The Urban Assembly School for Design and Construction (SDC) is a college preparatory school and is open to all students. The focus of the school is on architecture and engineering, but the core classes do not focus on architecture and engineering. Students are required to do community service in order to graduate. Also, all students take Advanced Placement ELA in their senior year regardless of whether or not their future plans include college. The goal is for the students to be prepared for college if they decide to attend. SDC is located in Hell’s Kitchen on West 50th Street in Manhattan; it is on the fourth floor of The Park West High School building.
The classroom I am focusing on is an advanced placement 12th grade English class. There are 32 students in the class. Of these students, 25% are female and 75% are male. The following demographics are estimated guesses: 63% are Hispanic, 22% are black, 9% are Indian, and 6% are Caucasian. I found it difficult to break down the socioeconomic status of the students through observation. A number of the students have designer name glasses, such as Coach and Dolce & Gabbana, and relatively expensive backpacks, such as North Face; however, I know this may not be representative of their socioeconomic status.
The class begins and ends with the chairs lined in rows facing the front of the room where there is a laptop and projector. The teacher’s desk is in the back corner of the room, but she is usually sitting at the front of the room at the laptop. Throughout class time, the students work in groups and move their desks accordingly. Additionally, the students have Socratic Seminars on Tuesdays and Thursdays. During Socratic Seminars, the fishbowl strategy is used; the students move their desks into an inner circle and an outer circle and only the inner circle is allowed to discuss the topic. After a set amount of time, the students sitting in the inner circle switch to the outer circle and vice versa. The second group in the inner circle is not allowed to discuss anything that the first group discussed; this forces the students to pay attention even while they are sitting in the outer circle. There are learning targets posted on the wall. There are three small whiteboards leaning on the board that say: “Where are we going?”, “How will we get there?”, and “How will we know we’ve arrived?”. In the corner there is a library for the students to choose their independent reading books. On top of one of the bookshelves is a board game a former student created based on J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye. Near the door, there are three boxes that create a table with multiple levels. Handouts are placed on the top box for students to take as the enter the room. There are two lower levels of the table; one has an inbox for the homework and the other has a box that contains a stapler, a box of bandaids, tissues, and post it notes.
The students are extremely interesting. Some of them have a difficult time concentrating, but are brought back to reality by the teacher’s change in pace throughout the class period. The students in this particular class follow the rules for the most part. More often than not, the rule most of them break is the dress code by untucking their shirts the moment they are sitting at their desks. There are times when the students whisper to each other and call out instead of raising their hands. During group work, most of the students are genuinely engaged in the task for most of the allotted time. Sometimes the groups do not start the assignment right away or they believe they answered all of the questions in the first two minutes. In these cases, the teacher has to talk to the group to see why they are not doing what they are supposed to be doing. Last week, it seemed as though the students were unsure of how to work in groups and some would work individually while sitting within the group; it seems like they now have a better understanding of working together, but there are still some students who either wish to read the assignment on their own or choose to answer the questions without waiting for group members to catch up. There are always a few students who do not participate, but the teacher usually calls on them and has them answer some type of a question that way everyone is involved.
The teacher uses standards based assessment rather than completion based assessment which means the students do not get credit for just handing in the assignment. They have to prove to the teacher that they have mastered the learning target. The students are provided a rubric so they always know what they are being assessed on and can properly prepare. At the beginning of the class, there is a Do Now on the board. This usually reminds students to hand in their homework, pick up any handouts that are near the door, and to write down the homework. The students work independently and in groups throughout the class; they do not spend more than 15 minutes on the same task. Usually the teacher models what the students will be doing in groups before giving them the task. The class usually does one example together with the teacher leading before working in smaller groups. The students usually understand what the task is once they get into groups because of the teacher’s explanation at the beginning of the class. A few examples of the techniques the teacher uses includes Cold Call, No Opt Out, Do Now, and Tight Transactions. The teacher holds the students to high expectations. She is firm and has amazing classroom management skills.
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