Tyler Jarvis Observations Primary 32459181

Primary School

Observation Sheet Questioning



Graduate Standards - AITSL
Professional Knowledge: 1. Know students and how they learn
Professional Practice: 2. Plan and implement effective teaching and learning

Question Type



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

I feel that all the questions I asked of the students during
both my observations as well as my lessons were clearly
structured as well as understood by the students. When
questioning the children in my Primary School class I tried
my hardest not really to dumb the questions down but
more to make them as simple as possible so that they could
understand them.





Did you use a
variety of question
types?

I did. I tried to make the vast majority of my questions
open questions so at to avoid simple yes & no answers. I
did this because I wanted to see the reasoning behind the
answers they gave as I thought this would help me better
understand the classroom environment while also testing
their knowledge if I asked them informational questions.
However I did still ask them closed questions such as did
you understand this? etc.


What balances was
there between the
various questions
types?

I tried to use a mix of question types, however I admit I did
try and use open questions more than others as I thought
it would help not only my own learning but also that of the
students if they could say yes or no, and then why they
thought so.


Tyler Jarvis Observations Primary 32459181



Consider both why and
when you made use of
the different question
types?

I asked the different types of questions depending on the
different situations / context. An example of this is during
Mathematics I asked one of the students if they understood
how to convert and improper fraction to a regular fraction.
An example of when I asked an open question was when I
asked the students if they believe that constellations can be
seen differently by different people, and once they said yes I
asked them why they think this is so.


Tyler Jarvis Observations Primary 32459181

Distributing and Directing Questions



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

I did notice that, although I hate to point out the differences
in students intellectual abilities that the smarter children
tended to want to answer, as well as be more capable of
answering the open questions while the students who
were not as intellectually gifted shied away and tended to
only answer the closed questions. I dont believe this was
due to their actual ability though and more so based on
their self-confidence.


How have you directed
questions to the group?

I tried to direct the questions not to specific students but
more to the whole class, as I didnt want to make
assumptions that the less intellectually gifted students
wouldnt bother with certain questions as some of them
actually did. This worked well as it gave them all an equal
chance to take a shot at questions of varying difficulty.


Have you used wait time?

I did use wait time. I tended to wait a few seconds to give
the students a fair chance to think and then answer the
question. If they were unable to I asked them if they were
okay and if they couldnt then I moved onto another
student.


Did you make eye contact
with the group as you
directed your questions?

I did maintain eye contact with the group, however I did it
in a way that they didnt feel threatened. An example of this
is I did a friendly gaze usually with a smile or some other
way of knowing that I was encouraging them and not
scorning them.

Reactions to Students Responses



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

Usually when it came to correct answers I told the student
that they had done a good job or something similar along
those lines. I also tended to ask the class if they had heard
what said student had said.


How do you deal with
incorrect responses? How
do you deal with students
who stumbled and groped
for an answer?

When it came to this situation I made use of the wait time,
and if they were still struggling I would try and give them a
hint / clue. If they still wouldnt get it I checked to see if
they were okay and then moved onto another student,
asked if they could help out the first student.



Tyler Jarvis Observations Primary 32459181







Do you keep eye contact
with the students until they
have completed an answer?
Do you cut students off and
go onto the next point
before they have finished
responding?

I did maintain eye contact with the student until they had
completed their answer, however if I found that my gaze
made them feel uncomfortable I shifted and had a look
around the classroom at the other students before coming
back to them.
I do admit during my first lesson with them I did cut
students off a few times, which I understand was bad. I
quickly learnt however as some of them were then hesitant
to answer some questions, but I was able to change that
later in the lesson.


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?

I tended to ask questions in a specific order so that the
students could in essence go from point a, to b and then
further connect the two to understand the meaning of what
I am trying to say.
I didnt have to redirect any of the questions aside from
generally when they started to move a bit off topic.


Are you the only evaluator
of the students answers?

I was for the majority of the lesson, however when a
student gave an exceptionally outstanding answer and it
was obvious the answer was right, I would ask the class if
they think said student was right.



Overall Comments
























Tyler Jarvis Observations Primary 32459181





Observation Sheet Management



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?

Did anything unexpected
happen?

Did you provide a variety of
activities?

Were you satisfied with
your timing, particularly for
the end of the lesson?

Did you feel you were able
to change things if needed?

Both my mentor teacher and myself felt that my lesson plan
strongly engaged the class while also being able to manage
them. I had noted in their different techniques and CMS that
could be used to control the students.

The students reacted extremely well, they liked the idea
that we would have some theory and then be able to use it
to have fun in a practical piece as well.



Not necessarily, the only unexpected thing was how keen
they were to do the theory work.

I did, we first watched an interactive video and then went
on to make our own constellations during the full class.

I was, we moved through the lesson as expected however
we did run out of time right at the end, but I did plan for
this situation anyway.


Yes, I didnt actually have to but I was prepared to move
through things at a quicker / slower speed.


Was your organization of
materials and resources
efficient and effective?

e.g. Did you and the
students have everything
you needed?

Yes, I feel that I was exceptionally planned as I had my
video prepared and ready to watch, I also had all my
worksheets and handouts printed and in piles ready to be
distributed.

Yes we did.


Tyler Jarvis Observations Primary 32459181




Did you plan how and when
you would distribute and
collect materials?

I did yes, I had it down on my lesson plan the times that we
would hand out the materials, such as when we moved into
an activity we would hand out the necessary handouts.


Were you aware of
classroom procedures and
school disciplinary policy?
How much did you know
about your students?

I was well aware both through my own observation and
through my mentor teacher clearly telling me the CMS that
the school used such as using bumps when their behaviour
got out of hand. I learnt about my students mainly through
observing them and actually talking to them.


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
humour, introduction to
Students and topic.

I always made sure to be happy, and to make sure they
clearly knew when I was pleased with the students. I also
thanked them through using their classroom behaviour
tally.
I also made sure to keep my tone friendly at all times, I
didnt have to work hard however as they were all really
well behaved for me.


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 think my overall demeanor when it came to the students,
I regularly walked around the classroom and zoned in
particularly on those who started talking or were not doing
what they should have been. I found that even simply my
presence around them put them back on track.



Did the students know what
was expected of them?

Yes, at the start of the lesson I clearly explained what we
had to do and how the lesson would run.


Were you able to redirect
energies of attention
seeking students? Did the
students have enough
to do?

Yes I was, as soon as students started getting out of hand or
they had finished their work I was well prepared and
moved them onto another worksheet or activity. And yes
they did have more than enough to keep them occupied.


Tyler Jarvis Observations Primary 32459181



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 made it a special point that I always knew what was going
on in the classroom and that I was in full control at all
times. I knew that each student was doing their work and
when they werent I was quick to go over to them and get
them back on track.


Did you take any action
when you observed poor
behaviour? Why? Why
not?

I did, I was lucky however as my class was extremely well
behaved for the whole lesson. There was one instance
however when I had to move to bump 1 on one of the
students which involved moving their peg over to their
first warning, I did this due to this being the 3
rd
time I had
to ask him to do his work.


Did you use non-verbal
cues? e.g. Contact, pause,
gesture, movement toward
student/s concerned.

I tried to stay away from the contact, however I did use all
of the nonverbal cues regularly such as pausing, and slowly
moving over towards students who were talking or off
topic.





Overall Comments























Tyler Jarvis Observations Primary 32459181




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).

In terms of the schools demographics it was
composed of primarily being Anglo-Australians,
with a large Maori presence as well.
The school honestly looked amazing, it had recently
undergone a whole school refurbishment and looked
great. It had amazing facilities as well.
The resources of the school were good, however I
found that it was left mainly up to the teachers
themselves to get their own resources. They did
have a library though that was extremely well
equipped.

What were the roles and
responsibilities of the teaching
staff you observed?

Aside from the obvious teaching responsibilities of
the teaching staff they held a few other roles.
They had to make sure the students were on track at
all times, and that the class was under control.
They also put a big emphasis on making the learning
process fun, so they worked extremely hard to make
all of their lessons interactive and interesting.
Another responsibility they had was to act as
counselors in some situations; providing advice for
issues that the student were having and how to
resolve problems.



Tyler Jarvis Observations Primary 32459181




What did you observe non-
teaching staff doing to support
teaching and learning in the
school?














Students


You will have observed the
diverse nature of your classes.
How was this diversity
supported?
The non-teaching staffs were primarily
there to offer support for the teachers in a
range of tasks such as to help be the
teachers eyes and ears around the
classrooms.
The EAs also had the pleasure of dealing
with any children who got too out of hand.
Another role of the EAs were to provide
help to not only the whole class but also
specifically to those students who were
not as intellectually gifted as the other
students.
This is true, my class was extremely
diverse with so many different types of
learners that it wasnt funny. In order to
make this work my mentor teacher had
tried to split all the different learner types
up. She felt that if we had at least 1
different type of learner per row (4-5
students per row) then they would all
work productively as they could learn
different ideas and styles from their
friends.
In theory it sounded pretty good, however
when they started working it was amazing
watching them as they all started having
little discussions about the class questions
and about the different reasoning behind
their answers.


Tyler Jarvis Observations Primary 32459181



Function of Schools

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

One of the most notable connections and
interactions that I found was between the schools
sports program and the surrounding sporting clubs,
particularly AFL. Practically the whole of the local
sporting club went to this Primary School and made
it so that they actually used the School ovals both
before school and after school for their training and
games.
Another area I found was the program where for
SOSE once a week the class would walk down to the
beach and help clean up the beach, thus keeping the
community clean. I thought this was nice as it not
only helps the wider community but also teaches the
students great ideas surrounding littering and
keeping your environment clean.
What do you think the function
of school is?

From my experience in the Primary School system I
have come to see that perhaps some of the main
functions of schools are to pass on a way of life,
which is seen through the clean up program. School
teaches the students a whole range of social ideals
and values that we as people use in our everyday
lives.
I think overall that the function of schools then is to
actually prepare the students for the future. It
prepares them to take on the world as they get older
and also breeds the children into a way of thinking
that will greatly enable them to face adulthood with
courage, and to be successful in their chosen areas.


Tyler Jarvis Observations Primary 32459181