Observation Sheet Questioning

(Please complete this form for both primary and secondary professional experiences and
place in your ePortfolio)
Graduate Standards - AITSL
Professional Knowledge:
Professional Practice:
learning

1. Know students and how they learn

2. Plan and implement effective teaching and

Question Type

Do you feel your questions

were clearly structured and
readily understood by the
students?

Yes I think my questions were mostly clear and understood. Due to

the age of the students I had to keep them very simple and when I
was asking questions I had on a couple of occasions simplify them
even more.

Did you use a variety of

question types?

Yes I used a variety of questions including open, closed, rhetorical

and paraphrasing.

What balances was there

between the various
questions types?

For my lesson there was lots of open questions at the start and then
as we moved onto the activity there were closed questions.

Consider both why and

when you made use of the
different question types?

I used open questions to generate the students thought processes

and engage them in the learning and conversation about their
knowledge of speech marks.
When the students were transitioning from the mat to the table for
their activity, I used closed questions and paraphrasing as I was
giving instructions and needed to clarify that the students
understood the instructions I had given them.

Distributing and Directing Questions

Did you recognise any

pattern in the distribution of
your questions amongst the
students? Consider
reasons for this pattern?

Yes I tried to distribute the questions evenly but there was

definitely more students answering in the front and middle of the
group. Students up the back and on the sides didnt put their
hands up as often so I tended to pick the ones that did. The more
enthusiastic students tended sit up the front and in the middle so I
would consider this a reason for this pattern.

How have you directed

questions to the group?

I got their attention and asked them to listen to me carefully. I then

spoke slower and clearly so that they understood me.

Have you used wait time?

I did use wait time to let them answer without being rushed when
I could. I was however aware of the time frame I had to do the
lesson.

Did you make eye contact

with the group as you
directed your questions?

Yes I always made eye contact with the group as I directed

questions to the students so that they were aware I was interested
in their responses and that my body language reflected my speech.

Reactions to Students Responses

How do you deal with
correct responses? Do you
qualify any praise given?

I found myself saying yes thats right, well done and

great listening when students gave the correct response. I
would qualify by saying something like well done that is
where you are meant to put speech marks Alex, at the start
and the end of the actual words being spoken

How do you deal with

incorrect responses? How
do you deal with students
who stumble and grope for
an answer?

For incorrect responses I tried to guide the students with

clues and hints so that they are led to the correct answer.
For students who had trouble getting their answers out, I
asked for them to take their time and answer when they were
ready or else asked them if they would like me to come back

to them a little bit later.

What use do you make of

the students responses to
develop the teaching point?
Have you redirected any
questions in order to add to
an initial response?

I tried to develop the teaching point with students responses by

adding on to them, for example thats right Charlie, well done that
is where the speech marks go and what part of the speech
sentence did I say they go on again?

Are you the only evaluator

of the students answers?

No Im not the only evaluator. You can ask the other students if
they think that response to the question is correct but I would only
ask that if I knew it was correct.

Overall Comments

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 for managing the
class?

It was a really good guide but I found the timing : Learning

Experiences appendice more effective for managing the class as
you could break down the lesson even further and put in more
detail.

e.g. How did the students

react to your lesson overall
and to your planned
activities?

The students reacted okay to the youtube clip but they loved my
glittery speech marks that I made and were enthusiastically putting
their hands up to get selected. They also loved reading out the
speech sentences in the characters voices and were laughing lots
in that part of the lesson.
The planned activity was successful but I found I had to retell
some of the students what they were meant to be doing.

Did anything unexpected

happen?

The bluetac on the speech marks kept on sticking them all

together so I had to keep separating them and then they didnt
stick that well on the whiteboard so a couple of times the speech
marks fell off. This was just a bit fiddly. Also a couple of students
finished earlier than expected so I didnt have anything else for
them to do apart from free playtime.

Did you provide a variety of I think they were provided with a good variety of activities. They
activities?
watched a youtube clip on speech marks and then identified where
speech marks go with the glittery speech marks on the whiteboard.
After that they read out the speech sentences with the matching
images and finally went to the tables to complete their art activity
and speech/thought bubbles.
Were you satisfied with
your timing, particularly for
the end of the lesson?

The timing was sufficient for the activity and there was only 2
students who hadnt completed their work at the end of the lesson.
As mentioned above a couple of students also finished earlier so I
would consider this next time and have more work for them to do.

Did you feel you were able

I did have to change things but it ran quite smoothly overall. I did
to change things if needed? have to arrange the speech marks a better way so they wouldnt
stick together and also I had to put extra bluetac on some of them
too so they would stick.
Were you aware of
classroom procedures and
school disciplinary policy?

Yes I was aware of the classroom procedures and fortunately the

students were very well behaved for my lesson. So apart from
asking some of the boys to stop talking I didnt have to use any of

these.

How much did you know

about your students?

How did your mentor

teacher maintain a safe
learning environment?
What strategies did your
observe your mentor
teacher using to maintain
this?

I had worked with the students for the previous 4 days so I knew
which students might be disruptive to my lesson. These students
were the ones I got to read out the sentences in their funny voices
to keep them engaged in the lesson.
My mentor teacher was awesome. She was very calm and spoke
to the children in a friendly way, you can tell she has a great
teacher student relationship with them. Her learning environment is
very safe.
Some of her strategies included: rewarding positive behaviour and
good work with fake money booklets and popsicle sticks for bucket
fillers. Resolving a student disagreement through getting the
students involved in a discussion about their feelings and how to
tell the other person how they felt without angry words. She also
had lots of different ways of getting their attention like jingly bells,
clapping, shooshing and singing but all in the same pattern. 1
2..123 was the pattern. Allowing a couple of students time on their
own but still within the classroom worked well with getting them
back participating rather than excluding them or using other
consequences. This showed how well she knew her students.

Maintaining a Positive Attitude in the Classroom

How did you demonstrate to
the students that you valued
them, and enjoyed
learning?
e.g. Tone of voice, facial
expression, sense of
humour, introduction to
students and topic.

I tried to learn all their names which I had done by the end of the
week and I said a friendly good morning to them and their parents
as they walked in the door. I tried to be as friendly as I could
towards them and always smiled. Quite a few times I would high
five them for their awesome work. As it was book week I dressed
up as well and was in a dragon onsie for the whole day which I
loved and I participated in as many activities as I could whilst
there.
I am generally a friendly person who smiles lots and can be a bit
loopy (in a good way). As Ive worked in schools before and have
my own children I didnt get nervous at all and felt quite
comfortable there.

Which aspects of your

teaching style do you feel
helped you maintain class
attention?

Being friendly to the students definitely helps and showing

enthusiasm too. When I was doing the lesson and was describing
the glittery speech marks as gorgeous gold or beautiful pink they
responded well to the fun and exaggeration of my voice.

e.g. Variety of activities,

Doing different activities and especially interactive activities on the

class or group discussion,

pace of lesson, interest at
class level.

mat helped maintain class attention rather than just getting them to
watch me. Asking lots of open questions worked really well too
and would lead to more discussion on the topic.

Did the students know what

was expected of them?

Yes they did but some I had to retell what they were meant to be
doing when it came to their activity. They knew when we were
doing it on the board but couldnt work out what to do when it
came to writing it. After explaining it further to the individual
students they understood.

Were you able to redirect

energies of attention
seeking students? Did the
students have enough
to do?

The attention seeking students were the ones that I got to do the
funny voices and that worked great because they got their moment
of fame and there was no problems with them at all throughout the
lesson.
As mentioned earlier there was 2 or 3 students that finished earlier
than expected so they needed more 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 tried to stay aware of what was happening an all parts of the

classroom but it was a challenge. Yes I could see all students
however there were a few that I had to keep on task with the
activity instead of chatting to each other.

Did you take any action

when you observed poor
behaviour? Why? Why
not?

I asked some students on the mat to stop talking and listen to me

and also I asked some of the students to put their hands up to
answer my questions rather than calling out.

Did you use non-verbal

cues? e.g. Contact, pause,
gesture, movement toward
student/s concerned.

A finger on the lips for being quiet, high fives for great work,
thumbs up for good work or answers, clapping for getting
attention.

Overall Comments

Schools as text 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).

The school is in a middle/low class socio economic area

near the ocean. It is a nice neat, clean looking school and
is 19 years old so the gardens are very established, lush
and look well cared for. The school currently has around
600 students from kindy to year 7.
The school has many resources including a great
undercover assembly area, big grassed areas, Stephanie
Alexander kitchen classroom, library, music room, science
room and art room a big vegie patch and chickens and 2
big playgrounds. The school also has a privately run before
and after school care facility.

What were the roles and

responsibilities of the teaching
staff you observed?

The teaching staff I observed all had a duty of care towards

all students but were also responsible for teaching their
specialty learning area.
My mentor teacher was a year 1 and 2 teacher so she
taught Maths, English and SOSE but also did a lot of cross
curricular teaching so covered more than one learning area
in a lesson. Her overall role was of creating a safe and
productive learning environment in her classroom and she
did such a wonderful job of this. I observed her getting the
students to do some yoga moves in the morning to get the
blood flowing and into the brain. My mentor teacher also
contributed one day a week for 15 mins to quiet time, a
program that runs throughout the whole school everyday
for 20 mins and teaches children mindfulness. She is
actually a qualified childrens yoga teacher so I believe her
classroom reflects this and has a very holistic feel to it.
The week I was doing my professional experience was
Book week so there was a whole school dress up day and
parade. Our class also hosted an assembly so the mentor
teacher had to organise and do rehearsals for that
throughout the week.
The teachers role I observed included lots of lesson
preparation work, displays of students work around the
classroom, testing, marking and recording students results
during the week. I helped with all this too but the teacher
would normally do it all by herself and with some help from
EAs. It is the teachers responsibility to transition her class
to their different lessons and activities outside of her
classroom too. My mentor teacher and I also did a yard
duty every day and I observed her going to many staff
meetings throughout the week as well as parent meetings
about students.

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?

I observed a Stephanie Alexander cooking lesson, a sports

lesson, music lesson, science lesson, art lesson, library
and IT session during my time there so it was very
interesting and busy.
My mentor teacher discussed the workload she has
explaining that there is a lot of extra unpaid work she does
at home to be able to keep up with what her teaching roles,
responsibilities and expectations are.
She also mentioned that the Curriculum changes a lot so
that can also make it more challenging for teachers.
The current Government has made school funding cuts to
EAs and the time they can be in a classroom which puts a
strain on teachers and disadvantages the students that
need the extra support. Therefore this creates more
problems with educating students to be a certain standard
that Government is trying to achieve.
The standardised testing like NAPLAN creates more work
and pressure on teachers and students too because they
need to practise for these tests as well as keep up teaching
all the other Curriculum material. The results from these
tests and schools expectations can have an adverse effect
on childrens confidence too.
Unlike other schools I discussed with her, my mentor
teacher said that her school at times had so many extra
activities going on that it was hard to get what she needed
to teach done. In general our conversations around this
topic were about teachers being overworked and students
rushed to get through all they need to and what is expected
of them and she would like more time to just teach.

What did you observe non-teaching

staff doing to support teaching and
learning in the school?

I observed non teaching EA staff supporting the school

by taking small groups out to work, doing one on one
work with special needs students, testing students,
lesson preparation and generally helping out the
teachers with whatever they needed doing in the time
they had been allocated to that classroom.
The librarian also was very active in the school
community and had been running the quiet time program
for the last 8 years. She also got dressed up and helped
run the whole school book week parade which I was very
impressed with instead of being in the shadows as I have
seen in other schools.

Students
You will have observed the
diverse nature of your classes.
How was this diversity
supported?

The diversity was supported by IEPs for the special

needs students and the different behaviour management
strategies the teacher had in place. She had great positive
behaviour reward systems going with her money books,
yipees, bucket fillers and free play time incentives.
The school supports diversity too by having so many
different whole school programs going that cater for
different strengths in students like the gardening and
cooking program that they do once per fortnight and
having a totally allocated to science teacher and
classroom.
The quiet time across the whole school also reflects the
diversity being supported as this allows students to have
some mindfulness and quiet time in their day and to just
be still and chill which quite a few wouldnt be able to
achieve at home due to family life and technology.

Function of Schools
Did you observe the connection
of your schools with the broader
community? How did this
happen?

The Primary school has a very active P&C committee, they

get up at every assembly and talk about what they have
been doing and where the funds they have raised are going
to.
The school seemed to have a good sense of community
with lots of parents attending both the assembly and book
week parade that I went to.
Another program I observed was Tales of past and present
where elderly people from the community come in and talk
to the students about what it used to be like in the old days.
The Secondary school had a great sports carnival which
had quite a few parents coming to watch. There is also a
connection to the community through their senior campus
being shared with both a TAFE and University. The
students services team also has the wellbeing of their
students considered with connection to outside agencies.

What do you think the function

of school is?

I think the function of school is to educate children and

teach them some of the skills necessary to be capable and
contributing members of our society.
Observing for the 2 weeks definitely gives you a better
understanding of the roles and responsibilities of teachers
and schools.
They need to be safe learning environments as well as safe
havens for children at risk which is becoming so prevalent
in todays society.
Schools need to have connections to outside agencies and
support too as well as alternatives to mainstream education
to cater for the diversity of students.