Download - Classroom Observation #1€¦ · Classroom Observation Classroom Level/age: 4th Grade Special Education Topic/ Content being taught: Reading Strategy-Unknown Words Date: 6/2/16 Observation:

Classroom Observation

Classroom Level/age: 4th Grade Special Education

Topic/ Content being taught: Reading Strategy-Unknown Words

Date: 6/2/16

Observation: #1

Brief discussion of what’s happening in the classroom:

-Two students are in the classroom for specialized reading instruction for a pullout session with the SPED teacher.

-Students are seated preferentially with the option of seating wedges or cushions.

-The students are very engaged and focused.

-The students seem happy and learning due to the small group setting as well as it being quiet.

Describe the racial make-up of this class:

1 African American Male

I Hispanic Female

Describe the teacher:

The teacher is well prepared and organized and ready for the students so learning begins right away, the routines and rules have been implemented well. The students know what to do and where to get their materials. The teacher has a very good rapport with the students, the students are excited to greet her and be there. The teacher is very patient with the students when they struggle or get stuck on directions. She remained calm the entire time and learning was occurring.

Evidence of: (Describe the strategy and be specific as to how it fits the category)

Hattie “Hattie High Return” Strategies: Interventions, Relationships, Teacher Clarity, and Scaffolding

The teacher stated the learning objective for the day and why they were working on the objective. (Strategies for when students come to an unknown word).

It was clear that they student teacher relationship was established; the students were very comfortable with her and the learning environment.

Danielson’s Instructional Strategies:

Component two was evident; the physical space was organized with supplies out and available for students to access. There was student work in the space with alternative seating for students who wanted it.

Component three was evident; the teacher had clear communication with the students especially when communicating the learning target for the day.

Culturally Relevant Teaching Strategies:

The reading passages the teacher used were chosen with the students race in mind as well as with characters the students could identify with as well as from their cultures. The material was relevant to the students, she also did not change the rigor when one of the students did not understand part of the passage, and she had high expectations for the learners.

Other Observations:

The room was set up for learner success, the teacher was calm and collected, the students were engaged, and the room and environment was safe.

Your evaluative remarks:

Students were engaged in the task and the teacher utilized formative assessments to ensure learning using an exit slip.

The teacher was well prepared and ready to help make gains with students on certain skills they will need to become fluent readers.


Classroom Level/age: Second Grade

Topic/ Content being taught: Math Workshop on Place Value

Date: 6/6/16

Observation #2


The mini-lesson was on place value and the teacher then had four small groups working at their level, they were very engaged and successful with what their flex group activity was. They were working on various math activities covering place value and then recording what they did in their math notebooks.


25 students:

6 African American

6 Hmong

5 Karen

4 Hispanic

3 White

One student was absent.


White Female

The teacher was very engaging, I could tell that she enjoyed teaching math and in particular the skill of place value. She had her materials organized and she was really well planned for this lesson. She had very high expectations and high rigor; there were manipulatives and resources for all the students to access if they were getting stuck on their group work. The teacher was calm and welcoming, which made the students feel comfortable when they shared at the end of the math block. She has been teaching for 21 years, her experience and dedication showed.


Hattie “Hattie High Return” Strategies: Peer Influences and Classroom Management

The teacher had students in groups to work on place value skills and encouraged them to work together. The students were engaged and talking about their learning as they solved problems and recorded it in their notebooks.

There were four groups working independently and one group with the teacher. She had her group engaged in what she was teaching them as well as having eyes and ears on the groups working throughout the room. All students were on task and following rituals and routines without the teacher or another adult being present in each group.


Managing Student Behavior:

The teacher definitely knew what all her students were doing during this lesson, they were engaged due to her planning of flex activities and they were successful with the activities. The students were very aware of what was being expected of them to complete and worked on the tasks in a calm and engaging way.

“Engaging Students in Learning: Instructional materials and resources must be suitable for the students and applicable to the instructional outcomes.” The teacher was very planned and purposeful when it came to using manipulatives and teaching in small groups.


The teacher used many fun call and responses that were relevant to the students; they connected to their interests in music and television. The teacher also connected place value to shopping, and used examples of items that her students would buy making the lesson real for them to understand.

Other Observations:


I could tell that the lesson was very well planned and was grade level appropriate aligned with benchmarks.

The room was very student focused, their work was visible. Standards and focus visible in student friendly language.


Classroom Level/age: Second Grade, 7/8 years old

Topic/ Content being taught: Readers Workshop Mini-Lesson, Focus: I can describe the sequence of events in a story.

Date: 6/30/16

Observation #3


The class was transitioning from indoor recess dancing to a GoNoodle and then getting in reading buddies sitting at the carpet, facing the whiteboard, sitting elbow-to-elbow and knee-to-knee. This is a routine that has been set up, the students know what to do, and students picked the partnerships.


There are 18 students, 9 female, 9 male:

13 Asian (6 Karen, 6 Hmong, 1 Vietnamese)

5 African American (2 American, 1 Somali, 1 Ethiopian)


White Female, teaching for 5 years in SPPS. Young and energetic, enjoys teaching reading, organized and efficient when it comes to being purposeful with lessons. Very well versed in standards and reading strategies to hit standards. Relates well to the students, bringing in relevant topics that the students can understand.


Hattie “Hattie High Return” Strategies:

The teacher used peer tutoring when she had them in their reading buddy pairs. She also front-loaded having the partners use each other to generate ideas and responses. The students were comfortable and engaged because the teacher set up that relationship despite not having these students for a whole school year to build that relationship over time.


Many components were present during this lesson like “Setting Instructional Outcomes; Teacher articulation of instructional outcomes keeping in mind the district’s curriculum, requirements of external mandates, and community expectations.” The teacher did this by teaching from the curriculum using the focus and standard.

“Using Assessment in Instruction; As alessonprogresses,teachersengageincontinuousmonitoring.Theymonitoreverythinggoingonintheclass;studentengagementintheactivities,theappropriatenessofthematerialsandgroupings,andtheextenttowhichstudentsareactuallylearningwhattheteacherintended.”Theteacherwasveryintentionalwithherlessonandwhatshewantedherstudentstolearn.Theengagementwashighandtheteachermadeitexciting;thefocuswasstatedmultipletimesandwascleartothestudentswhattheyweresupposedtobelearning.Culturally Relevant Teaching Strategies:

The teacher used so many CRT strategies. She used call and responses that were fun and allowed students to choral respond. She also connected the material to their lives, touching on immigration and asking students if anyone was from a different country prompting students to make connections to others in the room as well as to the text.

The teacher also connected the sequence of events (the focus) to the students’ lives asking them for examples from students. The teacher was knew every students names and called on certain students that she knew were making connections to help model for the other students.

Other Observations:

The room was well set up even though it was in a different room with different supplies due to summer session. The teacher made the room friendly and set up for learning even though it was not her regular room.


Teacher asked the students to say the focus for the day (I can describe the sequence of events in a story). Asked the students to explain what sequence is to their reading buddies.

Students were sitting knee-to-knee, elbow-to-elbow in three lines.

Teacher moved two students due to the turn and talk not being on topic,

Asked class to share what they thought an ‘event’ was…teacher gave an example of her own.

Asked students to share out events in their lives.

Teacher called on one African American female and one Asian male.

Teacher explains what sequence is, told a day out of order, then had the students fix the sequence.

Think about your day today, think of three things you’ve done in order, in sequence.

If you are on the left side of partnership shares first.

Multiple redirections were given.

Turn and talk about your sequence for your day, left sides shared first then right side.

Students engaged and liked sharing about their days.

Students faced forward when they were done sharing.

Teacher tells three events from her, woke up, shower, and went to school. Asked students if her sequence of events was in correct order.

Teacher calls on Asian female to share her event.

Teacher asks whole group thumbs up if its in the right order, thumbs down if it isn’t.

Teacher explains what makes sense, calls on another Asian female to share, ask class again for thumbs up/thumbs down.

Teacher calls on African American male to share.

Teacher is re-reading story Brave Girl, going through the pages then has the partners turn and talk about what they remember from the story yesterday.

Asks students to popcorn out their thoughts and writes the sequence the students are saying on the whiteboard.

Teacher flips the newt few pages asking the students to think about what happens next.

Says out loud ‘what happened here’ while on a specific page.

Kids turn and talk, whole group shares out and they decide on what happened next, teacher writes in on the board.

Teacher has students choral read the second one and then asks if they are on track and its in order.

Teacher goes through next pages and stops at a specific page and makes a ‘oh’ face to clue them in to the next event.

Teacher whispers ‘if you can hear me touch your brain’, all the students do it, then she whispers that the next turn and talk is in a whisper voice saying it in an excited way.

Uses a call and response that is loud to get them back to whole group.

Calls on African America female to tell the next event.

Student talks about the character going on a strike and then connects it to when she saw the nurses going on strike here in MN.

Teacher says they are going to do one more event, even though there are many events, they are only doing 4.

Students very engaged looking at the pictures, teacher closes the book.

Teacher says that she will be calling on someone that hasn’t spoke yet, wanting all voices heard, so if they are nervous about sharing be sure to listen to your partner and share with them to get practice sharing whole group. Front loaded this for ELL students.

Teacher gives 10 second warning and reminds students to have something to say.

Starts count down at 5, gets to 0 and a student said something about ribs, she explains what ribs are what they do for our bodies, then moves on and calls on Asian female, who is very quiet and does not share or speak in whole group.

Student does not speak, teacher prompts her, then tells her that she can share with her later and compliments her bright thoughts.

Calls on Asian female to share, teacher asks clarifying question ‘what do you mean by that?’

Teacher says ‘who can add on to Kate’, calls on Asian male to share, then says ‘let’s keep talking it out’ to get the students to clarify the last event.

Whole group prompts are given and the class says the last event.

Teacher praises the class, writes it on the board, then says everyone stand up and do 10 jumping jacks. Then has them take three deep breaths and sit back down.

Teacher says tomorrow they are going to work on the same focus tomorrow but with their own lives versus a character in the book.

Closes lesson with coming back to the focus and asking class to state and say what sequence is.

Class is given the direction to go back to their desks to work on writing. Calls on partnerships to be excused.


Classroom Level/age: High School

Topic/ Content being taught: ELL Science (Level 1, New to Country) 110 minute Period

Date: 7.13.16

Observation: #4


Students are level one ELL, they have not been in the country more than one academic year. These students are being taught science with a language focus to help learn the language. The students are in a science classroom with pods, not desks or tables. The pods all have science equipment included (sink, beakers, burners). The teacher has the students working in groups based on languages, their English is very limited, and they follow visual cues and directions and help each other out using their native languages.

The teacher is working on the Foss Science kits for summer school. The lesson is about the water cycle, the teacher introduces the words precipitation, condensation, and evaporation using pictures. The teacher is modeling how to take notes on these three terms, she uses the doc camera to show the students what page in their notebooks to record this information. The students have struggled with some of these tasks due to being new to the country with little formal education. The teacher is also using a grade 3-science kit for high school students.

Once the students have the information in their notebooks, they are given a large sheet to make a visual representation of the water cycle. The teach models this as well and keeps her example on the smart board for student to reference.


Class One: 13

-3 Hispanic

-2 Somali

-8 Karen

Class Two: 9

-2 Somali

-7 Karen


The teacher is a white female, working in the district for over twenty years with a PhD in Education. She is also a Union facilitator in Foundations and Literacy. She is currently a math coach at an elementary school in SPPS, but working summer session in the high school setting.



The teacher used a lot of peer tutoring due to the language needs of the students. She also used visuals to help the students understand the terms and definitions that go long with the science lessons. She also used a lot of modeling with clarity. The students needed to hear directions and explanations multiple times, which the teacher did a great job at to help with understanding.


• Knowledge of students’ skills, knowledge, and language proficiency: What students are able to learn at any given time is influenced by their level of knowledge and skill.

-The teacher has greatly differentiated the lessons and how she is teaching the students science due to their various levels.

• Resources for classroom use Materials must align with learning outcomes. Resources to extend content knowledge and pedagogy Materials that can further teachers’ professional knowledge must be available.

-The teacher used many different resources to help the students with understanding. She used videos, songs, raps, and pictures for lessons to reach all her students various levels and understanding.


The teacher used the student’s experiences from their native homes to connect science and weather. She had students share what they knew about weather and what weather is like around the world. She also used resources like YouTube for videos about weather, the videos contained audio and visuals, and some of them were raps, which the students really enjoyed. She also showed them Magic School bus, which she worried about because it is not age appropriate, however, the students were really engaged with it and this increased their understanding of science.

Other Observations:

The students were really engaged despite the language barrier. I was pleased to see how much learning was occurring for these students, they were very engaged and excited. I have worked with Language Academy (new to country) students but at the elementary level, not high school. At first they seemed timid and shy, but that could have been due to me being present, they warmed up and were excited for their lessons.


I think that they teacher did a great job differentiating with these students. She expressed it was harder than she thought it would be due to the students being so new to the country and having little to no English. This challenge for her only made her increase her planning and resources to reach all the students.


Classroom Level/age: 6th Grade Writing

Topic/ Content being taught: I can create a claim about a variety of topics.

Date: 6/23/16

Observation: #5


Students enter the classroom, and are instructed to get out their iPads to begin a list/journal entry on Google Docs. “Things you have strong opinions about.” The instructions are on the board, once they have made a list, they are to choose something from their list to write longer about.

Students are given 5 minutes of time to write. At the end of writing time, the teacher asks for volunteers to share their writing. Following a student’s share, students in class are encouraged to raise their hands and ask that student questions, say something they like about their writing, or offer a connection.

Teacher begins to explain the lesson/activity for today. She explains that they will be participating in an activity called, “Pick a Side.” She tells them that for this activity they will need to move tables, and will be moving their bodies around the room and reminds the students of the importance to safely move around the room.

For this activity, she provided students with a topic, such as “Cats or Dogs.” Students needed to pick which side they were on, they were not allowed to be in the middle. Once they chose a side, the group needed to come up with three reasons for why they held that opinion. After one minute of discussion, a representative from each group shared their group’s reasons for their side choice.

She went through 10 topics with the students. (Cats vs. Dogs, iphone or android, Mc Donald’s or Burger King, Instagram vs. Snapchat, Facebook or Twitter, Uniforms or No Uniforms, etc.)

Following the activity, she explained that the opinions the students were sharing were known as claims in persuasive writing, and their reasons were their support. Students were instructed to choose a topic from the activity to write about either in their notebook, or type in their iPads. If they finished writing about one topic, they were instructed to choose another.

For the last 5 minutes, students shared their writing with a partner.

Very engaging lesson for most if not all students.


32 students –

22 Asian (7 ELL)

2 African American

6 White

1 Hispanic

1 Native


The teacher is a young, white female, working four years in SPPS in the middle school setting at the same school she was hired at as a new teacher.



Goal Setting: The teacher set a goal at the beginning of the lesson as well as coming back to it at the end.

Classroom Environment: The room was set up for students to move freely as well as feel comfortable to say what they actually thought without fear.

Peer Tutoring: The students were working in groups for the claims and helping each other for the right words or phrases to defend their claims. Danielson’s Instructional Strategies:

“Component 2b: Establishing a Culture for Learning: Students develop conceptual understandings built from one idea to another. Students are able to explain to the teacher, or another student, why something is the way it is.”

The students were talking a lot and explaining their point of view to their groups and then with the whole class. The teacher had many students talk, not just the same people on each ‘claim’.

“Component 2: Knowledge of students’ interests and cultural heritage.”

The teacher used examples that were of interest to the students, which then engaged them in the work. These were actual ideas that came from the students. The students had voice and choice in this lesson-increasing buy in. Culturally Relevant Teaching Strategies:

The strategies that I observed were differentiated for student choice and voice. The teacher used different options that the students knew and liked, then giving them the option to choose. This was also a very engaging lesson because of the choice of the ‘claim’ it was also fun for the students to be able to give their opinion and speak, versus just sitting down and writing.

This lesson was culturally where these students were at, everything they had the option to argue for were things they knew and liked. The teacher also used call and responses to bring the groups back together which was effective in getting the students attention.

Other Observations:

On some of the ‘claims’ why didn’t she give more time?

Great use of call and responses.

Many interruptions from outside participants...why?


The teacher was very purposeful with this lesson and setting it up for the students to succeed when it came to writing their own individual claims. The way the teacher presented the lesson helped students ease into the writing piece of the lesson. They had a lot of time to practice and get used to how they want to phrase their claims. It was a very good lesson.