Classroom Observation - House

Name: Date:

Sarah House

Kindergarten - Reading/Language Arts

1. Notice how Ms. House immediately redirects students for getting up off the carpet. Immediate redirection is important when maintaining and reinforcing classroom policies.

2. What is Ms. House accomplishing by asking John to help her with Calendar?

3. What is the purpose of the Hands Go Up poem/song?

4. Notice how Ms. House reviews previously learned concepts before continuing her lesson from yesterday. This helps bring those concepts back to the forefront of the students' minds and provides another opportunity to learn if mastery wasn't accomplished before.

5. How does Ms. House check for understanding about the non-fiction text feature?

6. Notice how all of Ms. House's students are sitting on the carpet as she reads. Consider what things went into developing that level of self-discipline in her Kindergarten students.

7. Here is another example of the routines and procedures Ms. House has put in place as part of her classroom management plan. The students are clearly accustomed to this "Check 1..2..3" redirection strategy as evidenced by their immediate compliance. Redirection strategies, such as this one to recapture attention, should be used consistently to obtain optimum effectiveness.

1/25/2017

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8. After reading the Sally Ride book, what strategies does Ms. House use to check for understanding?

9. Notice how Ms. House provides immediate feedback to students and gives a rationale behind the praise she gives also. Students, especially young children, pick up on the rationale and since they are eager to please, will try to repeat the behaviors that lead to the praise.

10. Notice all of the things Ms. House has on the walls of the classroom. The Word Wall will continually be added to throughout the school year; the Writing Topics that students helped develop and illustrate; the classroom rules posters that are in a place of prominence so that students can refer to them at any time; and the many other reference materials. You can always rewind the video to look for more.

11. Again, Ms. House reviews class rules with the students and provides a rationale for why it is important. Why do you think this is important? Is it equally important with older students?

12. The Kindergarten student is going to get off task. Here is a great example of how Ms. House minimizes the amount of time the student is off-task by acknowledging the student's question about her make-up but not elaborating. This subtly discourages the student from continuing to focus on the make-up topic.

13. Ms. House is working with these three kids only for an extended period of time. Based on what you have seen, why do you think she is working with them separately during center time?

14. During this portion of the small group lesson, which instructional strategies did you observe Ms. House do?

15. Did you notice students using hand signals to indicate a need and Ms. House nodding or saying 'not now'. This minimizes interruptions during instruction. Why do you think this is important?

16. State the learning objective you think Ms. House was trying to accomplish with this small group instruction. Provide a rationale for why you believe this was her objective.

17. Effective teachers always reflect on the lesson, and lesson outcomes. Listen as the teacher reflects on this lesson, and compare it to the responses you have written on the observation worksheet. Use both the teacher’s reflections and your own observation when writing your overall observational reflection.