Sixth Grade Classroom Observation

I observed Josh Craner’s sixth-grade classroom for this assignment. I have been in his classroom this whole academic year and really enjoyed observing/ assisting. For this particular observation, I noticed things that I definitely missed before and watched the physical environment, emotional climate, curriculum, and interactions a lot more than I ever have. Mr. Craner knows his students very well. He knows not only their testing habits, and homework habits; he also knows their social habits. He often will try to get students attention that have a harder time of focusing to begin with by getting them involved in the lecture. For math, he asked Zooey, who has a hard time switching from one lesson to the next with no distraction, questions to begin with to get her involved and paying attention. That was really interesting to see because I always knew she had that difficulty but I never saw how Mr. Craner handled it. It is very obvious that there is a strong and healthy classroom community. On this particular day of observation, one of the students was leaving Emerson and the other …show more content…
The students know the rules and the procedures are clear; this is important in a sixth grade classroom because many students behave like pre-adolescents and with the influence of peers, it’s easy to lose students in the classroom. One thing I had noticed with this classroom is that many students are beginning to create their ideas of what is ‘cool’ or ‘not-cool’, which can have an affect on how much they are willing to participate in class or activities. They begin to start to care what others, mostly their peers, think about them so if they are in a classroom that isn’t welcoming, students may hold back. I felt that Mr. Craner had great resources for students in the classroom to be independent and not have to ask him a bunch of questions. He doesn’t have any rules posted, mainly just things to encourage good behavior and to be