Observation Sheet Questioning

(Please complete this form for both primary and secondary professional experiences and
place in your ePortfolio)
Graduate Standards - AITSL
Professional Knowledge:
Professional Practice:
learning

1. Know students and how they learn

2. Plan and implement effective teaching and

Question Type

Do you feel your questions

were clearly structured and
readily understood by the
students?

I felt the students clearly understood my questions. I had a range of

questions and I felt they were thorough and the students really had
to think about them before they could write their answers down.

Did you use a variety of

question types?

I used three main question types, convergent questions, divergent

questions and evaluative questions and directed them at students
who looked like they were shy to answer or who didnt have their
hands up

What balances was there

between the various
questions types?

Because the class I was teaching was a lower level class of year
sevens meaning they were the students who were at risk of
dropping out, I had a minimum on one questions per questions
type.

Consider both why and

when you made use of the
different question types?

At the beginning of the lesson I used divergent questions because I

wanted the students to recall what they had learnt in poetry and
the different types of poetry devices. At the end of the lesson I
used evaluative questions to sum up why a poet would use these
poetic devices.

Distributing and Directing Questions

Have you used wait time?

When I was distributing the questions to the students, I noticed

that the same students always had their hands up to answer
questions because it was the same students I took for my smaller
group activity and they were comfortable with my teaching them
compared to the other students who werent comfortable and it
was their first time as having me as their teacher.
I directed my questions by asking students that didnt have their
hands up to make sure that everyone was included but to also
show them they didnt have to be scared of me or scared of getting
the answers wrong.
I used a lot of wait time as it was a lower level class and the
students took longer to grasp what was being taught.

Did you make eye contact

with the group as you
directed your questions?

I constantly used eye contact especially when I was asked

questions and when I was asking the questions. I used eye contact
when students were not paying attention when questions were
being asked to bring them back on task.

Did you recognise any

pattern in the distribution of
your questions amongst the
students? Consider
reasons for this pattern?
How have you directed
questions to the group?

Reactions to Students Responses

How do you deal with
correct responses? Do you
qualify any praise given?

How do you deal with

incorrect responses? How
do you deal with students
who stumble and grope for
an answer?

What use do you make of

the students responses to

Students that gave correct response to a question got a well done

but I would also include the rest of the students and see if they
thought the student answered correctly.
I told students that gave incorrect responses that they had a good
go or it was a good try but to see if they could think a little bit
more about the answer. I would also tell them they were on the
right track (if they were). I would ask the rest of the class if they
could help the student out.

I would guide them to the answer I was looking for by asking

various easy answers to get to the initial one. I would also tell
them they were on the right track and they needed to think about

develop the teaching point?

Have you redirected any
questions in order to add to
an initial response?

Are you the only evaluator

of the students answers?

the response a little harder. I also had students writing down the
responses so they could use it at a later date.

In both my small group and whole class lesson I was the only
evaluator of the students answers.

Overall Comments

Observation Sheet Management

(Please complete this form for both primary and secondary professional experiences and
place in your e portfolio)
Graduate Standards AITSL

Professional Practice:
1. Create and maintain supportive and safe learning environments
2. Planning for Effective Management

Was your lesson plan

effective for managing the
class?
e.g. How did the students
react to your lesson overall
and to your planned
activities?

I found that my lesson plan was very effective for managing my

class, it detailed how the class would run and exactly what the
students were doing. Students reacted well to my lesson overall
especially my whole class lesson which they seemed to really
enjoy. There were no students who didnt want to participate in the
lesson.

There was one unexpected incident where one of the students I

was teaching was having a massive problem with school and was a
constantly disruptive student. However, when I taught the lesson
Did anything unexpected
the student was well behaved and though she did have a few
happen?
problems she concentrated longer in my class than in her actual
Did you provide a variety of teachers. The incident came when she decided to give up on her
activities?
work and close off to the rest of the class and keep to herself and
drift off. The teacher said it was normal and that she was surprised
Were you satisfied with
the student even listened in and participated for as long as they
your timing, particularly for
did.
the end of the lesson?
Because these students were at risk of dropping out I kept the
Did you feel you were able
to change things if needed? workload to a minimum as I realised that these students would
take longer to grasp what I was teaching them.
I was satisfied with both lessons. I found the timing was perfect
and there was a balance of different types of work for the students
so they didnt become restless.

Were you aware of

classroom procedures and
school disciplinary policy?
How much did you know
about your students?
How did your mentor
teacher maintain a safe
learning environment?
What strategies did your
observe your mentor
teacher using to maintain
this?

Having had prior experience in primary school I felt more

prepared for high school even though the year group was
completely different and didnt need to change anything.
Before our lessons we were made aware of all the class room
procedures by the mentor teacher, and we were given a brief idea
as to how the classroom runs
My mentor had three main strategies to ensure that the students
were well behaved:
First students would be told to stop doing what they were
doing.
Second, if they continued they were sent to withdrawl,
where they would sit in another class for a period of time
Third, if they continued after coming back they were given
detention or suspension depending on the situation

Maintaining a Positive Attitude in the Classroom

How did you demonstrate to
the students that you valued
them, and enjoyed
learning?
e.g. Tone of voice, facial
expression, sense of
humour, introduction to
students and topic.
Which aspects of your
teaching style do you feel
helped you maintain class
attention?

Instead of choosing a boring poem for students to learn from I

chose a poem full of excitement and expression so when I read it
they enjoyed themselves while learning. I was constantly smiling
and encouraging them to keep trying. My tone was always soft
and I didnt have to raise my voice, I was welcoming and open to
all answers and kept a bright facial expression. I made eye contact
with all of them.

I liked using whole class discussion because the students didnt

feel like they had to fight for my attention. I also kept the interest
of the lesson high, so there were never board, such as with the
poem.

e.g. Variety of activities,

class or group discussion,
pace of lesson, interest at
class level.
Did the students know what
was expected of them?

Were you able to redirect

energies of attention
seeking students? Did the
students have enough
to do?

Students were told a week in advance that they would be having

prac teachers coming into the school and teaching them a lesson so
they knew how to behave and didnt give any attitude and were
respecting.
I redirected the students who were seeking attention because they
finished all their work to the other students who could use their
help. This rarely happened as the students were fully engaged in
what they had to do and there was a lot that needed to be done.

Dealing with Minor Misbehaviour

Were you aware of what
was happening in all parts
of the classroom? Did you
know what each student
was doing?

I was standing in front of the class and had a good view of

everyone in it and what they were all doing. I also walked around
the room while they were doing their work to see if they were still
concentrating and to find out if they were doing alright or if they
needed help.

Did you take any action

when you observed poor
behaviour? Why? Why
not?

I tried to talk to the student that became withdrawn to herself and

tried to get her back on track. I decided to leave the student as the
teacher said to just continue as this was a normal thing with that
student.
While walking around if I noticed a student too busy talking or
was busy doing something else they shouldnt have been I would
make eye contact and hold it until they took the hint that they
were doing something wrong. I would also walk up close to them
and they would go back to work

Did you use non-verbal

cues? e.g. Contact, pause,
gesture, movement toward
student/s concerned.

Overall Comments

Schools as text looking at the whole school

Describe the school in terms of
its demographics, appearance
and resources (be general here
and do not name the school).

What were the roles and

responsibilities of the teaching
staff you observed?

After discussion with your

mentor teacher describe how
policies and processes of
government, administration and
schools have an affect on the
work of the teacher?

The school was large and consisted of approximately 1000

students. It was a double story school that had a massive
oval. Most of the building were old as the school was old
and did have older computers compared to the other
schools which have newer ones.

Behaviour management
Rewards and punishment
Various methods of teaching had to be used to keep
students interested
Classroom management
Teachers would also have to listen to the students if
the students were having rough time or even just a
bad day
Because the school was an independent public school it
was mainly the administrations policies and processes that
had an affect on the work of the teacher. The teachers
found this both good and bad as they still had to
incorporate the Australian National Curriculum but also the
curriculum of the school.

What did you observe non-teaching

staff doing to support teaching and
learning in the school?

We had non-teaching staff such as an EA, who were very

helpful especially when dealing with aboriginal students
and students struggling with school. They were there to
sit down with the students and make sure the students
were on task and didnt leave it for just the teacher.

Students
You will have observed the
diverse nature of your classes.
How was this diversity
supported?

The teacher catered for diversity using different methods

of teaching. There were worksheets, dictation as well as
visual diagrams. The teacher also made students aware
that if they misbehaved they would be seated in a seating
plan.

Function of Schools
Did you observe the connection
of your schools with the
broader community? How did
this happen?

This secondary high school was very much connected to

the broader community but having a public education
centre where student who teachers felt were seriously
struggling with school could go and sit tests to see if they
qualify and if they did they entered that program. They are
also connected though specialist sports programs such as
netball, rugby and basketball.

What do you think the function

of school is?

The function of school is for students to try their best and

learn new concepts and for them to find themselves as a
person. It is to achieve acceptance, gain friends, and get
to know the people in the world and to meet others who
are on the same journey as you. The function of school is
to teach you about the real world and what you might find
out there and how to deal with some of the issues and
how you can use all your maths and English outside of
school.