Name: Tyler Erwin

Date of Observation: 9-15-2016

Observation Site: Gwendolyn Brooks Middle School

Length of Observation: 2.15 Hours

(10:20 AM 12:35 PM)

Class Observed: 7th Grade Science

Teacher Observed: Seth

Robey
Topic of Lesson: Water Density

The teacher I observed taught the same 45-minute lesson during my time in his classroom.
What made this interesting the ways that he instructed the lesson varied drastically between the
three classes. These classes ranged from 19 to 24 students and from my observation it seemed
that between all three of the classes the teacher seemed to communicate with his students very
well, and the students seem to cooperate well with each other as well as the Mr. Robey. The
classroom was arranged in almost a "U" shape with the teacher's desk at the open end of the U
with a ceiling mounted projector facing the white board behind the desk. The walls were
predominantly lined with cabinets, but the decorations and poster that were on the walls showed
various locations that Mr. Robey traveled to or had to do with the "IB" program that the school
follows. Overall the room was what would be the stereotypical science classroom since there was
little wall coverings or posters that were not trying to achieve a purpose or that were not fictional
to some extent, would consider it aesthetically pleasing to some extent. The first class was an
inclusion classroom and for this class, Mr. Robey had a special educations teacher in the class to
assist him. Mr. Robey and the special education teacher would work together or separately to

assist students so that they could complete the lab and answer the corresponding homework
questions. For this class, the teacher and the special educations teacher were very hands on with
the students and assisting them to try to reach their individual goals as well as the class goals that
were set at the beginning of class. When the classes would be dismissed the teacher would
answer any lingering questions that the students might have had and then proceeded to use the
three minutes to reset the class for the next class of students to use for the next period. The
teacher used different techniques for the different classes based on the various skill levels and
accommodations that were prevalent in the classroom. For the class that needed more hands-on
interaction, the teacher would walk around the classroom and ask the students questions to help
them figure out what they were observing without having to give them the answers. With the
classes that required less help the teacher would tend to stay closer to the front of the class and
would answer questions that the students asked. The teacher used class-wide discussion as well
as the beginning lab to help engage the students for the entire class period.
The classes that I observed did not have a textbook that was used for the school and when I
asked the teacher about how he creates lessons and how he uses reading and text to support, he
said that he predominantly used the IB programs literature or used online sources for the texts.
He also stated that he used videos as well so that the students could visualize what he was asking
them to learn.