TASK 2 (a)

CLASSROOM OBSERVATION CHECKLIST

Skill: Reading Class: Year 5 Teacher: Miss Caroline
* Consistency Scale
Nu
m.
1
2
3
4

Interpretation

Score

Never
Sometimes
Most of the time
All the time

(0)
(1-3)
(4-6)
(7-10)

A.
i.

Content
THEORY AND STRATEGY
The teacher gives clear instructions.

ii.

Teacher provides meaningful learning opportunities for students.

iii.

The transition role of teacher from transmittor of knowledge to

iv.

fasilitator/guide for the pupils.

The teacher is able to see when students are off task or chatting but

v.

doesnt reprimand the pupils.

The teacher repeats the instructions.

Scale
1
2

Comments (teaching video 4):

__________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
A. Justification Of Checklist-Topic (A)

I have chosen to design my classroom observation checklist starting with theory and
strategy, because in my opinion it is important to stick to the pedagogical theories
when refering to assess how the teacher is carrying out the activity. In my humble
opinion, it is very important to know whether the teacher is giving good and clarified
instruction, so to provide smoothness in the transition and flow of a lesson. The
teacher may or may not stick to one theory only, as it is up to the flexibility of the
teachers capabilities whether to use multiple theories and strategies available in the
study and research pedagogy. In short, the process of Teaching and Learning in the
classroom will be from smooth to draggy, depending on how the teacher impliment
the giving of the rules that is why I strongly believe we have to see from the point of
view of how the teacher impliment the use of theory and strategy through specific
items like giving instructions, and understanding as well as knowing her pupils.

B.
i.

LEARNING ENVIRONMENT
Seating of the pupils is positioned to maximize focus on task (group,

ii.

individual) and activities of the lesson.

Distractions are minimal in the instructions given by the teacher.

iii.

The lighting and airing of the class is optimal.

iv.

Guidance and knowledge is freely accessible to the pupils.

v.

The curiosity level of the pupils is high, natural and not forced. The

pupils freely ask questions to teacher when needed.

Comments (teaching video 4):

__________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
B. Justification Of Checklist-Topic (B)
I have chosen to design the second topic of my checklist with Learning Environment. I
believe that the learning environment plays a huge part in classroom management. I
also believe that in observing a classroom lesson, it is important to take into
consideration on how the pupils are seated, how the teacher involves her students in
terms of developing a great sense of learning is a fun and meaningful experience.
Other than that, it is in my humblest opinion that, the importance of having an optimal
physical setting really affects the overall classroom management, for instance the
better the airing and the lighting of the class, the more comfortable and ready the
pupils will be throughout the lesson.

C.
i.

MATERIALS AND RESOURCES

Teaching aids are useful for supplementing the teaching process but is

ii.

not replacing the teacher.

The visual of the letters used is big, bold, and appropriate for the pupils.

iii.

Adaptation or simplication of the teaching aids fits the background and

iv.

level of the pupils

The teaching aid provides a postive classroom discipline.

v.

The teaching aids develops the pupils observation skills.

Comments (teaching video 4):

__________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________
C. Justification Of Checklist-Topic (C)
I have chosen to design the third topic of my classroom observation checklist for
Materials and Resources. This is for me, the most important of all three topics I have
chosen, because I believe that how a teacher handles and manipulate her teaching
aids can either make her lesson or break her lesson. Other than that, in my opinion, it
is also important; as a good teaching aids will be able to provide good management
of the classroom lesson. In simple words, teaching aids attracts the pupils attention.
Thus, if we are able to attract the pupils attention, no doubts their focus will be on the
teacher teaching only. Any greatly handled and prepared teaching aids will be able to
drive towards completing and achieving any objectives that the lesson has.

TASK 2 (b) Report of the video

Report of Miss Carolines Classroom Lesson Recording

The video that I have chosen to observe is a Reading lesson conducted by a trainee
teacher, Miss Caroline. This lesson was for year 5 with the theme of world of knowledge. The
activity was to make a sandwich by following the instructions. There were moral values
integrated in the lesson that can be seen through observing the recorded lesson. Other than
that, there are also other factors that I decide to look into more which is the theory and
strategies used by the teacher, the learning environment used by the teacher, and also the
materials and resources used by the teacher.
The first thing that I look into the video is the theory and strategy used by the teacher.
In my observation I have stated that Miss Caroline uses Instructional Management.
According to Jacob Kounin (1977), In instructional management, one should be able to
manage a classroom by utilizing skills within discipline and instruction as one. For instances
Miss Caroline will first say, before we proceed, you need to listen to my instruction carefully.
Other than that, before giving any instructions the teacher made sure that all eyes were
focused on her. As I observe the video through the checklist I have designed, I have decided
to give full marks under giving clear and repeated instructions because, it is clearly seen that
the teachers instruction, is constantly repeated, simple and doesnt interrupt the lessons
transition and smoothness.
In spite of clarified instructions, there were still distractions that happened here and
there when the pupils starts to get too excited to start the activity. In order to control this
situation, the teacher executed a short attention grabber technique to get the pupils to be
focused and listen to the instructions.For example is when the teacher said Hello the pupils
should reply Hi or vise versa which for instance when the teacher said Hi the pupils must
answer with a Hello. Only if all of the pupils answered that the teacher will start giving her
attention because during that moment the pupils are focused towards her and surely during
that moment that they were listening intently, in my observation I give her full marks under
repeating instructions because she not only said her instructions repeatedly, she picks the
keywords of her instructions to keep guiding the pupils until it is obvious that all of the pupils
understands.
Another thing that I want to point out is that the teacher wash her hands first before
she proceed to handle the food. In here I believe she is demonstrating to the pupils that it is
important to take care of their hygiene when they are handling food to avoid food poisoning.
This is really good because the teacher is modelling good behavior towards the pupils, where
they are able to understand and immediately follow suit the instruction of the teacher to ask
them to go and wash their hands first before they are given the opportunity to handle the
sandwich making activity by themselves.

Other than that the teacher did not use any reprimanding or punitive methods.
Instead, the teacher corrects the mistakes made immediately by any pupils, for example is
the part in the video when a pupil wanted to go out from the class without permission. The
teacher calls him and ask him and all the other pupils about whether is it appropriate for
anyone to go out of the class with their own pleasure. Then the pupils immediately corrects
himself after apologizing and explains that he wanted to go to the toilet. In my honest
judgement, i have given a high score on this because the pupils are not restrained to be in
their best behavior yet they are still listening and most importantly learning from the teacher
very meaningfully because the lesson is no doubt extremely exciting for the pupils.
Grouping was not executed early but the teacher managed to do so gracefully as the
seating arrangements are already determined so in a way that the pupils are already
organized in groups, despite the small space that they have. The behaviour of individual is
controlled through the group dynamics where each group do the activity, making a sandwich
after they see for themselves how the teacher do it firstly. Other than that I also take into
consideration that each group have their leader and followers. Apart from that, the dividing of
the ingredients is done by the teacher. I give less marks here because in my opinion as a
suggestion, perhaps the teacher should divide the ingredients beforehand not only to save
time but to avoid the class to go noisy as it can take an ample amount of time.There were
some distractions, but constant repetition helps the teacher to deliver the instructions to all
the pupils.
Other than that is regarding the physical setting of the environment which I would
touch based on my observation which one of it is the seating of the pupils. In my humble
opinion, the seatings according to my observation on the video of the teaching, suits the
group activity of the lesson. The teacher could do group management with no time and this
saves her time to continue the lesson smoothly and with minimal disruption. According to my
own observation too, i noticed that the class have lots of windows, the curtains were put up,
and the light streams into the class giving a nice environment for the pupils to be ready to
learn any lesson of the day. According to Altman (1992), it is an advantage to have a
prospestorously comfortable environment for the pupils so that the facilitation of the teaching
and learning process can go through smoothly and professionally. it is important to have a
nice environment, which is comfortable for the pupils with the right amount of lighting and the
positioning that helps them to get a maximum learniing experience and help in the easing of
classroom control for the teacher.
Moving on, I would also like to touch on my observation of the teaching aids used by
the teacher. The teacher in this video uses realia of real ingredients associated with the topic

that she was teaching. She was using the ingredients to make sandwiches. The pupils were
clearly really excited by this fact and they were really focused on what is coming up next.
Their eyes were on the teacher and they were overjoyed by the fact that they themselves will
be able to make their own sandwiches. Theoritically there is a theory that supports the usage
of teaching aids. This theory is called connectivism. According to this theory, learning occurs
in terms of association. It is like connecting two things together. In fact the more use of aids
will give the pupils more exposure on some linguistic terms. In my humble opinion the
importance of teaching aids is associated to classroom control this is because, the more
curious and eager a pupil is, the more focused and more eager to listen a pupil will
eventually be.
The teacher is also using pre written questions for her to use, which is really good in
my opinion. Not only this saves time but also helps in going to her lesson smoothly. She also
uses A4 pictures that is laminated and can be seen by all the pupils no matter where they are
sitting. The teacher also uses sentence strips where she uses it to introduce the ingredients
that she uses in making a sandwich. In my humble opinion, the teaching aids she uses
provides a positive classroom discipline where the pupils listen not because they were
punishment motivated but motivated through genuine interest and curiosity. What i noticed is
also that the visual of the letters used are big, bold, and appropriate for the pupils, the
teacher also implimented the use of cursive writing to be used in some of her handwritten
teaching aids.
Basically the video that I have observed can still be improved in terms of classroom
management, but in my humble opinion the learning that takes place amongst the pupils in
the video is already maximize, and the teacher moves in a calm and situated manner that
she doesnt need to reprimand her pupils because she has her strategies to control the
classroom through group dynamics, negative reinforcement and also instructional
management. Last but not least, teaching should not be objective at all times, it should be a
subjective as well as a flexible thing that the teacher can mould towards her pupils level and
interests.

TASK 3 Reflection

For the TSL 3093, we are required to design a classroom observational checklist of
our own where we are asked to use that checklist and make a report based on the video that
we chose to observed. Other than that, we are also required to write a report based on our
observation and also a reflection for all of the tasks given.
First and foremost, when i first got this assignment from the subject lecturer I was
undeniably taken in clueless. But then, after collaborating with the lecturer and also with the
help of my classmates I was able to understand the assignment and how to be on the right
track.
During the completing of the assignment, I have resolved to many resources, books ,
internet and also seek the guidance of my fellow classmates who provided me with enough
facilitation to help me be on the right track and use the correct information in the correct way.
After the completing of this assignment I really felt as though I am satisfied because, i
really think that this time I really did try to give my best, and use all original words than
previous assignments from previous semesters.What i have improved from the last
assignment from last semester, is that the design of how i complete my assignment.
What i have learnt, is that I still need to improve on my time and schedule
management. To be honest, I have quite a struggle balancing my assignment because of
multiple tasks in the background as a teacher trainee. Though I am stressed, I also learned
that in midst of stress, I can still learn to be calm and try to do my best in spite of the time
running out.
What i want to improve in the future is that I will try to be more focused on tasks that
have more marks and I believe that I will be able to do that in the future because marks is
important to give me a certain grade that will mirror my achievement as a whole in this
teaching profesion.

References

Altman, I. (1992), A Transactional Perspective on Transitions to New Environments, in

Environment and Behavior, Vol. 24, Issue 2, pp. 268-280.

Kounin, J.S. (1977). Discipline and Group Management in Classrooms. Krieger Publishing
Company.

Siemens, G. (2005) Connectivism theory. International journal of teaching aids. 2(1), 3-10.