FEEDBACK EVIDENCE

Preservice Teacher: Emma Forbes Professional Experience Course: Date: 22nd May 2019
Professional Experience Three
Feedback by: Jared Stern – Mentor Teacher Lesson/Learning Experience: Inquiry/Topics, ELA and SSRW
Observation Focus (Standards/Target): Observation Context:
3.5: use effective classroom communication. 28 Grade 1 bilingual Chinese students.
Graduate Level: demonstrate a range of
verbal and non-verbal communication
strategies to support student engagement.
What went well? (link to APST graduate level where appropriate).
During her time with us Emma utilised a range of both verbal and non-verbal communication strategies to
support student engagement, some of these included:
Verbal:
• Emma worked a lot on her pace and clarity of speech throughout her placement, this was of high
importance as she was working in a class with all EAL/D students. By slowing her pace Emma was able
to encourage higher levels of student engagement as the students were able to follow along with
what she was saying.
• Emma used a lot of enthusiasm and emphasis in her tone when providing the students with
instructions, this was a really effective strategy and it certainly increased student engagement,
because it showed that Emma was excited, which made the students excited as well.
• Emma used a lot of humour in her interactions with the students and during her instructions and
explanations. The students found it very funny when Emma would pretend that she didn’t know the
answer and relied on the students to tell her what they thought the answer was, this strategy was
very effective and made the lesson fun.
Emma also introduced a variety of verbal strategies that she would use to not only to gain the attention of
students, but to indicate to the students that the noise level within the classroom was getting too loud, or
the students were getting off task. These included:
• “Hands on top, everybody stop!” Students stopped what they were doing and put their hands on top
of their heads, this ensured that students were not fiddling with things on their desk or continuing on
with work when Emma wanted them to be listening to instructions.
• “1, 2, 3, eyes on me!” Similar to above, students would have to stop what they were doing and focus
on Emma.
Non-verbal:
• Whilst giving instructions Emma would use a variety of over exaggerated facial expressions that
matched what she was telling the students, this was an effective way to engage the students, and
brought an aspect of fun and humour to the lesson which was effective with the Year One students.
Emma also introduced a variety of non-verbal strategies that she would use to not only to gain the attention
of students, but to indicate to the students that the noise level within the classroom was getting too loud, or
the students were getting off task. These included:
• Clapping sequences that the students then repeated back to her.
• Touching body parts (arms, knees, elbows, head, etc.) students then had to copy her movements to
show that they were focussing on Emma.
• Emma also used the thumbs up/thumbs down strategy to check for students’ understanding about
instructions or a task that she had given them. This allowed her to see whether she had clearly
communicated with the students what was expected of them, from this she was able to identify some
students that may need more explicit instructions or help with the task.
• Emma had good use of eye contact with all students when she was giving instructions.
Areas for improvement: (link to APST graduate level where appropriate)
While Emma has demonstrated her ability to use a range of both verbal and non-verbal communication
strategies, I feel that Emma still needs to work on her voice projection, she is a very softly spoken person, but
sometimes in the classroom the need of a more authoritative voice is necessary.
Feedback provider sign/date Pre-service teacher sign/date

Jared Stern Emma Forbes

5th of June 2019 5 th of June 2019