Ideas for observation

Observation focus: Use of assessment to expose misconceptions

Possible focus during the observation

• How does the teacher use assessment strategies, such as hinge or multiple-choice questions, to expose misconceptions?
• What does the teacher do after they assess whether there is or is not a misconception?
• What benefits does this bring to the pupils?
• What might you do as a result of this?

Observation focus: Monitoring pupils’ work during lessons

Possible focus during the observation

• What does the teacher do to monitor pupils’ work during the lesson?
• Does the teacher use verbal or written feedback or both?
• How do pupils respond?
• What is the impact of the teacher monitoring during lessons?
• What might you do as a result of this?

Observation focus: Using a range of questions and the use of wait time

Possible focus during the observation

• What different kinds of questions does the teacher use in the lesson, e.g. open, closed, hinge/multiple-choice, follow-on etc.?
• When do different kinds of questions get deployed?
• How involved are the pupils in answering?
• Does the teacher do anything to structure the answering of the question, e.g. using paired discussion before responding?
• How long does the teacher typically wait between asking the question and the answer?
• Could the teacher wait longer in any instances?
• What might you do as a result of this?

Observation focus: High-quality classroom talk

Possible focus during the observation

• What does the teacher do in the lesson to promote talk that is of high quality, e.g. the use of sentence stems, word banks, paired discussion?
• What is the purpose of the classroom talk?
• How do the talk activities support pupil understanding?
• What might you do as a result of this?

Observation focus: Prompting pupils to elaborate on their responses

Possible focus during the observation

• Does the teacher prompt pupils to extend their responses if they are insufficiently detailed?
• How is this done? - What is the effect?
• Does the teacher do anything in advance of asking the question to ensure pupils do elaborate on responses without prompts?
• What might you do as a result of this?

For each observation, write down:

• who you observed
• what happened
• what you have learned from these lesson observations
• what ideas you will carry on using or try out in your practice