1 C Class Observation Tuesday, June 5th

Mel’s Focus Areas: Explicit instruction and attention gaining strategies

Key:

Orange writing= observations

= ideas for you to think about

Explicit  Waited until everyone was on the floor before starting.
Instructions  Ruby- wandering around while you were beginning.
 Do you know about mirroring onto whiteboard from iPad?
 Great location and arrangement (tree) activity.
Have you thought about using 2 sets of the pictures and use it
as a barrier game.
 Demonstrate exactly what it needs to look like- i.e. use a child to play
the game with you (location game and bingo- you didn’t show how
that group might operate).
 Kids really engaged in treasure hunt, used their curiosity as a motivator.
 Overall: Lots of instructions, I think you’re trying to do too much! 
Think about doing two activities that kids are familiar with and
can do independently, this will significantly cut down on
instruction time. Could you have slightly bigger groups so there
are less activities?
 Clear end of day pack up instructions.

Attention  Outside at end of recess- made sure they were quiet when they were in
gaining line before you gave instructions.
strategies  Hat in tray (you asked them to finish your sentence)- great.  Could
also try single words “Hat, drink, circle.”
 Clapped (waited and singled out those who have not stopped)
 Hands on heads was a good idea, some still playing.
 Tell kids where to go, but ask them to wait. I sometimes get them to
point to their next activity until everyone knows where they’re heading.
Any other  4 Bars of volume for iPads
observations to  All very engaged in their activities
chat about  Visual timer on board- Google interactive sand timer
 Trying to get around to all groups, it’s so hard to try and gauge where all
kids are up to.
Might you be better off working with one group (I would have
chosen the tree activity to work closely with) and leave the
others to work independently.
 Group structure (see emailed rotation chart). This alleviates ‘I haven’t
been on the iPad!!!’ It makes it really easy for picking up where you left
off on another day.
 Could you swap one set of student trays with the set of trays that has
the devotion equipment on it? It just means that you have half the class
going to one area and the other half to a different area. Love the tray
buddies though!
 Reflection/ reminders about how we work in independent groups (I
can chat with you about this).

Final thoughts Dear Mel,

You have so many outstanding structures/ organisation ideas present in your

class, I learn lots from you!!! Definitely not a strength of mine! 
There is a really lovely sense of space in your class and the culture is one of fun
and teamwork. You have a lovely rapport with the children too. I think the
group work was an excellent idea, it just means a lot of explaining, the more
activities you have. Remember, you can have kids practising a range of skills
during a maths lesson. I often pull out a number game that they are familiar
with that I can use to pad out a maths rotation and reduce crowd control
(similar to your snakes and ladders game)! All kids were super engaged in the
activities that you had chosen. You are doing a wonderful job and I don’t think
you realise how excellent an operator you are in the classroom.

I look forward to chatting to you about your lesson. There’s so much to

celebrate!
-Renae