Observation Sheet Questioning

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

Some of my questions were clearly structured but there were some

questions especially during my whole class lesson, I thought were not
very specific enough. And this was made clear by the wide rage and
the depth of the answers I received from my students.

Did you use a variety of

question types?

Yes I did ask a variety of question form my students. I did ask a lot of
low level thinking questions at the start of the lesson and added the
high level thinking questions towards the end of the lesson but I dont
think there was enough higher level thinking questions in my lesson
conclusion.

What balances was there

between the various
questions types?

I did have a verity of higher and lower level thinking questions in my

small group lesson but I dont think there was enough higher level
thinking questions in my whole class lesson. The lower level
questions were used to get the students attention and to get them
interested in the lesson and the higher level question were used to
check their understanding of the lesson and to reflect and think on
what was taught in that lesson.

Distributing and Directing Questions

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

I tend to ask question form students who werent paying attention

or form the students who seem to be distracted from the lesson. I
did this to get those students to reengage in the lesson and I asked
questions from the students who were well behaved during the
lesson.

How have you directed

questions to the group?

I started my question with low level thinking question and as the

lesson progressed I went from lower level of thinking to higher
level thinking questions but I asked a lot of lower level thinks
questions through the lesson to cater all of my students.

Have you used wait time? Yes, I gave my students time to think about the question and to
come up with an appropriate answer.

Did you make eye contact

with the group as you
directed your questions?

Yes, I did make eye contact and maintain eye contact with my
students throughout my lesson. The only time I looked away was to
check my notes and to write on the white board.

Reactions to Students Responses

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

Phrased them, whenever a student gave an answer phrased them

even though some of them were incorrect I still phrased them for
trying.

How do you deal with

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

I parsed all the incorrect answers to keep the encouraged and not to
let them down for trying. When the students were groping and
stumbling I paused the lesson and reminded them about their
behaviour and asked the question again from the group.

Murdoch University
2

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?

My questions were not specific enough. I would make my

questions more specific and extremely clear for next time. With
questioning I need to simplify and elaborate more. There were
several times where I had to redirect the question and explain it in
a simpler language in order to get a response.

Are you the only evaluator

of the students answers?

No I am not the only evaluator of the students work; their peers

(other students), parents and other teachers are some other
evaluators of the students work. Most importantly I believe that the
student themselves are their own evaluators.

Overall Comments

Murdoch University
3

I need to be more specific with my instructions and need to remember the age of my students
epically when timing my lessons. The whole class lesson went a bit longer than anticipated,
because of this during the lesson some students got distracted and were not actively engaged
in the lesson. I need provide my students with more positive feedback and need to phrase
them more. Lastly I need to add higher level thinking questions on to my lessons and epically
to my lesson conclusions. Observation Sheet Management
(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?

My lesson plan was not very effective with managing the class. But
there were some aspects of the plan that worked. I need to think
more about behaviour management when creating other lesson
plans. The students reacted positively but I think they were a bit
e.g. How did the students
confused at the start of the lesson and that was because of my
react to your lesson overall lesson staring activity but as the lesson progressed they understood
and to your planned
what they were doing and what I wanted them to do.
activities?
I was a bit surprised by the behaviour of the students, I had to use a
lot of behaviour management skills to get their attention throughout
Did anything unexpected
the lesson. I provided them with a variety of activities. There were
happen?
three activities in the lesson so students got to move around for a
bit as well as sitting down and completing a work sheet. I was not
Did you provide a variety
satisfied with the timing of the lesson, the activities took longer
of activities?
than initially planned and as a result the lesson was too long I had
to rush through the conclusion. I had to move some of my activities
Were you satisfied with
around as I went through my lesson because of the time and the
your timing, particularly for lack of students actively engaging in the lesson to get the students
the end of the lesson?
reengaged in the lesson.
Did you feel you were able
to change things if needed?
Were you aware of
classroom procedures and
school disciplinary policy?
How much did you know
about your students?
How did your mentor
teacher maintain a safe
learning environment?
What strategies did your

Murdoch University
4

Yes I was aware of the class room procedures and the standards.
My mentor teacher walked me through all the behaviour
management skill and the class and school rules all the students
were aware of and flowed. As the result of this I knew a lot about
my students and their backgrounds. My mentor teacher was
excellent at maintain a safe learning environment. She used
pausing, super six sitting style and time out to maintain a safe
learning space.

observe your mentor

teacher using to maintain
this?
Maintaining a Positive Attitude in the Classroom
How did you demonstrate to Form the first day I stared talking to them, about their interests and
the students that you valued hobbies. I used a lot of positive facial expressions, providing small
them, and enjoyed learning? encouraging feedback, going around the class and asking questions
from students. Using a positive and friendly tone of voice. Daily
e.g. Tone of voice, facial
greeting them and addressing the students by their names.
expression, sense of
humour, introduction to
students and topic.
Which aspects of your
teaching style do you feel
helped you maintain class
attention?

Keeping a medium pace when going through lesson was helpful in

maintaining their attention. Class discussions helped me in
maintaining their attention. Also, some behaviour management
skills were used throughout the lesson to 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?

At times yes, the instructions I gave was not clear enough, then I
repeated the instructions more elaborately form that understood
what they were expected to do during the lesson.

Were you able to redirect

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

Yes I was able to redirect students several times during my lesson.

Yes they did have enough work but I think I gave them too much
work to do in a small time period because some students did not
finish the activity.

Murdoch University
5

Dealing with Minor Misbehaviour

Were you aware of what
Yes I was aware of what was happening in the class room and I
was happening in all parts
was going around the room during my lesson to check what my
of the classroom? Did you students were doing and to make sure they were on task.
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.

Yes I did take action, I moved a student to a different spot because

of his poor behaviour and because he was distracting the other
students. I did that to make to set example and remind the class on
acceptable behaviour in the class room.

Yes, I did use non-verbal cues all throughout the lesson. I used
pausing, contact, eye contact, gestures and proximity.

Overall Comments
There were several times throughout the lesson were I had to pause the lesson to maintain
class room attention, but by applying the behaviour management skills I learnt through
observing previous lessons, I managed to regain their attention and continue my lesson.

Murdoch University
6

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?

This school was well equipped with enough resources for

all students. There was a safe and welcoming learning
environment, and this was present all throughout the
school.

The teaching staff was responsible for all aspects of the

students wellbeing, heath and safety as well as their
education from the moment they get to school and until
they are handed back to their parents or guardians. They
were responsible of teaching the students life skills in
behaviour, language and nutrition. Each teacher was
responsible of their students improvement in their
academic achievements throughout the year.

What did you observe non-teaching

staff doing to support teaching and
learning in the school?

Murdoch University
7

The non-teaching staff helped the students in any way

they could. They helped the teacher with class room
behaviour management and they encouraged students to
actively participate in the lesson. They helped the teacher

in creating a positive learning environment for the

students.

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

Murdoch University
8

In this class there was multiculturally and academically

diverse. This was supported well, all students were treated
the same and were in an incisive learning environment.
With literacy, the all the students were categorised in to
different levels of literacy skills. All students were given the
same work but according to their personal literacy skill
level.

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

What do you think the function

of school is?

Murdoch University
9

There were parent helpers coming in to class and helping

out with guided reading. The nominated parent would come
in a set day each week and would help the teacher with the
guided reading by doing small group reading lessons.

The function of a school is to provide the students with

adequate life skills and this includes literacy, numeracy,
discipline and nutrition. A school should provide a positive
learning environment for the students to enjoy and actively
learn.

Murdoch University
10