EDUL 6019 Pamela Barnett

Techniques for Teacher Observation Clinical Cycles Report

Clinical Cycles Report

I selected the two teachers to complete the clinical cycles based on several factors. I chose two teachers that would openly and freely participate in the clinical cycle. I also wanted to work with teachers that had a marked variance in backgrounds, experience and concerns.

I selected a veteran teacher (VT) that has taught several grade levels and content areas. VT has often confided his concerns and asked for my advice on students, curriculum and instruction. I knew that VT had just started using desk top computers to teach the writing process in his 7^th grade Language Arts class. He has worked above and beyond the normal school day to get the computers set up and running properly. He is very excited about the potential that this method has of involving and motivating his students to write. Yet, after only a few days of implementation he has developed many concerns with the "kinks" that have surfaced. When he asked for my help, I decided that I would conduct my clinical cycle with him. He was receptive and agreed to participate in the process.

For my other participant, I selected a first year teacher (FYT) that is straight out of college. She is very intelligent, dedicated and organized. She is willing to try new methods and strategies to meet students’ needs. She has expressed her concern to me on several occasions related to the work ethic and performance of the students in her 7^th grade science classes. After this first nine weeks of school, she has lost some of her exuberance due to the number of failing grades her students have earned and the number of behavior problems that have developed. I believe that the clinical cycle would provide her with options to improve her students’ academic performance and behavior. Unlike VT, FYT was not as receptive to the idea, but she was willing to participate in the process.

VT was very concerned that students were following their own expectations of what they should be doing instead of following the directions he repeatedly gave the students. Since VT has been utilizing desk top computers, students were taking detours from his map of the lesson. VT had a lesson planned for students to work on revisions of a previous writing assignment. He wanted me to observe his lesson and keep observational notes on how he gave directions, the clarity of his directions and the students’ execution of his directions. We agreed on a position in the room that would allow me to see the students at work and at the same time be out of the way. VT thought that students would be tempted to be more talkative if they saw a recording device during the observation and he requested that I only take written notes.

The lesson was scheduled for October 19^th at 2:05 and the observation was to last 20 to 30 minutes. We agreed to a post-conference on October 21^st at 3:15. It was decided that I would email VT the observational notes by his planning period on October 20^th.

As planned, I made observational notes of the lesson. This lasted for 22 minutes. I made notes of all of VT’s verbal and non-verbal directions. As he gave specific directions, I also made notes of the actions of the students. I made sure that my notes only described the students’ actions and were free of inferences and value judgments.

Immediately after the observation, I read my notes and made sure that I could interpret my shorthand. I typed and e-mailed my transcription to VT that afternoon. I reminded VT of the date and time of our feedback conference and that we should both have read and analyzed the notes from the observation before the post-conference. I also included an agenda: (1) Clarify/discuss data, (2) Answer questions, (3) Did data provide answers/solutions for concerns? (4) What are the implications of the data? (5) Suggestions/Plans for improvement, (6) Follow-up meeting.

We met at our scheduled time and I began the meeting by sharing comments I had heard from students on how much they enjoyed writing since they got to use the computers. I wanted to ‘lead’ VT to his own workable solutions, if possible, so I encouraged him to talk about the lesson and notes. VT pointed out how he got students’ attention before giving the directions for the lesson. As he went down the page of notes, he made comments about how he restated and used examples to ensure students knew what to do. We both agreed that he gave appropriate instructions and reminders for students to successfully complete the assignment. He also saw that the majority of his directions were ‘housekeeping’ type instructions that he repeated everyday. When we looked at the list of student actions in relation to his instructions, he realized that half of the students were not following his directions. Several students were busy changing the font while others were going into other files. It was also obvious to VT that the off-task behavior started with one or two students and spread to others in a domino effect. One side of the room was correctly carrying out the instructions while the other side was trying out the off-task behavior that their neighbor was doing. VT concluded that the majority of the problem was that the students were making choices not to follow the directions that were given to them. VT decided that he needed to post his repetitive instructions and rules for using the computer with a list of consequences. He wants to motivate students and make them responsible to correctly and consistently utilize the computer to develop their writing skills. If the students choose not to follow the directions and rules, the consequence will be to write their papers without the use of a computer until they are able to follow the rules and directions to complete the writing assignment.

VT wants to focus on the information that students will need to successfully complete the writing assignment and not to spend so much time repeating directions relating to the use of the computer. He has also concluded that modifying his seating arrangement would alleviate some of the off-task behavior.

FYT was concerned about the behavior of her students and the number of failing grades. She was afraid that she was not monitoring her students enough during class activities and group work to keep them on task. She wanted to make sure that she was monitoring all tables and students during the lesson to ensure that they were on task. We agreed on a room layout diagram to use to complete the class traffic observation. I would record her movements among students as they completed the lesson assignment in their groups or individually as they choose. The observation was to be for 20 minutes on October 24^th at 8:00. The feedback conference was scheduled for October 25^th at 3:15.

As planned, I kept a class traffic chart of FYT’s movements during the lesson. I numbered each of her stops with students to identify the order of her movements. I kept up with FYT’s movements for 20 minutes.

After the observation, I tallied up all the stops/visits of FYT with each student/table. I made a copy of the class traffic diagram and gave it to FYT. I e-mailed her a reminder of the date and time of our feedback conference. I included an agenda: (1) Clarify/discuss data, (2) Answer questions, (3) Did data provide answers/solutions for concerns? (4) What are the implications of the data? (5) Suggestions/Plans for improvement, (6) Follow-up meeting.

We met at our scheduled time. I began our meeting with a comment on the space that the layout of her tables provided for students. I also wanted FYT to analyze her performance and arrive at her own solutions, if possible. FYT agreed that the layout gave students room to work individually and in groups. She also related how she felt like table one was a mile from table six and that she had a hard time keeping tabs on all the different tables because of the distance. FYT could not believe that she had only made 17 visits to tables or with students to monitor their progress in the 20 minute observation. She thought that she would have checked on or helped twice that many in 20 minutes. FYT was glad that she had evenly distributed her monitoring to all tables and had not focused her attention a just a few students. She related when she checked the students completed work that the majority did not do well at all, even though she thought they were on track when she was monitoring them. FYT realized that she was focusing on doing a cursory check and was not paying enough attention to how well or how much each student was accomplishing between her visits. She also made the connection between her room size and layout and the time it took to move from student to student who needed help and monitoring. FYT concluded that some students were only working when she approached them and then they ‘shut down’ until her next approach. She is looking at changing her layout and the number of students at each table as well as the number of tables. FYT wants to make her changes and then she wants me to conduct another class traffic observation to give her feedback and to compare students’ performance with the different layouts.

Neither of the two feedback conferences went exactly as planned. Even though I feel that we accomplished all items on the agenda, it was not in as orderly a fashion as I thought it would be. VT and FYT sort of stumbled onto the items as they shared their feelings and what they had learned.

I believe the data from my observations provided both teachers with the resource they both needed to draw their own conclusions. I just provided the means to collect the information and to get them to start thinking about what they do and how they do it. I did not ‘spew forth’ answers and solutions; they found these themselves.

From comments from both teachers, their desire to help me out was the main reason that they participated in this process. They felt that they were the ones generating assistance for me and that the process would only provide them with a few impractical suggestions that I would develop. VT said he could not have produced the same solutions just from me sharing advice with him. They were pleasantly surprised and I look forward to working with them again.

I learned that teachers most often just need the knowledge and occasion to reflect on their teaching to identify solutions. With the appropriate data and information, teachers can evaluate themselves. I could have just sent my solutions to the teachers but the process of reflection is a powerful tool and when it is utilized it can alter teachers and their practice. As a National Board Certified Teacher, I know of the permanence and depth of the changes that reflection can produce.

I will improve my skills by thinking ahead to insure that I have an appropriate way to accurately and easily record my observations. It became very difficult to keep up with VT’s directions and student actions on the sheet I was using. I also think I need to use an audio or video recording of observations to evaluate and improve my skills. This would provide me with a way to compare what I have recorded in my notes with what actually happened in the lesson. I can see what and how much I am missing and not getting in my notes for teachers to see. I can use this information to focus on to develop better observational skills.