EPC 3903 Mentor College observation form

Mentor College Assessment Report First observation B.Ed Teaching Practice

Year3 Semester2

Name of the student: Nahla Ali ID#: H00271615

Name of the School: Wellspring Grade: 3
Grade level: level 6 Date of the observations: 13Mar17
Unit / lesson title: Stages of Plant Growth Number of students: 23 students
Competency Area E G S M US

A- Commitment to the Profession x

B- Planning for Learning x
C- Managing Learning x
D- Implementing Learning x
E- Assessment x
F- Reflection on Practice (Nahla demonstrated excellent reflection-on-action (Schon, x
1983)

Strengths of the lesson:

Engagement
o The lesson began by linking from the last science lesson where students planted
a red bean. Students were asked to observe what they saw. They were expected
to comment that it had begun to grow and were later asked to draw their
observations.
o Candidate is a strong planner
o Useful review of todays science vocabulary guided by a vocabulary list for
plants stuck into students books. A useful blackboard and powerpoint
summary accompanied.
o Utilized a variety of classroom management strategies including phrases
students were familiar with yes, yes, class, class, all eyes on me.

Exploration
o Was fun and engaged students. Good use of the scientific method (puzzle) to
guide students experimentation.
o Good utilization of seat work to help Ss to complete the exploration puzzle.

Explanation

o The venn diagram was a strong visual that helped to link the days activities to
the last days i.e. to visualize how the plan was developing as it proceeded
through its life cycle.

Evaluation
o Good plenary session that reviewed the activity for LO1 as well as completed
the venn diagram that assessed LO2. There was sufficient formative assessment
throughout the lesson using a variety of worksheets which were also corrected
EPC 3903 Mentor College observation form

during the lesson.

Areas for development:

Engagement
o Observations: Instead of asking Ss to guess which words they think would have
been the focus of the days lesson it might have been useful during the
engagement when students observed the planted bean from last week that they
be asked leading questions to guide them to these 3 key vocabulary words. As it
stands they were just asked to conclude that the seed had begun to row.
o Instructions would be more useful if placed on the ppt. to show students how to
measure the height of the plant and create labels.
Exploration
o Use seat work to talk theory with students and ensure that they understand the
concept and not just to get them to complete the worksheet. Questioning is a
very useful tool during this period.
o Drawing what they observed about last weeks plant growth is better placed at
the beginning of the class when they did the observation of the plant they

Explanation
o LO1 has no focus at this stage
o Good place to recycle the vocabulary of the day to show how it supports the
days LOs and activities.

Evaluation
KWL should have been introduced earlier and recycled at the end. Asking students
to fill a chart like this from memory (e.g. there is no other way to fill in the k or
the w) is problematic

General comments:

The candidate is a strong planner and was well prepared. She also moved smoothly through a
variety of activities. The 5Es were well represented in the lesson. The activities supported the
objectives. The lesson was fun and students were well engaged all through its length.
The link between the 2 objectives needs to be clarified (both on paper and in the
implementation of the lesson). This would have helped the activities to be more strongly
organized so that they occurred in a more logical order, were more supportive of each other,
and scaffolded students slowly from the last lesson towards todays LOs as they built their
understanding of the life cycle of a plant. Reward students with a definitive purpose let them
know specifically why they are receiving a reward (not just that they have been good, but that
they were sitting well as example).
Students reflection on the feedback: