Doering 1

Jennifer Doering
Katie Rasmussen
Realities of Teaching
25 November 2014
Happy Class, No Sass: Creating a Positive Learning Environment
Last week, we observed a wonderful fifth grade history lesson. They were studying the
early explorers of America, specifically Magellan, in preparation for writing an essay. However,
there was one catch: every student in the class was an English Language Learner. This made
reading comprehension an especially important goal for the teacher. He accomplished this by
monitoring student learning during the lesson and by providing a safe and positive learning
environment for his students. These actions exemplify Teaching Performance Expectations
(TPEs) 2 and 11, respectively.
To ensure that his students were learning the material, the teacher did several things
during the lesson. The students first task was to read a text and choose key words. Then they
shared these key words with their table groups and wrote down two words each. This is a goal of
Common Core English standard, RI2 (Determine two or more main ideas of a text and explain
how they are supported by key details; summarize the text). To check for individual student
comprehension, the teacher assigned each student a different color marker. He could then check
the relevance of the words that each student chose and check for individual reading
comprehension and understanding of key terms. The next activity that students performed was
answering a question about the text and supporting their answer with a quote. The teacher
explicitly said, If you didnt put it in quotes, you didnt prove it. This is a direct goal of
Common Core English standard, RL1 (Quote accurately from a text when explaining what the

Doering 2
text says explicitly and when drawing inferences from the text). When the teacher explained how
to do this activity, he gave an example answer and quote. I noticed that some students wrote
down only the example quote as support for their answer and some students found another quote
to write down in addition to, or instead of, the example quote. I dont know if the teacher used
this as a way of checking reading comprehension, but I thought that finding their own support for
an answer was a good way of demonstrating true understanding of the text.
In addition to making sure that his students were understanding the material, the teacher
also created a safe learning environment where students felt comfortable making mistakes. He
had several sayings, Read out loud and proud, and Fake it til you make it, that really
encouraged students to try, even if they werent going to be perfect or even correct. He also had
several techniques for classroom management that stopped social problems before they occurred.
When students were asked to share their key words with their table members, the teacher told his
students that they should Be excited that someone picked the same word as you because then
you can pick another word! He realized that students often become upset if their word is
taken, and gave them a positive alternative. This created a positive learning environment where
every idea was accepted. The teacher also used a students mistake in a positive way: While he
was giving instructions for the second part of the assignment, he asked students not to answer the
question. However, one student called out the answer. He laughed it off, and instead of
embarrassing her in front of the class and becoming angry with her for not following directions,
he adapted and used her mistake as an example to help other students to succeed.
I really enjoyed this lesson study. I learned a bit more about monitoring student learning,
and definitely learned the benefits creating a positive learning environment. I found the teachers
strategies for creating one quite successful and hope to use them in my own classroom someday!