Donna Tufariello Kate Perkins Observation, ENGL 121 10/24/13, 9:30-10:45, T159

Lesson on Evaluation: Summary Eighteen students attended class, most of them male. To start, Kate had them journal for five minutes on a favorite song, movie, or TV show and why it was their favorite. Kate asked for volunteers to share their journal entries, and got a couple. Kate then announced that they were moving into the Disney movie essay, a project she had clearly already mentioned, which provoked a genuinely excited response from the class. They were to write four full pages about their favorite childhood Disney cartoons using quotations, works cited lists, and intext citations. The purpose was to evaluate it for the social cues it teaches kids. She had students brainstorm some of the considerations to use in evaluating a movie (entertaining, relatable, characters, etc.) Kate brought up on the front screens a document explaining how to plan an evaluative essay. Then she shared a YouTube version of Marvin Gayes Whats Going On (1971) and tried to draw from them what was going on in the 1960s and 1970s. She told them the political history of the song and its purpose as a protest anthem. The students, at Kates request came up with a list of strengths (catchy, key words repeated, etc.) and weaknesses (sad lyrics, too vague, etc.) the song had in relation to this purpose. From that pair of lists, Kate had them extract the benchmarks they used to assess the song (how easy it was to understand, how strong the social message was, etc.) Next, she played Born in the USA (1984) by Springsteen and Where Is the Love (2003) by the Black Eyed Peas, subjecting them to the same process and contrasting the songs success at achieving their purpose. Finally, Kate asked students what would criteria they would consider in evaluating a modern protest song (from the past ten years). She put the students into five groups and assigned each a song to listen to on YouTube, sharing one computer per group, and applying their criteria to it. She moved from group to group listening to their reactions and evaluations. Before class ended, she directed them toward their homework assignment on Moodle. Strengths Holy moly, the amount of planning and prep that went into this lesson was staggering. The scaffolding was so gentle from task to task it felt more like a wheelchair ramp than a ladder. The journal was a friendly, easy way to introduce the idea of evaluation, and each activity thereafter, all of them right on purpose, demanded a bit more and a bit more rigor until they were listing criteria that should be used in evaluating the somewhat unfamiliar (I gathered) genre of the protest song. I thought ending the lesson with modern songsones they may well be familiar withwas outstanding, as was repeatedly having

them brainstorm in class, which seems to render an assignment less intimidating. And throughout, Kate managed the transitions beautifully without hesitation, like a seasoned teacher. Kate has an excellent rapport with her students. She responded warmly even when goofy, jokey answers were offered by her students (e.g., the young man who claimed Mylie Cyrus was his favorite TV show). She smiled graciously, yet did not allow these answers to deflect her from her purpose or her high expectations. When she asked for volunteers, she got them. And as Kate moved from group to group toward the end of class, it was obvious that the students both like and respect her. She is unflaggingly patient and upbeat. The assignment itself is clever and approachable without being at all dumbed-down. In fact, it is quite an advanced assignment for a 121 class. The fact that the students were excited about it in advance says a great deal. I want to steal it. Ponderables for Kate These are thoughts Kate may want to consider as she moves forward. Are the students working hard enough? Kate put immense effort into that lesson plan. Sometimes because of limited time (maybe five minutes for journaling wasnt enough, for example?) or clowning around, many of her students got away without breaking a sweat. Are the classroom rules and consequences clear? The back-of-the-room guys I was sitting near were a handful for any teacheroften distracting and distracted. They did not always hear the clear instructions Kate gave them and instead guessed at what they were to do. One sent a text message, another took a photo of a classmate with his cell phone, and a few were simply playing with their computers. Finally, out of frustration, one of them asked Kate if he could slap the worst offender. I am convinced that Kate has established a positive enough relationship with her students that she could be firmer about classroom management without generating any resentment. Can Lanschool help? Using it, I lock my students computers when I need their attention. Any documents can also be projected onto their individual screens to make them easier to read (and coincidentally disable the machines for Internet goofing around).