© TNTP 2013

ACE Observer TrainingTan

For observers new to TNTP and the ACE Instructional Framework

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Objectives

By the end of this session, you will:

Accurately match observation evidence to performance areas

Practice rating in all ACE Framework performance areas

Evaluate your own alignment to the master ratings and flag areas for self-development

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Submit Poll Rating For….

Student Engagement

Essential Content

Academic Ownership

Demonstration of Learning

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Student EngagementDeveloping -

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One student (off camera) yells out several times during the lesson, especially toward the end as they listen to the song (“hit it!” “What’s your moolah!” “Royce, Bugati, Lotus!”). Teacher frequently ignores this behavior and only occasionally corrects it.

Students are sitting at three long tables and are generally quiet while the teacher is speaking.

When the teacher asks students to use their clickers to answer the question, it takes about 45 seconds and students begin chattering with one another.

During discussions with neighbors, some students were discuss while others just sit there (boy in green jacket). We can’t hear if kids are actually discussing the question.

Any time the teacher asks for a volunteer, 4-5 hands go up. Often the same students answer (Fatima in the pink sweatshirt).

Students listen to the song twice; the first time they are encouraged to move and dance and the second time to write. Most students did nothing during either playing of the song.

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Submit Poll Rating For….

Student Engagement

Essential Content

Academic Ownership

Demonstration of Learning

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Essential ContentIneffective -

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The objective for this lesson is unclear – they’re going to “talk about hegemony,” and the implied objectives seem to be that they’ll a) understand what hegemony is, and b) describe how hegemony is inherent in modern rap music. The end goal is ostensibly that they’ll become more aware of how hegemony manifests quietly in modern society, and particularly in their local community. There is no explicit alignment to standard for ELA or social studies.

Students discuss how Esparanza felt about her house on Loomis Ave in connection with hegemony in small groups and then share out – note that no students have the text in front of them. The connection between the text and the concept of hegemony is not made clear.

Students discuss connecting how people feel about their neighborhood with how people felt about Esparanza’s house in small groups and then share out. Students then discuss Drake the rapper and vote on how they feel about his music.

They listen to one of Drake’s songs twice through, the second time writing down notes. Students then answer the question “how does Drake define success in his song?” by volunteering answers of what they heard (clothes, cars, money). No text with the lyrics is provided.

In total, these lesson activities are not clearly aligned to the implied objective of understanding how hegemony impacts students in their local community.

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Submit Poll Rating For….

Student Engagement

Essential Content

Academic Ownership

Demonstration of Learning

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Academic OwnershipME - 2

Students use clickers to answer poll questions about the music, which are basic opinion questions.

Most students eagerly engage in turn-and-talks asking them to think in more depth about the content – questions include “why did Esperanza feel the way she did about her neighborhood?” and “What do other people think about our neighborhood?” etc. We see a few students disengaged from this conversation, however.

The teacher does the majority of the talking and summarizing; some students give meaningful oral responses to his questions during the oral review, but not the majority. Student answers somewhat reference the text, but students do not cite the text directly.

Overall students are doing some thinking, but the teacher is guiding their thinking strongly. The teacher is drawing connections for them (e.g., to Paolo Friere), and not all students actively engage in the section dominated by volunteer answers. Overall, student thinking is at the knowledge and recall level, while the teacher is drawing the higher-order connections.

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Student Engagement

Essential Content

Academic Ownership

Demonstration of Learning

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Demonstration of Learning

Although he provides opportunities for students to make a connection between hegemony and a text as well as their own experience, we don’t see students consistently able to make and articulate that connection.

We don’t see a many opportunities for all students to express thoughts through academic writing or discussion.

Most of the questions he asks are to the whole group and not all respond so it’s hard to tell which students understand; even so, his questions are largely recall questions on material from the day before.

Student clickers allow the teacher to see their opinion on the music, but at this point in the lesson we don’t see students answering substantive questions that would allow the teacher to determine how well students understand the concept of hegemony and can articulate its affect in the text OR their daily lives. Essentially students are not yet demonstrating that they’ve learned anything new or substantive.

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Master Ratings

Student Engagement

Essential Content

Academic Ownership

Demonstration of Learning

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