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Formal Observation

Marta-Malia Blake

NCSU JPLA
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Pre-Conference

Mary Horne is a second-grade teacher who has been a teacher at Riverwood Elementary

for over ten years. She is new to second grade this school year as she was reassigned at the end

of last school year. She has taught Kindergarten, First and Third grades prior to this year. In her

pre-conference, Mary discussed the standards that she would be focusing on for the lesson to be

observed. It will be an ELA lesson using Standard W.2.1-Opinion Writing. She will be using the

OREO graphic organizer (Opinion, Reason, Example, Opinion) with the students to help

organize their thinking. She had designed her class as whole group instruction, then literacy

centers (Lexia, seatwork-OREO graphic organizer, read to self, read to someone, or community

journals or reading group-with teacher). In her reading group, this is when she will pull students

who need additional help with reading and will be focusing on standard RL.2.5-character/setting,

beginning, middle and end of a story.

Observation Notes

Teacher Students

Reads “The Perfect Pet” picture book Ss are sitting on the carpet in front of the
teacher at the front of the classroom.

“Why would it be hard to snuggle?” “Because a cactus has sharp thorns!”

“Are they going to let her get a horse?’ “No, because it is too big.” (prediction)

“Are they going to let her keep a snake?” “No, because it is too slithery” (prediction)
“No, because it is scary” (prediction)
“I have a snake!” (share)

“Are they going to let her keep the dog?” “My dog licks the couch1” (reason)

“So far, what have they not allowed her to Answer in shout outs
keep?” (recall)

Reads in expression and some voice

changing. (expressive reading for
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characterization)

“I want you to think in your head, what is the Take a few minutes to think.
perfect pet.” 100% of students are engaged in sharing with
“Turn to a friend and talk with them.” one another. Ss are enjoying their
conversations.

Eyes on me, 1-2-3 Ss shift attention to the T

“What did your partner say the perfect pet 15/15 hands go up to share about their
would be?” partners.
7 Ss share what their partners discussed.

Shows OREO graphic organizer.

“What does O mean?” Opinion
“What does R mean?” Reason
“What does E mean?” Example
“What does O mean?” Opinion

“We will now get into our literacy groups, Students get into a line to sign their names
sign up using the sign up” into a group using the SmartBoard.

She begins working with her small reading All students can choose their group except for
group with an additional book. Students need the specific reading group the T announces.
are popcorn reading the new book. The transition takes 5 minutes...some
technical difficulty.

Post-Confrerence

Videotaped and conversation reviews all sections of the North Carolina Teacher Evaluation

Rubric. Watch it ​HERE

Reflection

This was a terrifying experience for me. I was able to practice this NC Evaluation Tool

with my Mentor so this wasn’t my first time, but I am not an expert by any means. This was my

first actual post-conference with a teacher. To be transparent, I conducted this evaluation with

my Assistant Principal, but we did not collaborate or discuss our findings. This was a real
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evaluation for this teacher, but my results and my conference with her were only for this

assignment. She had received her post-conference earlier that week. She agreed to this process to

assist me and knew that it was for an assignment. Because of this, I also asked her for her

feedback at the end of our conference, which was very enlightening and provoked some deeper

thinking for my own practice.

I was very nervous, but Mrs. Horne was so gracious and played the scenario as a probable

evaluation situation. Our conversation was authentic and I learned about her process and

reasoning through this dialog. I learned that the lesson that we observed was actually a re-teach,

which is significant. She had previously taught this OREO process a week prior, and I

understood that the students were not able to grasp it the first time, which make so much sense. I

was so impressed that the students were so informed on the day of the observation, I was

impressed. I couldn’t help but think of my own teaching of Sophomores and they were not able

to identify the components of opinion writing. When she shared that it was a re-teach, I was even

more impressed. For Mrs. Horne to acknowledge that round one was not mastered, and knowing

that she had to start all over again shows me that she teaches her students, not just the

curriculum. This is effective teaching, this is exactly what teachers should be doing. Assessing

their students and taking the time to go back if needed, even if it is a lesson that is being

observed.

With this new information, some of the checkmarks I made on her evaluation needed to

be adjusted. I was open and honest with her about it and changed them as we spoke. A great deal

of the Evaluation tool cannot be assessed from the time in the classroom. Mrs. Horne is a quality

teacher, if she wasn’t, this thinking may be very different.

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I am not a proficient evaluator yet. One feedback that Mrs. Horne gave me is that I was

too liberal with my evaluation. Because she had received her official evaluation from Mrs, Dunn,

our Assistant Principal, Mrs. Horne told me that she had not received a “Distinguished”. In my

evaluation, I gave her four “Distinguished” rankings. Mrs. Horne said that it is very difficult to

receive a “Distinguished”. Initially, I felt like I totally blew the evaluation, but then I thought,

“Why?” If a teacher is able to fulfill the “Distinguished” description, then shouldn’t they be

given that rating? I need to dig deeper to understand the philosophy behind this. I am hoping that

when I actually do dig for an answer, I hope that the rationale will be more than just, it is the first

evaluation and they (the teachers) need to show growth. Fundamentally, I disagree with this. If a

teacher is doing all the things necessary for a distinguished, and I observe it, then that is the

ranking they should receive for the specific element.

On the contrary, I felt unease when I told her that I simply didn’t observe enough in her

lesson to give her a ranking other than “Developing”. Clearly, Mrs. Horne is not a “Developing”

teacher, but often she agreed that I didn’t see enough to evaluate her differently. She is very

much a professional to be able to accept and reflect on those elements.

Evaluating a teacher using the NC Evaluation Rubric is not comprehensive enough. I

guess that is why we (Admin) need to have several evaluations throughout the year. The most

effective part of the Evaluation process was the conversation in the Post-Conference. This

allowed me, as an Admin to dive deeper into the thinking of the teacher. I learned so much more

from those twenty minutes then I did by watching the teacher interact with her students. Mrs.

Horne is a great teacher that has created a strong, safe classroom culture. Her students are hungry

to learn from her and appreciate her teaching. I observed second-graders interact, become
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engaged with a story, and independently transition to another activity of their choosing. If this

isn’t exactly what we want our classrooms to look like, feel like and be, then I don’t know what a

successful classroom and a successful teacher should be. As an administrator, I feel like if a

teacher is doing the work of a distinguished teacher, then they should be evaluated as such,

regardless of the time of the year. A great teacher is a great teacher and will always have room to

improve. As an educator recently out of the classroom, I know that one way I could feel

appreciated was that my administrators observed my value. Often, I walked out of the

post-conference feeling less than valued. I just want to be honest and transparent, I don’t want to

be the kind of Administrator that confuses my authority as the authority. I have so much to learn,

especially regarding this evaluation process. I need to do more of these to fully understand the

tool so that I am very fair and honest. That is the best that I can offer my staff.