Willows Preparatory School

Teacher Observation Evaluation

Teacher: Heather West Observer: Rachel Peterson, Head of School

Date: 10/14/15

Lesson Delivery
Heathers lesson was an introduction to the autobiographical memoir, Red Scarf Girl by Ji-li Jiang. She
began the lesson with a review of how to take care of a book. Heather asked the students to use their
prior knowledge from last year regarding China. Heather spends time integrating review exercises
pertaining to reading comprehension strategies. Through questioning, Heather is able to extend student
knowledge - she has a question for every answer and is able to steer students to think about different
perspectives. This lesson serves as a provocation to get the students excited for the first novel study of
the year. The majority of the lesson was geared toward laying the foundation for the entire unit. Heather
capitalized on opportunities to tie in what the students learned last year about ancient civilizations. This
Language and Literature unit will also tie into studies in Individuals and Societies. I liked the quote activity,
which required the students to get up and moving throughout the classroom and give their opinion on
what the quote means. Heather does a great job reading the audience - she noticed there was some
hesitation with the KWL chart and getting started, so she kick-started the activity with an example.
Strengths
-Encouraging the students to make connections
-Asking higher-level thinking questions
-Validating student's perspectives

Areas of Growth
- Pacing could be a bit faster (I know this was an intro lesson)
- Integrate more student lead activities in future units

Classroom Management
Heather gives clear and concise directions and uses positive reinforcement with the students to maintain
management. She takes some time to review how a responsible student takes care of school-owned
property. The students have obviously practiced certain procedures (circling up) and are aware of
expectations to ensure smooth transitioning. Heather is mobile around the classroom and the students
are able to reconfigure the room to meet the needs of different parts of the lesson. The movement keeps
the engagement level high. Heather has integrated the IB Learner Profile traits into the lesson to assist in
classroom management. During a movement activity, Heather used the counting down strategy that
worked nicely to get the students settled. For the second class, Heather incorporated Surfaces. Heather
maintains management with the Surfaces as well - everything is very systematic and thought-out. It is
very obvious that the students feel safe to take risks in Heather's classroom.

Strengths
-Positive reinforcement
-Clear expectations
-Using high-level vocabulary
-Calling on a variety of students

Areas of Growth
-Invite other teachers into your classroom to share your management techniques

Rachel Peterson