Feedback on Observation:

Corps Member Name: Nicolas Betancourt

Focus
Given
grade
level and
content
are
students.
..

...engaged in and showing

increased growth and mastery
of rich problems, texts
and/or questions that are
worth tackling?

Learning Target: Use exponential rules to simplify expressions

Reviewer: Lindsey Robertson

...critically thinking
and engaging in real
and meaningful
discourse throughout
the lesson cycle?

...making and
justifying
arguments with
evidence?

...contributing to a
passionate and
joyful classroom
environment through
increased acts of
leadership, empathy,
and responsible
decisions?

Glows

...growing relationships with

their teachers, mentors,
community leaders, and other
influencers?

Introducing Plickers using non-math

content was very important to get
students hooked.

Can you tell me

why we are
getting different
answers for
power and
product rules?
This is a great
question but
would be better
if the students
discussed this
with their
neighbors
instead.
Grows
The teacher asked
students to go over their
exam with their group. (8
minutes). Most kids were
talking off task during
this lesson. The teacher
then did each of the
problems on the board
(24 minutes). This
seemed to drag out and
students were passive as
the teacher asked only
one student at a time to
explain how to solve
each problem. Time
would have been better

The teacher asked

students questions
by randomly
calling on a few
students. If
students didnt
volunteer or know
the answer the
teacher asked
them to discuss
with their group.
This was not
effective today.
Very few students
discussed at their

You asked a few

problems
during Plickers
which required
students to
justify but you
called only on
one person at a
time.

Guys quiet down

Im calling roll Be
careful of group
redirect. Not all
students stopped
talking and it could
the message that
it is really okay for
them to be talking
since no one is
addressed
individually.

The teacher calls on the

same few students
throughout the class
period likely because he
does not know all of the
students names. Tyler,
Vincent, and DeAndre are
called on several times
during the lesson while
others are not called on at
all. Name plates to
address students by name
and call on all students is
highly recommended.

spent addressing only

problems most students
missed and you modeling
specifically how the
problem should be done.
Find themes or big ideas
which need to be cleared
up. Try to keep home
work/quiz review or warm
up between 5-7 minutes.
The students were not
engaged during this part
of the lesson.

CULTURE OF
ACHIEVEMENT

groups.

Destructive

Apathetic or Unruly

Compliant
and On Task

Interested and Hardworking

Passionate/Urgent/
Joyful/Caring

Evidence: The students were not engaged or interested in the lesson. Many students were not even looking at the teacher.

ENGAGEMENT W/
RIGOROUS CONTENT

Not
Challenged/
No learning

Passive or Confused
regarding new
content

Factual recall/
Procedural

Analysis/Application/
Explaining

Evaluation/Synthes
is/
Creation

Evidence: There was way too much time spent on reviewing the quiz from yesterday. The actual objective for the day was
not addressed specifically. The teacher had only 10 minutes to do the Plickers activity and only a few questions were done
by the students.

Debrief Notes:
Calling them the power rules is confusing for students. Consider instead exponent rules or properties of exponents. You keep
asking students to explain which rule and when they say power rule sometimes you say yes exactly and sometimes you
correct them saying power of a power. The multiplying by the one is confusing. While it is important to mention that a base
with no exponent specifically listed has an exponent of 1. Consider teaching them a shortcut by telling them a base with no
exponent receives the exponent outside of the parenthesis. You started to do this by drawing arrows but the multiplying by
one confused some students.
Alex is a very low level learner. Be careful cold calling on him. He is hesitant to participate in any of the learning activities
because he does not understand. Consider asking a question, allowing think time and talk time, then ask him to share what

one of his partners said. Other strategies would include circulating during collaborative time or independent practice and
finding something he knows how to do. Talk with him to make sure he can explain it then call on him. This helps build his
confidence and may make him participate more frequently. Ashley was brand new to class yesterday in the middle of the
class period. I would be careful calling on students who did not even get the full lesson.
With Plickers make it an expectation that ALL students participate. Find students who did not participate by looking at the list
and make them answer. You also skipped some students who had it up the entire time.
When did they learn the negative properties of exponents? This is a challenging rule from them and it was on their quiz from
yesterday but not specifically taught or practiced. The teacher reviewed two problems during quiz review but students still
missed.