Case Study On Shadow Study: James Martin Middle School

Shadow Study During the school day, teachers have to make quick decisions to adjust their lessons. The decision-making process is a special skill that teachers need in order to create a challenging and engaging lesson. At James Martin Middle School, first year teacher, Mr. Sweat, is great at making decisions on the spot regarding instruction, management, and assessment. For Mr. Sweat, classroom management is the most important aspect of the classroom and his decisions reflect this. On February 26th, Mr. Sweat starts the day by playing soothing music before class and during independent practice. This is a normal occurrence in Mr. Sweat’s sixth grade math classroom. The students seem to enjoy the music and they have come to expect it. For Mr. Sweat, his decision to play music is part of …show more content…
Sweat decides to have the students create a foldable to show the differences between mean, median, mode, and range. Mr. Sweat has to run next door to grab some paper, which seems to suggest that the foldable was a last-minute decision because it fit into the lesson nicely. Throughout the lesson, Mr. Sweat asks for the students to give him “thumbs up or down” after each example. Mr. Sweat uses this information to see if any student needs additional help (2). If several students need help, goes over the example again. If only one or two students need help, he stays with them after class to give them individual help. During second period, Mr. Sweat has to differentiate his lesson for his inclusion class. He and his co-teacher work together to demonstrate how to complete the foldable. While Mr. Sweat goes over definitions and examples, the co-teacher writes down what he says and creates an anchor chart that will be displayed on the wall (3). It is clear that Mr. Sweat goes slightly slower with this class and he does more guided practice than individual practice. The teacher also makes sure to spend more time walking around the room and helping students