My Lesson: Constructing a Haiku

Hello classmates,
Please leave a comment on how I did on my lesson.  My lesson was on constructing a Haiku.

                                               - Thank You, Karen Ramirez.

Observations at Central Falls Highschool

The First Day:

While visiting Central Falls High school I was asked to make some observations on the students.  I am an English major so I decided to visit Ms. Garces’ class.  She is one of the teachers that the school rehired after the No Child Left Behind Act went into full effect.  She was also my  ninth-grade high school English teacher.  Ms. Garces is of Colombian descent and speaks both English and Spanish.  She graduated from both the University of Rhode Island and Central Falls High school.  Ms. Garces has many years of teaching under her belt although she appears very young.

            The students in the class I was observing were sitting in rows and were taking an exam.  Immediately as I walked in I could feel the relaxed atmosphere she had built.  She had posters plastered on the wall, which explained main ideas of novels they had read, inspirational quotes and the class agenda.  Her class although occupied by many desks seemed very organized.  Ms. Garces started off the class by explaining the exam they were going to take.  She made sure to go through the exam front to back and made sure to ask students if they had questions after every section.  Once Ms. Garces handed out the exam the students immediately began.  It was based off the book To Kill a Mockingbird.  The students were allowed to listen to music on their headphones and use the novel to answer questions on the exam.  I could tell that the students were engaged because their eyes were either inside the book or writing down responses.  Ms. Garces was not the only teacher in the class, there was another teacher walking around and making sure everyone was doing their work - her name  was Ms. Cataldo.  Ms. Garces later told us that the class had some special needs students and that the Ms. Cataldo was there as a supplement to make sure the special needs students had an equal advantage.  She also made it clear that we would not be able to pinpoint whom the special needs students were but that the supplemental teacher was open to helping any of the students.

            The classroom was made up of primarily Latino students and a couple of female Caucasian students amongst them.  Although the school is known for being occupied by low-income families the students were all dressed casual/urban but in a neat way.  Cliques or groups of students were not obvious to the naked eye but that may have been that way because they were taking an exam.  There were twelve students in total and all the seats were filled.  A couple of students whom had questions raised their hands; I could tell that Ms. Garces had built a relationship with the students in the class.  I can say that because the students joked with her and were not scared of asking questions.  She also kept the students controlled and the students knew when joke-time was over and exam time had started.

            In summary my first observation was a pleasant one.  Ms. Garces seemed very organized and the students were comfortable with her.  Ms. Garces kept the classroom under control and you could tell that the students looked up to her.  As far as having a supplemental teacher in the class I thought it was such a big help especially when there are special needs students scattered in a classroom.

The Second Time Around:

            In my second observation I continued to observe Ms. Garces’ classroom.  I walked into the classroom and the class was formed into a big circle where I could tell discussion was going to take place.  There were roughly 10-11 students in the classroom this time.  Each student was holding a Lord of The Flies book and they all had a worksheet in front of them.  The students were quiet and were waiting for Ms. Garces to start instruction.  Also, this time around none of the students had phones out or were listening to music.  Another observation I made was that Ms. Garces had a big poster on the board, which had the words “Leader, Reader, Reporter and Recorder.”  Each word was colored in a different color and had a description below it.

            The second time around I felt the same relaxed atmosphere that I entered into last time when the students were taking an exam.  Although this time I could see the cliques within the classroom.  There were a set of three boys along the back of the class and two groups of girls faced each other.  Although there were cliques I did not witness any conflict among them.  Ms. Garces started her lesson off by talking about how she had had a dream about her students.  The students were in a zombie apocalypse and only her class had survived.  She pointed out which of her students wouldn’t be able to survive without a hairbrush and who would take charge of the group in order to survive the apocalypse.  The students laughed along with her and either agreed or disagreed.  She tied in this zombie apocalypse with the setting of the book The Lord of The Flies where the groups of boys are stranded on an island.  I thought this was an effective way of stating the main idea and opening the class.  Not only did she get the whole class into a big discussion but also she started to get her students minds working towards the setting of the actual book.

            Her class was engaged and by the sounds of the discussion I could tell the students were very comfortable with expressing their ideas.  After the zombie apocalypse scenario she proceeded to talk about what inferences and facts the students could make from looking at the cover.  She made a couple of examples by using student pregnancy rates within the school as a fact and using why the student pregnancy rate is going up as an inference.  Everyone was joining in on the class discussion when she spoke about those issues.  It was interesting to see how she used real life Central Falls student problems to teach.  The whole class was interested in what she was saying, although there was one student who kept exclaiming how the conversation was “boring” and “useless.”  Eventually the student started to be involved because Ms. Garces would stop talking midsentence.  He knew that when she stayed quiet it was time for him to stop talking as well.  Eventually it worked because he began taking notes and was giving short responses to what could be an inference and what could be a fact.

            There were a couple of students who were late but they all did have passes and she made sure to ask them where they were.  Same as my last observation there were 2 teachers in the classroom Ms. Garces and the supplemental teacher, Ms. Cataldo.  From this observation I can make an educated guess that the rowdy male student was one of the special needs within the class.  Ms. Garces was speaking aloud to the class meanwhile the supplemental teacher wrote on the board.  It was an effective way of teaching because Ms. Garces was keeping an eye on the whole class and the supplemental teacher got a chance to write down everything for the students who needed visuals.

            From having Ms. Garces as a freshmen year English teacher I knew that I wanted to observe one of her classes for sure.  Even when I was a student at Central Falls she made sure to make real life connections in reading materials.  She also made sure to have a comfortable but authoritative relationship with her students.  As a freshman I remember being very comfortable with asking her questions.  From this observation I think I have come to the conclusion that students are comfortable around teachers who have gone through the same struggles they have gone through.  Ms. Garces was a student at Central Falls High school as well.   In my opinion when students see her they feel the inspiration to pull forward and they see the success she has attained.  Seeing a person come from a low-income neighborhood and be able to go to college is important for students.  Sometimes throughout high school the vision of college becomes more and more obscure and unattainable in a low income neighborhood.  Ms.Garces has survived the madness and has a career now, she makes a great role model for the students of Central Falls.