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 * Teacher Observation Case Studies - Example Case Study**

Ms. Jones is a fourth grade teacher in a K-8 school with approximately 500 students. She has over twenty years of teaching experience. Her class has 25 students. The school has one computer lab as well as two mobile laptop carts and several Smartboards. Students do a pull-out technology period once a week but Ms. Jones does not know what goes on there. Ms. Jones’s class under-performed on NYS exams last year.

As you enter the class, you take note of how the room has been organized. The desks and chairs have been arranged in rows. A class library is evident in the back of the room but you notice that there are few books and they are mostly quite old. The walls are decorated with educational posters but little student work. Several of the displayed projects are hand-drawn and contain little evidence of writing and are all ELA projects. There is a row of desktop computers in the back of the room which are covered and turned off. A disconnected Smartboard at the front of the room is placed sideways obstructed by boxes and a file cabinet.

As the lesson begins, it is takes several minutes for Ms. Jones to gain the attention of the entire class – several students have to be told repeatedly to return to their seats. Today’s lesson is a continuation of a test-preparation unit for the approaching ELA exam. Students work silently at their desks completing photocopied handouts with practice questions. As the students were working, Ms. Jones sat at her desk grading test-preparation handouts from the previous day. As the lesson progresses, you notice several students with their heads down or scribbling on their handouts. Before the lesson ended, Ms. Jones distributed another review sheet that would be completed for homework. As the students leave the room for lunch, you notice many of the handouts on the floor, incomplete.

//How would you advise Ms. Jones?//