Observation Reflection
October 9, 2017
I’m so glad that this assignment exists for second semester UTAs. Since my only experience being a UTA was for my own ENGL101S class, I was amazed at how different another ENGL101S could be aside from the UTA. I didn’t even know that ENGL101S could have a concentration or be blended learning! I observed Corrine’s ENGL101S class, which has a concentration in political movements in the 1960’s. Her class meets for 50 minutes in person every Monday and Friday along with an online “virtual period” every Wednesday. This already was something that stood out to me because my ENGL101S meets every Tuesday and Thursday in person for 75 minutes with no online “virtual period.”
When Corrine and I got assigned to each other, she contacted me right away, within the week I believe. She suggested that I come to her September 22nd class because she was starting off the class that day with a short presentation. When I arrived at her classroom, she directed me to a different one because their class had to change rooms at the last second due to the projector in their normal classroom not working. Corrine handled it without a problem though; she said the only difference was that the classroom was in rows instead of their usual rectangle layout.
The presentation that Corrine facilitated started off with an overview of the online discussion board that the students do during their “virtual period.” This reminded me a lot of how we would start off ENGL388V seminar (I’ve really been missing seminar if it is not obvious). Then, Corrine got into the activity, which basically was showing two examples of videos that the students could use for their rhetorical analysis project. Additionally, she was showcasing what students can do with different rhetorical appeals to make a claim in their papers and websites. This activity lasted about 15 minutes, splitting the time between the first and second video. After each video, she would debrief with the students casually, trying to get a discussion going.
I was amazed to see the difference in student engagement for Corrine’s ENGL101S section versus mine; she has a very quiet class specifically during class discussion. Even with Corrine being very informal and casual, the students barely participated let alone were engaged. It was interesting to see how she handled it because she never once cold called on people because instead, she would just ask her question in a different way which caused at least someone to raise their hand. I liked being able to see her approach on a challenge like that because I would have done differently; I probably would have cold called on someone to get a conversation going. Reflecting on this experience, I’m so glad that this observation assignment exists because Corrine’s tactics inspire me to do something different when I’m being a UTA in my classroom.
After Corrine finished her presentation, she sat down at a seat next to one of the students while Catherine took over. Catherine went over the logistics of the rhetorical analysis assignment very carefully using the projector. The lights were still off during this time. She explained how the rhetorical analysis was going to work because in this section of ENGL101S, the students make a blog about write their text there about each piece of media. Catherine ensured that the assignment was not as hard as it seemed and she even blatantly said, “People tend to do really well on this assignment.” During this time, Corrine didn’t say anything, but she was actively looking around the classroom to make sure that the students were paying attention and making sure that they were understanding what Catherine was saying.
After the lights came back on and the class finished going over logistics, Catherine spent around 10 minutes having a brainstorming period with the entire classroom. Students were to throw out ideas for social movements from the 1960’s, since that is the concentration of their ENGL101S class, and then Catherine would write these topics on the board. Every student had to contribute something because this was how the students picked their topics. The hard part for this section of the class was when it was down to the few students who didn’t care enough about the assignment to even choose an existing topic on the board that they were interested in. Corrine helped Catherine during this time and the students eventually came to an understanding. The way that Corrine jumped in to help Catherine like that reminded me of what I do sometimes during my ENGL101S section, so it was comforting and satisfying to see that she does the same. Then, the students broke off into their small groups (based off the topic they chose), which I was surprised to see that was when student engagement shot out the roof. Corrine and Catherine floated around each group to ensure that everything was going well. It’s interesting that the class works so well in small groups and not big groups. Corrine even updated me at the end of class saying that her and Catherine are working close together to come up with lesson plans that always include small groups.
Overall, I really enjoyed observing Corrine’s class. I learned so many new things not just about how other UTAs behave in class, but I even learned more about what the English Department offers. I love that Corrine’s class has a concentration for movements of the 1960’s and I love the way that she immediately puts herself in the classroom as acting both a student and a UTA. Corrine has personally always been someone that I wanted to observe because I thought she was such a great addition to our ENGL388V seminar last semester, and I’m not surprised about how easy she makes it look to be up there in the teacher’s position when she was doing her presentation. I think that this assignment for returning UTAs is really important because I feel like it’s easy to think that since we are returners, we already have our own groove of how to be an effective UTA. But there are always ways to improve and sometimes it just takes some inspiration like observing another UTA.
I’m so glad that this assignment exists for second semester UTAs. Since my only experience being a UTA was for my own ENGL101S class, I was amazed at how different another ENGL101S could be aside from the UTA. I didn’t even know that ENGL101S could have a concentration or be blended learning! I observed Corrine’s ENGL101S class, which has a concentration in political movements in the 1960’s. Her class meets for 50 minutes in person every Monday and Friday along with an online “virtual period” every Wednesday. This already was something that stood out to me because my ENGL101S meets every Tuesday and Thursday in person for 75 minutes with no online “virtual period.”
When Corrine and I got assigned to each other, she contacted me right away, within the week I believe. She suggested that I come to her September 22nd class because she was starting off the class that day with a short presentation. When I arrived at her classroom, she directed me to a different one because their class had to change rooms at the last second due to the projector in their normal classroom not working. Corrine handled it without a problem though; she said the only difference was that the classroom was in rows instead of their usual rectangle layout.
The presentation that Corrine facilitated started off with an overview of the online discussion board that the students do during their “virtual period.” This reminded me a lot of how we would start off ENGL388V seminar (I’ve really been missing seminar if it is not obvious). Then, Corrine got into the activity, which basically was showing two examples of videos that the students could use for their rhetorical analysis project. Additionally, she was showcasing what students can do with different rhetorical appeals to make a claim in their papers and websites. This activity lasted about 15 minutes, splitting the time between the first and second video. After each video, she would debrief with the students casually, trying to get a discussion going.
I was amazed to see the difference in student engagement for Corrine’s ENGL101S section versus mine; she has a very quiet class specifically during class discussion. Even with Corrine being very informal and casual, the students barely participated let alone were engaged. It was interesting to see how she handled it because she never once cold called on people because instead, she would just ask her question in a different way which caused at least someone to raise their hand. I liked being able to see her approach on a challenge like that because I would have done differently; I probably would have cold called on someone to get a conversation going. Reflecting on this experience, I’m so glad that this observation assignment exists because Corrine’s tactics inspire me to do something different when I’m being a UTA in my classroom.
After Corrine finished her presentation, she sat down at a seat next to one of the students while Catherine took over. Catherine went over the logistics of the rhetorical analysis assignment very carefully using the projector. The lights were still off during this time. She explained how the rhetorical analysis was going to work because in this section of ENGL101S, the students make a blog about write their text there about each piece of media. Catherine ensured that the assignment was not as hard as it seemed and she even blatantly said, “People tend to do really well on this assignment.” During this time, Corrine didn’t say anything, but she was actively looking around the classroom to make sure that the students were paying attention and making sure that they were understanding what Catherine was saying.
After the lights came back on and the class finished going over logistics, Catherine spent around 10 minutes having a brainstorming period with the entire classroom. Students were to throw out ideas for social movements from the 1960’s, since that is the concentration of their ENGL101S class, and then Catherine would write these topics on the board. Every student had to contribute something because this was how the students picked their topics. The hard part for this section of the class was when it was down to the few students who didn’t care enough about the assignment to even choose an existing topic on the board that they were interested in. Corrine helped Catherine during this time and the students eventually came to an understanding. The way that Corrine jumped in to help Catherine like that reminded me of what I do sometimes during my ENGL101S section, so it was comforting and satisfying to see that she does the same. Then, the students broke off into their small groups (based off the topic they chose), which I was surprised to see that was when student engagement shot out the roof. Corrine and Catherine floated around each group to ensure that everything was going well. It’s interesting that the class works so well in small groups and not big groups. Corrine even updated me at the end of class saying that her and Catherine are working close together to come up with lesson plans that always include small groups.
Overall, I really enjoyed observing Corrine’s class. I learned so many new things not just about how other UTAs behave in class, but I even learned more about what the English Department offers. I love that Corrine’s class has a concentration for movements of the 1960’s and I love the way that she immediately puts herself in the classroom as acting both a student and a UTA. Corrine has personally always been someone that I wanted to observe because I thought she was such a great addition to our ENGL388V seminar last semester, and I’m not surprised about how easy she makes it look to be up there in the teacher’s position when she was doing her presentation. I think that this assignment for returning UTAs is really important because I feel like it’s easy to think that since we are returners, we already have our own groove of how to be an effective UTA. But there are always ways to improve and sometimes it just takes some inspiration like observing another UTA.