Overall, I was pretty happy with my first day being observed. Though many students weren't quite as equipped as I had hoped for the day's discussion, I felt like it went well.
The class started off with a student from the previous period staying for an extra couple minutes, then a number of students who were absent came to me. Students are supposed to come during resource time in the morning, but they often end up not coming until class. Having multiple students come to me at the beginning of the period often throws me off slightly, because I don't expect them and I'm usually trying to get things in order to start the period.
I put students with their clock partners because I knew that asking questions like, "What are we missing from chapter 9?" when it had been read for Monday (it was Thursday at this point) would make students hesitant (or unable) to answer those questions on their own. Students' behavior tended to dictate how much time I gave them to discuss the questions I posed: the fewer groups who were actually working, the less time I gave. While you noted that a few students seemed to carry the group, I mentioned in our post-conference that a number of students who don't usually offer much participation or had been lagging recently did very well in the period. I was happy with that participation from them.
You also noted that a lot of the energy came from me instead of the class. As Dave mentioned, that's a technique that he has, in essence, challenged me to use. In 6th period, I didn't really need to use it. The class had its own energy, was participatory throughout discussion, and asked many of my questions for me. In other words, the same lesson worked very well later in the day. The only modification I made was walking around to partners to check progress on the questions that they were to discuss together.
Regarding the emphasis on points, students ask many questions regarding what assignments are worth and how they will be graded. We spend a lot of time answering questions like, "So wait, if I didn't write ________, do I still get all of the points or just half?" and "How much was that worth? Did you put the grades online yet?" The students respond to points, whether that's beneficial to them or not. I would love them to be interested in the learning itself, but some days that's simply not the case.
If I were to do this particular lesson again, the only thing I would change is the amount of time given to partners for discussion. In isolation, there was not much participation, but many students who didn't regularly offer input delivered it here. The following day, nearly every student in each period was called upon to share ideas. I do my best to get to everyone no less than every third day.
