Wednesday 2/25/2015

Observation
L. Michaud
Teacher: Molly Dugdale
Class: 9th grade Biology
Time: Period 1

Molly,

This is what stands out to me about you and your teaching style:
you are prepared but flexible, knowledgeable, approachable and patient
you demonstrate an understanding of your students learning styles and various classroom
needs
finally, your activities are well thought out, purposeful and active.
I really like that in addition to your agenda you wrote a purpose on the board. Its fitting
especially since you are talking about lab results (and it sort of follows the scientific method,
right?!) but I think its just good practice to talk about and write down a purpose for the lesson or
class. It helps students think actively about the material and keeps them focused.
Giving students access to how they are going to be graded on an assignment is great. The
expectations are clear and it serves as a checklist they can use to make sure they have
completed what they need to. I also really like that while each student presents, you have the
other students write down strengths and an area of improvement. This keeps them engaged,
active and aware of what their classmates are doing!
A couple of ideas
In general, it seems like students often forget that their notes are a resource that they can and
should go back to and use. I think they often see them as a task or something they have to do,
rather than a tool that they can refer to as often as needed. Do you think it would be helpful to
have a specific lesson on note-taking? Or maybe have weekly study skills checklists - where
students take 5 minutes or so at the end of the week to reflect on the study skills they used that
week, and how they used the various skills. You could list the skills (notebook organization,
time management, two column notes, lecture notes, active reading/SQ3R, etc) and they circle
the ones they used, then write about when and how they used them? Just an idea to try to get
students to see that they are learning content and skills, and that both are valuable.
The class flew by and it seemed to be the end of the period before we knew it! Its not that any
activity took too long or too much time was spent on any particular task or even that students
spent too long on presenting - but would it be helpful to have students predict how much time
each agenda item would take? Maybe next to each item, you could write down the time it

should approximately take. It seems like a small thing, but it might help students stay aware of
time and then you can all see if something took longer/shorter than you thought it might.
I think its worth noting that this is a great group of students. They are good to each other and
respect you. They werent even phased by my presence or that we were recording the class!!
Finally, I love your exit ticket! What an awesome way to have students be reflective - and you
can easily and quickly assess what they took from the lesson. Awesome.
You are a great teacher, and you have some excellent strategies.