Post-conferences are an integral part of the evaluation process. Collecting evidence during an observation is key when providing specific examples for the teachers continued grow

Teacher: Mr. Roth

Teacher Experience: 4 Years

Grade: 11

Subject: U.S. History

You arrive at Mr. Roth’s classroom 3 minutes before the bell rings. You observe Mr. Roth in the doorway of the classroom greeting students by name as they come in. You hear him talking with students about non-curricular topics such as how the game went last night and asking about their weekend plans. Students spoke freely with Mr. Roth and seemed genuinely engaged in their short conversations with him. While waiting for the bell to ring you noticed posters on the wall regarding historical figures and events as well as a small area with student created political cartoons depicting the different freedoms outlined in the Bill of Rights.

When the bell rang, most students were seated at their desks. Mr. Roth put up a bell ringer question of the day that asked students to summarize the power of the Judicial Branch in their own words and to react to the following statement: “The Judicial Branch is the most powerful branch of government.” Most students took out a blank sheet of paper and began to work. Two students were slow to get started. Mr. Roth moved over to each student individually and softly reminded them of the expectations. After being addressed by Mr. Roth, both students immediately got their materials out and began working. As the students were working, Mr. Roth took attendance, and met with a student that was absent the day before regarding make-up assignments. He then moved throughout the room and looked over students’ shoulders as they were responding. After approximately seven minutes, he asked the class for volunteers that wanted to share what they had written. Several students raised their hands and shared their responses. Mr. Roth commented briefly on each response and called on two students randomly as well to share what they had written. He then asked students to clear their desks and take out a pen.

Mr. Roth announced to the students that although they had already learned that the Judicial Branch interprets the Constitution, it is important to know where and how the Supreme Court actually acquired this power. He then distributed a summary and guiding questions on the case, Marbury vs. Madison (1789). Mr. Roth shared the day’s objective: Students will be able to explain the concept of Judicial Review and how the case of Marbury v. Madison established this power of the Supreme Court. Prior to reading, he asked students to skim the summary and look for key words, titles, etc. that would give them an indication of what the case was about. This activity lasted 3 minutes. He then asked them to share their predictions with their neighbor. As the students did this, Mr. Roth moved through the class and listened in on the conversations. Next, he chose a few vocabulary words from the summary that he thought many of the students would need clarified and were essential to fully understanding the reading. He briefly went over those with the class and checked for understanding by asking students to provide synonyms for the words, first individually and then sharing their words with the class.

Next, he broke the class into small groups of 3-4 students per group based on their proximity to each other. Students moved quickly into their groups with little loss of instructional time. When the groups were formed, he told the students they had 10 minutes to read the summary and answer the guiding questions. During the independent reading portion, he moved around the room to answer any questions about the reading and check to see how students were progressing through the questions. Two of the groups started to get off-task and chatty, but when redirected by Mr. Roth they returned to their work quickly. After all of the students had completed the reading and were working on the questions, Mr. Roth told the class they could now talk about the questions in their small groups. Students could either choose to write down the answers that were discussed in the group, or their own answers if they were not in agreement with their group's answers.

After the students had answered the questions collaboratively, Mr. Roth got the students attention at the front of the room, by stating, “let’s come together and discuss your answers.” He assigned each group one or two questions they would need to share with the class. As each group shared their answers, he asked if the entire group agreed with the answer and called on other groups randomly to share whether they agreed or disagreed and how the answer given differed from their group's answer. During this activity, Mr. Roth also reinforced key concepts.

To conclude the lesson, Mr. Roth asked students to go back to their bell ringer question and see if they still felt the same about their answer regarding whether the Judicial Branch, specifically the Supreme Court was the most powerful branch of government. As a ticket out the door, he asked each student to predict what our government or the U.S. as a whole might look like if Marbury v. Madison was decided the other way and if Judicial Review did not exist. Mr. Roth collected these responses as the students exited the classroom.

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