SBAC Observation 1

Video Permission and Exploring the Classroom Environment

Date: October 8, 2018 Course Title: 6th Grade Math

Observer: Grace Cho Class location: Westwood Middle School

Class Period, Grade Level: 5th Period, 6th Grade Teacher’s Name: Aaron Garlock

Beginning of class (ask mentor teacher):

1. Introduce yourself to the class and explain that you will be coming back to teach as part of your
teacher training program.
2. Thank the class for helping you learn to teach.
3. Pass out a letter for each student to take home to parents. Everyone must return the letter in order
to be video-recorded.

As part of this observation, you will:

 Observe and record information about the physical environment and classroom climate.
 Speculate the extent to which the current classroom environment provides students with equal
opportunity to participate and display what they know.
 Suggest ways to create a classroom environment that is inclusive of all students.

Create a schematic of your classroom seating arrangement below. You should fill in your seating
arrangement with the names of the students. By each student’s name, make a mark every time the student
speaks in classroom discussions.

Door Front Board

The blue squares are where the students sat and the big square is where Mr. Garlock was lecturing with a
doc cam. Each student got called on at least once.
1. How did the teacher begin the class? Was there a warm up?
Students came in and wrote in their assignments and lessons for the next week. There was no
warm up today.

2. How were the students seated? Assigned seats? Self-selected groups?

The students were in assigned seats in groups of 4-5. They had bigger classes but they decided to
split the classroom with the other co-teacher. For 5th period there were 7 students and in 6th period
there were 11 students.

3. Where was the teacher located? Always in the front? Behind a desk? Circulating in the
room? Was anyone other than the teacher ever at the front?
The teacher was in the back of the room with a doc cam, lecturing and filling in the notes with the
students. After the lecture, the teacher walked around to each student to make sure they were on
the right track.

4. How did the teacher get the class’s attention? Was there a signal? Did students have to raise
their hands and be called on to speak?
Mr. Garlock called on the student by name and asked them “what do we do next”. The students
participated and were engaged by helped Mr. Garlock do the problems. The students raised their
hands if they needed anything or wanted to answer a question.

5. How many students did the teacher call on by name? What percentage of students spoke to
the entire group during the class? Did students ever answer each other’s questions or
reference something another student said?
In 5th period, because there were only 7 students, each student got called on. They were all
participating but some were more vocal than others. There weren’t that many questions being
asked by students but if one student didn’t know, Mr. Garlock asked another student saying, “Can
you help ______ with the next step?”.

6. Were students allowed to move about the room (get supplies, leave the room, etc.) on their
own authority? Or did they have to have permission? Were there conditions?
Students were allowed to get up at any time to get supplies but they needed permission to get
water or go to the bathroom. To get water or go to the bathroom, they need to sign out on the sign
out sheet by the door. Mr. Garlock also only let student who did enough classwork go to the
bathroom.

7. How were safety rules enforced? What were the expectations for student behavior toward
each other?
If a student was teasing another student, Mr. Garlock sternly told them “stop”. Students were
expected to be respectful towards one another and only one student could talk at once. If they
were misbehaving, they also received a warning to go work silently in another classroom.

8. Are there any special needs students (physical impairments, learning disabilities, etc.) in
this class? If so, how were these students accommodated during this lesson?
N/A
9. Were there any students who were speaking in a language other than English (either to each
other or to the entire class)?
There was one student who wasn’t as fluent in English and spoke Spanish. If she had any trouble,
another student who was fluent in both English and Spanish helped her. I asked for her name and
she looked confused so her friend whispered to her “como te llamas?”

10. Go to the Florida’s PK – 12 Education Information Portal (http://edstats.fldoe.org ) select

PK - 12 (green) and find the demographics for the high school at which you observed
(under “Students” then “Enrollment” and select the “School Level” tab, then select the
district and view report, and last you will be able to select the school). Do the school
demographics match the demographics of the class you observed?
There were four black students, two Hispanic and one white student in 5th period. It generally
matches the demographics of the school but there were less white students. This could be because
this period is non-Cambridge and Mr. Garlock also mentioned that there were a couple students
absent. There was also one ELL student in the classroom that I observed.

11. Describe how you might restructure the classroom (visuals, seating, and sociability) so all
students have equal opportunity to participate and display what they know.
For this class specifically, I might get rid of the empty groups of desks because the students were
scattered around the classroom. However, I also liked how there were only 2-3 students at a table
because they were less likely to get distracted and they had partners to discuss with. It was also
easier for Mr. Garlock to walk around and help each student. Every student had a clear view of
the board and Mr. Garlock also was able to see each student. I might also put more posters of a
multiplication chart around the room because it was something that they seemed to reference a
lot. It was on one side of the room so students either had to walk across the room to look at it and
the student who were closer to it were able to reference it more.