Observation Sheet Questioning

(Please complete this form for both primary and secondary professional
experiences and place in your ePortfolio)
Graduate Standards - AITSL
Professional Knowledge:
learn
Professional Practice:
2.
teaching and learning

1. Know students and how they

Plan

and

implement

effective

Question Type
The question I set for students during my primary
Do you feel your
prac was very easy and straight to the point. And
questions were
students could share their experiences relating to the
clearly structured and
readily understood by questions I have asked the students.
the students?

Yes, I used a variety of question for the students to

Did you use a variety make sure they understood exactly what the task
of question types?
was. I gave students questions about their life
experiences and also asking them why they choose
that particular question and what exactly they
understood from what I have been teaching them. I
used a variety of convergent (closed), divergent
(open) and evaluative (judgements). The purpose
why I chose those type of questions is to ensure that
my students get a better understanding of what is
being asked from them. However, I also took good
use of open questions to get a wide range of
different responses from my learners. For example
for my divergent question I asked what words do
you think the character of the book learnt by looking

What balances was

there between the
various questions
types?

Consider both why

and when you made
use of the different
question types?

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at the pictures she drew to represent the words.

The balance between the different question types
were that I used more divergent questions types in
the classroom rather than convergent question for
my whole classroom as it gave me different
responses from students when I asked them
questions. However it was different in my small
group lesson as I balanced out convergent and
evaluate as the questions I asked my students were
straight forward and to the point as it didnt give
students time to think as they didnt need to for my
set of questions.
I made use of the different questions because I
personally thought if I ask different questions it
gives other students who dont know what their
supposed to do an idea and bring more thoughts in
their mind. I used different question throughout my
explanation of the task, making sure the students are
on the same page as me.

Distributing and Directing Questions

Did you recognise
any pattern in the
distribution of your
questions amongst
the students?
Consider reasons for
this pattern?

How have you

directed questions to
the group?

Have you used wait

time?

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Yes, I did recognise a pattern in the distribution of

my questions with my students. For example I had a
set of questions that included how, who, why and
what to get a wide range of different responses from
the students and disturbed it all in a even manner
for all my students.

I directed my questions to the group in a very well

manner as I firstly assisted all my students to be
nicely seated on the mat listening to the next
instructions very quietly, I discussed the importance
of keeping quite whilst giving out instructions and
listening carefully as students do not disturb the
ones who are willing to learn. Whilst asking
students questions I waited for the students to put
their hand up and asked them directly and asked
divergent and convergent types of questions for the
students.
I have used the wait time when I realised students
were getting off task or were not listening I paused
and waited until I got their attention. Especially
when I was doing my whole group lesson I waited
approximately 2-4 minutes to get my students
responses when asking my students my set of
questions I would say the question and wait for
their responses. However I also asked the students
one question at a time to make sure I am not
confusing my students and asking the right
questions at the right time.
Yes, I made eye contact to the students whilst asking

Did you make eye

them questions making sure they dont feel
contact with the group uncomfortable or ignored whilst answering my
as you directed your
questions. As eye contact shows respect, interest
questions?
appreciation and understanding. During my small
group lesson I gave my students eye contact and
chance for all students to answer the set of question
I have asked and I made sure I was listening to the
students reponse.
Reactions to Students Responses
Yes, I praise the students by their name
How do you deal with acknowledging them in front of the whole class, so
correct responses?
the students feels very good about themselves for
Do you qualify any
answering the question right encouraging them and
praise given?
the rest of the class to not feel shy to answer
questions.
I deal with incorrect responses by saying thats not
How do you deal with the exact answer I wanted but thats a good
incorrect responses?
response, do you know of any other? and coming
How do you deal with
students who stumble back to that particular student after I have given the
other students a try. I also restructured the
and grope for an
answer?
questions for the student for the student to get a
better understanding and reassuring the students
that they are getting to the correct answer and
helped direct the student to the answer needed by
using different question such as divergent and
convergent questions however, I used more
convergent questions for the student.

The use I make from the students Reponses to

What use do you
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make of the students

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

Are you the only

evaluator of the
students answers?

Overall Comments

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develop my teaching point it was important to

redirect questions making sure you are motivating
and involving your students to be more effective in
the classroom. However, it also encourages students
to understand better as you a redirecting the
question and it is important to use different types of
questions such as convergent and divergent to
redirect students if they need help with their
Reponses to the questions. Redirecting a question to
another student helps them understand the task
better and can relate to it in their own
understanding of what has been given to them to
do.
Yes, I was the only evaluator of the class as I was the
teacher that was in control of the classroom whilst
the original teacher was busy observing me,
although throughout the week me and my mentor
walked around the classroom and responded to the
question students had that was related to their task
at that time.

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 Yes, as I my first lesson plan was a small group
effective for
literature task, as I had six students and we read a
managing the class?
story as a group and answered a set of question
during the given time period and it was really well
e.g. How did the
students react to your managed. However, during my whole class lesson it
lesson overall and to was planned really well, everything went according
your planned
to my planed timing, as I read a story that related to
activities?
my life and asked students a set of question during
the lesson and gave students a task to write
Did anything
unexpected happen? sentences, draw and colour in. Which gave students
quite awhile to finish that particular task. I also
Did you provide a
planned my task like that particular for the students
variety of activities?
who tend to finish their work earlier than the others.
Surprisingly, nothing unexpected happen which
Were you satisfied
with your timing,
made me very happy and satisfied with my
particularly for the
planning. Although I did not have to change
end of the lesson?
anything during the lesson as everything went
Did you feel you were exactly the way I planned my task to go.
able to change things
if needed?
Were you aware of
classroom
procedures and
school disciplinary

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Yes, I was aware about the classroom rules but I had

a precise idea about the school disciplinary policy as
they related much to the set of rules students had in
their class. However, I knew my students well but

policy? How much

did you know about
your students?

not as well as teacher let me know which students

were her weak ones and which one was the brighter
students, which made things easier for me
throughout my lesson as it gave me a quite a good
idea on which students to pay more attention to
throughout my task.

How did your mentor

teacher maintain a
safe learning
environment?
What strategies did
My mentor maintained the classroom in a safe
your observe your
mentor teacher using learning environment as she had tasks that were
suitable for all her students as well as she helped
to maintain this?
and encouraged her weaker students to finish their
work at the designated time. Also catered for both
weak and high achieving students. My mentor made
it safe for students who have a non-English feel safe
and understood in the classroom and was not left
out and made sure all students from different
countries were all treated the same.
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.

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I demonstrated to my students that I valued my

practical and I showed them passion in teaching
them and learning to be a better teacher for my
students. I also showed respect, love, caring and
acceptance. I told all my students that everybody is
different and beautiful in their own way and
everybody learns different and we are a classroom
full of people from different countries and religion
and we need to respect and love each other for who
they are not because of what colour or where their
from. When speaking to my students I gave them
eye contact making sure they know I am interested
and listening and responding to all their questions

and I showed everything through my body posture

by giving eye contact, nodding, and asking question
making sure they understood and are not confused.
Every time I spoke to the students I made sure I
approached them in a nice and positive way with a
calm tone of voice and when I student was
misbehaving I made sure I did not yell, instead I
spoke to them nicely and told them not to do it
again and dealing with it in a nice manner. My
facial expression communicated words and made
sure I had a smile on my face at all times.

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.

The aspects of my teaching style helped maintain

the classs attention by asking the students a set of
question of what they think the task may be amount
and putting up some keywords and asking them If
they know what they mean. I questioned my
learners to gain all their attention. I personally
believe questioning skills engage with the students
learning with their verbal interactions.

Did the students know Yes, the students were pretty aware of what was
what was expected of
expected from them as they shared what they
them?
understood and were very excited to go back to
their seats to start their task, as it was a really

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interesting. As the task was to write about what

makes them feel safe, which was pretty straight
forward for the students as they already know what
to do as it relates them.

Were you able to

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

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Yes, the students had enough of work to do

throughout the lesson and they were very energetic
and were excited to fill in their security blanket and
some of the students love drawing and colouring, as
some of them were very artistic. Although I had to
keep an eye on the students who tend to zone out
and stop doing their work. I made sure everybody
was into the task and were working quietly.

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?

Did you take any

action when you
observed poor
behaviour? Why?
Why not?

Did you use non-

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Yes, I was aware of everything that was happening

In the classroom as I walked around the classroom,
making sure each student was doing their work and
they wont slacking off. I observed around the
classroom and picked on the student who wasnt
getting much done and helped them understand on
what I wanted them to do. I also instructed the
students to do their work in a silent environment
making sure all students were quietly doing their
work.

No, I did not have any poor behaviour students as

they were all on the task, however I had a table of
students that were talking and moving around was
disrupting the rest of the class and I gave them a
warning. Although the students who were behaving
all got faction points for their good behaviour
praising them. That encouraged other students to
work hard and try their best to achieve a faction
point.

Yes, I did use non-verbal cues for example gestures,

contact, pause and movement towards the students

verbal cues? e.g.

Contact, pause,
gesture, movement
toward student/s
concerned.

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who was not behaving or getting off the task.

However I paused and gave the students time to
think about what their doing wrong and what they
are supposed to be doing and if I saw a student
going off the task I stood near them and I
automatically got a response from them and they
continued to do their work.

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 a multicultural environment

there are students from all different parts of
the world, different skin colours and believe in
different religions. The association primary
consist of all parents and guardians of the
students. It is a really big school with lots of
high and low colourful buildings. The school
contains a extra Japanese class for all
students to attend and learn a lot about the
Japanese cultures.

What were the roles and

responsibilities of the
teaching staff you
observed?

The roles and responsibilities of the teaching

staff that I observed was that teachers were
all either in charged of a class and they all
had a year coordinator and there would be a
music, Japanese and library coordinators who
as the head of their department and also
teach and prepare the work being taught to
the students. Teachers had responsibility in
their classroom by interacting with parents,
preparing for lessons, prepare homework and
as well as getting students ready for naplan.
They work to improve students learning and
understanding skills, also making sure
students interact In the classroom effectively.
There was also teaching assistance to help
support students whos learning was poor
especially in literacy and numeracy.

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What did you observe nonteaching staff doing to

support teaching and
learning in the school?

Parents were part of the school they take

part in helping out in the school book store
as well as volunteering to help out at the
canteen during the week. Parents also help
out in the classroom as volunteer work. They
are there to help assist the teachers with
ways to improve their childs learning

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

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Diversity was practised throughout the school

and everyone was treated equal and it was
encouraged in the classroom. Students were
also taught to embrace diversity. However,
students were not in groups due to their
colour of their skin or where they come from,
they were all multicultural mixed. Students
were all friends and accepted their
classmates from where they come from and
respected each others beliefs. Teacher also
catered for all the students needs, for the
students who have non English speaking
background , she made sure she helped and
catered for their learning.

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

What do you think the

function of school is?

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Yes, parents came and took part and

supported students during book week and
helped their child dress in a costume to a
particular book and put a lot of work after
hours. Parents came and supported students
during assemblies on Fridays and have a tight
connection with the school.

The school I attended was a Independent

Public School Board's role is to provide strategic
guidance and monitoring of the
schools performance. It supports the school in
increasing effective autonomy and flexibility to
further improve the quality of the whole school
program. Parents staff and work together to
ensure that each child grows intellectually,
emotionally, socially and physically. Children
from Kindy to Year 6 are offered a
comprehensive, stimulating and challenging
curriculum. Students are encouraged to become
confident, independent, collaborative learners
who develop at their own individual learning
level.