FOCUSED PROFICIENCY OBSERVATION #2

Planning & Instructional Delivery

APPRENTICE TEACHER: Kyra Farinas
FOCUS OF OBSERVATION: PLANNING AND INSTRUCTIONAL DELIVERY
DATE OF THE OBSERVATION: 3/3/2021
SUBJECT/GRADE LEVEL/CLASS PERIOD: ALGEBRA 1 HONORS; 7-9 GRADE; 2ND PERIOD
Directions: 1) Watch the video in Swivl that corresponds to this observation. Include annotations in Swivl that
provide evidence for each question. Then, provide a response for each question with the evidence from Swivl by
using the timestamp. After you have responded to each question write a reflection that incorporates your mentor
teacher’s feedback and your own evidence.

RECORD OF THE OBSERVATION BELOW

How does the Apprentice Teacher use subject knowledge to design activities that promote interest,
participation, and learning for all students?
● At 9:21, the students were to fill in the blanks based off of their prior knowledge of special products
that we covered earlier in the unit

How does the Apprentice Teacher demonstrate an awareness of individual student needs and incorporate
specific accommodations to these needs in the lesson plan?
● At 2:36, I rewrite the equation again, making sure that the middle term is a different color so that when
we split the middle term, students who struggled with seeing why are able to see that the factors are
the same numbers.
● At 3:22. 29:53, I reiterate the question that was asked in class to the students online so that they are
able to understand what is being asked in class.
● At 5:47, I realize that Drew has trouble with finishing problems, so I make sure to let him know that this
is where we find our final answer.
● At 6:00, I color code the different factors so that it is easier for the students to see where the numbers
came from.
● At 21:36, I allow myself to stop talking so that a student can voice her thoughts out loud. I realized that
that is how she learns.

How does the Apprentice Teacher demonstrate the ability to teach the subject and cognitively engage all
students in significant learning?
● At 6:19, I show another way to factor the expression since a student had trouble doing it on her own.
This was to show that we can order the middle terms in any way and still get the same answer.
● At 20:38 I discovered a misconception where students do not fully understand what square root means.
I had to remind them that we are finding a number that when multiplied by itself will get 25 instead of
trying to multiply 25 with itself.
● At 38:53, I address the misconception that students will divide by 2 to get the square root rather than
consider what number multiplied by itself will get us the answer.

How does the Apprentice Teacher communicate clearly and articulately?

● At 3:22. 29:53, I reiterate the question that was asked in class to the students online so that they are
able to understand what is being asked in class.
● At 22:10, I remind the students that the activity that we went through is to help them with the lessons,
so they do not need to worry about completing similar activities in order to understand the concept.
How does the Apprentice Teacher use formative assessment techniques to enhance students’ participation
and learning (evident in lesson planning and classroom instruction)?
● At 27:03 and 35:54, I use Check-Ins so that students can assess their understanding about the concept
taught so far.
● At 39:24, I use exit slips to check the understanding of students and provide a space for them to ask
questions that they did not want to ask in class.

How does the Apprentice Teacher demonstrate flexibility and responsiveness to students’ needs during
instruction?
● At 31:02, a student asks what if we used two different numbers instead of using the square root. I take
the opportunity to show what would happen if we used two different numbers by multiplying the
factors out.
● At 34:13, two students had the same question about what happens to the middle term in factored
form. I show them that the term is “hidden” by multiplying our answers out.

Reflection - The reflection for this FPO, should include specific examples of what you observed when you
collected student engagement data at each of the three stopping points. For instance, what were students
supposed to be doing in this segment of the video, what were the students actually doing or not doing.
Please include specific strategies from either "Making Thinking Visible" or researched on the internet (e.g.
Engagement Strategies ), that you will use during your lessons next week for student engagement. Make
sure to include your data collected from the video segments in your reflection.

● For the first 15 minutes of the lesson, I found that 5 students out of 18 total were engaged in the
lesson. During this portion of the lesson, students were to participate in the Warm-Up questions and
the Exploration. They were to ask questions and walk me through their processes of solving the
problems. The students who were engaged were asking questions and answering the probing questions
that I was asking as I was walking through their warm-up problems. Those who were not speaking, they
were to be writing notes and solving the problems themselves. In order to make sure that all students
are engaged, I might consider incorporating the strategy “Elbow Partners,” where students have to
work together to solve the warm-up problems, but when they are answering questions in class, they
have to explain what their partner did in order to find the solution.
● For the next 15 minutes of the lesson, I found that 6 students out of 18 total were engaged in the
lesson. During this portion of the lesson, students were to participate in the Explorations activity and
participate in the discussion of our first new concept: the difference of squares. The students who were
engaged were doing exactly that, and through classroom discourse I was able to discover the
misconception that students have when considering the square root of the number. The students who
were engaged were answering that 25x is the square root of 25x^2, which showed me that they only
considered the square root of x^2. I was able to help the students understand that we had to find the
square root of 25 as well. The students who were not as vocal were to attempt to solve the problems
and come up with their own questions to ask. To better address misconceptions such as the ones that
rose during this portion of the lesson, I will try to incorporate the strategy “I Used to Think … But Now I
Know,” so that students are able to analyze the misconception themselves and make sense as to why it
is not correct.
● For the last 15 minutes of the lesson, I found that 10 students out of 18 total were engaged. During this
portion of the lesson, we were to go over the last concept, have the students try the problems on their
own through Check-Ins, have the students fill out the Exit Slip, and then have time to work on the
practice problems. I observed that a lot of the students felt more comfortable asking questions during
practice problem time, which showed me that they value one on one time. Because of this, more
students were engaged in this portion versus during the lesson. The students who were engaged
expressed confusion over some aspects of the concepts and asked me to go over the problem with
them individually. They also asked questions that helped them come to the right conclusion when
 solving problems. Every student was engaged in this section because they were able to collaborate with
their peers in order to complete the practice problems. A strategy that I could incorporate in this
portion of the lesson is Muddiest Point. A lot of students when filling out the exit slip will just tell me
that they are confused, or that they did not understand the concept. Incorporating Muddiest Point will
help them narrow down what they are confused about so that I can help them better.

Select a 1 - 2 minute clip that you want to share with the AT class. You can pick something you did well or
something you want to ask for feedback and advice.
● I would like to use the clip from 1:55 to 3:55.