Notes from TAG Teacher Observation: 4th Grade 3/22/13 Diverse population of 21 gifted 4th graders consisting of Caucasians,

, African Americans, Asians, and Indian males and females o Asked about the diversity of the school being represented in the TAG class-school is more diverse Students sat in groups instead of in single desks Students were excited to see teacher, since they had not had TAG class in a month due to school activities Class started with Connections o Led by student of the day o Student of the day calls on one student at a time to share 1 thought o No commenting on others thoughts o Once everyone has gone once, then students can have a second turn o Students discussed a lot about their extracurricular activities like played a good baseball game, enjoyed piano lessons, etc. Began new unit by completing an inductive/deductive word sort Rules of word sort: o Cut first, then organize o Once organized, then get glueno glue before organized o Decorate your word sort after everything was glued o 45 minutes to complete o Spread out in the room to work Some worked at tables or on the floor sitting on rug squares Visited neighboring TAG class where students were doing the same activity. Organized similar, but the two different teachers had different management styles. One was more free-flowing while the other had more order and rules Students were engaged at all times When students asked questions, teacher typically responded with a question to help the student develop his/her own answer instead of relying on teacher to do all the thinking Classroom was decorated with student work that showed their mastery of the concepts