PRIMARY OBSERVATION SHEET

Observation Sheet Questioning

Graduate Standards - AITSL
Professional Knowledge:
Professional Practice:

1. Know students and how they learn

2. Plan and implement effective teaching and learning

Question Type

Do you feel your questions

were clearly structured and
readily understood by the
students?

Upon reflection, I feel that the questions that I asked were both clear in
the level of structure, as well as being able to be readily understood by
the students. The reason I feel this way is because the students
appeared to understand the questions that I had asked them and knew
how to answer with an appropriate response to my questions. No
students asked me to repeat questions because they couldn't
understand what was being asked of them and all students were eager
to try and answer the questions. As a result, this lead me to believe
that my questions were clear and readily understood.

Did you use a variety of

question types?

Whilst on my Primary school professional experience, I made sure that

I used a variety of question types. While conducting both my major
and my minor lesson I used a range of what, how, does, when and why
questions to ask the students. This is so that they could develop their
own personal knowledge as well as demonstrate their level of
understanding to me as a pre-service teacher. It is also important to use
a variety of questions so that it can accommodate all students and their
style of learning.

Before my major lesson, my mentor teacher suggested to me that it

What balances was there
between the various questions might be wise to brainstorm a variety of questions that I can use to ask
the students. Upon reflection on the balance of my questions I looked
types?
at my brainstorm sheet and noticed that there was a very nice balance
of the type of questions asked and there was no one dominating form
of question type that was being used.

Consider both why and when I feel that the reason I made use of different question types is because I
you made use of the different wanted to allow the children to be able to have more then just yes or no
questions, as well as give them the opportunity to demonstrate their
question types?
knowledge by explaining to me how a particular process occurs and
works.
I used the different question types throughout the lesson and I feel that
it really depended on how far we were along in the lesson, coupled
with how I perceived the students were travelling with the lesson.

Distributing and Directing Questions

Did you recognise any pattern

in the distribution of your
questions amongst the
students? Consider reasons
for this pattern?

I feel that I didnt really have a pattern when distributing my questions

amongst the students. The reason I feel this way is because I tried to
keep all things fair and choose a student that has not been picked yet to
answer a question. There was one moment in the lesson where I did
notice that I had picked female students three times in a row, so to keep
things equal, for the next few questions I tried to give them to the male
students so that they may have had the chance to answer questions as
well.

How have you directed

questions to the group?

When directing questions in my both my minor and major lesson, I

aimed to ensure that I was clear and direct in what I was asking of the
group. I directed questions buy being very direct so that the students
would know who was being asked and what they were being asked.

Have you used wait time?

I used wait time when asking the class a difficult question so that
they may be able to have a few moments to think about an appropriate
and suitable answer. If students were still unsure of an answer after a
brief moment, I would provide them with one.

Did you make eye contact with Yes, I always tried to make eye contact with the students / groups that
the group as you directed your I was directing questions towards. I did this so that it would be easier
for the students to identify who the question was directed towards, as I
questions?
was unable to learn the names as quickly due to being in a specialist
class. I would use names where I could, but eye contact and gestures
helped me to direct questions easier and help both myself and the
students.

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Reactions to Students Responses

How do you deal with correct With correct responses, I ensured that I told the students things such as
responses? Do you qualify any good job or very nice so they knew that they were on the right
track with their answer and were able to receive some appraisal as a
praise given?
result. I qualify the praise given as it allows students to feel a sense of
pride and happiness that they are doing well.

How do you deal with incorrect When dealing with incorrect responses, I ensure that I always try to
responses? How do you deal encourage the student and thank them for the giving an answer. I will
with students who stumble and then guide them to a more suitable answer where I will try to get them
to assist me in reaching the answer. When it comes to students who
grope for an answer?
stumble and grope for an answer I try to plant an idea of what the
right answer is in their head so that they may be able to reach an
answer by themselves. If this is not the case then I will once again
guide the student to a more suitable answer.

What use do you make of the When students answer a question, I tend to try and use their answer (if
students responses to develop correct) to build and elaborate on the point that I am teaching. In doing
the teaching point? Have you this I feel that it allows students to be able to gain a more in depth
understanding of what we are learning. While doing this I may pause
redirected any questions in
or redirect questions so that I may add to the point that I am teaching
order to add to an initial
on, as well as answering the questions that students may be wanting to
response?
ask before they have the chance to ask it. This helps the flow of the
lesson to go at a more smoother pace as well as help to inform the
students so that they are more knowledgeable on a topic.

Are you the only evaluator of

the students answers?

Whilst on my professional experience I was not the only evaluator of

the students answers as my mentor teacher was kind enough to assist
me in both helping me answer questions to ensure that both I was
correct in my answer, and was able to give constructive feedback and
answers to the students of her class. I really liked this as it made me
feel a little bit safer in the classroom as I was slightly worried that my
knowledge of science may not be as comprehensive with in certain
topics and learning areas.

Overall Comments

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When reflecting on the questioning aspects of my observation sheet and primary practicum, I feel that
the questions and questioning that I used was extremely successful in the lesson in assisting students
in building their understanding of the topic. The questions that I gave allowed students to
demonstrate their knowledge to both myself and others, something that I found very useful.
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

Overall, I feel that my lesson plan was very effective and was well
executed and thought out. The students seemed to be really excited
about the activities that I had planned for them to do. Upon reflection
e.g. How did the students react of the lesson in which I asked the students how they perceived the
overall session, I got large amounts of positive feedback from them
to your lesson overall and to
exclaiming how much fun they had and what in particular they had
your planned activities?
learnt. They enjoyed the interactive aspects of the lesson. During the
lesson nothing majorly unexpected happened that resulted in me
Did anything unexpected
having to think quickly and change my lesson. Whilst there was only
happen?
two activities for the students to complete, the first activity had 4
stations which allowed for the students to move around, stay
Did you provide a variety of
occupied and engaged. The second activity also provided the
activities?
students with two work sheets for them to complete to demonstrate
what they had learnt in their own unique style of graffiti writing.
Were you satisfied with your
timing, particularly for the end of This allowed the desk and workbook components that the children
had to do, to be fun and interactive with their other class mates. They
the lesson?
got to demonstrate their knowledge as well as demonstrate their own
individual styles of art. As a result of these things, I feel that the
Did you feel you were able to
lesson went really well and the lesson plan was effective for
change things if needed?
managing the class in their behaviour
Was your lesson plan effective
for managing the class?

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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?

As a preservice teacher, I knew it would be important to have an indepth understanding of both classroom procedures and the schools
disciplinary policy before conducting my major lesson. When
reflecting on how much I got to know about my students, I feel that I
wasn't truly given an opportunity to get to know them as much as if I
had been in a normal classroom environment. I was placed in a
specialty science class and as a result only saw the majority of the
students for one hour for that week. Being in a specialised class
environment inputted my ability to really know the students, as we
were only there for one week. My mentor teacher was able to keep a
safe learning environment for her class by keeping areas near plants
and animals out of bounds. She marked the out of bounds area and
imposed a rule that one must have a drivers licence to enter the area.
This allowed for the children to look at and observe the animals but
never to touch them or put the animals under stress. She explained to
me that this was for the safety or both the animals and the students.
She felt it was really important to give the children strong boundaries
so they understood what was required of them.

Maintaining a Positive Attitude in the Classroom

I aimed to consistently use a enthusiastic tone in my voice in order to

set up a positive attitude within the class room, as well as trying to use
a sense of humour to develop a positive relationship with the students.
This was so that they were more likely to listen to me, as it was my first
interaction with them because I was in a specialty program. I wanted
e.g. Tone of voice, facial
expression, sense of humour, to find a fun and engaging way to instantly connect with them before
the lesson. By using these two skills I demonstrated to the students that
introduction to students and
I valued them as individuals and valued their learning as primary
topic.
school students. As a result of this, the overall attitude of the students
within the class room was very positive throughout my lesson. This
positive interaction also carried over when saw them when I was on
playground duty.
How did you demonstrate to
the students that you valued
them, and enjoyed learning?

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I feel that my teaching style is a very interpersonal style where I really

try to connect with the students and talk to them during the lesson.
This helps to build a connection with the students and allows them to
feel that I am wanting to help them learn. I feel that the pace of the
lesson, as well as the overall interest that I was able to gain from the
e.g. Variety of activities, class class as a result of my activities, helped me to maintain the attention of
or group discussion, pace of the class throughout the lesson in its entirety. I made sure that I walked
lesson, interest at class level. around the room to see what the students were doing and if they were
confused about the work that they had to do. Nearly all children were
heavily engaged with the set task and gave me their full attention
throughout the lesson. Upon reflection with the students at the end of
the lesson, one student stated that he really liked how I checked up on
him and helped him if he got stuck, whilst another said that I was
interesting to listen to.
Which aspects of your
teaching style do you feel
helped you maintain class
attention?

Did the students know what

was expected of them?

For both my major and my minor lesson, students knew what was
expected of them as I explained the tasks to them and how it may be
carried out. Aside from this, students knew what was expected from
them from a behavioural standpoint as I had explained to them that I
was a teacher just like Miss A and that the rules that she applies with
in her class room were the same rules that I would be applying and
enforcing throughout the lesson. Giving them clear boundaries and
expectations, allows for the children to be given the opportunity to
learn with the knowledge of what is expected of them.This lead to the
students being kind and well behaved.

Were you able to redirect

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

The students had enough things to do throughout the lesson and, as a

result, the students that my mentor teacher had mentioned might try
and seek attention, were very preoccupied, engaged and acted in a
very behaved and suitable manner throughout the majority of the
lesson.
I think it is important to make sure that all children, especially some
who seek more attention, have enough engaging activities to enable
them to stay focused on their learning.

Dealing with Minor Misbehaviour

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Were you aware of what was

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

I feel that I was very aware of what was happening in all parts of the
classroom as I ensured that I was consistently walking around the
classroom so that I could observe the students work and as a result,
have an idea of both how far along the students were in their work, as
well as whether or not they are behaving and being on task. Obviously
as one person I was unable to know what each student was doing at all
times during my lesson, however I did try to keep checking up on all
students throughout the lesson so that I was able to have an idea on
what the student was doing.

Did you take any action when During my lesson, there was only one incident of a child that was
you observed poor behaviour? being poorly behaved. The student, at the end of the lesson, was
refusing to listen, calling out to other students and was being very
Why? Why not?
disrespectful to both myself and her peers with in the class. I gave her a
warning for the first time and exclaimed to the student that if she were
to continue to act like this, then I would move her to sit next to my
mentor teacher (as per the request of my mentor teacher).
Unfortunately I did have to act on the situation after the student
continued to act in an inappropriate manner. After class I pulled the
student aside to check in on her and asked her what she thinks she did
wrong. The student was very apologetic and completely understood
what she did wrong so I felt that there was no need to take any action
after that point.

Did you use non-verbal cues?

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

If particular groups of students were becoming off task or distracting

to others, I ensured that I would move towards them. When walking
towards thew students, they quickly started to become quieter, to
which I would then say to them that its ok to talk in our inside voices
however please do not distract others. In situations where I would pose
a question to the class and everyone would start talking, I would count
down aloud down from 5, as this is the system that my mentor teacher
used to regain the attention from the class.

Overall Comments
Overall I feel that the class management aspects of my lesson plan were very successful. I feel that my
lesson plan was effective in engaging the students as the activities were fun and allowed for students
to be creative. A positive attitude was able to be maintained throughout the whole lesson which aided
me in running a successful lesson. The behaviour of the students, while being outstanding for the most
part of the lesson, was easily managed by making sure that I walked around the class to see all the
students work.

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Schools as text looking at the whole school

Describe the school in terms of its
demographics, appearance and
At the last official count, the school has just over 1000 students
resources (be general here and do which included students that were in both kindergarten and pre
not name the school).
primary. My mentor teacher described the school to me as being
a very bottom heavy schoolwith 7 kindergarten classes and 6
pre primary classes whilst only having 4 year 6 classes. As well
as this, the school has a very large campus that allows for lots of
room to run around and play in many different areas. The school
is a very multicultural school, with students coming from many
different ethnic backgrounds and many ESL students. However
within this diversity, there are only 6 children that were recorded
as being indigenous Australians which is extremely low. The
school has a high number of children with Autism, whose needs
that the school caters for. The school is placed within a suburb
which could be classed as financially well off. The school is also
extremely well funded for resources, as each teacher gets a very
large budget of things hat they are able to spend for their
classroom. The school is a fairly new school that is less than 10
years old and was one of the first schools to be become an
independent public school.They have specialised classes for
Music, Sport and Science.
What were the roles and
responsibilities of the teaching staff Aside from the actual teaching of their students, teachers had
you observed?
many other roles and responsibilities that they had to adhere to.
For example, at my placement school, all teachers were required
to do at least two recess and one lunch duty per week so that
they could manage the behaviour of the students as well as be
the first contact in the area if a serious injury was to occur.
My mentor teacher only had to partake in one lunch time duty per
week, provided that she ran the robotics program where the
students could play with miniature robots at least two times a
week. Aside from this, my mentor teacher was also responsible
for being in charge of the animal program that was ran on the
school grounds, the chicken pen that is placed within the school
and also had to have regular meetings with animal ethics as a
result. She also run the water wise programs and the events that
were held by the program, and lastly was the schools resource
manager. This gave her many different responsibilities that she
had to fulfil that were separate from her teaching her class

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After discussion with your mentor

teacher describe how policies and The main point that my mentor teacher explained to me
processes of government,
about the way her work has been affected, was how the loss of
administration and schools have an Government funding for personal EAs has affected her class
affect on the work of the teacher?
time and teaching. She said that because of the high number of
students with Autism and other special needs that the school
have, coupled with the EAs having to do shift work to cover
them all means that a lot of her students who need EAs don't
receive them in her class. This affects how she has to teach the
class and manage behaviour and sometimes makes the
classroom teaching time more challenging.
The administration staff are currently reviewing where the
schools focus should lie and if they are able to integrate new
topics into their schooling with out having to take away time
from things such as literacy and numeracy.
What did you observe non-teaching
staff doing to support teaching and In my observation of the school, I was able to see many
learning in the school?
examples of how non teaching staff are able to support the
teaching staff. One key aspect is how Education Assistants assist
the teacher in the behaviour management of the class as they are
with the class for a large amount of time. This was very useful for
when we had EAs in our class, as it allowed for the mentor
teacher to be able to focus more on teaching as opposed to
having to continually watch to make sure that all students are
behaving. Non teaching staff were also able to assist the teaching
staff by taking out their student if he was not coping with a
particular class setting or activity. This allowed for the teacher to
continue their lesson and assist other students instead of
continually helping a single student or dealing with them if they
were having a breakdown. Non teaching staff also performed
small tasks to assist teaching staff such as printing out
worksheets or anything else that the teacher may need at the
time. All of these things help to support learning with in the school
as it allows for the teacher to continue teaching and following
along with a lesson.

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Students
You will have observed the diverse
nature of your classes. How was this The diversity that I saw within the different classes that I
diversity supported?
experienced, was seen with in many different aspects of the
school. The school had a very diverse cultural setting with
children that came from many different ethnic backgrounds. As
a result of this, quite a number of students are delayed in their
learning due to a limited knowledge of the english language.
This diversity was supported by giving the heavy ESL students
extra classes/lessons in English and Literacy ,so that have the
opportunity to improve they literacy skills, and as a result have a
substantial increase in their ability to learn.
As mentioned previously, the school also had a large number of
children with autism and other special needs. The diversity of
their learning and abilities were supported by having EAs that
are able to work with them some of the time. Having the EAs
assist with these students, allows for the students to be helped
to stay on task, help out if they have any struggles and to
support their learning so that they may learn at a greater rate.
As I was in a specialty science class, I saw many different
students throughout the week, which allowed me to see how the
school support the diversity of their students. I was impressed
by this and could see how their ethos of being a safe, caring
environment where students and adults feel valued as
individuals was put into practice.

Function of Schools

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Did you observe the connection of

your schools with the broader
Due to being in a specialty science class, the main way that I was
community? How did this happen? able to see the schools connection with the broader community
was through the schools water wise program and chicken pen.
This is because the schools water wise program allows for my
mentor teacher to be able to take all the schools students off site
(on different days / times) so that they may learn about the ways
in which the suburb tries to retain water, how much water is being
used and what they can do to help their suburb to use water at a
lower rate. The chicken pen is also used by the school to sell
eggs (non fertilised) to lower income families at the school so that
the children are able to get a healthy and nutritious food in their
diet.
What do you think the function of
school is?

Overall I feel that the main function of school is all round

development of each individual student so that they may
participate and act as functioning members of society. I felt this
whilst I was a student at school, and after my primary school
experience I still feel this way.

I imagine the way in which this is achieved tough will be very

different to secondary school. Many aspects of primary school
are based on assisting the students in developing their literacy
and numeracy skills, preparing them for secondary school.
Primary schools do still aim to offer an all round development of
the student. The reason I feel this is because primary schools
have their students partake in many specialty classes such as art,
languages other than english, sport, music and science. This
allows the students to gain learn many different skills that they
Reflection think about your
can use in the future. These classes can also help students to
experiences during the week and find topics and subjects that they really enjoy and have a passion
describe how your previous
for. By offering a high multitude of classes within primary school,
experiences have informed your school are able to function in aiding in the all round development
view of teachers and schools. Has of their students.
anything changed?
The school in which I was placed at, I feel does a outstanding job
and aiming for an all round development of the students.

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