Observation Sheet Questioning

Graduate Standards - AITSL

Professional Knowledge: 1. Know students and how they learn
Professional Practice: 2. Plan and implement effective teaching and
learning

Question Type

Do you feel your Some of the questions I planned for the lessons needed to
questions were clearly be rephrased while in the class. Some of the questions
structured and readily needed a bit of scaffolding- which I noticed I did
understood by the automatically.
students?

Did you use a variety of While planning my lesson, I made sure there was a balance
question types? between open, close and evaluative questions.

What balances was Depending on what the situation was the question was
there between the either open, closed or evaluative. They seemed to be
various questions spread out differently.
types?

Consider both why and Open: At the start- to get students to hypothesise, get them
when you made use of to think before they do, inquiry based.
the different question Closed: Used to make sure they understood a concept. Eg:
types? What type of mixture is this?
Evaluative: At the end. Eg: Was it as you expected?
Distributing and Directing Questions

Did you recognise any In a small group situation, I directed the questions to the
pattern in the group and waited for each student to have a chance to
distribution of your contribute.
questions amongst the
students? Consider
reasons for this pattern?

How have you directed In the whole class lesson, I generally asked questions to
questions to the group? the entire class, however, if I noticed a group of students
not engaged, I would direct a question to them. I also
often directed questions to the students who didnt
volunteer an answer.

Have you used wait I noticed that students took longer than I expected to get
time? there. In the future, I will plan for more time towards
discussions. In a small group situation, I had to
consciously tell myself to wait before I asked another
question.

Did you make eye Yes, I believe eye contact is essential in engaging students
contact with the group in the learning process.
as you directed your
questions?

Reactions to Students Responses

How do you deal with With a correct response, I would generally say Yes, does
correct responses? Do everyone else agree with that? That way if someone else
you qualify any praise wants to say they agree or disagree they have the chance
given? before I say thats correct. It also opens up to the rest of the
class if someone felt like they had more to add.
 How do you deal with With incorrect responses, I would generally say, Its
incorrect responses? interesting you think that and then open the question to
How do you deal with the rest of the class. If I get a response thats more in the
students who stumble right direction, I would come back to the first student and
and grope for an ask him if that made sense.
answer?

What use do you make It is important to be open to a discussion that stems from a
of the students students response. I found this hard as a prac student. I
responses to develop the had to plan and large amount of stuff to cover and as I
teaching point? Have didnt have another lesson with the students, I couldnt
you redirected any spend more time going off topic like I would have to
questions in order to explore something they were interested in.
add to an initial
response?

Are you the only Im not the only person evaluating the students answers. I
evaluator of the believe other students are as well. I observed that when
students answers? one student gave an answer, as soon as the others realise
its not the correct answer, all their hands go up. I havent
noticed a student criticise another student for giving the
wrong answer, however.

Overall Comments:

As a student teacher, at a school inconsistently, I happened to remember a few

students names along the way (the ones that came up more often- for good or
not so good reasons), however I wasnt able to catch most of their names. This
made direct questioning difficult- I heard myself say- Someone from the table at
the back, this time or Do you want to give it a go? while gesturing to a
particular student. It was difficult to engage the students that flew under the
radar, as I didnt want to point to them and call them out.
Observation Sheet Managing the classroom environment

Graduate Standards AITSL

Professional Practice:
1. Create and maintain supportive and safe learning environments
2. Planning for Effective Management

Was your lesson plan With this being my first prac, I wanted to try out a variety
effective for managing of activities. This meant that there were many transitions
the class? between activities which I found difficult to regain the
students attention.

e.g. How did the I found the students quite open to my lessons- I did have
students react to your some technical difficulties, which caused some groaning,
lesson overall and to however, it meant I needed to work harder to keep them
your planned activities? engaged

Did anything I managed to not have sound for my second lesson, which
unexpected happen? I later realised was just because my iPad was on silent-
but I was able to narrate the entire video as I had watched
it so many times while getting it into my Powerpoint
(although engaging, I doubt it had a David Attenborough-
esque quality to it)

Did you provide a Yes, simply because I wanted to try them all out. In
variety of activities? hindsight, I should have not had too many to allow more
time for discussions.

Were you satisfied with With one of my lessons I was about 5 minutes behind- this
your timing, meant my crossword- which was a part of my evaluation
particularly for the end of the lesson, was not able to be an in-class activity and
of the lesson? had to be done as homework. Apart from that, with the
timing for each activity in my lesson plan, I was able to
make sure I was following it.
Did you feel you were The negative to having detailed time planning in my
able to change things if lesson plan was the lack of flexibility it brought about.
needed? After my lesson that was running 5 minutes behind, I
realised that I could have taken an activity out to make
sure I had time to carry out a summary and conclusion.

Were you aware of Yes, our mentor teacher told us about the procedures for
classroom procedures disciplining a student as well as the Behaviour
and school disciplinary Management Policy. There wasnt any student with a
policy? How much did major behaviour issue, until the last day. But when the
you know about your situation arose we were made aware of it. It wasnt
students? however, too serious.

How did your mentor While I oversaw the lesson, my mentor teacher sat at the
teacher maintain a safe back of the classroom. She did not intervene when minor
learning environment? misbehaviour occurred, however, there was an incident of
note-passing which she dealt with because she was
sitting right next to the student involved.

What strategies did She was able to have a conversation with the student
your observe your without making it a big deal. The students at the table
mentor teacher using to were still able to focus on my lesson. She dealt with it in a
maintain this? low-key way and it didnt disrupt the class.

Maintaining a Positive Attitude in the Classroom

How did you When the sound didnt work, I decided to read the book
demonstrate to the aloud to the students. This involved me walking around
students that you valued the class, while reading the book and showing them the
them, and enjoyed pictures. After a few initial groans, I thought they actually
learning? enjoyed me reading it rather than watching it on the
screen.
e.g. Tone of voice, facial Since it was the topic of reproduction, there were a few
expression, sense of giggles, I chose to have a laugh with the students which
humour, introduction to helped me build a relationship with them.
students and topic.
Which aspects of your
teaching style do you
feel helped you maintain
class attention?
e.g. Variety of activities,
class or group
discussion, pace of
lesson, interest at class
level.
Did the students know
what was expected of
them?
Were you able to
redirect energies of
attention seeking
students? Did the
students have enough
to do?
Dealing with Minor Misbehaviour
Were you aware of what
was happening in all
parts of the classroom?
Did you know what
each student was doing?
I planned to have a variety of activities- too many
perhaps. I realised that the students love being involved in
the learning. Walking around the room made a huge
difference as well- I felt like everyone knew that I was
aware of them. I would love to have saved more time for
discussions.
I noticed that since this was the first year the school was
introducing iPads to the year 7 students, the expectations
were not extremely clear with use of iPads. In my lesson, I
made sure to let them know to face them down when they
werent using them, however, I could have been more
direct with my expectations.
I tried to use subtle gestures to redirect students. The
students always had enough to do, however, the
transitions were the hardest part.
Not always. I did make it a point to walk about as I
presented the lesson, but there were times I wasnt aware
what was happening in the back of the room.
For my second whole class lesson, there was a note being
passed at the back of the class and my mentor teacher
caught it as she was sitting at the back. She was having a
chat to the student involved but I didnt know what it was
about until I spoke with her later.
Did you take any action With minor misbehaviour for example, speaking out of
when you observed turn or chatting in between activities, I did make it a point
poor behaviour? Why? to state my expectations, however when I noticed a certain
Why not? student was not engaged at all in my class, I asked her to
stay back for a minute so I could have a chat to her. This
was the same student who was more interested in seeing
her note being passed than what I was saying.

Did you use non-verbal For minor misbehaviour, I used proximity first, then a tap
cues? e.g. Contact, on the table or a snap of my fingers. I also paused until the
pause, gesture, room was quiet before I resumed talking.
movement toward
student/s concerned.

Overall Comments

In one of my lessons, when I noticed a student not engaged in my class, I tried to

involve her in the discussion by asking for an opinion from the back table. I also
made it a point to walk to the back of the room when I was talking. What I didnt
know was, why my mentor teacher was chatting to her almost the entire lesson.
This was a bit unnerving. I wasnt sure whether she was chatting to her because
she was disengaged and it was a hint for me to reengage her, but every time I
tried to she would keep chatting to my mentor. It was difficult for me to
recognise whether I needed to let my mentor deal with it or try to reengage her
myself.
After talking to my mentor teacher after the lesson it was all straightened out and
she acknowledged that she noticed that I tried to reengage the student however
she needed to sort out the passing the note issue at that point in time.
Looking at the whole school
Describe the school in terms of
its demographics, appearance
and resources (be general here
and do not name the school).
What were the roles and
responsibilities of the teaching
staff you observed?
After discussion with your
mentor teacher describe how
policies and processes of
government, administration
and schools have an affect on
the work of the teacher?
The school is quite diverse in cultures, however I
did not see any Indigenous students. The
buildings were well set out and quite appealing in
appearance and quite well resourced. The science
lab store room was well equipped and there was
good communication between teaching and non-
teaching staff.
Apart from general teaching duties, the teaching
staff had playground duty, twice a week. They
also had a homeroom class each where they
would update the class on a twice a week basis
about what was happening in the school. They
were in-charge of marking off the attendance of
the students in each class they taught. They also
attended professional development held either at
the school or outside school.
Behaviour Management Policy (School)-helps take
the pressure off teachers who have a whole class
to manage. Steps in place to ensure the teaching
staff are aware of the protocol when it comes to
misbehaviour.
Disability Access Policy- this ensures that all
students regardless of disability, get equal
opportunities at school and receive the same
education as everyone else.
The school also has Teaching Aides who help out
various students with learning difficulties, ASD or
physical disabilities.
 What did you observe non-
teaching staff doing to support
teaching and learning in the
school?
Students
You will have observed the
diverse nature of your classes.
How was this diversity
supported?
Year coordinators (YC)-
In lower secondary school, YCs are youth workers
in charge of pastoral care.
In higher secondary school, YCs have a teaching
load as they have a stronger focus on pathways
and careers.
Laboratory Technicians-
The Lab Techs are extremely helpful in sorting out
resources and equipment for a lab lesson. They
are well organised and have a good system in
place.
Student Services-
The Student Services staff are in-charge of
managing students when the teacher is unable to
deal with them in his/her class. The teachers can
make a call and someone from student services
will come pick them up. This really takes the
pressure of the classroom teacher having to deal
with a misbehaving student and an entire
classroom.
In addition, the school has an IT department and a
Business Centre.
With the diversity of learning styles, the teacher
included a variety of resources from visual
resources like diagrams and videos to written
resources like text books. In addition, I noticed
that a student who is being assessed for
dysgraphia- a student who is struggling with
writing legibly- is being assessed differently,
verbally and using an iPad, instead of writing.
Function of Schools

Did you observe the Not so much apart from the parent-teacher
connection of your interviews that I sat in on.
schools with the broader
community? How did
this happen?
What do you think the There are many functions of school. Apart from
function of school is? educating children, schools promote a sense of
community. At school, students build their
communication skills as well as social skills. They
are exposed to new ways of thinking and
learning.

Reflection think about Having worked at a secondary school for a few

your experiences during years now, I was exposed to a different view of
the week and describe schools. There were a few things that happened at
how your previous my prac school that were very different from my
experiences have other experiences of schools. The most obvious
informed your view of one was that students do not have a classroom to
teachers and schools. Has call their own. The teachers have a classroom and
anything changed? the students move around the school depending
which subject they have.
Students had to wait outside until they were
invited in by the teacher- this was also new to me.
Another thing that I noticed was, as this was a
large school, there seemed to be a lack
communication between teachers of different
departments. There was no scope of integrating
topics- for instance, when I did my lesson on
reproduction, there were students who were
complaining that they had just done the same
stuff in Health. It would be amazing if the
teachers could communicate with each other and
maybe come up with a project for the students
that integrates Health, Science and maybe
English.