Mahidol University International Demonstration School

Pre-Observation Form

Name: Kunakorn Poochinda Administrator: Dr. Stephen Coryelle

Date of Preconference: Oct 9, 2018 Date/Time of Observation: Oct 10, 2018/ 10.20-11.15 am
Grade Level: 11 Subject Area: Accelerated Math
Observational How working in pairs can help students gain new knowledge and build their confidence
Focus: for their individual work.

Directions: To the teacher: Write the area of instruction that will be the focus of the observation on the line
above. Be prepared to answer the questions on this form when you attend the pre-conference with the
Administrator.
1. Briefly describe the students in this class.
There are 13 students in the class with mixed math
ability, ranging form low to high. Most of them are
keen to participate in class.
2. What are the goals for the lesson? What do you 7. What difficulties do students typically
want students to learn?
The goal is to help students learn how to convert a
complex number from rectangular form to polar
form, while making the use of Argand diagram
(complex plane) to double-check if the argument
(angle) is correct.
3. Why are these goals suitable for this group of
students?
Complex numbers are quite similar to 2-dimensional
vectors, which are important concepts in physics.
4. How do these goals support the school’s
ESLOs, standards and benchmarks?
The goal should help students progress towards
being innovative thinkers, as the concepts can be
applied in various topics in physics. In addition,
working in pairs help students practice
communicating math in a meaningful way, which
should help students become articulate
communicators. Also, the goal is consistent with CA Wrong answer and wrong method will be ranked
ccssmathstandard – N-CN (4)
: Represent complex numbers on the complex
plane in rectangular and polar form (including
real and imaginary numbers),
and explain why the rectangular and polar
forms of a given complex number represent the
same number.
6. How do you plan to engage students in the
content? What will you do? What will the
students do?
I will make some cold-call during the lecture. I plan
to ask students to do activities, including opening
question and practice solving problems in pairs first.
I will walk around and talk to the students to see if
they run into any difficulty. Next, I will ask students
to work individually quietly without giving them the
complex plane. Then, students will be asked to
explain their work to the pair mate and to check the
answers. Finally, I will ask students to work
individually on an exit slip.
experience in this topic, and how do you plan to
anticipate these difficulties?
In order to better understand the argument,
students need to be able to visualize coordinates on
the complex plane well. Therefore, I will prepare a
worksheet with some complex planes for every
pair. Also, they may not remember the math
vocabularies very well, so I will write them on the
board along with some examples.
8. What instructional materials or other resources
will you use? (Attach any sample materials you
will use in the lesson.)
Worksheet and socrative.com for exit slip.
9. How do you plan to assess student
achievement of the lesson outcomes? What
procedures will you use? (Attach any tests or
performance tasks with rubrics or scoring
guides)
Worksheet, exercise in notebook and exit slip.
Scoring guide:
low
Right answer but no detailed work will be ranked
medium.
Right answer and right method will be ranked high.
5. How do these goals relate to broader
curriculum goals in the subject area as a whole
or in other subject areas?
To the broader math curriculum goals, this class
should give students the background knowledge to
build upon for complex number multiplication,
division and exponentiation. To other areas of
science, operations with complex numbers can be
applied in many physics topics.
To the teacher: List any items below that you wish to call to the attention of the Administrator. Share your
lesson plan at least a day prior to the observation.
10. How do you plan to use the results of the
assessment?
They will be used to evaluate which subtopics most
students lack an understanding. Some clarifications
or re-teaching may be needed if less than 60% of the
students get the correct answers on the worksheet
or exit slip.