Observation 3
Unfortunately, Mr. T.’s students were taking a district-wide assessment test during my observation. This makes it difficult to fully assess Mr. T.’s ability to get the students to reach higher levels of thinking. However, through his directions of the assignment and his encouragement to the students to excel, Mr. T. did do a good job of helping to foster the high levels of thinking required by the test itself. This assessment test called the students to read two short stories and identify the recurring theme of both. They had to find “at least three” pieces of evidence or proof from each story that revealed what the recurring theme was. They were then required to use this evidence to create a thesis statement for an essay that they then had to write. The proof from the story that they found would be used as the supporting information of this essay. The students had to use every level of thinking up to evaluation. When told that they had to find evidence for the recurring theme, one student asked “can we use quotes?” Mr. T. answered “Yes. Quotes are good, and write down what it means and how it relates to the theme.” The student was demonstrating a developing comprehension of the task and wanted to make sure she understood the instructions correctly. Mr. T. is ensuring that the students direct their attention to understanding and expressing what their quotes or evidences are saying that is important to the overall theme. The students had to use their knowledge of words and language to read the stories; they had to comprehend the instructions of identifying a theme and supporting evidence; they had to apply this instruction to the two stories and find the theme and evidence in the stories which requires the students to evaluate the stories’ content and choose the best quotes that apply to the central theme. The students had to analyze their theme and proof and divide the evidence into more specifically related groups and synthesize their gathered information into a complete essay. The test rubric required the students to use a variety of sentence structures and organize their information into clear ideas. Mr. T. urged the students to “Look at the section [of the rubric] for the 4 because that’s what you should be aiming for.” This encouragement to perform at the highest level motivates the students to deeply work through the steps and reach the thinking necessary for the high grade.
With the help of Mr. T., this assessment test has the students reach high levels of thinking. This kind of thinking helps the students to create new products from various information and calculate the value of certain information over others. These skills are important in school work and daily socializing as one must weigh the value of comments or ideas before emotionally or physically reacting. The lesson does build up almost entirely hierarchically, requiring low level thinking at the beginning of the test and higher level thinking at the end. The students review all the needed information to fully excel at the high-level thinking while steadily increasing their thinking. In supporting and encouraging high levels of thinking, Mr. T. served to strengthen the students’ sense of self-efficacy. He told them to strive for the highest grade as they all have the knowledge and ability to master the requirements.