Classroom Observation Critique Essay

The goal of using think aloud in reading a text is to help students develop the ability to monitor their reading comprehension and use strategies to facilitate understanding. Studies show that students who verbalize their thoughts while reading score significantly higher on comprehension tests. The Teacher The teacher has a pleasing personality, which I think the reason that draws pupils’ eyes to the teacher’s face and listen to her voice. For the whole duration of my teaching profession, I have observed that the teacher’s appearance greatly affects students’ attention. The more beautiful the teacher is, the more attentive the students are, especially at the opening of classes. This led me to recall my elementary and high school years when I liked more my pretty teachers than those that are not so pretty. As a teacher right now, this can be very subjective and should not to be the sole basis in assessing teacher performance. However, every teacher should strive to look at their best every day. The teacher is confident and shows mastery of the subject matter. I believe this is very important because it is where we build trust from our students. And because the students trust you, they are more than willing to open themselves and ask you everything they need to know. The teacher answers the students’ questions in a simple and understandable way. In this manner, there is total understanding on the part of the students. Every teacher should make sure that all questions and clarifications raised by the students must be thoroughly answered and cleared. The teacher maintains discipline and control of the class. I believe this is one strong aspect of classroom management. At the beginning of the class, the teacher sets the mood where she is enthusiastic and maintains a warm and friendly atmosphere conducive to learning. She also avoids making embarrassing remarks about the student’s ideas or actions. In return, the students respect and admire her. She successfully establishes rapport with her students. The Teaching Procedure Introduction/Before Reading The teacher starts with a class discussion: What strategies do good readers use to make meaning of the text? In a class size of 20-30, each student is given the chance to speak of his/her thoughts. This follows that smaller class size is more well-attended to by the teacher compared with 40-50 students in a class, where, only a fraction of the students speak up because it would take a lot of time and the teacher is obliged to proceed to the next activity. After which, the teacher presents the term â€Å"think aloud† to the students and have them brainstorm and report on how it might be used in reading. The groups of four (4) actually make the correct guesses on how they understand the term given. Then, the teacher distributes the bookmarks with different strategies of thinking aloud written on it. Later, strips of paper with definitions of the strategies are distributed for matchmaking. Before the answers are revealed, the students are tasked to what they think of the strategies. In this kind of activity, the students get to compare their reports/answers with the list given and survey themselves how often they use these active reading strategies before. During Reading Students receive three post it notes. They label them: BEFORE READING, DURING READING and AFTER READING. The use of colorful post it notes in this activity keeps the flow of active participation. Colors, especially the bright ones, add life to our classroom activities. This is because colors stimulate our creative expression, lending excitement and interest. The use of small things like the bookmarks and post its, enhances students’ manipulative tendencies. They are also readily available and very handy. Teachers should keep a stack of these. As the teacher models think aloud, students write down on their post it notes what strategies the reader uses before reading, during reading, and after reading. This involves the teacher thinking out loud when working through the problems in the text and demonstrating processes for the students. However, the attention of students is very important. They have to listen and observe well. Then, one after another, the students read the remaining paragraphs in the class and model the kind of think aloud strategy he/she chooses. This is the part where students are provided with enough practice, collaboration, repetition and hands on activity until the students learn on their own. The above activities, as a whole, give more teacher involvement at first; then later, there is less teacher involvement, that is, he/she should only guide the students while they have total responsibility in attaining the required skill. After Reading The class conducts 3-2-1 activity—3 things learned, 2 things liked about the lesson, 1 question one still have. Again, each one has the chance to speak in front. Questions and interpretations are clarified, where the students remember what they have individually created in their minds from the text. This serves the primary purpose of post reading activity which is to provide the students the chance to ask questions concerning their assignments and extension of lesson. Enrichment Activity The students are grouped into four and read a copy of a poem that is unfamiliar to each group while using think aloud strategies. â€Å"The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.† – Eleanor Roosevelt