We’ve talked about how a follow up email to any observation is a good idea in this article from a few months ago:
https://benslavic.com/blog/2013/02/03/the-best-defense-is-a-good-offense/
Just remember to cc yourself in, because the whole idea is to address any dings by the observor in the email and then when the person returns for a follow up observation there is a sequenced response in the next observed class:
1. What I do (a lot of us do this) is hand the observor the Administrator Checklist that is on the clipboard by the door. (I also have Clarice’s rigor posters clearly posted by the door for anyone walking in to read) along with the required objectives for the day (which never change in a CI class so I never have to worry about that).
2. Then in class I will first address the dings from the previous observations to make sure the boxes get checked this time, so I don’t have to think about it during class and can then just flow with the CI for the rest of class.
For example, I am being LEAPED for the third year in a row (first was a pilot year for it at East High School, second was my first year at Lincoln where all new teachers get observed with this instrument, and this year bc I hadn’t been in the district long enough not to be LEAPED). Let’s just say that a lot of district time and money goes into evaluating teachers in DPS.
Anyway, in my first two formal evaluations, I was deficient in three areas:
1. pair/group work.
2. use of technology.
3. differentiation.
So today I am being observed and have done the following in response:
1. After the follow up meetings where I was informed where I was deficient, I sent an email (the above link) to the observor and explained how I was differentiating with certain kids in my classes – he just didn’t see it. I also explained how I was using tech, which he didn’t see in that class bc I wasn’t going to stop a good story in order to show that I was using a machine to teach them. I ignored the group work ding in my follow up email to him. The point is I was pro-active with the observor. I knew he had to come back and I wanted to let him know that I really appreciated the wisdom and would spend time working on improving myself so that when he came back to observe (today) I would be ready for him.
2. So yesterday he told me he’s coming back today. So I prepared my classes today with those three dings in mind. As I said I will deliberately start class with them. For the tech piece, to start class, I will take a passage from a story we did recently and work with it in Textivate and IMTranslator (who gave us that this year?) as a review (that story and the one I am starting today – both from Anne Matava – are connected). So we get the tech piece out of the way, then, to cover the pair work, I just refer to sections and of Reading Option A* and do that – see blue below – and they do that while reading the Textivate passage. And then there is always a four percenter in class waiting patiently for a grammar jewel and in order to differentiate with her today I will deliberately say a sentence in the subjunctive and of course nobody will care but her so I will grab the Amsco 2 book and tell her to do the subjunctive chapter in that book for homework – she will be happy, the observor can check the box, and everybody else will breathe a sigh of relief that they don’t have to do that work, except Grammar Man who will kick me in the side and want me to teach the subjunctive with worksheets for the next two weeks, paying particular close attention not only to the spellings but when to use it and also digging in to the past and pluperfect subjunctives. Grammar Man just gets excited at the mere mention of the pluperfect subjunctive. The only thing he likes more is the Second Form of the Conditional. But the observor wouldn’t like it, bc he knows, working at Lincoln, that our department aligns with current standards, not outdated ones.
Since the observor told me in the last meeting that he was specifically going to be looking for these things, today I will have done them in the first ten minutes of class. Then I will just start the story and go through as much of the bi-weekly schedule as I can for the rest of today’s observation, knowing that, since it’s a Matava story, it will fly high. I will also make sure to have everybody doing a job (more differentiation) and also to give the quiz and all that stuff that we’ve been talking about that makes up a good CI class, including the constant use of jGR when needed and the immediate evaluation of individual kids at the end of class.
*Reading Option A:
1. Write on the board, in L2: the title of the story, and the words who, where, what happens, what is the problem? Then tells the students very quickly, those things, in L2. (optional)
*2. Instructor reads aloud in L2 – this allows the student to make the necessary connection between the sound of the story with, now for the first time, what those sounds look like on paper. (required)
3. Silent reading, decoding of the first page of the three page prepared text (usually a generic version of five classes’ stories). (optional)
4. Pair work to translate. (optional) [note: some classes can’t handle steps 3 and 4 above and should not be allowed those options]
*5. Choral translation using laser pointer. (required)
*6. Discussion of text in L2. (required)
*7. Discussion of grammar in L1 (3 and 4 may interweave) (required)
8. Jump into the Space! – a technique for encouraging speech output in upper level students. See https://benslavic.com/blog/2013/02/26/jump-into-the-space/ for details.
9. French choral and individual work on accent – this can be a very special time as we finally are able to hear, after a year and a half of constant input and relatively little verbal output, how our students’ brains have organized the language in the now emergent output. We notice how well they pronounce the language IF the output wasn’t too early. (optional)
10. 5 minute write of the story, in which the students answer the questions: who, where, what happens, what is the problem. 5 minute write of the story, and he urges them to use the questions: who, where, what happens, what is the problem. (optional)
*11. Sacred reading of the text – after 4 class periods of either listening or reading input, the students know the material. So, to conclude, read it to them with meaning, dramatic tone, artistry, in a quiet, sacred kind of setting. One teacher read it with such drama that the kids told her she should have been an actress. I generally do this step without the text in front of the students. They are really pleased when they can understand it. (highly recommended)
*12. Translation quiz – pick any paragraph from the reading and have the students translate it into English for a quick and easy grade. (required)