Skill Review Sheet Questioning

Graduate Standards - AITSL

Professional Practice: 3.2, 3.3, 3.4, 5.2 Plan and implement effective teaching and learning
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ePortfolio

Question Type
Do you feel your
questions were clearly
structured and readily
understood by the
students?

The students were initially reluctant to answer questions from a

new teacher, but after a few minutes they warmed up to it and
became quite receptive to asking and answering questions

Did you use a variety of

question types?

I did use a variety of questions, open ended questions with multiple

answers, Convergent, Divergent and Evaluative questions

What balances was there I felt I used a good balance of the above question types
between the various
questions types?

Consider both why and

when you made use of
the different question
types?

The questions are all useful for different reasons, the convergent
questions are useful for a simple test of their knowledge, see where
the students are at in their understanding, and the divergent
questions are excellent for getting the students thinking critically
and engaging their minds in their activities. The evaluative
questions are good for judging the students overall final
understanding and seeing where their minds are at in terms of
knowledge and morality.

Distributing and Directing Questions

EDN550 Professional Experience Information for Pre-Service Teachers 2016

Did you recognise any

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

I did notice that I tended to look towards the more outgoing

students when asking and answering questions, this pattern I think
is natural; you look towards the people who are more outgoing,
however I will endavour to also include the quieter students

How have you directed

questions to the group?

I directed questions to the room as a whole, pointing to the ones

who had their hands up and also directing a few questions to those
that looked keen but without their hands up

Have you used wait

time?

I did wait and give the students a chance to think about the
question

Did you make eye

contact with the group as
you directed your
questions?

I did make eye contact with the students, it is important so that they
know you are listening and you can pay attention to them.

Reactions to Students Responses

How do you deal with
correct responses? Do
you qualify any praise
given?

I answered student who answered the question correctly by saying

'thats correct, well done' and other similar expressions. I also
further expand on their correct responses to provide more
information

How do you deal with

incorrect responses?
How do you deal with
students who stumble
and grope for an answer?

Incorrect responses were answered with encouraging statements

such as, 'thats on the right track', or corrected gently where
possible. Students who were struggling I would gently give them a
hint to point them in the right direction. Or given a chance to think
and coming back to them.

EDN550 Professional Experience Information for Pre-Service Teachers 2016

Do you keep eye contact I did keep eye contact with the students, I would never cut off a
student before they have finished their point that would be the
with the students until
height of rudeness
they have completed an
answer? Do you cut
students off and go onto
the next point before they
have finished
responding?

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?

I found it very useful to use the students responses, there was a

particular moment in my first lesson when the student got the
answer exactly correct, I was able to praise him, and he found it
very encouraging, further when a student was nearly correct I was
able to utilize their answer to further explain the task.

I was the only evaluator of my students answers in two of my

Are you the only
evaluator of the students lessons, with two of the others being assisted by the teacher where
my learning area was a little weak. It was useful to have the teacher
answers?
there until my confidence and knowledge is at a higher level.

I did communicate clearly to the students the requirements of the

Did you communicate
clearly to the students the lessons, they were able to understand why they were doing them
and how it would help them in their education.
requirements of the
lesson?

Overall Comments

EDN550 Professional Experience Information for Pre-Service Teachers 2016

Skill Review Sheet Management

Graduate Standards AITSL
Professional Practice: 4. Create and maintain supportive and safe learning environments
4.1 and 4.2

Planning for Effective Management

Was your lesson plan
effective for managing
the class?

My lesson plans were in general quite effective for maintaining the

class, I was sure to include reminders to myself on when to pause
and refocus the classes attention.

e.g. How did the students

react to your lesson
overall and to your
planned activities?

The students responded overall very positively, I felt they were

also a bit more courteous with me as a student teacher, however
when I become a teacher in earnest that will have to be replaced
with a good rapport with them, being in control whilst being
considerate is very important.

Did anything unexpected

In one class in particular there was one student who was very keen
happen?
to learn more and came up to ask after class more questions so he
Did you provide a variety could improve herself, I was very impressed by his dedication.
of activities?
I tried to provide a variety of activities in my lessons, small group
Were you satisfied with
work,
individual work and large group work, activities involving
your timing, particularly
questions
and answers in the group were particularly useful, being
for the end of the lesson?
able to get everyone interacting was very important and i found as
long as a few students could start the rest would soon follow.
Did you feel you were
able to change things if
needed?

Timing was always a challenge, some things ran fast, some early,
knowing how to structure the content and the amount of it was very
tricky, on all my lessons I found myself finishing a little early at the
end, fortunately the teachers were very skilled and had some small
relevant activities for the students to do. It is something I will need
practice to work on.
I felt I was able to modify my lessons as I went through them, after
I finished it was very obvious what I would have been able to do to
improve the lesson or add additional content, however it didn't
always occur to me at the time, this is something I will concentrate
on in future.

EDN550 Professional Experience Information for Pre-Service Teachers 2016

Was your organisation of Luckily the materials required were provided by the school, the few
materials and resources things i required in my classes I was able to provide without much
trouble.
efficient and effective?
I did have a plan and time set out to get and collect the materials, as
e.g. Did you and the
students have everything well as packing up things like the chairs and tables, it's important to
consider the timing of the classroom and the students getting to
you needed?
their other rooms on time.
Did you plan how and
when you would
distribute and collect
materials?

EDN550 Professional Experience Information for Pre-Service Teachers 2016

Were you aware of

classroom procedures
and school disciplinary
policy? How much did
you know about your
students?

I was aware of the policies of the school, I had a full handout on

the school rules and policies handed to me, luckily there was no
major incidents that required heavy discipline, the students were
well behaved and courteous, much more than I expected, the
students were all listed on a tablet, with any learning difficulties
listed for the help of the teachers, a very useful tool.

Maintaining a Positive Attitude in the Classroom

How did you demonstrate

to the students that you
valued them, and enjoyed
the teaching/learning
process?

I felt I was able to achieve a bit of a rapport with the students,

ironically my first lesson was on confidence in public speaking, so
all the elements of positivity, expression, humor and pose were the
topics of that, I was able to draw from my own experiences in that
lesson to help teach the students in the rest of the lessons. I kept a
positive attitude and I felt the students responded to that.

e.g. Tone of voice, facial

expression, sense of
humour, introduction to
students and topic.
My personal teaching style I think I kept a enthusiastic tone, the
Which aspects of your
students
responded to that, the class was able to respond to my
teaching style do you feel
personality and stay focused, I was even able to make them laugh
helped you maintain
on occasion, I wasn't trying to however when it did happen it was
class attention?
enjoyable for me and them and i feel the students connected with
that, whilst still maintaining professionalism.
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?

I outlined very clearly at the start of my lessons what the students

were expected to do in the class, and tried to keep them on task in
order to do this.

Were you able to redirect

energies of attention
seeking students? Did
the students have
enough to do?

On a whole the amount of attention seeking students were kept at

a minimum, my teacher mentioned that I was able to get on one
occasion one of the worst offenders to ask relevant questions which
I felt very proud of. The students had enough to do however, I fell
a little short on content towards the very end of the lessons in
general, so that will require work in future.

EDN550 Professional Experience Information for Pre-Service Teachers 2016

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?

In my first lesson, my mentor was able to note that I let the

students be in my periphery a bit much, this enabled a few of them
to misbehave slightly, however with a few pointers on getting the
students in closer and getting their eyes focused forward I felt that I
was able to maintain a much better level of control

Did you take any action

when you observed poor
behaviour? Why? Why
not?

The only real misbehavior witnessed was the occasional low level
talking, I asked them to quieten down and they generally
responded, there was also one kid fiddling with some bunched up
paper which i simply asked him to put in the bin and he did, overall
the students in my school were very well behaved.

Did you use non-verbal

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

I did attempt to apply my university teaching in regards to nonverbal cues, just making eye contact with a student who was off
task was helpful, as well as walking near them when they were in
group works, moving a hand to a couple of students talking to each
other was enough to quieten them down.

EDN550 Professional Experience Information for Pre-Service Teachers 2016

Schools as text looking at the whole

school
Understand the importance of effective communication with students
and colleagues to develop positive relationships.
Graduate Standards AITSL 6.3 and 7.1
Describe the school in
terms of its
demographics,
appearance and
resources (be general
here and do not name
the school).

The school was fairly diverse, the majority of the students were
Australian, however I observed African, Asian and other students
in the school, there was no sign of discrimination or any bias in any
of the students or staff, the students freely intermingled and there
was a lot of freedom in expression that surprised me (with hair
color, piercings, jewelry. etc.) which I felt the students appreciated
that level of trust.
The school was in good repair and had excellent resources, it was
clean and well maintained with nice outdoor areas and gardens, the
teachers seemed to have access to everything they needed, I was
very pleased in general with the school it was a very pleasant
environment to be in.

What were the roles and

responsibilities of the
teaching staff you
observed?

The teachers in the department I witnessed were of a wide variety

of skill sets and strengths with all excellent knowledge of their
personal expertise and the general knowledge required to cover any
of the other teachers classes.
The teachers various personalities were excellent to teach the
students varied and different skills, these personalities varied from
intense, laid back, flowing, energetic and passionate, the students
responded well to all the different styles.

EDN550 Professional Experience Information for Pre-Service Teachers 2016

I was very impressed with the staffs dedication to the students

including lunchtime meetings to discuss any problems that
particular students presented. The students welfare was foremost
in their mind and very impressive.

What did you observe

non-teaching staff doing
to support teaching and
learning in the school?

I only witnessed the cafeteria staff, and the custodians, they were
busy keeping the children fed and keeping the grounds neat, tidy
and in good order. A clean and healthy environment helped
contributed to student learning.

Students

You will have observed

the diverse nature of your
classes. How was this
diversity supported?

The students were very well supported, the teachers first of all had
a detailed list of any problems or issues the students had to deal
with, this included some physical disabilities and mental ones that I
felt were in the teachers minds at all times, the students all seemed
to have a high level of English in the classes I witnessed; therefore
I am not able to comment on language, however there was at no
times any signs of discrimination or favoritism amongst any of the
staff and even students.

EDN550 Professional Experience Information for Pre-Service Teachers 2016

EDN550 Professional Experience Information for Pre-Service Teachers 2016

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

I didn't personally observe the connection of school with the

broader community, however the drama students had a opportunity
to travel to Europe, France and Germany in order to witness some
of the plays and history there, an amazing chance for the young
students and very relevant and important to them. I heard planning
around parent-teacher conferences and other community
involvement. I believe the school was well aware of its
responsibility to the education and furthering of the students
welfare.

What do you think the

function of school is?

A school exists to educate and enrich a students life, to give them

a safe place to learn; to socialize and to pass on correct cultural
attitudes and behaviours to the next generation, it helps the
students develop values and understanding of the social
expectations of them. The students go through the rituals of their
community and they learn the values and expectations placed upon
them. This helps them to fit into society and for them to find a
niche to occupy in their future lives especially with the modern
world having so much choice rather than the previous rigid
historical mores and systems.

EDN550 Professional Experience Information for Pre-Service Teachers 2016

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