Field Observation 3

One day, the 9th graders worked on how to construct a good response to literature with evidence. The teacher asked them to consider what components a good response consists of, then wrote a central idea on the board from The Old Man and the Sea (a novel I personally have no intention of teaching): “Santiago’s respect for nature.” He asked what made evidence appropriate: students came up with “relevant” and “specific.” Students then worked in pairs to go through a designated set of pages and pull quotes that would support that central idea. These quotes would later be used in a writing assignment, which students would already be prepared for with their collection of text evidence. By breaking it down into steps, the teacher is helping students master the skill of finding and citing evidence from the text to ultimately produce stronger writing. 

While I was there, he also showed me the assignment from the day before, in which groups of students had drawn the titular old man on poster paper and labeled all of the injuries and pains he had sustained, including the page number that they found each detail on. This assignment not only required students to go back and do a close read (using citations, once again), but it helped them to visualize the protagonist and the physical hardships he endured throughout the story. Most of the pictures were glorified stick figures but the level of artistic skill wasn’t what mattered, and while I wasn’t there to witness it, I have to imagine the kids had fun with it.

The next time I came back, he had students taking a writing multiple choice section from a practice SAT, then told me he would use these scores to put them in groups for a project. However, after the first 15 or so questions, he had them working in pairs to complete the rest, so I’m unsure how it was an accurate measure of individual achievement levels. The project had a list of grammatical topics, of which each group would tackle a different one. The groups were to do research and become experts on their topic, then create a 30 minute lesson (not presentation), with materials, to teach their topic to the rest of the class. About one group per week would do these presentations for the next 11 weeks. While I like the idea of students becoming experts on a topic and then actively teaching it to their peers, the fact that they are teaching and watching full grammar lessons is unfortunate. Furthermore, I first assumed his achievement grouping would be heterogeneous, so stronger students could help struggling students, but he told me they would be grouped with students who scored similarly to themselves, with the lower achieving groups taking on the easier topics (such as nouns/adjectives, verbs/adverbs, pronouns) and the higher achieving groups taking on the more challenging topics (commas, semi colons, usage errors). I don’t think I approve of this method, as it sets lower expectations for certain students. I certainly hope students aren’t aware that they are in a lower achieving group.