Videotape Assignment

This assignment centers on three videotapes of one-on-one lessons conducted by two fifth-grade teachers with one student. One teacher had this student for two sessions, the second teacher had this student for one session.

The videos are available online (see the link below). The URL is password protected (to be given in class). Email pat.thompson@vanderbilt.edu if you have trouble accessing the videos.

Each video is approximately 30 minutes in length. Please view them with at least one other person, if possible. You will need a high-speed connection to view the videos (on-campus access will be high-speed).

In viewing the videotape, at regular junctures (e.g., about every 5 minutes) take a few minutes to write your observations of what has transpired between the teacher and student. You will hand in these observations (you needn't type them). The substance of your observations will not be graded, but you will be given full credit for the fact that you expressed them. I want to see your actual thoughts (whatever strikes you as worthy of observation is data for me).

At the end of each lesson (remember, there are three of them), answer these questions. Be sure to answer them for the first video before viewing the second, and answer them for the second video before viewing the third.

1. What were the teacher’s objectives? (Of course, you will have to infer this. He cannot tell you.)
2. What insights did the student have?
3. What difficulties did the student have? What was their source?
4. What might you do in the next lesson to follow up on this one? (Either to build on successes or to address difficulties the student had?)
5. What surprised you about what the teacher did in this lesson that you wouldn’t have anticipated prior to seeing it?
6. (After answering #5 for the third video.) Was there anything in principle that was different about the two teachers’ teaching? This is not asking you which teacher did a better or worse job. Rather, it is about how the teaching differed.

This will be a time-consuming assignment if you do it well, so please do not postpone beginning it. It will take 90 minutes just to observe the tapes. It will take several hours to answer these questions.