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Benchmark CFE D

Irving Barraza

College of Education, Grand Canyon University

EAD 530: Improving Teacher Performance and Self-efficacy

Dr. Michelle Otstot

December 20th, 2023

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Benchmark CFE D

When starting their teaching careers, beginning teachers often need a substantial amount

of support to improve their craft. The responsibility of building teachers’ practice lies in the

principal and is often done through observations and the coaching cycle.

Beginning Teacher Observation

For this benchmark assignment, I was able to work with my mentor and a beginning

teacher on my campus to conduct a full coaching cycle. The coaching cycle began with a pre-

conference, followed by an observation, and ended with a post-conference.

Summary

For this assignment, I had the pleasure of observing a new teacher on our campus as she

taught a lesson to her 4th-grade class. Before the pre-conference, as is typical in my district, the

teacher sent me and my mentor her lesson plan. When we had the pre-conference, I first asked

the teacher to explain what it was that we would be seeing during the lesson and she described

what was on her lesson plan. The objective was to describe in-depth the setting in a story using

details from the text. This was her second formal observation and I had prior knowledge that

classroom management and student-to-student as areas for improvement that were previously

identified. I asked what her current classroom management looks like to her and how she would

include student-to-student interactions in the lesson. She said classroom management has

improved a lot with support from the instructional coaches and she was planning a think-pair-

share routine during the lesson. During the pre-conference, I suggested she do an activity to

ensure students know what “setting” is. She was very open to suggestions and even had a few

questions.
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My mentor and I stepped in for her observation I could see she was a bit nervous, but I

was aware my mentor had been helping this teacher over the past few months. Having informal

observations done was not something new to her or her students. After we walked in she got her

student's attention and asked them to quiet down and find their “learning positions.” Per my

mentor, the transition process from one subject to another has improved greatly. She began with

a pair-share asking students to tell their partners where their families are from and how far that

was from here. She then called on a few students to share and then began an activity to identify

the setting. She a few slides with various pictures and text and asked students to share out if they

described the setting. The lesson was smooth, and her students were engaged and participated.

She did several think-pair-share activities like she had discussed and it was evident that her

students were accustomed to turning and talking to their partners.

Her post-conference began with her asking if we liked her lesson. Followed by a sigh of

relief when we both said yes. I began by addressing the activity she did to help students identify

the setting and I asked if she felt it was helpful for her lesson. She said it helped her students

have more specific details during their independent work. She mentioned that while students

worked, she referenced the activity and students would go “ooh” as they made connections. I

moved through each category on the rubric, keeping the conversation positive, and even though

some areas could continue to be refined, like classroom management and monitoring and

adjusting, I felt that critical thinking was the area I wanted her to focus on. She asked her

students a lot of yes or no questions during the lesson and I suggested she include more open-

ended questioning or have partners discuss the “why” to many of her questions. We discussed

DOK level 2 and 3 questions, and how she could differentiate by asking higher-level questions to

specific students or groups,

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Recommendations for Effective Use of Technology

The teacher used the Smart Board effectively by presenting the book as they all read.

This helped students make sure they were on the right page, even if they got lost. To take this

lesson further, and to continue to incorporate technology into her classroom, I suggested during a

re-teach lesson she could have students do Google Earth searches on pre-determined locations

and identify the setting on these locations based on what they see. This would support students

by engaging them in multi-media learning opportunities and providing them with a fun,

structured, learning they can do at their own pace.

Promotion of Collaboration, Trust, and Personalized Learning Environment

This coaching promoted a school culture of collaboration because during the pre and

post-conferences, we discussed together her ideas and I added my suggestions. For the reteach

lesson, we brainstormed different locations that would be interesting for students to look at on a

map and be able to identify details about the setting of those places. Trust was built before I

entered the room with my mentor having already completed multiple class visits. During the

post-conference, I also highlighted specific areas in which she did good and continued to

reference the growth that has been seen. Additionally, this coaching promoted high expectations

by having her work on asking higher-level thinking questions to her students. Engaging them in

these conversations and building their thinking skills will help students make deeper connections

with the text they read.

Self-awareness, Vulnerability, Transparency, and Ethical Behavior

To thoughtfully provide feedback, the evaluator must be transparent with what they saw

during the lesson. Providing specific points that are tied to data guides a conversation better than

relying on memory and guesses. The evaluator must also be vulnerable in accepting they may
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have missed something or weren’t able to observe. Being self-aware is also important to know

the type of observer you are as well as how you relay information back. An evaluator must be

aware if they were being too harsh or nitpicky, and consider better, more meaningful feedback.
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References