Observation Notes Thursday October 11th, 2012 10:30 am: Students entered the room and prepared for

mathematics lesson 10:34 am: Students began working on the Daily Problem of the Day. What was the primary purpose of the DPD? Review work or Focus work? The Daily Problem of the Day provided students with a mixed review of various objectives 10:44 am: Teacher informs students that they will go through the homework from the night before. Students were assigned a page in their Envision workbook that focused on multiplication properties. While going through homework the students appeared to have had very little to no difficulty completing the homework. Teacher did an excellent job of using the results of the homework to pinpoint misunderstandings. Could this data have been used to possibly differentiate? 11: 06 am: Teacher opens the lesson by reviewing the different multiplication properties. If the students were asked, Why is it important/helpful to know and understand the various multiplication properties what would they say? Next students were asked to define the various properties and give an example of each one. The teacher incorporated technology by utilizing the visual learning animation and guided practice interactive tools of Envision Math. 11:14 am: Teacher begins the guided practice part of the lesson. At this point the lesson begins to shift from multiplication properties to using mental math to multiply. Was this purposeful?

Things to consider: 1. Spend less time going through homework and Daily Problem of the Day. This will allow you to devote more instructional time on student application 2. If students did not receive immediately confirmation when they gave you responses, do you believe some of them would have changed their answers? Some students seemed very unsure of their responses. 3. Anticipate misconceptions students may possess and ensure there is adequate time to clarify them. (i.e. multiple vs. factor)

4. Use assessment growth charts to ensure that students are taking more ownership of their learning and academic progress. 5. Double check teacher resources to ensure that they are aligned to Common Core Standards/Essential Standards.

Class consisted of 26 students 17 girls and 9 boys During the observation time from 10:30 am-11:22 am (52 mins) there was a total of 14 mins in which there was no talking by the students or the teacher. Of the remaining 38 minutes the teacher utilized a total of 29 minutes to provide students with direct instruction, guiding questions, feedback, etc. The remaining 9 minutes were used by students to share their responses with the class.