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Emily Gilles
ED 327-01
Dr. Monsour
21 October 2014
Module Three: Observation
For Module Three, I observed at Hempfield Area High School, watching Mr.
Cavanaughs eleventh grade American literature class. During that time, I was able to
observe students as they acted out the entire play The Crucible. It was a valuable time for
me to observe since I got to witness students silently reading along as well as reading
aloud. During my time there, I was able to watch several specific classes and I took one
specific student from two of the classes to observe; one girl and one boy.
During my time there, the teacher had them reading aloud the play in each class.
Some were further ahead than others, but all had specific roles assigned to students on a
volunteer basis. Some students had more than one role, depending on the size of their
role, and all played as the townspeople in scenes where they didnt specifically talk. The
teacher used various questioning and prompt strategies during the reading of the play to
emphasize major sections or important quotes, but other than that practiced a hands-off
approach. At the end of each class session, he would review what they went over and
give them a possible journal entry for homework.
The students were all engaged, for the most part. Almost every student got into
their part to some extent, and some way more than others. For example, the one boy
student that I watched from the third period class was so enthusiastic with his part that he
would get applause from the other boys in the class every once in a while. He was an
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excellent reader, so it helped his confidence in being able to put character into his voice
as he read his parts. The only time that some students would become disengaged in the
lessons were when they didnt have a direct speaking or acting part and would get
sidetracked in catching up with the journaling assignments from the previous day.
Students responded very well to the teaching strategies employed. The teacher got
the students excited about reading the play by allowing them to chose their roles, and by
letting them get engaged with props. From what I could tell, the students saw this class as
an escape from the ultra-structured lecture classes that they had the rest of the day. They
could stand and act, and listen to other people act while learning. All of the students
seemed to enjoy the unit, even if they werent completely engaged at all times. When
prompted with questions, the students were aloud to talk about it, and discuss the drama
between the characters in relation to their own lives.
I conducted two cloze procedures on The Crucible, using some quotations from
ACT I, SCENE I. The first cloze procedure that I used was through Word, which showed
that the Flesch Reading Level was at 7
th
grade. The second cloze procedure that I used
was the Fry Chart, which showed that it was at an 8
th
grade level. The reason why I
believe that both of the cloze procedures ended up on such a low level was because of the
number of sentences provided. Because The Crucible is a play, it is almost completely
dialogue. Dialogue is not long-winded sentences, but rather brief and concise sentences.
Because there were 11 sentences in the portion that I chose, it was automatically going to
be considered easier in an cloze procedure. However, I think that the play is on an
adequate reading level for 11
th
graders to be learning, and I would not in any manner
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consider this play to be an easy read even for that age level because of the style of
writing.
When I discussed reading comprehension issues with Mr. Cavanaugh, he said that
for the most part acting out the readings made them comprehend more, although certain
students struggled with reading out loud and understanding exactly what it meant since it
wasnt modern English. He said that for most of his classes, the best reading
comprehension came from reading silently on the students own time, because often they
got distracted when giving silent reading time when they were with their friends in class.
He also said that he had to cater to his classes on the lessons depending on what level
they were at. For example, he wouldnt assign journaling or independent pre-reading of
the play to his classes that werent on track to go to college (the non-academic classes)
because most of them could not comprehend as much when they read and thus wouldnt
get anything out of it other than being frustrated.
If I could do things differently in regards to teaching this lesson, I definitely
would have shortened what I did of The Crucible. Each time I was there observing thats
all they did, and I feel like the students would lose interest a lot easier if they had to do
the Crucible for so long, especially if they hated the story. I would also have different
types of journaling. Rather than content questions like what he did, I would have them
relate things from the play to their own lives. That makes them engage with the text on
another level other than just knowing plot points. If they were engaged at relating their
life to the life of the characters, I think that would help them to comprehend the work a
lot more. Overall, I didnt think that much had to be changed in regards to his teaching
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style and what he did to change the lesson to the specific classes, but I think that it could
have been slightly more engaging.