Observation Sheet Questioning

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

1. Know students and how they learn

2. Plan and implement effective teaching and

Question Type
Do you feel your questions
were clearly structured
and readily understood by
the students?

I felt like my questions were easily understandable as I made

sure to try and structure them well, yet after introducing the
topic I mainly asked the questions that needed to be asked.
When students were struggling in a particular area I would ask
questions in a step-by-step process, to almost help the students
lead themselves through the activity. An example is on a
mapping activity when I asked questions like why would we
travel in this direction? What direction are we traveling in? And
on what street are we traveling? This was done to help the
students relies the questions they should be asking themselves
when doing the activity.

Did you use a variety of

question types?

I mainly used convergent and divergent questions to keep the

lesson flowing quickly in order to manage time; only at the end
did I ask evaluative questions to open the topic up a little more
and to cement the knowledge in the students minds.

What balances was there

between the various
questions types?

Some questions I got the whole class to respond, others were

aimed more at individual students, my main aim was to
encourage students to actively try and put effort into solving the
problems I had presented in the activity sheet and on the board.

Consider both why and

when you made use of the
different question types?

I mainly used convergent and divergent questions to keep the

lesson flowing at the start to save time and get the students
thinking about the topic clearly in order to avoid confusion.
Although towards the end I used evaluation questions to make
the students think more about the topic and to open up more of
a general discussion to finish the lesson.

Distributing and Directing Questions

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

I found that my eye kept going to those whos hands shot

straight up to answer questions and I think I did picked a few
kids 2 or 3 times but I eventually found my rhythm and made
sure the majority of the class had an opportunity to answer
questions and share their thoughts on the topic.

How have you directed

questions to the group?

I made sure to be clear to students to raise their hands to

answer a question and at times I encouraged the whole group to
answer questions together, to encourage the students to work
as a group to solve the problems presented.

Have you used wait

time?

I found that wait time works most of the time as it gets students
thinking and encourages them to find their own answer, but
some students needed to be encouraged and helped out a little
more. I did this by giving them few hints every now and then
just to help their thinking progress.

Did you make eye contact

with the group as you
directed your questions?

I made sure to make eye contact with every student I picked to

answer a question with his or her hand up. I also made sure to
look for different people to answer the questions I was asking in
order to let everyone have a go.

Reactions to Students Responses

How do you deal with
correct responses? Do you
qualify any praise given?

I found that when a correct response was made the child was
praised for their effort and then asked to repeat that answer to
the class so they could hear it or the teacher would
acknowledge them and then repeat said answer. I used this
technique and found that this worked well as the other students
would listen intently as the answer was coming from their fellow
peer.

How do you deal with

incorrect responses? How
do you deal with students
who stumble and grope for
an answer?

Observing the students and the teacher I found that the best
way to deal with incorrect responses is to praise them for trying
to answer the question and then perhaps get a peer to help
them out. You can also when they are struggling to find the
answer for themselves encouraging them to keep trying until
they succeed and possibly even give them small hints to help
progress their understanding.

What use do you make of

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

Some students who came up as volunteers had trouble with the

working out on the board, so whenever they asked me
questions I redirected the question to the group to see if any
one could help them out. I also used the students responses as
examples by saying their name and the repeating out a correct
answer if they got it right.

Are you the only evaluator

of the students answers?

Overall Comments

Yes although there was another prac student and the mentor
teacher, I was the only evaluator for the students questions
through out my lesson. Out side of my own lessons however
the other prac teacher and I answered many questions from
students.

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
effective for managing the
class?
e.g. How did the students
react to your lesson
overall and to your
planned activities?

I found my intro and conclusion to my lesson to be quite

effective in keeping the classes enthusiasm and attention.
Although during the main activity it was harder to keep control
of everything as students were working at different skill levels
and had many questions, which made it harder to focus on the
whole class at once. In general though the class loved the intro
activity as it allowed room for creativity and for the students to
interact with the lesson and the final activity was overall
knowledgeable as the students were exited to answer questions
and learn.

Did anything unexpected

happen?

During my whole class lesson things generally went the way I

expected as I had planned in case things went wrong but my
Micro lesson was unexpectedly cut short due to a surprise
visitor.

Did you provide a variety

of activities?

Yes, My whole class lesson plan consisted of an interactive

activity with a sketched out map on the board to which the
students could use in order to attempt the lesson objective as a
practice, and my main activity was composed of two activity
sheets one focused on the key objectives of the lesson and the
other with similar elements but with a more creative set up in
which students could take their learning further.

Were you satisfied with

your timing, particularly
for the end of the lesson?

I think I was very lucky with my lesson as the intro ran a bit over
time but allowed the students to really be drawn into the lesson,
while the main activity go a bit out of hand and I didnt really
have time to check the time, yet the mentor teacher warned me
about how much time I had left and I was able to wrap the
lesson up with a the final activity and finish with in my time
schedule.

Did you feel you were able

to change things if
needed?

Yes at times I found it was easy to manipulate the lesson to work

for me as the students were well behaved and very focused to
begin with which allowed me to move through sections of my
lesson quite fluently as they were so attentive that I didnt have
to re explain too much of the material that we were working on.
However in the main activity not many students got to attempt
the extra creative activity, but yet cutting out that aspect
allowed me time to evaluate the students at the end with my
questions.

Were you aware of

classroom procedures and
school disciplinary policy?

I was aware of quite a few things like some student behavioral

issues, such as one student is quite competitive and can get
frustrated easily with others, from what I observed it was best to

How much did you know

about your students?

be stern and get on top of this situation sooner rather then later
in regards to this student in order to avoid escalation. Other
things I noticed were some of the boys can get rather distracted
when sitting in certain groups as they get quite chatty and
exited, with these boys it was the same, best to get on top of
the situation by moving them or being stern from the beginning.

How did your mentor

teacher maintain a safe
learning environment?

The mentor teacher had already established the rules of a safe

environment with the students, as he new how to maintain calm
and focus in his class. His classroom also was always tidy and
everything was either packed away in a shelf or organized in
pigeonholes to avoid clutter and hazards. This was possible due
to the fact that he made his students maintain the cleanliness;
by constantly making them pack their equipment away after
use.

What strategies did your

observe your mentor
teacher using to maintain
this?

He made all the students pack up after themselves after every

lesson, Making sure they put their things back exactly where
they found them and if he found them out of place he would call
the student whose it was up and make them put it back. He also
used strong gestures to signify what he was saying, a stern face
would mean he was upset at their behavior, and when students
approached him when he was helping someone else he would
use a palm signal to indicate that they should return to their
seat and wait for him there.

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
humor, introduction to
students and topic.
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.

I made sure that every time the students answer a question if I

didnt know their name I would ask and then say their name and
praise them for their effort. I would also if the got a question
right, write the answer up on the board or get them to do it
bringing them up in front of the class and getting them right in
the center of the learning.

I found that hands on activities and asking questions seemed to

help the flow of the lesson, as when I talked to the students at
the begin of my whole class lesson I had an activity in which
they had to work together using a map and symbols to find their
way from one point to the other, getting students to come up
and have a go. This paid off well as the students became more
invested when it was one of their own and wanted to succeed
together often trying to help out those students who came up
one at a time to try to solve the map.

Questions helped a lot as well, as the attention was on the

students and luckily the group I had was exited and keen to
answer as many questions as possible. I mainly used Divergent
questions as the answers were complex yet simple enough to
encourage the students to answer with confidence yet still
challenging their minds to think the questions over before
answering.

Did the students know

what was expected of
them?

In the beginning yes as the group worked as a whole class and

interacted with the activity using the instructions I had set out
to work it out together, but as they went off to do their separate
work, some students became lost in the activity and confused
and needed more explaining about the activity and what to do.

Were you able to redirect

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

Yes, those who finished early had an extended activity to keep

them occupied until the conclusion of the lesson. I gave them
something specific in order to let them be creative but still stay
on task so it could take up the majority of the time they had left
and keep them focused so they did not distract others.

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?

I like to think I was aware of what was happening through out

the majority of the lesson, yet there were times where students
were misbehaving and I didnt notice until I walked up to the
front of the class to get a better view. This allowed me to see
everything yet I could only do it a certain amount of times as
students constantly needed help and while trying to help certain
students your focus is just on them and is obstructed from the
rest of the class.
Although their wasnt any major misbehavior just loud chatter
and a few students out of their seats, which was easy to fix, as I
would just use a low tone voice as my mentor teacher called it
to get the students attention saying eyes to me everybody to
which the students would look at me and I would tell them to
lower their voices and return to their seats.
I also got the students to sit directly in front of the white board
and me when I had them on the mat for my lesson. This allowed
me to use their focus and curiosity to position them in a place
where they could see the board and I could see them all,
lowering the chance of misbehavior as their attention was
drawn to the board.

Did you take any action

I found that if you did not take action when the noise in the
when you observed poor
class room was rising you would have to result to yelling, which
behavior? Why? Why not? would generally scare the students, yet I wanted them on my
side so I would try stay on top of the noise before it rose using a
calm deep voice to get students attention and get them to lower
the volume or use the water fall technique which is where the
students make a water fall sound with their mouth which usually
stops the talking.
Although I do say I think at times I should of raised my voice in
a bit of an harsher tone as it may have stopped the continuous
rising of the chatter through out the class room and as the
mentor teacher put it established a barrier to which the
students would know not to push past in terms of misbehavior.

Did you use non-verbal

cues? e.g. Contact, pause,
gesture, movement toward
student/s concerned.

When I was trying to help one student with their work multiple
students would come up at a time. I found putting a simple
hand up to say wait or return to your desk worked, as I had
observed the mentor teacher doing this previously so the
students knew what it meant.

I would also at the end of a question pause and point at what I

was talking about to encourage an answer from students and
give hints and to visually stimulate the students into looking at
the whole picture to get the answer instead of waiting for me to
tell them instead.

Overall Comments

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).

What were the roles and

responsibilities of the
teaching staff you observed?

The school is quite well set up with courtyards

between classrooms, which had benches, tables
and chairs for students to interact. It was
apparent that there were two classes to every
year level, year 4,5 and 6 seemed to be all in one
court yard in separated from year 3,2 and 1 in
another courtyard with the same set up. Pre
primary were in a separate building near the front
of the school and seemed to have their own area
to play away from the other students. I find it
quite interesting as this set up allowed the
students of a simular age level to play during
lunch time in their own section keeping years 1,2
and 3 separate from years 4, 5 and 6.
The school also had an amazing resource section
in the library for teachers, containing maps,
posters, workbooks, sculptures and all sorts. Also
from what I had seen every student in year 4,5
and 6 had an I-pad, which was linked to their
teachers smart board.
From what I observed the teachers were in charge
of multiple things at one time. To be a teacher at
this school you had to be an excellent multi
tasker. My main mentor teacher was in charge of
his entire classes time schedule in regards to their
lessons as well as teaching them and keeping
track of other outside lessons such as library
time, music and mass so he could work his lesson
times around them.
His main role was to keep the students on task,
interested and stimulated in all learning areas
(visual and hands on) and well behaved. He did
this by organising his class so that instead of
them all working on one subject at the same time,
he would have a large group working on one task
and another more focused group working on
another and then slowly rotate these groups
through out the week and would provide over the
shoulder help to both if needed. This was
interesting to see as he also did whole class
lessons but this enabled him to move through
more work faster.
Other teachers were there in support for
individual students only, students who were

disadvantaged and needed their own specialized

learning programs. These teachers were called
students carers who were also responsible for
including their students, in certain activities with
the whole class which required these student
carers to monitor these students just in case of
misbehaviour.

After discussion with your

mentor teacher describe how
policies and processes of
government, administration
and schools have an affect on
the work of the teacher?

Government funding impacts resources

Paperwork is required from teachers, which takes
from teachers time that could be spent on lesson
plans and with students.
Class sizes, which in turn affects the amount of
one on one time with each student.
Behaviour management policies effect how a
class is run and managed.

What did you observe non-teaching staff

doing to support teaching and learning in the
school?

Some non- teaching staff would discipline the

students for misbehaviour or if the teacher
was out of the room they would fill in and
read to the class to keep the students
focused.

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

Class diversity was supported in many ways, for

example each lesson had extra content prepared for
those students who finished quickly so the were no
early finishers to distracting others. The class also had
a well-organised teacher who provided constant
effective over the shoulder help, making sure every
student with issues was heard one at a time through
out their lessons. The teachers also used think pair
share for students to help each other out and work
together through difficult tasks.
Other students with disabilities had full time carers to
keep them on task with the work given.

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

Yes I did, the students had a number of events where

parents were invited to attend from Mass were the
students sat in church with their parents for a service,
to the athletics carnival where the parents could even
compete in an event at the end involving a rely, to
which the student ran to the parents and the parents
ran back to where the students had originally started
form.

What do you think the

function of school is?

I think the function of school is to give students the best

understanding when it comes to their studies, as the
teachers seem to aim to educate about the meaning
behind everything they teach. Every lesson seems to be
connected to something in life outside of school, which I
believe is the schools aim to equipped students with the
skills and knowledge so they can apply it to life outside
school.