California State University San Marcos

COLLEGE OF EDUCATION
CLINICAL PRACTICE OBSERVATION FORM
SINGLE SUBJECT PROGRAM
School: Valley High School
Teacher Candidate: Jennifer Strawser
Observer:

CT

OSL

US

Date: December 3, 2014

Class: English 12

Title of the Lesson: Rhetorical Precis, Incorporating Words of Others in Essay Writing
X Well-constructed lesson for:
SDAIE
Bilingual
X

Materials ready

Efficient routines

Appropriate appearance

Unit and placement of lesson in the unit:

California Standards for the Teaching Profession:

1. Engaging and Supporting All Student in
Learning
2. Creating and Maintaining Effective
Environments for Student Learning
3. Understanding and Organizing Subject Matter
for Student Learning
4. Planning Instruction and Designing Learning
Experiences for All Students
5. Assessing Student Learning
6. Developing as a Professional Educator

What I saw:
As the students entered, you asked them to take out their spiral notebooks. You told the students, At
the end of the unit, you are going to write an essay about your community. How it is perceived and
how it really is. You are going to incorporate one of two articles we have read. Then you explained
that today you were going to help them use the article, Honor Code by David Brooks.
You gave them a word bank to use. You explained that the first two lists were words that told what the
author does and the last list told how he feels. You told them to look at the Rhetorical Precis Template
Summary of Article. You filled out the template under the document camera as students followed
along at their seats, e.g. Author David Brooks article, Honor Code, You asked, Need a comma
where? One more coma where? You asked students why it was important to have the authors last
name. You stated that the last name was more formal. You said, SoBrooks argues You defined
argue and then you put another paper under the document camera that contained definitions such as
argue, claim and assertion. You asked what assertion was. You elaborated, You are stating an opinion
which you claim is true. Then you went back to the template. You asked the students, What is the
difference between argue and claim? Is argument a fact? After discussion you stated, No, but it has
evidence to support it. You asked students to look at Day 13 in their notebooks and then asked, What
is David Brooks arguing in the article? You then realized you should review and you put up Day 12
notes. You methodically helped students look very carefully at the article going paragraph by
paragraph asking such questions as: What does Brooks tell us in paragraph 6? Yes, Education is
looking for a specific kind of person. What do we find in paragraph 7? Restating their responses,
you said, Boys dont fit in. At another point you asked, What does it say about 11th grade boys?
You then clarified, Right, they read at the same level as 8th grade girls but they have had 3 more years
of school. You later asked, What does it say about college? You restated, Not as many boys get to

college. 40% boys, 60% girls. After a very thorough review of the article you said, Now that we have
reviewed the article, what is his argument? What is he trying to persuade you? You put the
definitions back up and told the students you did so, so that they could remember what argument and
claim meant. A discussion followed and then you directed the students to write what Brooks was trying
to persuade them. As student wrote, you and Ms. Jimenez monitored the room and helped by coaching
and questioning in ways that encouraged student thinking. After students had adequate time to write,
you asked them to talk about what kind of arguments they wrote. A very involved discussion ensued.
After much discussion, you stated, Lets summarize his argument. Is he saying we only hire that kind
of teacher? So lets write, We should hire and be teachers who value diversity and are diverse from
each other. You suggested that if they were writing they might want to use quotes from the article.
Then you went on to model how they might quote someone explaining the use of s. Next, you
explained the difference between supporting and developing. You wrote that support had evidence
and developing was not as exact. Discussion continued until the end of the class.
Questions
Kudos
How do you feel about the one student
Very comprehensive and complete lesson
monopolizing so much of the discussion? Was it
Good modeling of the objective
beneficial to other students?
Adjusted instruction to ensure understanding
Good monitoring and support for all students
Students engaged and on task
Suggestions
Concerns
None
Teacher candidate goals for next observation:

TPE# X1 X2 3 X4 X5 X6 X7

X8 X9

X10 X11

12

13 X14 X15

Candidate Signature

Date

Observer Signature

Date

16