Observation Sheet Questioning

(Please complete this form for both primary and secondary professional experiences and
place in your ePortfolio)

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 questions The students were instantly engaged in the task given within my lesson
were clearly structured and plan. Within my lesson, I produced a series of questions that helped with
readily understood by the the students understanding of Mathematics and English. As I was
students? teaching year 3 students, I didnt make any of the questions complicated
or hard for them to understand.

There were definitely a variety of questions used though out my lessons.

Did you use a variety of Most of them were general yes/no questions that the students found easy
question types? to understand. The questions that started a little discussion were also
involved, as well as questions that required a little more thinking. The
thinking questions refer mostly to the mathematics lesson, as they had to
think about working out the equations in their heads.

During the lesson, my questions varied from general to questions that

What balances was there require a bit of thinking. At the start of an activity, I would start with the
between the various questions basic yes/no questions, then in the middle of the lesson combine them
types? with the more complex questions. At the very end I would ask reflective
questions that make the students think about what they have just learned
and how they will use it in the future.

When students were understanding or werent thinking about specific

Consider both why and when and important elements within my lesson, I would stop and ask
you made use of the different questions on that topic. The students would then start to think about key
question types? elements they were missing and then adjusted their approach on the
activity.
Distributing and Directing Questions

Did you recognise any pattern The pattern that was directed in my lessons was the amount of
in the distribution of your convergent questions that were involved throughout my activities. The
questions amongst the activities required the students to ask convergent questions to each other,
students? Consider reasons and for myself to ask them to the class.
for this pattern?

How have you directed I usually directed them by stopping the class at appropriate times during
questions to the group? the lesson by stopping and asking the students to think about different
things.

I used wait time in order to get them thinking about different concepts
Have you used wait time? within the lesson. The wait time is a good way to keep the students
engaged and constantly thinking about their tasks.

I made eye contact throughout the classroom so everyone felt as if they

Did you make eye contact with were being asked personally, especially if it was a question involving
the group as you directed your their own beliefs or opinions.
questions?

Reactions to Students Responses

How do you deal with correct If a student gave a correct response, I would praise them by saying Well
done or Great job, but nothing that would overpower or make other
responses? Do you qualify any
students feel as if they dont have the potential to get something right. I
praise given?
would also ask if anyone else has anything to contribute to this persons
answer. I would definitely praise correct answers, but also keep others
feeling confident as well.

How do you deal with incorrect With students who dont give correct responses, I used phrases like not
quite, but then gave them small ideas to think about and give them
responses? How do you deal
another chance to get the right answer. I also encouraged these students
with students who stumble and
and made sure that every response I had to the students responses were
grope for an answer? all positive.

Many of the questions that were asked created a discussion in the

What use do you make of the classroom between the students. The understanding and wording of the
students responses to develop students responses are important as they are putting it in their own
the teaching point? Have you words and making their own sense out of it. This develops an
redirected any questions in understanding of the teaching point. If a students gets an answer wrong,
order to add to an initial then I would use this as a teaching point for not only that student, but for
 response? everyone in the class as I would re explain the correct answer.

Are you the only evaluator of I guess I would not be the only evaluator of the students responses, as
the students answers? the other students may have other ideas they may want to add, which
may also be correct. Other students may pick up on their peers incorrect
answer, and may want to explain why they were incorrect and the
correct answer. This is important, because it is educational for both the
correct and incorrect student, as they are learning off of each other.

Overall Comments

The students responses to all questions were very informal and educational. Students
thought and responded well to any question that was given, and loved to discuss answers
with their peers within the classroom. This was surprising, as at such a young age, students
were happily engaging with each others thoughts and ideas towards my activities. Overall
the questions that were given within my lesson were all answered with confidence and were
mostly correct.
Observation Sheet Management
(Please complete this form for both primary and secondary professional experiences and
place in your e portfolio)

Graduate Standards AITSL

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

Was your lesson plan effective My lesson plan was effective in managing the classrooms behaviour and
for managing the class? focus towards their tasks. There was a point where students needed to be
seated on the mat rather than at their desk in order to view my
e.g. How did the students demonstration. This caused a little chaos with students trying to see and
react to your lesson overall wanting to be moved to the floor. I soon realised and moved them in a
and to your planned activities? calm and direct manor. Other than this minor issue, my classroom
management in my lesson was adequate.
Did anything unexpected The students are engaged and excited learners. As soon as I started my
happen? lesson they were already eager to take on anything I gave them. During
the lesson, students were communicating, smiling, and laughing in an
Did you provide a variety of educational manor. One of the students said Im going to play this at
activities? home! which was personally rewarding. Nothing to drastic happened
during my lesson, although the first lesson nerves made me forget a
Were you satisfied with your couple of important strategies in classroom management. This was easily
timing, particularly for the end fixed through communication and reflecting. I provided two activities,
of the lesson? which catered for diversity of students. There was enough time for each
activity, as students were enjoying each one and asked to keep playing.
Did you feel you were able to My lesson went for 40 minutes, which I thought would have been an
change things if needed? acceptable amount of time to complete both activities. The first activity
went for 25 minutes, which I had to stop halfway through and introduce
the new activity. The new activity then didnt have enough time to
support all learning outcomes, and was stopped at a shorter time than
expected. If I could change something about my lessons, it would
definitely be the way it was all timed. My lesson plan shows how well I
timed my activities, but as soon as they took place, time seemed to go so
much quicker than expected, and it was a lot harder to keep up with my
time plan as I did not want to interrupt students halfway through their
activity. Unfortunately, towards the end I had to finish up halfway
through the second lesson, which left students confused and not
thoroughly understanding the content.
Were you aware of classroom My mentor teacher explained throughout the week the different
procedures and school procedures and disciplinary policies that were in place with certain
disciplinary policy? How students. Particular students were on behaviour a management program,
much did you know about your which was discussed between the parent and teacher. These programs
students? helped students that are incapable of learning, or are misbehaved to try
and motivate them to become more focused and well behaving students.
How did your mentor teacher Most of these students are facing issues such as trauma, ADHD, dyslexia,
maintain a safe learning or autism. The programs are completely supportive of the students and
environment? provide alternative options regarding their learning.

What strategies did your My mentor teacher reinforced classroom rules among students. The
observe your mentor teacher school itself is known for its many mottos and sayings, and are very
using to maintain this? passionate about healthy learning environments. The teacher
incorporated the schools values into her classroom, by singing songs or
using reward systems for friendly behaviour. My mentor teacher also
shares her own respectful and friendly values towards the students,
which helps shape their behaviour towards each other in a positive way.

The teacher always remained happy and rewarded students who she sees
doing nice things towards their peers, complimenting and staying aware
of any drama or bullying. From what I observed within that week, I saw
no acts of negativity from students towards their peers, only positivity.
Whenever she saw or heard anyone say unkind or rude behaviour
amongst peers, she stopped the class and reminded everyone about the
respectful rules in the classroom and at school.
Maintaining a Positive Attitude in the Classroom

How did you demonstrate to In my classroom, I want to ensure that all students feel valued and that
the students that you valued their experience at school is something they cherish and enjoy. Building a
them, and enjoyed learning? relationship with the students is extremely important in a teacher role. In
order to gain the respect of students, you first must earn it, and give it.
e.g. Tone of voice, facial Throughout my prac experience I learned this was they key to teaching.
expression, sense of humour, When talking to the students, bring yourself down to their level by either
introduction to students and squatting down or sitting can be an effective way of gaining their trust. It
topic. shows that you arent above, or dominating them. It also tells the student
that you are their friend not their rival. Creating a sense of humour with
the class also shows your kind of personality to the students, which helps
them overcome their thoughts of you just being their teacher. It also
creates positivity in the classroom and can have an educational effect on
students through their enthusiasm. Showing a sense of humour can also
be meaningful to kids as it shows youre valuing the students by treating
them like an adult or a friend. Having a nice, friendly tone of voice in the
classroom is vital as you are speaking to your students everyday. As the
kids are still developing, if you speak to them with a stern and harsh
voice it may come off as intimidating. Through out my experience, I
ensured that I spoke to all students with a soft, friendly and welcoming
tone to make them feel comfortable and happy in their school
environment.

Which aspects of your The first 20-minute micro lesson was key for interpreting and finding out
teaching style do you feel how my year 3s listen and adapt to activities and listen to instructions.
helped you maintain class The students tend to me a lot more engaged when involved in-group
attention? activities. I learned that students learn from each other, as much as they
learn from their teacher. Group based activities worked extremely well in
e.g. Variety of activities, class maintaining the whole classes attention as they are engaged with the task
or group discussion, pace of at hand, but also learning through communication and team work with
lesson, interest at class level. their peers. I also made sure that throughout my lessons I stayed
motivated and kept encouraging everyone. Walking around the
classroom and individually talking to each group and gave them the help
they needed also kept the students on their toes for the next activity.
Keeping each lesson and activity at a slow and steady pace in order to
the students to take their time in understanding the tasks was an
effective of keeping their attention. As the students were so young, I
found the activities that I gave them did take a longer amount of time for
them to process and understand, which was why the lessons were so
steadily paced.
Did the students know what The students were very respectful and knew that they had to complete
was expected of them? any tasks and activities that I have them during my lesson. They seemed
to treat me as if I were their everyday teacher, which made my lessons
with them so easy-going. The content that was given to students during
my lesson was very educational, and their prior knowledge to the topic
should have eased them into the tasks. The students instantly knew what
was expected of them when I thoroughly explained each activity and
during each task.

Within 10 minutes of the activity, students who are high achieving

Were you able to redirect wanted something a little more challenging. As apart of my lesson plan,
energies of attention seeking my catering for diversity provided these students with a 10 or 12-sided
students? Did the students dice. This made their rolls a lot higher and the numbers more challenging
have enough to add up on their whiteboards. These students enjoyed this change. The
to do? attention seeking students were also able to receive the information and
help they needed through out the lessons. The activities were group
based, so students were able to seek help in other students as well as
myself. This made my job as a teacher a lot easier, as it would have been
difficult to get to each student who needed help all at once. Students also
thrive off helping each other, as it supports their learning as well as the
childs who needs help. Stopping during the activity and getting all the
students attention also helped with attention seeking students. A whole
class discussion about what was happening within their groups resolved
any conflict and questions students had.
Dealing with Minor Misbehaviour

Were you aware of what was Most of the students were on task at all ties and willing to learn. Of
happening in all parts of the course there were a few students who were Naughty and werent
classroom? Did you know engaged with activities as well as other students. I tended to use
what each student was doing? strategies like the whole class discussions and questions. Stopping
throughout activities to ask each group of students if they were on track
and what was happening within their groups helped in seeing who was
and who was not on task. After the class discussions, I individually
spoke to the students who were not on task, and gave them a warning.
While the class was working, I also walked around the classroom and
observed each group of students. Having the students in groups was also
beneficial as it was easier to see who was focused and who wasnt rather
than trying to observe from a whole class point of view. As the students
were in groups, they werent scattered around the classroom, which
made them very easy to manage that way. Listening appropriately to
peer conversations between the students was also effective in seeing
what the students were doing during lessons. If I heard students talking
about other subjects that were irrelevant to their activities, I would know
that they are not on task.

Did you take any action when When bad behaviour emerged during my lessons, I approached it in
you observed poor behaviour? different ways. The classroom had a faction token reward system, and
Why? Why not? when I needed to I rewarded students who were working hard and
showing good behaviour. This encouraged students who werent on task
or werent listening to start behaving appropriately. A student was just
who was repeatedly misbehaving was also a concern I had during my
lesson. From observing him in class through out the week, I noticed most
of the time he misbehaved because he wanted the class and the teachers
attention. When this student started misbehaving I gave him a verbal
warning. The second time I removed him from where he was sitting, as
the students around him seemed to encourage his behaviour. He was
then sat with a group of girls who were not interested in his mishaps. He
still wanted the classs attention, but the class were engaged in the
activity they were completing, so my tactic was to ignore him. I found
that sometimes this is the best way to deal with constant misbehaving
students, as they only want attention, and when you and the class arent
giving it to them, they soon give up and start actually doing the work.
This technique worked well in this situation in my lesson, and an
effective way of dealing with poor behaviour.
Did you use non-verbal cues? There were a few non-verbal cues I used in order to get some students
e.g. Contact, pause, gesture, back on track, although I found they didnt work on students who were
movement toward student/s constantly miss behaving. Students who were being talking while I was
concerned. talking, or being chatty during time where they were required to
complete and activity, I tended to make eye contact and a stern gesture.
Not enough to be intimidating, but the look showed that I wanted them
to get back on track. This worked for well-behaved students as it wasnt
telling them off, but gesturing them to start working again. While I was
talking and students started becoming off track of were talking to the
person next to them, I paused until everyone was silent I had gained
everyones attention. This technique works well as students who are
engaged with my talking start to tell their peers who arent listening to
listen again. I found this happened frequently not only during my lesson
but also through out the week with their normal teacher as well.

Overall Comments

The class was an absolute pleasure to teach and almost all of the students were well
behaved and engaged through out my lessons. There seemed to be only one student with
poor behaviour, and as I observed during the week, he was like that most of the time at
school. My mentor teacher gave many strategies that worked for her to try and make the
student have fun, and engage with the activities I gave through the lessons. These strategies
worked well, and made the lesson flow much nicer. Overall the students were keen learners
and engaged with every task provided to them.
Schools as text looking at the whole school

Describe the school in terms of its The school was very generic. Its classrooms were
demographics, appearance and spread out in blocks throughout the school. Each
resources (be general here and do block contained a year group. The year groups
not name the school). tended to stay together. The classrooms were very
modern, they all contained I pads and sets of
headphones as their technology. They also had lots
of books, interactive white-boards, and projectors.
The teachers seemed to provide most of the
educational resources through out each of the
classrooms such as art and crafts, books, posters,
ornaments, storage containers, etc. In the middle of
the school there was a library that contained books
and lots of tables and chairs. There were a total of 3
playgrounds and an oval where the students played
on at lunchtime and recess. There were several
equipment used for sport and during lunchtime and
recess. The school has a larger number of students
and a broad school community. Overall the school is
was very modern and nicely built on a large piece of
land and was very big. The resources were only big
enough for the schools use such as the library,
canteen and assembly area. The schools oval,
playground and basketball court are all to be
accessed by the public on weekends.
What were the roles and The staff and teachers had many responsibilities
responsibilities of the teaching staff through out the school. Their main and most
you observed? important role is to keep the students safe and
ensure they have a secure education. Teachers
responsibilities within the classroom included:
Preventing any physical abuse between students,
bullying, providing first aid when needed, catering for
diversity, making sure nothing is stolen, locking the
classroom, keeping everything neat and tidy, and
making sure theyre in a safe environment. Their
roles around the school vary, depending on what the
occasion is. Whilst I was attending prac, the school
had a faction carnival and an excursion. The
teachers responsibility changed from the classroom
to the oval and public. Ensuring that none of the
students have ran away or gone missing was the
main objective, and they did this through head
counts. The teachers were required to be heavily
involved in schools activities. The teachers I
observed were leaders in the activities in the faction
carnival, such as being in charge of the races,
recording the winning teams, leading the games,
and encouraging students to do their best.
What did you observe non-teaching Non- teaching staff was found helping and encouraging the
staff doing to support teaching and students who didnt have the athletic abilities to perform some
learning in the school? of the activities on the faction carnival. They also helped
teachers with extra work such as appointments, marking, or
anything that helped teachers reduce their workload. These
people organised fundraisers for the school to help raise
money for more resources, school discos, dress-up days,
before and after school care programs, excursions, and make
sure all students are enjoying their time at school. They also
organise people to come in for educational purposes for
example; my year three class went to a dinosaur incursion
organised by the non-teaching staff, which educated the
students on different dinosaurs in a fun and hands on way.
Although these people were not teachers, they still do
everything they can to support leaning and teaching at school.
Students

You will have observed the Throughout the school, I noticed that there were many
diverse nature of your classes. differences between each student in how they all learned
How was this diversity individually. Within my classroom, there were 9 students
supported? on individual learning plans, as those particular students
were not achieving the average educational standards of
a year three student. These students were supported by
the teacher making an individual learning plan for each
student, containing extra work for them to work on at
home, different level and frequency of work during class;
e.g. English. The students that were on these plans were
learning more simple words than the other students, but
also were challenging themselves at home with the
words everyone else were learning in the year 3
curriculum. Their plans focused on all subjects that
students were struggling in. Parents seemed to be
completely supportive of the plans, as they saw
improvement in their childs development.
During lessons, Education Assistants helped the students
who found some of the content challenging or struggled
with particular tasks. For example, there were a few
students in the class who werent able to use scissors
properly, and required help. This was very effective, as
the students who were finding activities challenging
werent getting left behind or discouraged. There was
also a boy in the class who had autism. This student
went to a Special class when the rest of the class were
learning the basic subjects (English, Maths, Science,
Social Studies) but still came back and joined the class
when they went to their electives such as sport, music
and art. This student was still apart of the class in many
ways, and students still treated him as their peer. He
joined in on important activities in the class like fathers
day cards and present making. The diversity within the
classroom was always supported in different ways to
make each childs education equal and the best it could
be.
Function of Schools

Did you observe the The school has a large connection with the outside
connection of your schools community. This happened through my mentor teacher
with the broader community? being apart of the Kids Matter Committee. This program
How did this happen? helps students with their mental health, by organising
programs where they can talk to adults, and provides them
breakfast and lunch. This program supports students
whos parents are in the defence force and tend to go
away for long periods of time, by helping them cope with
missing them or if they feel sad. These students usually
get together either at lunchtime or during class time and
do arts and crafts. The schools P&C use fundraisers as a
source of gaining money for the schools through sausage
sizzles, donations, free dress days, and the school
canteen. They also hold events such as school discos or
faction carnivals, which are free for the public to join and
watch. The school also hosts a parent caf spot for all
parents within the community to come together at 1:45pm
weekly.
What do you think the function The function of school is how everything flows to make the
of school is? students educations the best it can be, while keeping the
community and parents involved and happy. In my
experience, there were so many different things happening
all at the same time and it was hard to take in all at once.
The school has so many different systems and
responsibilities they need to maintain everyday.

Throughout my schooling years, I always thought teachers

were hardworking, but I mainly thought that their job was
always fun and mainly based on playing with the children.
When I went on prac, I got a behind the scenes
experience on what it was really like to be a teacher in
charge of a classroom. The teaching part is extremely
rewarding, as I always thought it would be, and looking
after the kids all day was an absolute pleasure.
Reflection think about your Throughout the year, teachers have many responsibilities
experiences during the week they have to maintain as well as classroom management,
and describe how your relationships with the students, parents and the school,
previous experiences have marking, committee work, curriculum standards,
informed your view of teachers technology, and behavioural systems. Seeing this side of
and schools. Has anything teaching was a shock, as I was impressed at how well
changed? teachers can manage everything all at once. In being a
student prior to university, my view on teachers have
completely changed in the way they manage their
classroom.