FORMAL OBSERVATION

Formal Teacher Observation: Investigating Absorption of Soils

Natalie S. Russell

Chico State University

EDTE-265-01: Exploring Teaching and Learning in Diverse K-12 Settings

Dr. David Teja

September 24, 2023

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This teacher applied TPE 1.3 which is, connect subject matter to real-life contexts and provide

active learning experiences to engage student interest, support student motivation, and allow

students to extend their learning. She applied the knowledge of absorption of different materials

to plants. She would ask the students based off the knowledge from the experiment what

material they would use in order to have the most successful plants.

This teacher also used TPE 2.2 which is, create learning environments (i.e., traditional, blended,

and online) that promote productive student learning, encourage positive interactions among

students, reflect diversity and multiple perspectives, and are culturally responsive. She would

tell students they were doing a great job working together and the classroom as a whole was very

calm and under control but it was clear the students were all working together. Also, there were

times where one student wouldn’t know the answer to a question and instead of giving the

answer, she would ask for help from another student in the same group. She also utilized TPE

3.3 which is Plan, design, implement, and monitor instruction consistent with current subject-

specific pedagogy in the content area(s) of instruction, and design and implement disciplinary

and cross-disciplinary learning sequences, including integrating the visual and performing arts as

applicable to the discipline. She used this well-thought out experiment with a variety of tools in

order to show her students the different levels of absorption with different materials. This

teacher also applied TPE 4.7 which is plan instruction that promotes a range of communication

strategies and activity modes between teacher and student and among students that encourage

student participation in learning. She did this by having the students work in groups together,

while also going around and checking and working with and discussing the experiment with each

group. Overall, this teacher successfully applied many different Teaching Performance

Expectations to help her students succeed

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