COURSE ASSIGNMENTS Reflective Journal

Each student will purchase a spiral bound notebook to be used as a Reflective Journal.  This

journal will be used for specific assignments (e.g.) the development and continuous revision of a personal theory of teaching and of learning) and also for classroom observations.  In sum, the journal will function simultaneously as a repository for certain assignments and as a diary for recording experiences connected with the course (e. g. classroom observations).  When you talk with students about journal, tell them either to leave a wide margin when they write or to leave one side of each age blank so that you can record your reactions to their work and they can go back and record their own reactions to text they have written earlier (e.g. personal theory of teaching and of learning).

Classroom Observations

The course includes nine observations in classrooms. The course syllabus indicates that students may have to locate the schools in which they will observe.  If the teachers approve, form triads among the students so three people observe in the same class at the same time.  Each triad should remain together throughout the semester.   Observing in triads has two purposes.

First, it allows a richer conversation about the observation and, second, it allows the students to practice talking and thinking together about teaching an learning with colleagues.   Hopefully, they will bring this habit with them when they begin their teaching careers.  Explain that observing and recording what they see is necessary but not sufficient.  The value of the observations comes from talking and thinking Together about what you have seen and then individually describing what you saw and your interpretations as a one page paper.

Observations are planned for Units 1, 2  & 5. Each set of observations has a different purpose. The first two observations are of teachers’ actions during a lesson using a checklist created from the teacher effectiveness research.   Two teachers are to be observed varying the age of the students (within grades 1 through 8) and the subject of the lesson  (e.g. math, Urdu, etc.).  The

third observation is of a teacher’s movement in the classroom during a lesson.  The fourth and fifth observations are in the same classroom and are of a teacher interacting with two students in the class whom the teacher has identified as in the top quarter of the class and the bottom

quarter of the class academically. The remaining four observations take place in two classes again varying students’ age and subject matter.   These observations are of two students in each class who have been identified by their teachers as popular and less popular.  Here the observation is of the interaction of the two target students in each class with other students in the class.   Each type of observation (teacher alone; teacher-student interactions and student-student interactions has data collection forms that are among the handouts accompanying this guide.

Student Interviews

The course includes ten interviews with students.  The first interviews are with two elementary school students who are to be asked their views about good teachers.  Then each triad will interview four students  (two high achievers and two low achievers) during lessons in classes the first observation is conducted.  The student interviewers will create their own interview questions.  The purpose of the interviews is to learn the students’ opinions about school, the teacher and themselves as students.   The other four interviews are with two popular students and two less popular students each pair in a different class.  The student interviewers will determine the questions which can be the same as those used for the first set of interviews.  For each set of interviews, the interviewers might consider asking each student, ‘If you could change

one thing about school and one thing about the teacher in the class we just visited, what would it be?’  Summaries of these interviews, including the questions asked and interpretations, become journal entries.

Teaching a Lesson

This assignment is described in the course syllabus.  It is a group project the purpose of which is twofold:  to plan and critique a lesson using a lecture, discussion, or demonstration and to work in a group using cooperative learning.

Divide the class into six groups. Prepare six slips of paper – two will say lecture, two will say discussion and two will say demonstration. Put them in a bag or envelope. Have one member from each group draw a slip from the envelope. The name on the paper is the method the group will build into a lesson appropriate in content for their college/university classmates.

Each member of the group will participate in planning the lesson as a cooperative learning experience.   At the beginning of the class session in which the lesson is to be taught, names of the people in the group that planned the lesson will be put in an envelope and one name will be drawn.  That person is the one who will teach the lesson to the class.  In other words in each of the six groups every person has to be prepared to teach, though only one of them will actually give the lesson.  Class members will be given rubrics to be used to judge the lesson.  A critique will follow each lesson and will include the members of the group who planned the lesson.  Each group will be responsible for providing evidence that every member of the group participated equally in preparing the lesson.

Designing a Lesson

It may seem strange to plan and teach a lesson before learning how to design a lesson. This is a more detailed plan that the one used to teach using a lecture, demonstration or discussion. Hopefully, using a simpler plan just utilizing one method will make the more comprehensive plan easier to create.

This is also a group experience with three persons in a group.  There may be some advantage in keeping the people who observed in classrooms together for this project.  (There are also advantages to working with a new group.)  The topic for the lesson is nutrition.  The lesson is

for students in Class IV.  It will be helpful if you can find 4th grade textbooks containing chapters

on nutrition and put them on reserve for this course in the library.  Students should be encouraged to collect teaching materials for this assignment on their own also.