Observations

LEAD IN DAYS
Thursday 16/5/19
MORNING ORGANISATION
 This is an excellent, 20 minutes, first thing in the morning to allow students to have the
time to get themselves organised for the day, finish off work, organise their desks and
write in their diaries.
 Great self-management practice for students
 Daily routine.

MATHS
 Lesson on Coordinates and Cartesian planes (X, Y coordinates)
 Teacher gives students a warm question, students given the option to work on the answer
individually or collaboratively
 Students move desks and interpret other students work
 Teacher pop-sticks students for answer, must make sure you allow students to justify their
answer – teacher quotes “good maths students correct or change their thinking”
 “which one doesn’t belong?”
o students explain their reasons for why
o low and high order thinking is observed off students

JAPANESE
 Sensei chooses two people to monitor the class during the lesson
 At the end the chosen students call out a student who hasn’t been focused or not
engaged in the learning (not sure if I agree with this), and a student that has been
focused and put in a good effort.
 Very interesting NITT class, did not hear any Japanese being taught at all, students are
learning to draw Manga
 Sensei makes her students work in silence – not sure about this either.

HASS – HISTORY
 Students have been investigating Australian History independently on this website:
https://www.australianhistorymysteries.info/
 Students have been writing their own notes as they work through the modules
 Teacher gives students an exit slip to complete before leaving the class:
o Students complete independently given 5-10 mins
o Slip is a blank piece of small notepad paper
o This is a good way to assess student understanding
o After examining all the exit slips, my mentor and I, could see that the majority
of students had a good understanding and had been able to work through the
modules independently without teacher instruction. Students knew the
content.

GENERAL OBSERVATIONS
 Self-management is a big focus for the year 6’s this year, as next year proceeding to year
7 then high school they will need to have practiced self-management.
 My mentor expects students to have reminders (dates and events), homework or
assignments and other notes written in their diary. This is good practice of self-
management.
 There is no rewards or behaviour management system. After questioning my mentor on
this he stated he didn’t believe we should bribe students with a reward to force them into
behaving well. It is important to establish your expectations and consequences.
 All the students are very polite and and very respectful towards their teacher, and already
to myself.
Observations

 My mentor teaches maths to his year 6s and to the 6/7 class from next door, his 6s swap
with the other class and do writing with Mel’s Class (Ms Stalls)

Friday 17/5/2019
GENERAL OBSERVATIONS
 My mentor puts the timetable for the day on the whiteboard so students know what
lessons they have for the day.
 In the morning, my mentor puts a Funky Friday Brainteaser & Metaphor or Simile, on the
smart board. Positive start to student’s day and gets their brains working.
 Pop-sticks are a great way to call out students during lessons, makes sure all students
are ready to answer. Can see if students are paying attention or not.
 My mentor models objectives in maths whilst questioning the students.
 Every Friday all students do “What’s Happening?” – a written recount of their week. My
mentor chooses 4 different areas for students to focus on with guiding questions to help
their writing. For example, the topics have to do with feeling, goals, behaviour, learning
areas. This is great for students to evaluate their week and for the teacher to get
feedback on their teaching, on lessons, on students learning, behaviour and emotion.

WEEK 1 (4)
Monday 20/5/219
MATHS
 Lesson on ordering numbers to 100
 Students work on worksheets independently or collaboratively
 Lucas has a visual impairment so any worksheets given to him must be A3
 I feel my mentor didn’t explicitly explain the task as well, some students were confused.
 The year 6/7’s grasped this task better “We are placing numbers on a number line relating
to 100’s”
 I think an A3 sheet would’ve worked better for the whole class, not just Lucas, as the
number lines are small and not not as long so it was difficult for students to mark an
accurate position on the number line and number chart – could also get students to re-
draw the number line in their maths book.

LITERATURE CIRCLES
 Students are put into groups according to their book preference, they wrote their top 3
picks a week prior to this lesson.
 In their groups, students collaboratively work out and set pages to read by Tuesdays and
Thursdays.
 There will be a total of 10 Lit. Circle sessions
 In their groups students will discuss their book – vocabulary, questioning, connections
and inference.

Thursday 23/5/2019
WRITING
 Mel teaching (Miss Stalls)
 Warm up: A-Z categories game. Students are given a category and have to think of a
word/name for each letter of the alphabet. Example topics: dog breeds, teacher names.
 Biography writing:
o Students work wit a partner (student they sit next to)
o They choose a singer, artist, retired sports star
o They are given an A3 planning sheet each.
o Students are to emphasise ‘key words/phrases’
o Students need to be specific
Observations

GENERAL OBSERVATIONS
 Assessment to check student understanding – ask the whole class a question, students
can answer by putting thumbs up or down, or multiple choice letters around the room.
 Notice students who answer incorrectly, they still may not understand the concept
 In the next lesson stretch all other students, group students who didn’t grasp the concept
and work with them.

WEEK 2 (5)
Wednesday 29/5/2019
HASS/READING
 Teacher models comprehension and questioning strategies for reading
 Whole class are given an extract from the White Australia Policy.
 Yesterday students were highlighting unknown word and discussing the meanings as a
whole class.
 Today the students focus on questioning
 “Why didn’t the indigenous adults fight back?” student answers:
o Too many Europeans
o Weapons – Europeans had guns
This question positions students to think they didn’t when they did.
 “How could people think this behaviour (taking children away from their families) was
okay?” question students where in the text is there evidence of “people” having done this.
 “What made the white Australians superior?”
 “How do we know all of this?” evidence from texts and other texts or other connections
 Students to write their own 2-3 questions relating to the text.

WEEK 3 (6)
GENERAL OBSERVATION
 When picking books for lit. circles, its important to do research on them if you haven’t
read it prior to giving them to students. This is something my mentor did not quite do. One
of the books he had chosen had sensitive topics that my mentor should’ve informed
parents about it and ask for permission for students to read.