EDUC 5312-Curriculum and Instructional Design

Classroom Observation Assignment

Observation Form 1

Observation Date: 15 April 2019 Observation Time: One Hour Class Period

Teacher Observed: Mrs. Amina Muhammed Subject/Grade Level: Grade 7

School Observed: Nigerian Tulip Int’l Colleges Observer: Sabri Unal

1-What was/were the learning objectives/outcomes of the lesson? (Add state objectives if
known)

The learning objective was mentioned by the teacher at the beginning of the class verbally. This
action has been done right after the teacher’s revision on the previous week which was additive
and multiplicative inverse. According to the teacher’s indication the objectives were; being able
to describe proportion- ratio – rate and being able to solve different types of questions related to
proportion-ratio and rate.

2-How did the teacher begin and end the lesson?

As I mentioned above the teacher’s first thing after greeting was revising the previous weeks’
topic. And the first thing about this week’s topic was asking some open-ended questions.
Questions such as, what do you think proportion is? , Do you think it’s related to the word of
portion? , Why do you think we need to know this term? , etc. the purpose of doing this is to
warm the students up to the lesson which they will see new vocabularies.

And she finished the lesson with a brief summarization. Finally she asked students some key
words and questions from the lesson taught. She tried involving everyone to talk and say
something. That’s why she used her number sticks cup to select any student randomly.

3-What did the teacher use for teaching materials or instructional aids/equipment?

She used a game that she prepared herself, and active board that helps attract students’ attention,
she used her numbers sticks to select a student randomly for the asked question. And when she
picked a stick, instead of saying it loudly immediately, she described the number and engaged
the small activity with math. It really looked fun.
4-Which instructional methods and strategies did the teacher use?

Most of the time she used the lecture and discovery learning methods. She also used some
games.

5-How did the teacher assess learning?

Teacher gave students worksheet that has 6 questions about proportion. She solved 2 out of 6 at
the board and made sure all of them well understood. Yet she checked each student’s work and
explained one on one if necessary. She told them to work in pairs. After they finish this
worksheet she gave another one with 6 questions about ratio and repeated the same thing. One
student said she didn’t understand and the teacher asked her to meet her after the lesson.

6- What can you say about the teacher’s philosophy/beliefs and style?

According to my observation, teacher is trying to use student centered method, however she
mostly uses traditional method which includes lecturing and teacher centered. She says it’s good
to involve students through student centered method but it’s not always possible.

7-How does the teacher manage classroom? Can you identify classroom management
techniques used?

When she saw any student(s) not paying attention she approached them and warn verbally, asked
them to get back to their task. One student insisted on doing so, and she called his name out to go
and sit at the back alone till end of the lesson. And towards ending teacher observed that students
lost their interest in lesson and she started playing a game. They say numbers from 1, 2, 3… in
order, when a student comes to the multiple of 5 s/he says “WAKANDA” instead of saying the
number (5, 10, 15, etc.). They played the game one more time for the multiples of 3.

8-Observe in the classroom setting and determine types of behavior students play when off-
task. What do they do when they are not paying attention? How does the teacher re-direct
them or get them back on task?

Just few students were talking with their friends when they are off task. First, teacher warned
verbally. Then one student had difficulty to focus and continued distracting his friends. Then
teacher had to send him to the back to sit alone. The fact, the presence of an observer effected
student’s normal behavior. Normally warning only once doesn’t work immediately, teacher says.

9-How does the teacher communicate with students?

Most of her communication was verbal. Some were non-verbal, which was facial and with
gestures. She also used body language time to time.

10-Who were the students in the class? What did you notice about them? (Background,
diversity, attitude, motivation, interaction, participation etc…)

The students were 12-13 year- old students both boys and girls. The academic level of the class
was average. I observed two students who were very intelligent and fast in solving the questions.
In contrast there was one student needs extra attention. Teacher says after lesson she meets her
one on one. But the intelligent ones are getting bored easily.

11-What did you see that is effective in engaging students? What do you see that is
ineffective in keeping students engaged?

During the lesson that I observed teacher’s method of engaging the students was to walk around
and telling them to work in pair often. And the challenging side of keeping them engaged is not
to take into account their short period of attention time. When the activity takes long time,
students’ attention loose and another movement or activity is necessary when this happens.

12-What are the two instructional strategies you observed and would like to apply in your
classroom?

I would use the number sticks, it’s nice to shake their mood by doing something is not related to
the topic but related to the subject. And I also would use

13-What are two important classroom management strategies that you observed and would
like to apply in your classroom?

I didn’t observe any creative classroom management due to the desks arrangement. The desks
are fixed to the ground and they are not available for shifting and moving for group works. The
only thing teacher could do is warning, cutting mark, gifts. All these agents are teacher centered.
Among these strategies I would like to apply my class the gifts. I observed that students pay
more attention when they are willing to gain the particular gift item (pencil, canteen ticket or
sweet)