Interview Protocol

Teacher
Interviewer: Jonne Miley
Interviewee: Qiana Robinson
Date: 3-16-16
Time: 3:30-4:15
(These are sample questions. Please add your own questions to learn more about your specific
classroom. This interview should take place in your initial meeting, prior to the two week intensive).
Planning Questions:

How do you write a typical lesson plan?

I look at the data from the latest assessment, compare it to the common core standards I
need to teach, get my materials together, then I make an outline. I often make my lessons
online and allow the students to learn individually through blendspace, blackboard, and other
websites.

What types of materials do you need available when you plan lessons?
I need to have access to a computer, old tests/data, textbooks, and CCSS.

In what ways do you plan to accommodate individual differences in the classroom?

My classes are grouped by ability. I read more to one class and have heavier instruction. With
their online modules, the lower ability group is also allowed to listen to materials sometimes
rather than just read it.
Instructional Questions:

What are some of your instructional challenges as a teacher?

Lack of time, materials, sleep, and help have all been instructional challenges.

What have been some of your instructional successes as a teacher?

When a lesson goes exactly as planned, which is rare, I consider it a great success. It is also a
success when students finally get a concept that you have been trying to make them
understand for a while.

What do you consider essential characteristics for successful teaching?

Flexibility and time management are the two most important things a teacher should have in
my opinion.

How often do your students receive social studies/science instruction?

Students receive science instruction every day because it is on the 5th grade EOG. Social studies
is integrated into the reading and language arts instruction blocks.

Are you satisfied with the amount of time that you currently allot for social studies/science
instruction? Explain.
I am satisfied with the amount of science instruction my students are receiving. I am not
satisfied with the amount of social studies. We do not even receive a teachers manual on
social studies instruction. It is difficult to integrate, and even when it is integrated well, it is
still not an adequate amount of instruction.

What social studies and science topics/units will be studied during the second week of my
clinical experience? What are possible goals/objectives I could address for my lessons? Do
you have any instructional resources that would support these goals/objectives?

In social studies, we will be reading historical fiction. You can do a lesson on the Holocaust by
reading the book Rose Blanche. In science, they are working on cells and systems of the body.

What does reading instruction look like in your classroom (e.g. readers workshop, basals,
etc.)?
What reading topics will be studied during the 2nd week of my clinical experience? What are
possible goals/objectives I could address for my reading lesson? Do you have any
instructional resources that would support these goals/objectives?
Our school focuses intensely on the close reading method, in which you read a passage three
times and do a different activity with it each time. Most days in ELA, I read a story to the kids
on the carpet, teach a minilesson, send them to do something online that goes with the
minilesson. You should do the Holocaust and focus on making inferences with Rose Blanche.
Here is a copy of the book.

Classroom Management Questions:

What motivation tactics do you use to ensure a desire to learn?

I bribe them sometimes with candy or extra recess.

Tell me about the classroom community.

What are the class rules? How is student behavior

monitored? In what ways is positive behavior reinforced? In what ways are negative
behaviors prevented? Tell me about the consequences for negative behavior.
Our class rules are the 7 habits, which is their behavior chart. Each student gets a clip with
their name on it. They all start at the middle on green. With good behavior they can move up
to blue or purple. With misbehavior, they move down to yellow, orange, and finally red which
merits a call to home. Good behavior is reinforced with a celebration at the end of two weeks,
and bad behavior is prevented by the way we seat and split our classes up, and the line order
is alphabetical.

Tell me about the pacing of lessons and interaction in the classroom- use of time- and other
aspects of timewait time, and time using teacher talk and student talk. What works well
with your students?
I usually do short lessons so that most of the class time is taken up with guided practice. When
I teach I like to give the students a chance to think and talk. While I read to them, I take breaks
so that they can tell each other predictions and their relations to the story. This, group work,
and having them work individually while on the computers works best for my talkative group
of students.