Observation of Jordan's Lesson on The Miller's Tale

As an introduction, Jordan showed a BBC adaptation of The Miller's Tale that was about 6 minutes long. Then Jordan had students read passages, the lines were numbered, and he explained vocabulary by asking students what they thought the terms meant then putting them into context and giving current examples to illustrate them, basically activating prior knowledge.  He was very encouraging when the students participated, and maintained a firm, confident voice and presence.  Jordan began reading each section first then let the students read.  Mrs. Smather's West did have to speak to the students twice and get them to focus on Jordan's lesson as they were becoming a little distracted.  He had handouts of the tale for each student, of which there were about 24. The second section of the tale was about sex which did keep the students engaged (sex sells!). Jordan decided to modify the reading the second time he did the lesson to keep it more interesting so he just explained the missing/skipped sections.  He would point out sections that would be good to cite when answering the homework questions.  Jordan then explained Chaucer's motivations for certain sentence structure, imagery, and tone.  The homework was assigned after the lesson and was already attached to the packet.  Jordan was very effective and engaging.  He definitely had a smoother session the second time because he was able to work the kinks out.  It was a good lesson that used multiple scaffolding techniques and forms of varied instruction.