According to Wikipedia the Hawthrone effect is “a type of reactivity in which individuals modify or improve an aspect of their behaviour in response to their awareness of being observed.” Basically this is exactly what happened to me as I was observed.

My first observed lesson was another Language Arts lesson on theme. I was particularly proud of lesson. Previous to this observed lesson I had taught a lesson on plot. Some of the students really got plot and were ready to move onto to themes. Others had not finished their plot charts and another group had completed the plot charts back had key events in the wrong places. So I gave a lesson on theme and worked through the example of Finding Nemo with the class.

List of topic generated by the class during lesson

I had students orally create theme statements by pulling names from our list of topics.

Then I assigned the colour groups. The green group (the group who demonstrated clear understanding of plot) worked together to using the process demonstrated in the lesson to generate a list of 11 theme statements for Finding Nemo. The yellow group (the group who had trouble placing key events) worked on a plot chart for Finding Nemo together but had to come to consensus on the conflict, climax, and resolution. Then work on theme statements. The blue group (non-finishers) from a list of supplied events had to cut and paste a plot chart together.

Splitting the groups up and having them work on similar activities concerning plot and theme but differing difficulty worked really well in this class. Having all thirty students work on the same learning activity doesn’t always work well because students often become bored or frustrated.

When my FA came to observe I agonized about which examples to use in my Language Arts lesson. I thought seriously about including SEL examples. I knew SEL examples would impress my FA. I then thought about using climate change examples. I care a lot about environmental sustainability and will be tackling this with the students. I flipflopped back and forth for a while. Then in a moment of exhaustion I decided to select examples having to do with the Aquavan writing piece the students had written a few days before.

This wasn’t the best choice. Not everyone was paying equal attention during the Aquavan experience and some of them were confused about the information in the examples. Further more prepositions are confusing. The students were engaged and asking great questions during this lesson. They clearly wanted to understand. I would give myself a 7.5 out of 10 on this lesson.