Observer: Hannah Nizam-Aldine

Date: December 2, 2015

Observation for Kathleen Hamel

I had the pleasure to observe Kathleen Hamel teach a Composition 150-ESL class, and she showed
great teaching instincts and an ability to make lessons interactive and meaningful.
The days objectives were centered upon analyzing visual rhetoric, and Kathleen opened with a quiz about the
reading students had done on the topic for homework. She provided clear verbal explanation and written
instructions on a PowerPoint to smoothly implement the quiz and begin class. She referred to that PowerPoint
as an interactive tool for the duration of the lesson, demonstrating her effective use of technology in the
classroom.
Kathleen used the quiz to lead into the following student-centered lecture in which she asked students to
define visual rhetoric based on previous knowledge of the two separate terms. She then had students pairshare to discuss how visual rhetoric applies to an image. She synthesized information from the students
textbook and outside sources effectively, and she brought in an advertisement as an example to make the
application of visual analysis more meaningful and fun. After the interactive lecture, Kathleen asked students
to share the brochure they brought to class with a partner and analyze its effectiveness, and then pairs formed
groups of four to examine a wider range of examples and hear more perspectives.
The final activity utilized technology in another way through a website called Padlet. Kathleen set up a Padlet
page for students to post their ideas for a final brainstorm. This use of technology was great because it was
interactive, allowed every student to respond, and provided a record of the class brainstorm that students
could easily return to later while they were writing.
Throughout the lesson, Kathleen showed great teacher presence and an aptitude for fostering a comfortable
learning environment. She prepared her grouping strategies well in advance so that groups were formed
quickly and easily, and she did a wonderful job of walking around and making sure groups stayed on track. She
also responded well to students, asking questions to deepen their analysis and provide more sophisticated
answers.
Overall, Kathleen demonstrated that she is a strong teacher. Her preparation reflected strong consideration of
creating activities to meet course and unit objectives, good judgement of pacing and varying activities, and
excellent consideration of how to keep students engaged through group work and real-world examples of
authentic texts. She also had a positive and friendly energy that made her a natural in front of the classroom.
Kathleen has been my TA for this Fall 2015 semester, and her abilities are clear not only in the classroom, but
also in her feedback and evaluation of student work. She read student writing with an eye for its strengths and
weaknesses, and she showed fantastic judgment of what to comment on and how, being sure not to give so
many comments that the student would be overwhelmed. Each time we met to discuss her grading, she was
always very open to suggestions, and I saw her implement them for the following assignment. She showed a
strong ability to apply evaluation criteria to determine a grade, and she showed wonderful consistency across
assignments.
Kathleens level of preparedness, professionalism, and knowledge of pedagogy make her an excellent teacher
that any student would be lucky to have.