Teaching Observation Two

Below is a copy of the notes I took during an observation of a Junior Mathematics lesson. This was a lesson from the next unit I will be beginning with all of my junior class - Measurement.

Notes

Reflection:

• I really like the way that Ella structures her lessons with a warm up, main activity, and followed by a fun/competitive quiz type activity to end that recaps the new content the students have learnt. This is something that I have been incorporating to more and more of my lessons. I am using a warm up at least 95% of the time in my lessons now and I have noticed the students settle into their work much quicker, ask more questions about the content, and also feel more accountable to make sure they're learning the content so that they can partake in the warm ups.

• It was great to see how Ella introduced the concept of "area" in triangular shapes. I liked how she related it back to a square by explaining and showing why it is a half. I also noted that she showed examples of both right angle and equilateral triangles to cover all bases.

• I liked how Ella structured her main activity with a 4x3 question grid and labelling it "12 minutes for 12 questions". This set a clear expectation within the class that in 12 minutes they needed to have completed the work - I am going to definitely try this out in my lessons....high expectations at their best!

• Additionally, she set three "tricky questions" that required the students to covert units so that they were matching and to also work with compound shapes. Again, I have begun to integrate this in my lessons. I really like how the quicker students have always got something to move onto. Also, when the not so quick students reach the "tricky questions" they feel a sense of accomplishment to be working on them even if they only finish 1-2 of them.

#PTC1 #PTC4 #Observations