Abby Hasebroock

Walk through observation

English 3, F day, E period

April 25, 2017

I entered at 11:12. Abby was leading a large group discussion about serial authors. She
directed this conversation with a powerpoint presentation. Several students followed along with
this presentation on their ipads. Abby displayed a primary source document (picture of a weekly
journal) as part of this presentation.

At 11:15, Abby asked if there were any questions. No one had a question, so Abby continued on
with presentation regarding student expectations for the Victorian Literature Circle project. Abby
asked the students to download a document in Google classroom. Abby circulated throughout
the classroom as students completed this task. Next, Abby directed the students to look at the
the first few pages of the handout. Abby asked for a student volunteer to read the first two
paragraphs. A student raised her hand and volunteered to read. After the reading, Abby
summarized this information. A second student volunteer continued to read the introductory
information. Again, after the reading, Abby summarized the information that was read. She also
presented the various student roles within a literature circle. Abby named each student role and
summarized the responsibilities of each role. A slide was projected that listed this
information. At the end of this presentation, Abby asked if the students had any questions. No
one had raised his/her hand. Abby continued the explanation by explaining the Literature circle
role worksheet. Templates of documents that students could use were included in the
downloaded materials and in the projected presentation. Next, Abby asked the students to
access the reading schedule posted in Google classroom. While the student were working on
this task, Abby circulated throughout the classroom checking on student progress. Next, Abby
projected the literature circle group members, based on student novel preferences.
At 11:26, students moved into their work groups, rearranging their chairs to accommodate all
group members. Abby circulated amongst the work groups clarifying student responsibilities
based on novel choices and group sizes. Students talked amongst themselves deciding on roles
for each of the outlined meeting dates.

I left the classroom at 11:32.

Comments

This classroom activity was very well planned and prepared. Abby created a series of
documents, schedules of meetings, and document templates. The objectives and the
expectations for each part of the project were clearly outlined and discussed. Having the
students follow download and follow along with this presentation on their iPads was a great idea.
This allowed the students to highlight and take notes about the assignment, which I noticed
many did. It also gives the students to opportunity to review the specifics of this project at a later
date.

Throughout the large group presentation, Abby asked the students if they had any questions or
concerns. Abby paused and clarified points throughout the introductory presentation. Due to the
complexity of this project, it was a good idea to go through this introductory explanation point by
point so that students know what is expected of them.

This was a wonderful way for the students to exercise choice in this final class reading project.
Six novels will be read, discussed, and presented to the class. It is my hope that these
presentations encourage students to read more than one of these novels.
If everyone in your English 3 level team is not doing a project such as this, I encourage you to
share this idea with the group. It is a great end of the year project which covers 6 different
novels.

Thank you for welcoming me into your class. Please let me know if you would like to discuss
this in greater detail.

Maura