Lila Mandela CO#2

I completed two classroom observations on Friday, July 12th. The second observation I conducted was composition class with Mrs. Stringer. She had lots of energy and enthusiasm which I really liked. Like all the other teachers, she started off by writing the agenda on the board:

• Feedback from timed writing
• Outline practice
• Transition words
• Break
• Timed writing #1 

To begin class, Mrs. Stringer showed us a video on Chik-Fil-A's Cow Appreciation Day. I'm assuming this was a way to lower the affective filter. After showing the video, she handed back the students' essays and talked about formatting. Some of the essays didn't have a thesis statement; other essays weren't separated in the proper 5-paragraph format. So, it was necessary for her to stress their importance in writing an essay. 

This class was very interactive. Mrs. Stringer picked three team captains and then had the captains select a writing topic and teammates. After separating the students, they were given the task of outlining an essay on their desired topic on a large sheet of paper. The importance of the thesis statement was reiterated and after the planning, the students presented their outlines (thesis statement included) to the class. After providing feedback on their presentations, Mrs. Stringer introduced transition words. She gave multiple examples on the projector screen and she gave the class a chance to recite transition word sentences. When that segment was completed, the dreaded timed  writing exercise began. Once this began, I left the class since there wouldn't be anything to observe. I think it would be a bit creepy for me to hover over everyone as they wrote.

I really enjoyed observing Mrs. Stringer's class. She was energetic, enthusiastic, informative and articulate. Going into her classroom was an absolute pleasure.