Elleson

Lisa Elleson

Dr. Helwig

ENG 580

8 October 2017

Mentor Observation Report

When I went to observe my teaching mentor, Dr. Knox, he was conducting a fifty minute

class that centered around a peer review workshop. Due to the way he sets up his peer reviews,

though, the entire class was not dedicated to group work. Dr. Know has his class split up in to

groups of four for the semester. For each assignment throughout the semester, there is one

writer who has their paper reviewed by the other members or readers of their group. The

assignment they were working on called for them to identify and discuss a particular

classification or group theyve encountered in their lives. For the first twenty minutes of class,

Dr. Knox had the readers look over the writers papers and fill out peer review worksheets. After

that, the groups came together as a class and Dr. Knox asked each group to share their thoughts

and feedback about the paper they read. This lead to a class discussion about different tactics and

criteria all of the students should pay attention to when writing their own papers. At the end of

class, Dr. Knox led an informal lecture about the assignment and writing papers in general.

As Dr. Knox directed this class period, he was very comfortable with the students and

seemed to move through the material with ease. The majority of the material covered focused on

the requirements of the classification assignment, but he also touched on genre during his lecture.

Dr. Knox emphasized the need to analyze the genre of their assignments in order to decide what

sort of conventions should be followed. The class followed his directions well during the class,

and Dr. Knox had no problem engaging them. They seemed accustomed to the setup of the
 Elleson
2

course and needed little direction to get started with the peer review. As they worked, Dr. Knox

moved throughout the room and provided the writers with his own feedback. He kept the tone of

the room relaxed and even made jokes with several students. This helped them feel more

comfortable sharing their work and accept his feedback. I wasnt sure how they would feel

having their papers discussed amongst the whole class, but the relaxed manner of the room

seemed to put them at ease during that process. Dr. Knox gave his students a model to follow

when providing feedback, so they were able to offer constructive comments rather than overly

critical ones. Before the students began sharing what they thought about the paper they read, Dr.

Knox prompted them with a number of questions. The questions called for at least one positive

comment before any sort of critique or suggestions. Dr. Knox had no trouble steering the class in

the direction he wanted while also allowing the students to have an appropriate amount of

control over the discussion.

Overall, I admired Dr. Knoxs ease and calm manner as he maneuvered his way through

the class period. While the structure of the class was simple, he had no problem addressing any

issues or student concerns as they came up. For example, when half a group didnt show up to

work, he thought on his feet and had the readers join another smaller group. He also divided up

his time well and was able to answer the multitude of questions that popped up after his lecture.

Many of the students, especially those who didnt have their paper reviewed by their peers, had

new concerns by the end of the class. As a new TA, Im not sure that I would be able to manage

this form of peer review. I would probably have trouble handling all of the extra questions from

the readers at the end of class. Dr. Knox, who has obviously had much more experience as a

teacher, conferenced each student very well in the allotted time of the class. It was interesting to

see this new kind of structure for peer review. I think the writers enjoyed having an increased
 Elleson
3

amount of feedback from their peers as well as Dr. Knox. I would be interested to try something

similar once Ive gotten more comfortable with my class.