Peer Classroom Observation Report

Stacey Moultry
AMST:1010:0003 Understanding American Cultures (Spring 2016)
Reviewer: Faith Avery
26 February, 2016
I observed Stacey Moultrys section of the General Education course Understanding
American Cultures, in which 28 students are enrolled. Before the start of class, Ms. Moultry and
I met briefly to discuss her goals for the 50 minute session. After class, we discussed the ways in
which the session was typical and atypical of the classs usual atmosphere.
The course is designed to be primarily discussion based with lectures periodically
interspersed. Because this particular session was just before the students midterm exam, it was
mostly lecture oriented. Prior to this session, the class had watched several documentaries and,
after the midterm, they are scheduled to have a guest speaker. Thus, Ms. Moultry envisioned this
meeting as an opportunity to tie the documentaries to the readings and to develop a bridge for the
guest speakers material. Secondarily, this session served as a final review for the midterm exam
for which Ms. Moultry had previously distributed a review worksheet and held a review session.
This session opened with role call, after which Ms. Moultry praised the classs blog post
submissions and reminded students that their grades would be updated before the midterm. She
solicited student questions regarding the exam and other logistics. Several students asked
questions regarding resources available before and during the exam, and Ms. Moultry fielded
these clearly and with a certain and authoritative tone. Moving into her lecture, Ms. Moultry
offered a strong introduction to the material and a framework by which to connect the new
concepts to the old and to remind students of what would be on the midterm exam. The lecture
was oriented around a PowerPoint that clearly outlined the primary ideas. Ms. Moultry
elaborated on this information by breaking down difficult passages from the reading, offering
concise definitions, and incorporating questions to involve students with the lecture material. She
used the rooms resources effectively, not only engaging with her presentation, but also writing
student responses on the chalkboard, and moving about the room to better involve students.
Students seemed interested from the back of the room where I was seated I could see the
majority of students taking notes, and when Ms. Moultry solicited their engagement several
students volunteered. The lecture was well paced and Ms. Moultry spent an adequate amount of
time on each idea, employing pointed questions to ensure that students kept up, and using review
questions to solidify the connections between concepts.
This class session was atypical of Ms. Moultrys usual format in its attempt to connect so
much material. Consequently, not much time was devoted to the assigned readings. Although
Ms. Moultry briefly mentioned both of them, it would have been ideal to spend more time in
discussion. After the session concluded, Ms. Moultry and I agreed that there were some ways in
which discussion could have been incorporated within the lecture. Similarly, there was some
peripheral material that Ms. Moultry glossed quickly for the sake of time.
In conclusion, Ms. Moultrys class was quite effectively conducted in a professional
manner that not only tied together a range of important concepts and course materials, but
managed to productively engage students in discussion in spite of the necessity of a dominantly
lecture based session. Ms. Moultrys classroom approach is dynamic and engaging, a pleasure to
observe.