SCHOOL OF EDUCATIONFormative Report Form

Student: Kathy Fenlon Student ID: 0212562

Field Site: Galvin Middle School Grade/Subject 8 Mathematics

Observer: Dr. Brian Travers Date: November 19, 2014

Observer’s Signature: Date:

FORMATIVE DATA: As students entered the room, Kathy had a ‘do-now’ projected on the board that dealt with typesof angles formed by intersecting lines (the lines actually spelled the word ‘MATH’. The angle types to be identified were sup-plementary, vertical, adjacent and complementary. While they worked, Kathy checked homework and then they discussed theanswers to these problems. One student tried to answer a question about an angle relationship but was confusing the idea ofparallel lines and transversals (today’s topic, so something that hadn’t been taught yet) with the idea of vertical angles. Thiswas quickly straightened out.

The objectives for the day are for stu-dents to be able to determine the re-lationships between angles formed byparallel lines cut by a transversal andto be able to find angle measuresbased on these relationships. This is aparaphrase of common core standard8.G.5.

Next Kathy projected the answers to the homework problems for the students to check their work. While reviewing, a studentasked if they had done this topic last year and Kathy replied that they had, but that this year they were building on the previousideas. She announced that there would be a quiz next Tuesday and that they were adding more relationships, so if they werehaving trouble to refer to the extra help hours posted on the back board near the agenda and objectives.

Next, a pair of parallel lines cut by a transversal were projected onto the board. Kathy quickly reviewed the kinds of anglerelationships they should already know and then asked what types of relationships they wanted to learn today. As she saidthis, she pointed at the objectives on the back wall and had a student read this statement. She then asked students to definea transversal. She then stated that they were concerned with the angles formed when parallel lines are cut by a transversaland then asked students to identify any such relationships they see around the room. Students were asked to name anyplaces in real life that they see this relationship and they have answers dealing with construction and plumbing.

The students were next paired up and told to get one Chromebook per pair. She gave them a website to go to use Geogebra.There was a technology fail (Kathy stated that this had been an ongoing problem today) so Kathy had to scrap this idea andhanded out something to the students instead. Kathy still had the image on her computer to project (she could hard wireinstead of needing the Wifi) and started by labeling the diagram.

They labeled the angles and lines for reference sake and then Kathy asked them to identify the different types of angles -corresponding, interior, exterior, alternate (interior and exterior), etc. and the students were expected to define the terms intheir own words and in terms of the pairs of angles in this figure. The students seem to already be on top of this, so Kathyasked them a related but deeper question about the angle measure of an unknown angle where they know lines are paralleland cut by a transversal. They quickly got these correct. Because of the technology fail, however, Kathy stated that she wasn’tsure if they met the objective for the day but that the homework assignment would give her the indication she needed abouttheir level of comprehension.

Kathy then discussed the homework and noted that in Schoology, she has some links to websites that may help them with thehomework if they had any problems. In this section online would be a link to the applet they could not get to work in class.

Things I take away from this lesson:

• Students are very open to asking and answering questions. They are respectful but there is not an overly formalatmosphere, which is probably why they are so open to participating.

• I want to make sure that Kathy emphasized that in order for angles to be complementary (supplementary) that we haveto be looking only at the sum of two angle measures.

• It would be a great lesson for new teachers to see how Kathy handled the technology fail. She had another plan readyto go instead of having the lesson fall apart because of the network issues.

• The flow of the class was greatly disrupted by the technology fail. This made the class a little on the unenthusiasticside, especially since most had already had this topic before.

• The technology that was planned (using Geogebra to ‘discover’ the relationships) is a great way for students to learnthe material rather than just being told the relationships. Activities like this help students own the ideas, which in turnhelps them retain the concepts.

• I feel like the objectives for the day were met.

Rating Scale: Standard Rating1 Does not meet the standard (a) Plans curriculum 32 Meets the standard (b) Delivers effective instruction 23 Exceeds the standard (c) Manages classroom climate 3N/A Not applicable (d) Promotes equity 3

(e) Meets professional responsibilities 3