THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO

THE CENTER FOR TEACHING AND LEARNING

5 8 4 5 S O U T H E L L I S AVE N U E C H I C A G O , I L L I N O I S

60637

E-MAIL: TEACHING@COLLEGE.UCHICAGO.EDU
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TEL: (773) 834-4439

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INDIVIDUAL TEACHING CONSULTATION

FINAL REPORT
Graduate Teacher: SP
Date: Monday Nov. 12th, 2007 (Class session); Meeting Thursday, Dec 6th, 2007
Consultants: DG, Erin Stapleton-Corcoran
Attendance: 11
Setting (Type of room, seating, lighting, etc): Small classroom with a small blackboard not very
conveniently located. Students sat around a group of tables arranged in a rectangle. Sarah sat at
the front of the room.

Summary: In this class session S P engaged in several different teaching tasks. She opened the
class with a brief recap of the prior session. She then led a discussion on a magazine article.
Then, she led a class discussion on the film A Raisin in the Sun, which served the additional
purpose of showing students how to approach a later research project on primary sources.
Finally, she closed with a preview of the next class session. In our meeting, we discussed ways to
increase student engagement during discussions, as well as ways to better tie this session into the
class as a whole, with additional review and recap at the beginning and end of this class session.
Observations

Comments/Suggestions

1. SP opened the session with a short recap of the

prior class as well as a brief plan of what would be
covered in the current class session.

Reviewing/recapping materials is always a great

way of letting students know where they have been
and how it will relate to the current class session.
Instead of providing all of this information
yourself, perhaps you might instead ask student(s)
to provide a recap of the prior session. This is a
good way to get students talking, offers you a
means to draw in students who might be less apt to
contribute during discussions, and provides
students an opportunity to ask questions that might
not have been resolved in previous
discussions/lectures.
It could also offer a way to shift the focus from
logistical class issues (which articles were covered
last session, which materials will be covered today)
to a reinforcement of larger themes running through
your course, and how the previous and current class
session fit into/contribute to these themes.

THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO

THE CENTER FOR TEACHING AND LEARNING
5 8 4 5 S O U T H E L L I S AVE N U E C H I C A G O , I L L I N O I S

60637

E-MAIL: TEACHING@COLLEGE.UCHICAGO.EDU
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TEL: (773) 834-4439

2. SP began class by passing out a brief magazine

article for the students to read. This article was
related to a discussion from the last class session.
Students read the article in class, after which they
provided responses/opinions about the article. SP
asked specific questions about the article when
student response to the article started to lag.

FAX : ( 7 7 3 ) 8 3 4 - 0 4 9 3

It didnt seem like students had read the article in

advancesome students had the article, others did
not. Was this distributed to students prior to this
session? If not, perhaps you could pass out the
article at the end of the prior class session, or use
chalk to distribute this reading. Either way, had
students arrived at class having read the article, you
would have had more time to discuss the article and
tie it with other assigned readings.
The discussion of the article seemed to lag a little
because the students had just read the piece. You
can get around this problem by framing the reading
for the students: tell them to look out for something
specific while they read. Notice that doing this
would go nicely with beginning the class by going
over larger themes with the students. That way,
students are reminded about what the issues are and
then given a particular exercise related to those
issues. This would have put them in a better
position to discuss the article.
Finally, in discussing the article, you might have
been more focused in your questions. Perhaps you
could have begun by asking students to find the
adjectives used to describe black women, and then
put those on the board, before asking something
like, What is the picture of black women we get
from this article? You might have also considered
having students discuss the article in small groups,
rather than reading it on their own

3. During the discussion of the Ebony article, SP

asked questions of the students. One student would
answer, and she would respond and build upon
his/her response.
4. SP offered statistics to support her claims about
the Ebony article.

You might want to ask other students to respond to

other students thoughts, as this could help elicit
inter-student discussions, rather than a
student/instructor focused discussion
These stats were interesting. But they were very
difficult to absorb because you read them out once
rather quickly. If youre dealing with lists of
numbers, perhaps you could use the board or
prepare a handout.

5. SP included an exercise which students came up

with questions about race and family in relation to

Students were very engaged in this exercise, and it

was a very thoughtful way to approach two issues

THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO

THE CENTER FOR TEACHING AND LEARNING
5 8 4 5 S O U T H E L L I S AVE N U E C H I C A G O , I L L I N O I S

60637

E-MAIL: TEACHING@COLLEGE.UCHICAGO.EDU
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the film A Raisin in the Sun. Students gathered into

small groups to discuss the film and come up with
one question. This exercise served two purposes, as
it facilitated a discussion of the film, as well as
provided practice for students in developing a
claim for their final papers on primary source
materials.

6. SP began a discussion relating A Raisin in the

Sun with an assigned reading. She posed one
question to tie the article and the film. When
students were slow to answer, Sarah answered part
of the question for the students after a minute or so.

7. SP ended class by telling students what would be

covered in the next class session.

FAX : ( 7 7 3 ) 8 3 4 - 0 4 9 3

at once. It was great that you had students write

their questions on the board, but it might have been
better to have them write one at a time given the
size of the board.
Daniel thought that the discussion lagged a little
because it wasnt entirely clear what the task was:
at times it seemed like the discussion was about the
movie itself, whereas at other times it seemed to be
about the issue of what makes a good question (in
light of the primary source document writing
assignment). Giving as much of a frame to the
exercise as possible will help the students in the
exercise and in subsequent discussions. Erin liked
that the discussion served two functionsworking
through the difficulties of the paper assignment, as
well as helping the students understand issues in
the film. However, she agrees that it wasnt clear if
students were deep in thought and working through
the process, or if they were simply confused. You
may want to revisit this issue again in the next class
and check in with students to make sure they are
comfortable with the task of writing the paper.
Although the students were slow to answer, perhaps
you could have given them a little more time to
answer the question. If the students continued to
hesitate in answering, instead of answering for
them, you could have directed the students to a
specific passage in the article that directly relates to
and helps answer the question. Although this
technique would be leading the student to an
answer, it allows the students to actively do
something (reading a passage), rather than sit and
wait for the answer, which is what some of the
students might have been doing. Once the
discussion got going, several of the students
seemed very engaged, and that was great. However,
in the connection between the Payne article and the
film, the film seemed to dominate. Perhaps points
from the Payne article have been more fully
integrated into the discussion
This is always a good way to end the class. Had
you a bit more time, it might have been helpful to
briefly summarize the main points and issues that
had been addressed throughout this class session, as

THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO

THE CENTER FOR TEACHING AND LEARNING
5 8 4 5 S O U T H E L L I S AVE N U E C H I C A G O , I L L I N O I S

60637

E-MAIL: TEACHING@COLLEGE.UCHICAGO.EDU
HTTP://TEACHING.UCHICAGO.EDU
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so many different issues had been covered in this

class session

Summary of final meeting:

SP, Daniel, Erin, and Elizabeth met on Thursday, Dec 6th. This meeting was quite
straightforward. Primarily, we discussed the points listed above, and Sarah seemed to appreciate
the comments and suggestions. In addition, we discussed issues of student tardiness, and the best
methods to steer students to come to class on time. Since SP had included primary source
materials in her lecture, Elizabeth brought in materials on teaching Primary Source materials
most effectively.