Observation Log

Student Name:Nilufar Fatih

 Description of Activities (Include school name, teacher’s name, grade level,
subject, and activities observed – what was teacher doing, what were students
doing?)
I observed a Biology class and an English class at HS Ingenuity.
In English class, Ms. Walker was teaching a group of students preparing to take
the STAAR test. The class wa from 8:30-11:30. Usually there are about 5-7
students. However, today there were two students.
The students had their report with their scores on it which they looked at and
identified the need areas for different students.
The teacher plans and taught her class based on individual student needs, which
are data driven. For instance, the particular student showed weakness in writing
essays, so they were focusing on that. The student had been taught various ways
about Introduction , body paragraphs and the conclusion. However, that did not
seem enough so Ms.Walker looked for other ways to improve the students
knowledge and skill. In her search through Facebook discussion with her teacher
friends about possible effective strategies yesterday, she learned about the ROSE
method, which she introduced today.
R- Read Example (in a book, magazine, news article, blog)
O-Observation example (in History)
S-Seen in real life example (in a movie, television show, real life)
E-Experienced example (a personal account)
In the middle, Topic/Thesis is written.
Observation
First student had to be introduced about this method, which the student liked a
lot more than the previous methods they had used. And then after familiarizing
the student on this method, teacher allowed student to apply her knowledge and
then explain her finding on the board to the audience comprised of another
student and two teachers.
“Student is finding information in her body paragraph that will help her create a
thesis with a more realistic thesis” (teacher is explaining to another student as
the first student is working on the board indepedently).

The theme is Dream Big or Be Realistic

Student was a little shy and the teacher motivated her by encouraging that she
got it and if she can teach, then she has learned it. The student then took her
time to write out her notes on the Rose chart and explained her points by
connecting it to her IBBC which she had already written out on a big chart paper,
but transferred on the board for audience.
The students used the ROSE chart to explain her point by putting information on
each letter for brainstorming. The student afterwards picked two topics to add to
her outline. The student picked her O and E. The student used an IBBC model

I: Intro:

B: Body Paragraph 1
 B: Body Paragraph 2

C: Conclusion: Counter argument, (Some may argue that it is better to be realistic

than dream big, restate thesis, and then call to action)

After the student was done explaining her thesis by supporting with wat she had
had experienced and seen, the teacher joined the student to discuss on how the
conclusion would be argued against, and how she could respond, etc.

What did you learn from this experience? How will you use or adapt what you
observed in your classroom?
Well, I learned that English requires a lot more patience from both the student
and the teacher, as it requires student to be able to understand and, analyze and
express themselves in the best way possible in a coherent writing. And I think I
could apply this to science also of course, by giving them more time to read and
digest the information. In my classes, we usually go a little faster due to lack of
time. There are other factors such as number of students which is a lot smaller in
summer, therefore less class management issues, and there is more opportunity
for this type individualized student-teacher interaction.
Moreover, for this class, the teacher had to have a lot of control on how to guide
the student because it is very easy for student to digress, but the teacher had to
make sure that they follow the goal by having Student report out in front of
them. I think this was very important and convenient, because it helped student
feel more accountable for her work. So for instnance on their essays, students
had received different point-scores for understanding/analysis across generes,
literary texts, informational texts, composition, revision, and editing. This means
Reflection that students were aware of what they knew what they needed to improve on.
However, it was obvious to see how much effort the teacher had put in knowing
the student, searching and finding the appropriate strategies to help them
succeed.
For instance, in order to pull out the students report in this and for multiple
choice question, she used Eduphoria to pull out Incorrect response report euther
by questions or learning standards. Ms. Walker had used by questions where the
Eduphoria groups the students who missed the same questions and the teacher
can see what answer choice commonly mistaken for a correct answer and clarify
the misunderstanding.
The teacher had a lot of tool around her facilitate the class smoothly. For
instance, she constantly had her Google docs with resources she found necessary
as they proceeded. Also, she had the Coachbook to revise and edit the data. She
also would refer students to Google classroom and the teacher recorded videos
on OBS Studio. The Google classrrom helped to hold a flip classroom and they
collaborated with students to learn. I found OBS studio pretty interesting and I
figured it must have taken some effort from her to learn and implement in her
instructions. She did explain that she actually worked one of the 10th grade
 students who taught her how to use this technology where she recorded her
desktop and herself to have extra resources available for students who needed. I
have not tried this, but I think I will have to maximize the time.
Since Ms. Walker had to design her instruction based on the data, it was
necessary for her to have a Data chart. She has made a PIE chart on Excell Data.
So, by looking at the colors, she can determine which students and questions she
needs to attend first or focus more, etc. This was very impressive as it kept her
pretty organized. Of course, it apparently took a lot of practice to adopt these
techniques.

For the Essay resources she had provided the students, she has used a table with
resources such as video and she also hyperlinked to transcripts. For video, in
order to restrict students only to what is relevant, she has hyperlinked the start
time ( which she actually showed me) and she added a stop time. I found this
very useful, because some videos are so long that students can easily get
distracted while watching. She guided very precisely based on the focused topics.

Attaching all the worksheets and pictures below. The signature is also on the
picture.

Student Signature___Nilufar ___ Date___6/21/2018______

Teacher Signature ___Ms. Walker Date_6__/__21_/2018__

(Signature is in the page below)

Ms. Walker’s Signature is in the page above.

The following are the worksheets the teacher used for students and for herself to teach the class.
A description is provided for how to prepare this Pie Chart.
An example of the hyperlinked transcript.
 Biology, 9th grade at HS Ingenuity taught by Ms. Turk was observed. Did not get
her signature due to summer, but providing her contact information
aturk@harmonytx.org

My visit was to a fellow Biology Teacher’s classroom for observation.

1-What was/were the learning objectives/outcomes of the lesson?

Identify the seven characteristics of life to determine if an object is living or
nonliving

Identify and define the levels of organization in ecology that include: species,
populations, communities, ecosystems, and biomes

Recognize that ecosystems need energy

Differentiate a food chain from a food web

Construct a model of a food web of a given community

Use arrows to show the direction of nutrient flow and labels to identify the role
of producers, consumers, decomposers, detritivores, and saprophytes
2-How did the teacher begin and end the lesson?

Began the class with Warm-up

Observation
Video: Star Trek Season1, EP 17, 18:49-22:00 min. & 25:52-27:00 min.

Engage: Sorting the level of organization cups from smallest to largest one

Ended the class:

Closure/Homework: Lesson review and method of daily lesson evaluation by
assigning Reading Science Quiz. (3-5 minutes)

3-What did the teacher use for teaching materials or instructional

aids/equipment?

Computer with internet access for the instructor, individual Chromebook

for students to take the Reading Science Quiz at the end, the papers with
printed terms with pictures for the corner activity, cups with the labels of
organization of life and the organization of life PowerPoint. Projector,

The class started with a combination of integration of technology, questioning,

and inquiry. Then teacher continued on with a 5-10 minutes lecture, continued
with cooperative and inquire based activities as well as independent work.
After showing the Start trek video, the teacher initiated some open
ended questions to get students thinking and sharing their ideas, and went
on with a warm up activity that required some informal and formative
assessments through various activities. The teacher also
incorporated content based feedbacks as the students were working and
ended with a reading quiz.
Teacher uses handouts and class discussions to assess student understand
as she has been actively monitoring.
The teacher has a set class procedure where students are not allowed to
use the restroom first and last 15 minutes of the class. Students have
assigned seats. Students have bins assigned to them and they leave the
deliverables in those bins by the door and the teacher does not have to
deal with until the end of the class where she empties the bins and leaves
empty for the next class. Students seem to be aware of when to talk and
share their opinion and not to disrupt their teacher. The class is about 30
people, so to avoid traffic and distractions, teacher wants the students to
be at their seats unless needed for corner activities, but to throw away
trash which they keep at the side of their desks till the end of the class.
Teacher has no food and no personal technology policy as well.
Students had their work ready to be picked up at the beginning of the class
and sit down and start the work. After some independent and
collaborative work, teacher’s observation , she clarifies some
misunderstandings by making analogies, and reiterates the task.
The teacher also takes action right away on giving feedback. She contacts
parents on specific parent awareness cases.
The teacher had both verbal and non-verbal communications with the
students. For instance, she would ask question to the whole class, and
would give feedback or add a question to the response given. Sometimes
the teacher would use motion by actively monitoring as I mentioned
earlier to make sure that students were on task and of course time was
one the main ones also to guide the students and control the pacing of the
class.

The students were a group of 9th grade students predominantly African-

American and Hispanic, about 2 Asian students. The students were
somewhat motivated; some participated more than the others for
answering questions, but as for group activities all the students showed
some effort by correcting each other and questioning each other.
Proportion of girls to boys is the 50/50 and the size of the class about 20
students.
The students seem to get along with each other. Academic and
interpersonal skill of the students are obvious. Some students
working really hard independently and seem to be very focused. There are
some other students that do occasionally talk and discuss the question.
 Some groups very well. All students are participating and some are going
beyond by discussing and encouraging their classmates to complete their
work as well.

Having activities, worksheets were more effective for this group of

students to be engaged, but class discussions at the time is not as engaging
because students are a little intimidated to speak up their opinion possibly
due to peer pressure.
Students are clear about the expectations. They are working individually
with a set time. There are consequences for students disturbing the
students. The teacher is monitoring students at all times.

Even though most of the students were trying to catch up or just wait for
instructions, there were some students that looked a little unmotivated or more
like they are tired due to lack of sleep or maybe they did not a chance to eat
breakfast. The teacher checks with them how the activity was going or if they had
any questions by coming closer to their desks. And sometimes, as the teacher
goes around the students just gets back to work.

The teacher set her standards high for students to achieve. The teacher believes
in the student centered and progressive style of teaching. And she also believes
that students are not functioning at the expected level.
I learned that a teacher has to keep trying even if they know that students are not
so motivated until they can achieve their purpose. Also they can look for
professional suggestions from their colleagues and instructional coaches to
improve the instructions.

It seemed students want that one to one attention, because they did seem to get
involved and participate when they teacher was talking to them individually. So,
maybe a reward system could help.

Reflection First of all the teacher is very well prepared and has a high knowledge of
the content and as for strategies
1. she has prepared and incorporated hands on activities that
requires group work
2. The teacher promotes independent learning by allowing students
to complete handouts and online quizzes using Schoology.com

Managing and being consistent with the class procedure (assigned seats, and the
order of the activity)and keeping track of time for each task were two of the
important tasks that I observed.
The teacher states that she has taught the same course for the past 6 years so
she can distinguish the effective activities. Also, the teacher ketpt a lot of the
strategies in an organized fashion in incorporate as needed similar to what Ms.
 Walker had. I think that is something I work on as well. The teacher had also a lot
of online resources such as videos, games and reading materials that she had
included in her Schoology resources for her students.

Student Signature___Nilufar ___ Date___6/21/2018______

Teacher _Ms. Turk__Contact information: aturk@harmonytx.org Date 10/8/2017 (9:30AM-11:05 AM)

The teacher is on vacation unfortunately, therefore her contact information is provided instead.