My Observation At A Public Middle School - 1801 Words

I conducted my observation at a public middle school in an urban setting. The class that I observed was a sixth grade self-contained class. The class was small, containing about fifteen students, the teacher and a teacher aid. The teacher taught the students English, which included writing and reading but also helped students with math. In the classroom the desk were put in groups of four so that the students were facing each other. There were bins in the back of the room that help their individual folders and reading books along with the teacher aids desk. The teachers’ desks were set to one side of the classroom and in the front were a chalkboard and an interactive white board. I saw students’ work on independent and group work in the†¦show more content†¦For example, the teacher encouraged high expectations for her students. She did this by giving the students challenging class work. Although the students had disabilities she believed that they could be chal lenged to further their learning. Instead of handing the students all books and reading to them she had each student read part of the chapter. This helped each student build their vocabulary and helped their reading. She was patient with the students and helped them sound out words if they did not know them. The teacher also set consequences for non-completed work, which I thought was very useful. When a student did not do their homework from the night before because they were â€Å"lazy† or just forgot they would receive a zero but were able to earn the grade back if they completed it by class time tomorrow. This showed students that they have to be responsible for their own work and have to be more organized now that they are in middle school. I also saw that if a student did not bring their laptops to class as instructed the day before they would have to work with what they had. The laptops were used so students could participate in an online reading program know as Wilson . I thought that the Wilson program was and was not effective. It was because it helped the students increase their reading levels but when they were asked question about what they read they would randomly chose an answer without taking time to think about it. This is because if