Observation Sheet QuestioningPRIMARY SCHOOL

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?

Did you use a variety of

question types?

What balances was there

between the various
questions types?

Consider both why and

when you made use of the
different question types?

Yes, I believe I found a questions that gave them a brief

understanding of the subject I was teaching

I found it difficult to incorporate different question types when the

subject was numeracy related, but I was able to incorporate a
variety of question types

Yes there was, I had each question lead into other questions, giving
an opportunity from students who favoured a particular question
type to have a chance to answer

I tried to make the majority of the questions in the middle of the

lesson, with some lighter questions for the conclusion. Mainly to
reinforce concepts I just taught, and to make sure students were
keeping their attention on the lesson the whole time.

Distributing and Directing Questions

Did you recognise any

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

I found myself trying to focus on students who would normally

misbehave, or become distracted, in an attempt to keep them
engaged with the lesson. Occasionally I would give questions to
the students who were paying attention, usually the more
interesting questions

How have you directed

questions to the group?

I usually found myself using two methods, one is asking students

as a whole group to see who was paying attention, but then
focusing on individual students before asking questions, for more
complex questions.

Have you used wait time?

Did you make eye contact

with the group as you
directed your questions?

I did make attempts to. Going as far as to tell students to wait til I
picked them to answer the questions, or telling individuals to slow
down when they were becoming flustered while trying to answer
too quickly
Yes I did, was difficult in some cases given some students refusing
to sit still, but I found a position in most groups where I could
focus on all students while questioning

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?

I acknowledged their response, and either asked them to

repeat it for the class, or I restated the answer for the class,
giving appropriate praise
Usually I would ask them to slow down, and try to focus,
while restating the question, often just changing the question
incase they were not understanding the language I was
using. Avoid directly referencing their trouble with the
question, by using language like it is a tough one, do you
wish for someone else to try, even simple acknowledgement
of the questions difficulty can make a student less selfconscious about not being able to answer

What use do you make of

the students responses to
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?

Overall Comments

I tried to make any responses from students, expand into

questions or facts, based on the response.

No, occasionally Id have the whole class respond to an answer of

a question, but only after I restate the answer, so the student who
gave the orginal answer is responsible for that answer, but not the
direct focus

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 felt my inexperience with lesson planning played heavily against

me. I was also given a class that were known for being unruly.
Students seemed to react well to me and my lesson plan, dispite
some issues.
Disaster did strike, when I failed to prepare my supplies for a
lesson, and would have taken 1.5-2hrs to fix. Meaning I would have
been unable to complete my lesson at the times set aside for it.

Did anything unexpected

happen?

I tried to focus on one activity, given age and behaviour of

students, I didnt want to have students going ahead in the lesson,
Did you provide a variety of or lagging behind, which I felt was necessary given most students
activities?
seemed to be on similar skill level.
Were you satisfied with
your timing, particularly for
the end of the lesson?
Did you feel you were able
to change things if needed?

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?

I didnt want to focus on timing, given the unruly nature of the

students, and advice given by the mentor for dealing with these
students. Focusing on delivery of lesson over the activities.

I was aware of classroom procedures and school disciplinary

policy, which seemed highly effective when dealing with outbursts
from students.
I did spend the first few days of prac studying the students
behaviour, but also their practical knowledge.
My mentor used things like having an open layout to the class
room and some structure so students knew exactly what they
should be doing as soon as they entered the class room. And the
mentor made sure to try to greet every student as they came into
the class room, occasionally asking questions about their day. The
mentor seemed to try to inforce this idea that they were an adult
the students could talk to about issues they were having.

Maintaining a Positive Attitude in the Classroom

How did you demonstrate to
the students that you valued
them, and enjoyed
learning?

I tried to reflect it in my tone and body language. I also tried to use

soft but stern voice and very accessible language, but not
dumbed down per say, so they understood my expectation of
them, but also make that expectation reasonable.

e.g. Tone of voice, facial

expression, sense of
humour, introduction to
students and topic.

I do feel it is an area I do need to work on

Which aspects of your

teaching style do you feel
helped you maintain class
attention?

I believe presence and tone helped a lot, while using proximity to

control the more unruly students. Since I focused on one activity
per lesson, I could try to adapt it to capture the interest of all
students, rather than dividing up the tasks

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?

I believe so, despite some disorder from students, they understood

what was expected.

I dont think I covered this aspect particularly well, as there were a

couple of students who needed more attention then others, and I
wasnt experienced enough with the students to understand how
to direct them, unlike my mentor teacher

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?

Yes I largely was, but I do have to admit there were times where
the mentor had to provide assistance, be in in only small ways.

Did you take any action

when you observed poor
behaviour? Why? Why
not?

I did, because it was disruptive to other students in the class. And

I felt it was necessary to deal with that student as soon as possible
given past observations concerning this student

Did you use non-verbal

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

Yes, I used a lot of hand gestures, to create a sense of motion to

keep students engaged, but also to direct attention.

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).

It was a very new school in a low socio-economic area. The

school itself seemed very upto date on technology and
learning techniques, staff were very friendly an
approachable. They seemed to cover a wide variety of
students needs.
It seemed that every class covered a wide range of
students skills levels, but where still clustered so no
student was excelling or lingering too far behind other
students. There was also seemed to be a focus on life skills
and technique over fact, having students get into a
structured setting as soon as they were at school, but
having flexibility to tinker with lessons plans.

What were the roles and

responsibilities of the teaching
staff you observed?

The mentor I was assigned seemed to fill the role of

teacher, as well as counsellor and mediator. They seemed
to be more concerned the students diet and wellbeing, as
well as their education, opting to find ways to keep students
from getting restless or distracted during lesson times.
Often the mentor might focus on a student during break
times if the suspect issues at home, and let the student
approach them with the issues, rather than pushing the
suspected issue.
Largely staff where focusing on duty of care to the
students. Creating an element of approachability, meaning
students felt able to approach teachers and other staff
about issues.

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?

There was also an element of Positivity or rather trying to

find a positive spin on an issue. For example, the mentor
found out a student placed their lunch in the toilet, the
student originally lied, but then confessed and even got
their lunch out the toilet (without the mentor asking them
to), the mentor chose to praise the honesty of the student,
rather than the dishonesty, meaning the student came back
to class without any resentment towards the mentor
The mentor has illustrated the fact that a lot of work at this
particular school requires a lot of additional work when new
policies are implemented, and that they become the focus
of teaching methods. Seems to imply a lot of work on the
teacher to integrate these new processed into the class
without disrupting established work flow.

What did you observe non-teaching

staff doing to support teaching and
learning in the school?

The non-teaching staff largely were assisting with duty of

care issues concerning the student. Also assisting the
teacher with resources needed.

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

The class seemed to be placed into groups, based

somewhat off diversity and also to stop students clashing
or causing disruption. It seemed to be so the mentor could
focus on whole groups at a time, rather than individual
students, but enabling that shift to the individual without
alienating the group.

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

Yes I did. There was a field trip to a library.

The focus of which was on the schools book week. Where
students were also taught how to use a library and
appropriate behaviour while in the library.

What do you think the function

of school is?

To teach skills and nurture students into enlightened adults

who know their skills and limitations.
This is a rather broad answer, but I do feel that function of
schools, cant be just as simple as a place to learn.
Schools are becoming the place where students learn
about interaction as well as skills needed inside and
outside the class room, but its also the place where
students gain role models in forms of teachers and other
staff members, so the emphasis on healthy habits and
living is pushed more in schools.
The function of schools, is to teach students how to
function in society, while also giving them skills to
contribute to the society.