1 Murdoch University

Observation Sheet Questioning

(Please complete this form for both primary and secondary professional experiences and place
in your ePortfolio)

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 felt like my questions were structured clearly and could be easily
understood but the kids found the topic really hard to understand and
struggled in answering the questions.

Did you use a variety of
question types?


Yes I did. The topic for this class was SWAT analysis, which lead us to
very open questions as the students were to analyse an image. An
example of an open question is, What do you think her eyes bulging out
of her head is meant to represent? I also used Recall as the students
had already been studying this topic and had some knowledge on it. An
example of Recall is, What does symbolism mean?

What balances was there
between the various
questions types?


Most of the lesson was spent recalling questions due to their lack of
attention towards the lesson.

Although some of the lesson was spent asking open ended questions for
their analysis.


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

I found that because the class was not really paying much attention I
had to keep asking them recall questions as they were not paying
attention the first time. I had to also use recall to recap what they learnt
in the previous lessons.

I used open ended questions so that they could think about their
responses and it gave them a chance to try and interpret the images
themselves and hear other students opinions and perspectives.



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Distributing and Directing Questions


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


It was mainly the students re asking the same questions over again due
to the lack of attention. I found it easier to focus my attention on the
students willing to learn and so I asked them questions because it was
wasting time responding to the students who were not focused.





How have you directed
questions to the group?


At times I tried re directing questions at the students who were not
paying attention to try and get them back on track but they found it
hard to give a response and would just give up. I also asked some
students who were just being quiet and not answering to answer some
of my questions so that they were able to participate.

Have you used wait time?

Yes, For the topic given I think it was important for wait time. Especially
since it is not easy and it does involve looking outside the box.

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


I had to make eye contact with all students as they were similar to
younger students and lost interest quickly. I made sure I kept eye
contact with to also make sure I was interacting with them.

Reactions to Students Responses


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

I think it is best to give praise as a student probably yearns for it
and then they know they are on the right track. Tell them that it
is correct or Good job to let them know they are correct.

How do you deal with
incorrect responses?
How do you deal with
students who stumble and
grope for an answer?
For a student who stumbles and gropes, they might just need a
push in the right direction, so you could give a hint. For other
students who respond incorrectly you could respond with
another question still leading towards a similar answer. If they
still dont understand ask another student to help them out or
ask what they think.




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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 think its key to keep eye contact with a student until they have
completed an answer. If someone asked me a question and did not have
eye contact I would think they were not paying attention or have lost
interest.
You would definitely not cut off a student with the next point. Give them
some time to come up with a response and if they havent responded,
prompt them or direct them to an answer.



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?




At times my questions were not understandable by the students so I had
to re word them for them to understand. This is a developing point for a
teacher as not all students can understand or learn the same way, so by
changing it up you give them a chance to understand.

A few students started to get on the right track but were not getting
towards the correct answer so I just asked for someone to carry on from
their response.

Are you the only evaluator
of the students answers?




No I was not. I think its important that the other students can evaluate
the other students answer as it can expand their knowledge and possibly
give them a different perspective and make them think in a different way
then what they thought originally. Especially for analysing, there are so
many things that can be interpreted differently.


Overall Comments


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Observation Sheet Management

4 Murdoch University

(Please complete this form for both primary and secondary professional experiences and place
in your e portfolio)


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?

Yes it was effective for managing the class. I felt like I was very organised
and had enough material for the students to use as examples.


They were quite rude and disrespectful, their attention span was short
and they did not seem like they wanted to learn at all.



No not really. Only thing that was unexpected was how fast the time
went.

Due to the amount of time provided and the topic I had to cover, it was
very hard to provide a variety of activities. If I had more time I could have
provided them with more.

I felt like I could have kept going, I had enough material to keep the
lesson going on for longer.


Yeah I think I could have due to the amount of material. I felt quite
prepared for this lesson.

Was your organisation of
materials and resources
efficient and effective?

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


As said above I felt quite organised for my lesson and I had plenty of
resources. I felt that my resources were efficient and effective, although I
felt like the kids did not use them to their advantage. I gave them
handouts which would have made it simpler and quite easy to
understand but they managed to just keep wasting my time.


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


My mentor teacher informed me that when the students come in
after lunch and recess that they are to put their heads down on the
desk for 5 minutes to calm down. So whilst they did this I used the
time effectively to handout all the worksheets. I did not plan this but
it worked to my advantage as I could get straight on to my lesson
when the 5 minutes was up.

Were you aware of
classroom procedures and
school disciplinary policy?
How much did you know
about your students?
No I was not aware. I only knew that they could get detention. My
mentor teacher did not seem to follow through with her threats and so I
did not really see any students being punished.

Whilst on breaks my mentor teacher would inform me on some of classes
she takes. I found it hard to know who was who because she took years
7-10 and took English, Religious education and Society and environment.


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 kept a positive attitude even though they were quite rude and
disrespectful. I supplied them with information for the lesson that was
beneficial, which I feel is quite supportive towards them as I am trying to
make sure they do their best. I tried at times to incorporate jokes but
some students would just take them to far or just play up.






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 felt like I had to be stern and be in control to be able to have the
classes attention. When I approached them about how disrespectful
they were and that they should behave better than this, they went quiet
and finally started on their work.

This lesson did involve some group discussion but due to their lack of
interest in learning it was hard to do this.






Did the students know what
was expected of them?

I am unsure about this. Some students I believe did know and I felt some
students acted like they did not know but actually did know.





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Were you able to redirect
energies of attention
seeking students? Did
the students have enough
to do?
I had one student constantly disrupting other students and talking who
would not listen to my instructions and I felt like I was not stern enough
on him for him to listen. Although I did tell him off numerous times he
still managed to carry on. I should have taken more action at the time.

Students had plenty to do and some did not finish the task.


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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 found it easier in the secondary school to know what was going on in
all parts of the classroom as the students should start to be
independent learners. A lot of the time I was just wandering round the
room occasionally answering questions for students. Because of the
setting of the classroom is was easy to see what all students were up to.








Did you take any action
when you observed
poor behaviour? Why?
Why not?
I did take action but I do not think it was strong enough as the student
kept misbehaving. I was informed by the mentor teacher that the
student does not normally complete much work. I was instructed by her
to just ignore him, but I felt like he should have been sent out of the
classroom as the other students would have found it hard to
concentrate with his nonsense.









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

I felt like I improved in this area in secondary school. Suing eye contact
with the students really made them aware that I was watching them
and they needed to get on with their work. Sometimes I would have to
gesture a student to get back to his work. I felt like non-verbal cues
worked well in this situation.










Overall Comments


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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).





A co-educational secondary Catholic college, located in the
foothills of Perth. It ensured the students a positive learning
environment and gave opportunity with their diverse range
of programs.

With over 900 students from Year 7 through to Year 12, the
College continues to respond to the growing demand of
families from within our local parishes and from the rapidly
expanding surrounding areas.

Our Mission Statement emphasises the vital task of our
College To be an inclusive, creative learning community
centred in Christ, committed to the education and
development of each individual in a changing world.

I found this school to be lovely with welcoming staff and
great facilities. They had quite a few educational assistants
helping out throughout all years. It very much welcomes
diversity and you could definitely see that via the students.
They had lots of classrooms with great resources. Most
classrooms had projectors and the students and staff were
supplied with Mac Books. Although the school did not have
a big library and seemed to have a small amount of books.

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









- Leading and managing
- Implementing improvement strategies
- preparation lesson plans related to the curriculum
- Collaboration with other teachers
- Parent Liaison
- Marking
- Playground duty
- Teaching
- Behaviour management
- Extra reading programs
- Duty of care
- Develop and maintain a positive classroom
environment
- Model respectful, courteous and honest behaviour
- Establish positive relationships with students,
parents and community
- Inform and involve parents in their childs behaviour
management
- Monitor, document and report student behaviours to
parents and administration
- Consistently apply the schools behaviour
management policy



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





- Duty of care
- Extra reading programs
- Parent liaison
- Teaching
- Behaviour management
- Collaboration with teachers
- Assisting students to learn
- Establish positive relationships with students,
parents and community
- Consistently apply the schools behaviour
management policy

Non-Teaching staff Education Assistant.

Students



You will have observed the
diverse nature of your classes.
How was this diversity
supported?







This school strongly supports diversity which you can see
by reading the schools outline on its website. I also
noticed this just by observing the school. Many different
races attended the school and by observing the students
behaviour toward the students I felt like everyone at the
school strongly supports diversity, which was great.

We provide each and every student a diverse and
balanced learning environment within a safe and caring
community and are justifiably proud of our school. This
statement is on the colleges website on the principals
page.


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Function of Schools


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






No I did not, in the space of time that I was there I did not
really get the chance.
What do you think the function
of school is?







The function of school has changed hugely over time, and
will keep changing. School provides life skills and also
educates students with the basics such as literacy and
numeracy. Education is not only about teaching them that
but is also about teaching them self-disciplinary which is
nessacery for a modern work environment. School should
guide children to develop their passions, critical thinking,
compassion and orientate them towards higher education or
the workforce. I think it is also important that students are
taught to understand that you will fail at times and hard work
is needed to succeed. Schools need to prepare students to
be adaptable as the world is constantly changing.


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Professional ePortfolio


Professional Experience Portfolio (50%)



CRITERIA FOR EVALUATION

PART A (20%)

Required components for both the Primary
and Secondary Professional experiences:

Lesson Plans
Observation Sheets:

Questioning
Management and
Schools as text

Evaluation Forms/Final report (remember to
upload a copy to the Professional Experience
Office),Lesson Critiques


PART B (30%)

Essay Tell the story of your Professional
experience and reflect on your choice of
Primary or Secondary Teaching.

Frame your story using the three unit
outcomes (p.5 Unit Information).

Correct essay conventions are required as
are in text referencing and standard writing
conventions. (500 words)


COMMENTS


Tutor

Tasks/Participation /10

TOTAL MARK for
Observations
and Essay /50


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