Classroom Observation Report #1
Part I.
I observed Lusine Makarosyan’s English 114B class of about 22 students from 11 a.m. to12: 15 p.m. on February 16 and 18, 2016. On February 16th, she lectured on the components of proper quotation use in essays, divided students into small groups to draft thesis statements and integrate a ‘quote sandwich’ with their thesis, and had them share their thesis and quote sandwich statements with the rest of the class. On February 18th, the students took part in a close reading exercise, and the handouts used included the short stories “Sonny’s Blues” by James Baldwin and “The Pomegranate Trees” by William Saroyan. The students were using these texts as examples of creative narratives in preparation for an auto-ethnography assignment. She reviewed the prompt for this up-coming Project Space essay thoroughly with students, having students read the prompt out loud. The class then delved into the critical reading activity. Students were divided into groups and assigned either “Sonny’s Blues” or “The Pomegranate Trees” on which to focus. The groups had to pick a passage they found engaging from the text(s) and respond to it in writing. Afterwards, the groups had to share their interpretations with the class as part of a broader discussion. The specific skills to be taught were critical reading, literary analysis, and reflective writing. The materials used were the computer and screen by the instructor, the students’ electronic devices for text retrieval, handouts, the black board, pens, and notebooks. Seats were arranged in a horizontal row of long, linked rectangle tables with students seated in individual chairs facing the front board on the wall. Prof. Makarosyan was the central focal point of vision for students, but she did move around the class often, reviewing the prompt from the back wall of the class. The atmosphere in the classroom was friendly with students cognizant of the instructor as an authority figure.
Part II.
Professor Makarosyan’s February 16th lesson on quotation use was detailed and comprehensive with the instructor asking critical questions of students during lecture to ensure that they understood. The lesson taught students how to organize their ideas around a thesis statement, critically read and hone in on main points, identify significant quotes, introduce quotes, and demonstrate the methods of incorporating and analyzing quotations in academic writing. These practices are necessary components of writing formal essays for academic papers and so are instrumental to the development of students’ writing and language skills. Professor Makarosyan’s February 18th lesson was also thorough as she prodded students for the meaning of language and literary devices (metaphors, symbolism) in fictional works. The instructor also chose material and thematic readings to which young adults could relate such as overcoming failure in life or the inability to access the “American Dream” (“Sonny’s Blues”) and immigrants planting roots in America (“The Pomegranate Trees”). Professor Makarosyan alerted students to the deeper implications of the imagery in the texts such as when she asserted that the physical spaces in the story give an indication of the internal spaces within characters. Then, she related this literary analysis to the students’ Project Space essay and asked them to consider how their personal engagement with physical spaces have shaped and formed them as individuals. The lesson was applicable to student writing/language skills in that students learned to read figurative language, write about the connotative meaning of literary passages, and analyze characters’ experiences to inform their own interaction in cultural space for their writing project. The readings stimulated idea development for student essays and provided a basis for students to connect with issues in their own ethnographies or personal narratives.
The students’ behavior was demonstrated by their participation in the close reading and reflective writing activities. Students discussed the readings and wrote interpretations collaboratively. Most students appeared be actively participating. The few students that were not participating were generally quiet and looked on as others engaged in the discussion and planning of their group responses. The groups read passages aloud to clarify their understanding of the passages and discussed specific points with one another. On February 16th, they took part in interactive group work–discussing texts, creating theses, identifying overall main idea or thesis, drafting thesis statements, figuring how the quote related to the thesis, and drafting the quote according to the sandwich model. On February 18th, students reacted to the day’s agenda and topics by communicating interest in the readings. They were able to relate to the characters in “Sonny’s Blues” and conveyed an awareness of the social, economic, and racial impediments the brothers in the story faced in attempting to better their lives. Students were also engaged with the Saroyan text and able to analyze the symbolic elements of the story, relating it to the Armenian experience of exile and resettlement in America.
Professor Makarosyan presented her February 16th lesson in an excellent manner with a clear, detailed handout about citing quotations and quote use in the first part of her lesson. She also modeled the incorporation of quotes by displaying her own student writing sample to the class, encouraging students to conceive that they too could master quote use through practice. On February 18th, she explained the agenda comprehensively and continually interacted with students during the activities. She addressed the class as whole and gave concrete instructions before she broke them into groups. She also addressed the class during their discussion of the texts after their close reading activity. At one point, the instructor asked: “Why am I not hearing discussion? Some of you are really quiet,” keeping students on task by reminding them to find something that engaged them and then discuss it. She walked around to see if students had questions. One group asked her for clarification on how they should format their reflections. She informed them that prior to writing their reflections, they should cite the text’s name, the page number and quote the first few words. During discussion, Professor Makarosyan called on individual students while asking “what do the pomegranates symbolize?” in Saroyan’s work. When a student answered that they symbolized Armenia, she responded encouragingly by saying, “very good, Seda.” On the whole, while the instructor directed the lesson, student group participation in the activities drove the dynamics of class discussion.
I found Prof Makarosyan’s course planning ¾ her incorporation of fiction texts as preparation for personal narrative ethnographies very innovative. Since the students will presumably be working on non-fiction academic essays in progressive course stages, starting with the close reading of fiction and writing creative ethnographic narratives seemed like a particularly insightful way of sparking students’ engagement and curiosity in topics like social justice and discrimination that they could possible explore in later research-based assignments. Prof. Makarosyan has a good feel for the students ‘pulse;’ her course design and pedagogy includes material that students find relevant and relative to their everyday experiences. As a result, her students are continually engaged in course activities and the learning process. Moreover, she has excellent classroom management skills through a ‘friendly but firm’ attitude with students and grounded sense of humor. The above are all invaluable attributes from which I have learned and will strive to incorporate in my own teaching.
Teacher Observation Report #2
Part I:
I observed an English 113B first-year stretch composition course taught by Prof. Kimberly Carroll on Monday, April 4th and Wednesday, April 6th 2016 between the hours of 9:30 to 10:45 a.m. There are 18 students in the class and the class meets twice a week on Mondays and Wednesdays for one hour and 15 minutes each session. Students are seated in moveable chairs, organized in horizontal rows, facing the instructor, the central point of vision. The textbooks used for these lessons are Writing by Lester Faigley and the novel How to Live Safely in a Science Fiction Universe by Charles Yu. In the first observation, the instructor and student group-activity presenters lectured from a projected computer screen. After their presentation, student presenters passed out a multiple-choice quiz on grammar to classmates, and the instructor also had students work on a handout, “Building My Introduction Paragraph” as a complement to lecture. During the second observation, students collectively watched part of the film, Pleasantville, on the computer screen and then individually worked on a reflection quiz, projected on screen, associated with a literary analysis of the movie.
Part II: I chose to concentrate on the following question:
How does a literacy curriculum and associated materials activities promote the goal of enabling students to acquire literacy skills at the university?
How did the activities and strategies in the classes you observed contribute to helping students become better readers and writers? Some examples might be peer-group interactions, teacher presentation, exercises, writing assignments, readings, etc.
Monday, April 4th
By having a group present on the proper use of apostrophes, students enhanced their understanding of grammar. Students taught grammar usage to their peers such as how apostrophes indicate the possessive and contractions. The group internalized grammar rules by creating a quiz for their classmates. In this manner, the presenting group learned grammar concepts through teaching and assessed student learning at the same time. These grammar peer-group interactions further students’ writing capacity by enabling them to practice exercises and internalize syntax and sentence structure rules necessary for communication in academic discourse. Micciche, in “Making the Case for Rhetorical Grammar,” also supports the latter pedagogy and contends that there is a case to be made for the study of grammar in the rhetorical process because analyzing and practically engaging in the use of syntax alerts writers to alternate meanings in writing conveyed by different grammatical choices.
Prof. Carroll has students answer reflection questions as a quiz. This reflection consists of literary analysis questions focused on character development and students’ interaction with the assigned text, Charles Yu’s How to Live Safely in a Science Fiction Universe. Students identify the main conflict faced by the protagonist and the importance of another main character, particularly in driving the plot. In considering these points students learn to connect the characters’ experiences with universal themes. These themes can then be employed to derive arguments for the Project Three essay. Through this activity students will additionally practice the techniques of close reading and interpretation which then become sources for invention in writing. The instructor asks students to consider what they found most surprising and confusing about the text to stimulate engaged reading. Prof. Carroll’s inclusion of a literary focus reflects Farris’ arguments for the retention of literature in composition due to its usefulness as a means of generating argument and examining textuality. It also espouses Sullivan’s advocacy for the inclusion of creativity as a form of intelligence and complex cognition that compliments critical thinking.
Prof. Carroll presents a lecture on how to write introductions for essays. She explains the significance of having a good “hook,” background information, and thesis in the introduction. Prof. Carroll stresses the importance of having an attention grabber at the beginning of the introduction and delineates invention strategies for the hook such as describing a vivid scene, opening with a narrated story or anecdote, using a quotation, providing startling information and facts, drawing comparisons to topics of interest to the audience, or rebutting an opposing point of view. She then outlines for students invention strategies for creating an effective background such as discussing the history of the subject, exploring its current relevance, or focusing on related facts and statistics. Prof. Carroll then emphasizes that the final line of the students’ introduction should be a thesis consisting of one sentence that clearly states the position the students will be arguing in the essay. She reminds students that good writing entails that the hook, background, and thesis should be coherent and logically flow from one another (as should the rest of the paper). After lecture, Prof. Carroll passes out a handout exercise through which students dissect their second draft essay introductions by identifying the elements discussed in lecture (the hook, background, and thesis) in their introduction paragraphs. Prof. Carroll’s methodology, in this regard, is in line with Lunsford et al.’s useful ways of formulating argumentative positions proposed in Everyone’s an Author which proposes strategies such as ‘taking a stance,’ arguing it persuasively with evidence, appealing to an audience, and appearing authoritative in the process.
Wednesday, April 6th:
Prof. Carroll had students watch and annotate parts of the film, “Pleasantville.” She uses the film as a visual text to enable a literary analysis of elements such as symbolism and characterization. Since the students have not had a lesson on symbolism in print texts, the film appears to be a more accessible medium for accessing and ascertaining symbolism. The film reinforces the vibrancy and freedom of contemporary life, depicted in color, with the conservatism and social strictures of 1950s small-town America which is cast in black and white. As characters experiment with acts of liberation and defiance, aspects of their world and being turn into color. In this implicit way, the film visually illustrates symbolic elements of a text that might not be apparent to students untutored in reading for symbolism in print fiction. The digital medium of film is thus a subtle and engaging way through which the instructor introduces students to literary concepts that they will use in their argumentative essay. At the end of the film clip, she has students take a reflective quiz on what color symbolized in the film and which characters would be against more color in life, encouraging students to reflect and write about the meanings associated with symbols.
Overall
Prof. Carroll’s curriculum and activities presented some very helpful means of furthering student literacy at the university. The grammar presentation activities helped students become better writers by fostering an awareness about syntactic rules which could then enable improved communication according to broader academic standards and afford students the opportunity to create alternate meanings in their writing through choice of grammar. Literary analysis activities enhanced both critical reading and writing by enabling students to focus on stylistic devices such as characterization, symbolism, and plot to generate support for particular interpretive arguments related to the assigned text. The handout and exercises associated with writing introduction paragraphs also promoted improvement in writing capacity by using the rhetorical strategies of audience awareness and invention techniques for segments of the introduction. These strategies particularly helped develop the structure and coherence necessary in argumentative essays as well as the important task of identifying a main argument (the thesis) that will hold the whole essay together. I therefore learned many useful means of promoting first-year composition literacy through Prof. Carroll’s curriculum and pedagogical practices.
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