Observe a Sixth Grade English Class at Bain Middle School Essay

Observe a Sixth Grade English Class at Bain Middle School I observe at Roosevelt Middle School, which is in River Forest, in Mrs. Braun’s sixth grade English class on Tuesdays in the morning. As I have observed, I have noticed that the classroom is student-centered. During computer time, Mrs. Braun focused more on helping the students get into the computer program to start the assignment than on having enough time to get the assignment done. Several times, Mrs. Braun gave helpful comments on how to do things on the computer or in the program, such as how to install automatic spell check. Mrs. Braun was also very patient as she was being asked questions while she was trying to explain the assignment. From what I saw, some students were getting bored, though, while the assignment was being explained and started whispering to each other. However, the whispering did stop when the students had to get started on the assignment. I have also observed that there seems to be a strong set of rules in place in Mrs. Braun’s classroom. This is evident through some of Mrs. Braun’s subtle, and not-so-subtle, reminders. For example, she gently made an example of a student by pointing out that his decorated pen (with a silly topper on it) was not allowed in class if it was going to be played and not used. She made a general statement that all pens similar to it are not welcomed is they are going to be played with. Overall, the students follow the rules very well, and there have not been any severe disruptions. There has only been whispering occasionally, but it stopped when Mrs. Braun asked. Disciplinary strategies seem to be in place as well, although I have not seen any discipline used while I have been observing the... ...yout. I have observed many things in my first two observations in Mrs. Braun’s class. The students do a lot of in-seat assignments, such as handouts. There seems to be a few good projects being done but they are done mostly outside of class. I feel that some time should be spent in class working on the projects, even if it is 10-15 minutes. The layout seems like both a good idea and a bad idea. It seems like a good idea because if one student gets stuck on something, there are others around to help. It seems to be a bad idea, though, because of what I stated before, there is still the temptation for the students to talk when they are not suppose to and distract each other. The only implication I have is that it seems that some old methods are hard to leave behind, such as busy work (hand outs), for more interactive methods (interaction with each other).