Setting: High School

11/17/17 10:12 11:34

Classical Academy High School

Freshman English

One Teacher, Approx 20 students

Class consisted approx of 40% male, 60% female. Racial demographic was 70% white, 20%
Hispanic, and 10% other. All spoke English fluently. Writing abilities more or less
homogeneous amongst the class demographic.

10:12 am period 1 class ends, period 2 class comes in.

10:15 am period 2 clas begins.

Close read of stage 1 (play)

reading on schoology, (Lucys home for Girls Raised by Wolves, read closely and in depth)

Teachers method is very loose and informal, encourages student participation, casual
method allows humor to work better, which in turn improves memory.

10:20 am role call, call out personal identification with the story (encourages immersion in
the story and thus retention of details). Teacher participates as well

10:25 am Steps for integrating quotations. Learn how to use brackets to clarify the meaning
of the quote. Integrating quotes (using a quote as part of a statement rather than just
attaching it to the end).

10:32 am, begin reading script

explain particular phrasings.

10:41 am answer each question with an integrated quote

10:49 am a few read out loud to the rest of the class if they feel confident.

11:00 am explaining the use of comparison on a story tone to emphasize a point using an
example from the text.

11:03 am research important context details about the text.

11:08 am discuss the text

11:16 am hand out quick-writes to work on individually.

11:34 am class ends

One thing I noticed that really struck me in the class was the teachers extremely laid-back
approach to teaching. I know its not technically and event, but I think it is possibly the most
notable thing during the observation period. The teacher encouraged banter among the
students, but regulated with periodic questions it so that it stayed on course. In this way, the
students would naturally take themselves towards learning more about the subject without
feeling like the content was being shoved down their throats. The entire class had a very
loose, conversational tone to it. When the teacher used humor, it was often to highlight
something about the writing, but just as often they were normal jokes, and usually provoked
a laugh. From my own experience, humor can be used to excellent effect to improve the
memory of the students, and the atmosphere of the class was an extremely positive, active
one. The students seemed to be legitimately interested in learning.

From my observations, it seems that a laid-back approach could be extremely useful in

teaching, particularly in improving student interest and attention.

I wonder if this method will work for more than just english classes, however.