Video Observation

Notetaking Tool
Observers name: Anna Boldt

Lesson observed: Lindsay

Donahoo
Purpose: To provide a framework for reflection and collaborative conversations about
teaching and learning.
Directions: Read over the guiding questions below. As you view the video, jot down notes
about what you see and hear. Note any examples or evidence to support answers to the
questions.
Student Engagement/Classroom
Involvement
1. How are students involved in the
lesson?
What is the extent of student
involvement?

2. Were there opportunities for

students to
ask questions? What kinds of
questions
were they asking?
How did the teacher help

Notes
Teacher asked questions, activated prior
knowledge, and discussed word families.

Yes, students were able to answer and ask

questions throughout the lesson. Teacher
asked, Does anyone remember what word
family we talked about last week?

students make connections to

what they were learning?

3. Describe the interaction in the

classroom.

Student Learning
1. What evidence do you see that
indicates student learning?
2. Was the learning outcome
explicitly conveyed to the
students?

Students followed the teacher well,

participation was high, and the teacher gave
encouraging feedback throughout.

Notes
Students participated well. The teacher used
strategies such as identifying similarities,
reinforced student effort, and provided
visuals.
Yes, the teacher explained that the students
were going to learn a new fact family.

3. What evidence did you see that

the learning goals were achieved?
4. How did the teacher monitor
student progress?

Students finished a Thanksgiving themed

word family worksheet as the assessment.
They had to only glue the feathers on that
had un words on them.
The teacher walked around and observed the
students work. She monitor where students
were struggling and helped when needed.

Instruction
1. What is the teacher doing?
(Facilitating, lecturing, colearning, etc.)
2. How was content/concepts
presented to students? Was there
adequate explanation of the
concepts to ensure student
learning?

Co-Learning with the students.

More explanation could have been used.
However, students have been exposed to
word families before so they understood what
they were and how they worked.

3. What kinds of questions did the

teacher ask?
What questions provided
opportunities for students to
explain, defend, compare,
evaluate?
Did the teacher wait for
responses? Probe for deeper
understanding?

Do you remember the word family we did

last week? What do you remember about it?
Who is ready for Thanksgiving?

4. What tasks are students doing?

Did the students have the
opportunity to practice their new
knowledge or skill? Did the
practice help support the learning
outcome?
5. How did the teacher manage the
learning environment?
(Procedures, securing attention,
time on task, etc)

Students are segmenting and blending

sounds into words.

Teacher could have pushed the students

more by asking harder questions or have
them come up with un words on their own.

I did not observe any practice extra practice.

However, the instructor did have student
interaction when she was teaching. Students
read the sounds together and blended the
words together.
Teacher maintained good eye contact with
the students. She modeled a calm voice. The
students did not get out of hand and were
fully engaged throughout the lesson.

Feedback

3-2-1

3 Affirmations based on the observations and evidences above:

Good use of visuals
Fantastic feedback and praises
Teacher tone is great: calm, collected, and understanding
2 Questions for Consideration:
How could you have pushed the students to a higher level of
thinking?
How could the differentiation section be implemented in a way so
that the teacher is not doing the task for the students, but more so
re-teaching the lesson but in a different way?
1 Recommendation:
The teacher could have more enthusiasm in the engagement and
throughout the lesson.