Observations

Observations are a great opportunity for reflection and to get feedback on ones practise. I am lucky enough to have my team and deputy principal to come into my room three or four times a term to look at my practise and to give me feedback.
Moving forward I would like to have more opportunities to go into other classes to get the chance to see great teachers in action and look to see how their teaching style could help me develop my own. I have attached a sample of an observation.

TEMPLATE - PLEASE COPY AND THEN PASTE BELOW

Andrew Doyle -  Registered Classroom Teacher

Date: 22 August 2017

Name (observer): Amy and Michael

Focus (negotiated from goals, TAI [Clarity in the classroom] and passed observations): 1. Students - What is the focus for these students? Why has this learning been chosen? What evidence (data, teacher observation, self and peer assessment, student reflections) has informed this? To be able to generate questions that will prompt an inquiry and interest. To encourage an inquiry model. I still think they have problems generating questions so I want to model and support how this might look. 2. Teacher - What particular aspect of practice are you working on? Implementing an inquiry based practise in my classroom. 3. Observer - What is the evidence the observer and you would hope to see and hear from your students? What would you like the observer to focus on and support you with? Children can create questions that will prompt an investigation.

What was seen:   Key Idea for the Lesson: - create questions that prompt an investigation Problem/ Context/ Purpose for learning: - to support inquiry on structures Equipment/materials used to support lesson: - Images on TV - You tube Description of lesson: WALT shared with class- create questions that prompt an investigation Teacher identify 4 categories that could be explored: Historical, Cultural/Religion, Functional, Design Students ask to share their thoughts - what do we need to do to support our learning - famous structures. (Whole class focus) Clear instructions given First I would like you to notice things about the structure. Students ask to share what they notice about the structure - teacher write responses down on the board. Teacher asks for more specific features to students comment about the colour of the building Teacher used questions to find out about the statue from Meg. Teacher stated that this is an example of using questions to find information. Teacher talked about using questions and asked students for examples of what they may ask. Students provided many examples of simple questions, e.g. How old is it? Teacher referenced that questions were mostly for small short answers. A new image was introduced of the same statue. Students started identifying more specific information. Teacher used questioning to draw deeper observations from the image. Teacher made example from Grace’s example; I am not sure why… Teacher mentioned a great example of a question to ask. Teacher refers back to the list created on what the students notice and model how questions can be asks/generated from this list. The deeper that the discussion went the more rich the questions became Deliberate acts of teaching: (e.g.Modelling, Prompting, Questioning, Feedback/ feedforward, Telling, Explaining, and Directing) Questioning - to facilitate discussion Visual model - to inspire discussion Talk moves - teacher selects a range of students to respond but also asks for students to add on at times. Modelling - used questions to draw answers from Meg and then referred to this as a model for questioning. Praise - praised students for using prior knowledge, e.g. Meg with her experience of visiting it, and Grace with her previous learning Books- Rikki-Lee- Inquiry big book- Set out well. Teacher marked- positive comments. Archie- Inquiry big book- Teacher feedback given. Some work not completed.

Student Voice: I was not able to ask today as students completely engaged in discussion Who decided on what you were to learn today? What part did you decide? What were you learning today? Why were you learning that? How will it help you (what purpose did it have)? How will you know that you are successful or have succeeded? When you find something difficult what do you do about it? Name: Name: Name:

Teacher Reflection 1. How do you think the lesson went today? What went well/not so well? Why did this happen? Went well. Class were really engaged. Good use of images and videos and I had the knowledge to allow for a deeper understanding of the issues and symbolism. 2. What messages did you give your students about learning? What decisions do you students make about their learning? The world is amazing and full of interesting things. I’d like to think I encouraged deeper thinking that even things that may be perceived as simple can have great depth like the colour of the statue or the numbers on the tablet. Hopefully this will prompt them to look at things in detail and independently choose the aspect that they want to find out about. They can also choose whatever landmark they want to investigate and the path that investigation takes. 3. What did you want your students to learn in that lesson? Why did you choose that learning? How do you know that it was successful? Questions beget questions. A good question is at the heart of a good inquiry. It was successful because questions flowed and interest was apparent but the real test is if they can do it with less support. 4. Which exemplars and resources were most effective/ not so effective for this learning? Why? Images, youtube clip. Effective because they showed the size and features very good for making noticings. Video entertaining, relevant and engaging. 5. As the lesson progressed, how did you assess student needs? How did you involve the students in this assessment? By asking a variety of questions. They drove the questions and answers I was the facilatator 6. What will you do differently next time? What will the students do differently? It was quite teacher led but I think it needed to be. Did we need to log our questions or would this lose the rhythm of the lesson?

Observed Strengths: Students were completed engaged in your lesson.

Coaching:

Matters to discuss (deeper questions to discuss in follow up meeting): What are you planning to use the front section of your big books for? I don’t know. I don’t think I am going to use them for timetables. I know that goal setting is important and I know that I am not driving this so I need to ask myself why am I not and what do I need to do regarding goal setting.

Date of follow up meeting: Actions to follow up on: