Zach Broderick Yr. 2
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Contents |
Monthly Visits
September
- Computer lab setup / Parent Night 2010
October
- Exemplary Teaching (Careers) - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2I9YxNWt2Bg
November
- Essay Critiquing (Kevin) - similar figures
Feedback:
I liked how you walked around and checked on on how the students were doing on the critique. You did a good job starting the discussion by going over the first answer and asking
what they thought of the answer. You did a good job with getting an answer from the students and also having them elaborate and explain themselves. You had smooth transitions
from the answers, to the students averages and the critiques. I liked how you called on the students that did not take the explanations seriously and called on them to elaborate
on what they meant. I also liked how you showed students who put detail into their critique. One thing that we need to pay attention to is the amount of time we spend on each
example. We ran out of time in a couple of classes. I think the critique this time went well and I look forward to more in the future.
December
- Essay Critiquing (Jen) - similar figures
Feedback: During the essay critiquing lessons Zach did nice job with classroom management. He is able to keep students focused and calls back their attention when he recognizes some students may be losing focus. This can be difficult as Zach sees the students once a week or once every two weeks. Not knowing all the students’ names can make it very difficult to keep such good classroom management. One recommendation for Zach would be to focus on the level of knowledge of the majority of the students. During some explanations, Zach used math vocabulary that was above the understanding of the common seventh grade student. When using vocabulary that is above the student’s understanding, it is common to see students disengage.
Routines
Essay Critiquing
Students are given an ORQ the night before, and several exemplary essays are selected to generate a critique assignment. During class, students are reminded of the rubric and complete the assignment. During the last 15 mins or so of class, Zach puts their critiques up on the projector and discusses them, holding students who were not taking the activity serious accountable by calling on them to justify their critiques. The goal is to get students to recognize a quality open response and what makes it good so that they can transfer these concepts to their own essays.
Small Group
Oak does not separate students by math skill in 7th grade, so during certain investigations the high-acheiving students are taken outside and work with Zach doing more challenging work on the same topic. This prevents them from getting bored covering material they already understand, while giving the lower students an opportunity to participate without having to compete with the high acheivers.
Nightly Homework and Review
When we have access to a projector, we will pull up the Item Report for last night's homework and review the problems students struggled with, which we identify by their low scores on the Item Report. This is sometimes followed up with Mastery Learning or some other reinforcement.
Individual Help
Students go to the computer lab and work on ASSISTments, while Zach moves from student to student providing individual help.
