizz, which is a quiz website in a variety of subjects. The
questions are multiple choice and games are organized by grade. The students played

individually or in groups of two. The website allows every student or team to create their own

team name, track their progress as they play, and uses age appropriate humor. Every student gets

very excited and competitive when they play the game. The teacher displays the screen that

shows every students progress in the game. She will point teams out and make comments on

how many they got right or wrong. Students can access the quizzes online and practice from

home.

VII. Analysis:

Technology seems very effective in this classroom. Many students in the class go home and take

the quizzes to practice. The Quizizz game is very beneficial game for the students in this fourth

grade class. They seem to really enjoy the game and have a clear understanding of the material.

Many of the fourth graders got all or almost all of the answers correct. In her article, Janelle Cox

talks about the benefits and research of using technology in the elementary classroom and says

students prefer technology because they believe that it makes learning more interesting and fun.

They especially like laptops and tablets. Subjects that students deem challenging or boring can

become more interesting with virtual lessons, through a video, or when using a tablet (Cox,

2015, pg. 1).The movie reinforces and refreshes students on information they already know,

while also giving them a visual. The techniques and resources the teacher uses seem to be helpful

for many students. However, the way the teacher handles behavior regarding the Quizizz game is

not effective. Not only does she promote competition, but she also calls students out for getting

questions wrong. This is embarrassing for students and makes students not trust her. The teacher

clearly promotes competition when she puts the screen with students scores on the board as they

play and makes comments. When the students began to make comments toward each other
regarding their scores, the teacher yells at them and tells them that the game is not about

competition.

VIII. Recommendations:

Though the teacher of this fourth grade class uses great resources to teach her class, she goes

about her techniques in the wrong way. The reading, the game, and the movie all worked out

really well for the students. The only issues I saw were during the Quizizz game. First, the

teacher should not put the students scores up on the screen as they play. This only promotes

competition and makes the situation more stressful than educational. In his book Leap Into

Fourth Grade, Mike Anderson talks about the importance of minimizing competition and says

Many 4th graders are hypercompetitive, and it might appear to make sense to capitalize on this

trait to motivate them. My experience, however, is that competition often has the reverse effect.

Games that end in one student or one team winning (and everyone else losing) can be crushing

for 4th graders and can lead some to shut down for the rest of the day (Anderson, 2011, pg. 33).

Instead, she could put the final scores up and praise the class as a whole. The teacher should

focus on how many questions students got right and work on understanding the questions they

got wrong.

IX. Post- Observation:

I found this observation very interesting. Seeing the students get so excited for the game and the

movie was really fun to watch. I was impressed with how much information students could recall

throughout the lesson.

X. Citations:

Anderson, M. (2011, April). The Early and Elementary Years / The Leap into 4th Grade.

Retrieved from http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-

leadership/apr11/vol68/num07/The-Leap-into-4th-Grade.aspx

Cox, J. (2015, December). Benefits of Technology in the Classroom. Retrieved April 14, 2017,

from http://www.teachhub.com/benefits-technology-classroom
Date Completed: Spring 2017
Date Submitted: Spring 2017
Title of Artifact: Observation 8: Religion
Standard: Standard Six - Assessment The teacher understands and uses multiple methods of
assessment to engage learners in examining their own growth, to monitor learner progress, and to
guide the teachers and learners decision-making.

I am placing my artifact, Observation 8: Religion, under Standard Six- Assessment, as evidence

of continued mastery towards implementing effective methods of student assessment. In my
observation, I noticed that technology was used for the majority of the lesson. The teacher uses
an online review game and puts students scores up on the screen, causing competition between
students. In my recommendations, I suggested that the teacher reinforce the students as a class
and go over some questions that students struggled with. This is evidence of my understanding of
the use of assessments to promote student learning.