Observation Sheet Questioning

Graduate Standards - AITSL

Professional Knowledge:
Professional Practice:
learning

1. Know students and how they learn

2. Plan and implement effective teaching and

Question Type

Do you feel your questions

were clearly structured and
readily understood by the
students?

Did you use a variety of

question types?

What balances was there

between the various
questions types?

Consider both why and

when you made use of the
different question types?

Yes, I made sure to be clear and concise with asking my questions,

putting them in simple terms. The students told me if they did not
understand something, but they answered my questions easily and
with understanding.

I used a variety of question types for the question we were working

on. I asked the students; if they understood what innovation
meant, what was innovation, what were some businesses that used
innovation, if they understood the question, if they could think of
any products that had been innovated and others.
I used mostly open questions, as in most the questions I asked the
students could give me a variety of different answers based on
their thinking. I did this because it was most relevant to the task
we were working on and I wanted to know how the students were
thinking. I did use some closed questions referring to some
questions on our task sheet as I wanted to know where the
students were with their understanding and what I did and didnt
need to explain and/or elaborate on.
I made use of different question types to aid the students to think
more about the task at hand when they struggled with the work, to
prompt them when first answering the worksheet, to keep them on
task when they started to talk amongst themselves about other
things.

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 recognise a pattern in that I kept repeating the same

questions; what does this word mean?, what are some
examples of this?, can anyone think of where they have seen
this?. I think the reason for this pattern is because I was trying to
really in force the meanings of the concepts so the students would
understand them.

How have you directed

questions to the group?

I directed questions to the group by asking them things as a

whole, looking at all of them as I spoke, and making sure to say
things in a sense that included all of them.

Have you used wait time?

Yes, I used wait time a few times. I would stop what I was talking
about until all the students in the group were paying attention.

Did you make eye contact

with the group as you
directed your questions?

Yes, I did make sure to make eye contact with the group while
asking them questions, and I would keep eye contact student if I
was asking them something directly.

Reactions to Students Responses

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

How do you deal with

incorrect responses? How
do you deal with students
who stumble and grope for
an answer?

What use do you make of

the students responses to

When a student answers correctly, I tell them that they

answered correctly, and I say well done, and tell them that
they can right that answer down. Or I tell them they have
done a good job on that question, good thinking etc.
If a student answers incorrectly, I tell them that isnt the
answer but I then discuss with them why it was wrong and
go over the right answer. I praise them if they did get some
of the process right. If students stumble and grope for an
answer, I gently prompt them, I will go back to an example I
used before if possible and I try to work with them
separately so they can get the right answer.
I expand on the students responses and then relate them back to
the point/task we are working on.

develop the teaching point?

Have you redirected any
questions in order to add to
an initial response?

Are you the only evaluator

of the students answers?

I was initially but then the teacher will go over the answers with
the students later on.

Overall Comments
I think personally I did well with distributing questions for my first time in a
secondary classroom, working with older students. I do admit that I could have
had a wider range of questions, if I had been better prepared so that I had a better
understanding of the topic and ask better questions appropriate to the topic, but I
did the best I could with what I had and I did ask a fair amount of questions that
helped the students to understand better. I think I may have asked to many can
you please explain type questions, as I should have let the students work on their
own a little bit more first.

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?

My lesson plan was mostly effective for managing the class, but I
had to use wait time, and keep my voice at a medium volume to
keep the class on track and paying attention.

e.g. How did the students

react to your lesson overall
and to your planned
activities?

The students reacted really well to my overall lesson and to the

planned activity. They were keen to answer all questions I asked
them, seem interested in the activity and worked at a steady pace.

Did anything unexpected

happen?

No, everything was kept calm and relativity as planned.

Did you provide a variety of I did not provide a variety of activities but I did have a worksheet
activities?
ready, with a variety of different questions on it, and also a few
different paragraphs of information the students needed to answer.
Were you satisfied with
I was satisfied with my timing for my whole class lesson, as I
your timing, particularly for pretty much kept to the schedule I had written up in my lesson
the end of the lesson?
plan, and everything got finished in the time planned.
Did you feel you were able
I couldnt change the worksheet for the lesson set because it was
to change things if needed?
already set and it was part of the classs set learning outline. But I
could change how we worked on the questions, how long the
lesson went for, if I had really needed to stop the lesson I would
have been able.
Were you aware of
I was aware of how the classes worked in the ways of what time
classroom procedures and the students came into the class and how they were settled and
school disciplinary policy?
such. I had a look at the school disciplinary policy but wasnt
How much did you know
informed by any teacher of what I would need to do in a situation
about your students?
where discipline needed to be enforced. I was however told about
the ethos policy that the school has, and how students are treated
How did your mentor
more adult and responsible for their own actions.
teacher maintain a safe
learning environment?
My mentor teachers both maintained a safe learning environment
What strategies did your
for me by making sure they were always in the room if they
observe your mentor
thought I was not safe by myself, and by having me teach their
teacher using to maintain
most well behaved class.
this?
They maintained a safe learning environment overall by keeping
professionally stern but friendly with all students and making sure
everyone was always keeping under control and not overly noisy.
The classes I observed didnt really have any threats to a safe

learning 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.

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.
Did the students know what
was expected of them?

Were you able to redirect

energies of attention
seeking students? Did the
students have enough
to do?

I demonstrated to the students that I valued them and enjoyed

learning by making jokes when I stumbled on a word or spelt
something wrong, by laughing with the students when they
would make a brief joke, by keeping my voice at a neutral, friendly
tone and never hostile. I also kept my facial expressions calm,
making sure not to show I also nervous, and mostly smiling.
I also talked to the students individually, making sure to keep my
body language calm and friendly, asking them about the task at
hand and prompting and assisting if they needed it.

I think the fact that I was so willing to help the students and that I
kept my manner friendly and kept my volume loud enough for
everyone to hear but not overly loud, and that I talked to the
students in a firm, direct way helped me to maintain the class
attention. Also that I made sure the students felt involved, asking
as many students as I could to answer examples and read out
things for me, as well as defining words for me.

The students did know what was expected of them because I told
them at the start of the lesson that we would be completing the
activity they had started the day before. The questions were on the
activity and they did know to answer them, but they werent
always sure what exactly the question expected of them. I think
this was more because they were ESL students.

There wasnt any highly attention seeking students in my class,

however there was one student who would constantly call out
answers without me calling on him directly. I think this was also
because he sometimes wouldnt fully understand the question, but
also because he wanted to be recognised. I dealt with this by
listening to his answers and then quickly calling upon someone
else, and by talking to him about the questions and individually
getting his examples. The students definitely had enough to do, as
they didnt end up completing the activity in time.

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?

Did you take any action

when you observed poor
behaviour? Why? Why
not?

Did you use non-verbal

cues? e.g. Contact, pause,
gesture, movement toward
student/s concerned.

I was mostly aware of what was happening in all parts of the

classroom, as it was not a big class and the desks were arranged in
a square almost, so no backs were to me. I did basically know what
each student was doing, as I could see them all from my position
at the front of the class or walking around the desks to see how
they were going on the worksheet.

I didnt observe any poor behaviour. Most of the students were

either mature age, plus all knew how to act in a mature,
appropriate manner.

II did use verbal cues. I made eye contact with a student when I
was waiting for them to do something, I paused when the students
would talk while I was explaining something, and I used wait time
when the pauses didnt work.

Overall Comments
Overall, I was very lucky in the way that all the classes I observed and taught the
students were either mature aged or at least knew to keep in with the adult
behaviour and behaved maturely and politely.
A lot of the students in the school were keen, almost excited to listen and learn,
and that made the experience better for me, and definitely contributed to
making the lesson a lot easier for me.
I did realise that I have a lot to learn in the way of managing myself even, in my
body language and the way I talked to students as a whole, because I was very
nervous with older students, and I learnt that giving the students a chance to
work on things themselves before you discuss it with them is very important.

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).

What were the roles and

responsibilities of the teaching
staff you observed?

The school did not have a huge amount of students that I

witnessed, but I think that would be normal as it is mainly
a year 11 and 12 campus. The majority of the students
were students who had graduated from the Intensive
English Centre that was located on the campus, or
students who were not from that centre but did come from
backgrounds where English was not their first language
and they tended to struggle a bit with English. The
appearance of the school was very professional and well
looking, it had all the classrooms set out in terms of
subjects, and all the gardens, grass areas and the oval
were kept tidy and nice looking. There wasnt rubbish
littered around. The buildings, despite being quite old,
were all kept looking professional and not at all like they
were falling apart or wearing.
The school was not lacking in resources, having all
appropriate books at hand for subjects, printers,
photocopiers and scanners all at hand, up to date and
working well.
There were computers for students to use in every class,
and a case of laptops in the classroom were always at the
ready.
Teresa Porter- ATAR Economics, ATAR Modern History
and General Modern History.
Teresas role was to teach her subjects to her students as
best as you could. She would use resources (video clips,
pictures, documents) for the students to study and use
while they worked, and then to go over the students
worksheets once theyd started on them, and explain the
questions, and the answers they had given her. Her role
was to relate to her students, to engage them in the
subject, but also to make sure she came across as a
teaching figure. Her responsibilities were to make sure her
students understood the given material as best as they
could, constantly asking questions and prompting them, to
see what level their understanding was at.
Teresa also had to do things like yard duty, grading
papers, completing her online unit teaching duties,
photocopying, constructing lesson plans according to the
curriculum and where her students were as a whole
academically, keeping track of the role and absences etc.
Nicole- ATAR Literature, General Literature and General
Economics.
Nicoles role was to teach her subjects to the students as
best to her abilities, so that they would learn the subject.
She made sure to keep things in the simplest, most

After discussion with your

mentor teacher describe how
policies and processes of
government, administration and
schools have an effect on the
work of the teacher?

descriptive way possible if she had a class of intensive

English students, and she even changed a lot of the work
to suit her students better. Her role was to teach the
students her subjects in a way they would take notice, but
also to give them the resources and the knowledge so that
they could do a lot of it on their own.
Her responsibilities included choosing and changing
classwork in keeping with the curriculum but also to her
students academic standards. Her other responsibilities
were also the same as Teresas other responsibilities; yard
duty, photocopying, keeping role etc.
After discussing these issues with my mentor teacher,
policies and processes of government, administration and
schools give a teacher a huge extra workload that doesnt
involve actual teaching or preparing, planning for it etc.
They have to keep to all the administrative standards of
schools, keeping up to date with roll checks, absences,
late notes etc. They have to make sure they attend
professional development days, have all the necessary
government checks and complete ethics modules. In the
words of my mentor teacher it is very buereactic and it
adds to our workload and takes away time from actual
teaching matters.
But, my mentor teacher did add that it does enhance
professional standards.

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

The diverse nature of my classes that I observed was

mostly that there were a lot of students who had English
as a second language and had only recently started
studying in Australia, or studying at all. Also there were a
fair few mature age students in the classes I observed.
This diversity was supported by the teachers giving as
much extra support as they could in helping students with
technology, and with constructing and understanding
English. The teachers would make sure to explain things,
and ask all questions, in terms as simple as possible.
Also, the teachers would always give examples, explain
their examples and give the students time to think for
themselves. The teachers would give the students who
struggled with their English some concessions when they
had not given proper answers for their tasks as the
teachers understood these students had trouble
translating their thoughts into English, as long as the
teachers knew the students had a good understanding of
what tasks they were completing.

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

The only connection I observed of the school having with

the broader community was when FoodBank provided
lunches for the students two days a week (the days the
canteen was not open) at a low and affordable price.
Other than this, there wasnt any other connections I
observed of the school having with the broader community.

What do you think the function

of school is?

I think the function of high school is for the students to

further their education in less general subjects than primary
school. The subjects are more focused, and as the students
get older, the more they get to pick what they would like to
study. High school is focused more on the expectation that
the students know how they are expected to act, know the
levels of respect and responsibility they should be showing.
The students have a much higher level of responsibility, like
showing up to all their classes and completing all
assignments and homework that is expected to be
completed at home and handed in by the due date.
High schools are a lot more social interaction for the
students and the schools function is also to help the
students learn to balance their social lives and their
learning, a lot of which becomes more and more
independent as they get older and progress up the school.
Another big function of high school is to prepare students
for what working life will be like, and preparing students for
university.

What did you observe non-teaching staff doing

to support teaching and learning in the school?

The non-teaching staff I observed were one

EA and the administration staff. The
administration staff support teaching and
learning in the school by organising all visitors,
like relief teachers, handling signing in and out

sheets, as well as tracking absences.

The biggest support of teaching and learning I
observed was by the principal and deputy
principals.
I didnt observe them personally but I do know
that they worked all day, every single day,
catching up on what the teachers needed,
having classes monitored to see what was
working in classes and what needed to be
changed. The principal and deputy principals
worked on the general upkeep of the school,
making sure they knew what was going on at
all times, approving changes and excursions
and incursions and other upper level
administrational duties the administration staff
didnt deal with.