Week 5 Practice Observation Major Assignment

Elizabeth Campion
PART 1 Observation Notes with Annotations add rows as you need them
1) Record teacher and student evidence what you hear and see teacher and students doing with timestamps.
2) Label your collected teacher and student evidence with the corresponding item from your rubric or N/A if the
piece of evidence doesnt correspond to the instruction part of your rubric
Timesta
mp

Teacher evidence moves,

questioning, facilitation, etc.

Student evidence say, do,

collaborate, solve, persevere, etc

1:20

Teacher asks which two of the expressions have

the exact same thing and uses a deck of playing
cards to call on a student to answer.

Student answers question.

Name of
Rubric:
Danielson
Rubric Labels
or N/A
Component 3a
Component 3b
Component 3c
Component 3d

1:23

Teacher ask how are the green d and 2r related to

each other?

Student answers, pass, then another student

answers.

Component 3b

3:20

Teacher calls a student to display his work and

says lets walk through the example, then asks
the class, what do we like about it?

Four students comment on the work displayed.

Component 3a
Component 3b
Component 3c

5:03

Teacher asks which is the circumference and area.

Student responds to question when called on.

Component 3b

5:25

Teacher gives 2 min for Think Tank, but explains

what to do before, asking What is the maximum
circumference of the snap bracelet?

Student answers by replying, maybe it means you

can only go up to eight and it cant go above.

Component 3a
Component 3b

6:38

Teacher uses the example to instruct students to

Students discuss their opinions in all groups to
formulate their opinions using a T or F and defend discuss.
it either way.

Component 3a
Component 3b
Component 3c

7:12

After group discussion, Teachers asks whole

group who thought T or F, then says lets talk
about why its true and calls on random students
and asks the students to add on to the answers
given.

Students reply and then more than one adds on to the

explanation.

Component 3b
Component 3d

8:51

Teacher reads problem to class and instructs them

to independently write in their strategy box what
they need to know.

Students write their basic strategies independently.

Component 3a
Component 3d

10:50

Teacher walks around to the groups and asks

questions how they arrived at their strategies.

Students explain their strategies.

Component 3a
Component 3d
Component 3e

25:45

Teacher asks students to write to the Absent

student to explain where the 2Pi rh piece in the
formula came from.

Students write their responses independently.

Component 3d

PART 2 Rating Rationale and Reflection

Rating Rationale:
Rubric Items
Name of Rubric: Danielson
Component 3a

Component 3b

Rating level from rubric and rationale to include

collected evidence from lesson to support rating
(3:20)Highly effective- Teacher gives students the opportunity to
explain another students work and identify positive aspects of the
work.
(8:51) Effective-Students write basic strategies independently and
explain these strategies. Most students responded but not all had the
opportunity.
(5:25)-Highly Effective- Teacher gives time for Think Tank for
students to discuss the question given with their groups and provide
these responses.
(6:38)-Highly Effective- Students formulate a T or F response in
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Component 3c

Component 3d

Component 3e

response to the question given and discuss this in their groups with
each other.
Teacher uses the random technique of choosing cards so that all
students respond and gauges understanding.
Effective- learning tasks are aligned with the outcome and most of the
students are engaged in the lesson and invited to explain their
opinions. Teacher used the technique of using a deck of cards to call
on students. The Teacher started out with identifying a relationship of
the formulas to scaffold to the formula of surface area. (1:23)
Effective (10:50) Teacher walks around during small groups to
assess the students work. Students seem to be aware of the
assessment criteria, however it is not laid out specifically. The teacher
consistently monitors pulse of the class, but students are not given as
many opportunities to assess themselves.
Highly Effective- At the end of the lesson, the teacher provides
questioning time and students are given the chance to further their
understanding or ask clarifying questions. Students expanded on their
thinking and the teacher also used this as a teachable moment to
further understanding.

Reflection:
The pros of observing this lesson was the opportunity to see a dynamic and exploratory approach to Math. I have
been a Math teacher for years and this teachers way of instruction was very intriguing and engaging. I was also
able to gain some tips as to how he runs his classroom.
The cons of this observation experience is that it is difficult to keep up. I have done this a few times and I went to
training specifically focuses on observations and taking apart the rubric for more understanding. I feel that the
art of making low inference observations is very difficult and is a skill that I need to practice more. Its a
challenge to remove yourself from judgment when observing a teacher that you may feel is good or bad. Write a
reflection of your observation experience.
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PART 3 Post-Observation Follow-Up and Suggestions for Teacher Development

Answer the following 4 questions:
1. Two clarification questions I would ask is how does he communicate the criteria for success to the students.
How do you set your kids up for success? Are there ways you use criteria for success I missed? Criteria for
success, from The Skillful Teacher by Jon Saphier, is a tool used in most, if not all, of our classrooms. It helps us
take assessments and objectives and make them actionable and real to students.
2. Two areas of strength that I observed while watching the video is that the teacher has many different teaching
strategies. He used several different approaches such as Think Tank and Bee Heard discussion which
provided the students an opportunity for collaboration. This also provided more student talk time and ways for
them to defend or support their ideas and thinking. It was also very obvious that this teacher has excellent
classroom management skills and the students have respect for him as well.
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3. Two areas of focus for the teacher would be his use of Explicit Direct Instruction (EDI) and also if he is going
back to his Mastery Learning Objective (MLO) at the end of the lesson so to focus the learning on the targeted
goal. The teacher used an exploratory strategy for finding the formula for Surface Area. However, does this
model work for our Special Education students, low-income students and ENL students? I am not aware of the
demographics of the class as far as these classifications but this is something that I would want to explore if the
needs of these students were being met and it this model is best practice to ensure success. The MLO was also
not revisited or clarified at the end of the lesson.
4. The next steps for this teacher would be to focus on aligning the MLO with student learning so the students are
aware of the specific learning objective. Master teachers spend more time unpacking standards and objectives
than they do planning learning activities because they understand that clear learning goals will drive everything
else they do. I would also wonder if this model of teaching will ensure success of all students and propose this
challenge to the teacher. In order to understand this I would have to look at the data of the success of the
objective to gauge if this technique proved success. If not for all the students, then the idea and strategy of EDI.
Explicit instruction is provided when the following occur, the goal is teaching a well-defined body of information or
skills that all students must master. The reason I would focus on these two component is because they are crucial
to the planning stage of the lesson and they are also provide success of the lesson.

Alderman, Michael. (2010). Assess Students Better with Criteria for Success. Retrieved from
http://blog.kippnj.org/resources/assess-students-better-with-criteria-for-success/
Goeke, Jennifer L. (2008) Explicit Instruction: A Framework for Meaningful Direct Teaching Pearson, Tappan
Jackson, Robyn R. (2009). Never Work Harder than your Students and Other Principles of Good Teaching. Retrived
from http://www.ascd.org/publications/books/109001/chapters/Know-Where-Your-Students-Are-Going.aspx
Saphier, Jon (2008). The Skillful Teacher, Building Your Teacher Skills. Massachusetts.