TE 407: Classroom Observation and Teacher Interview

TE 407: Classroom Observation and Teacher Interview

Note: Titles and parts written in plain text are meant to be included in your final report. Notes in red italics (including this one) are advice on writing the report that you can erase from the final version.

Name: / Partner:
Mentor Teacher: / School:
Subject: / Grade level:
Room: / Telephone:
E-Mail Address:

Preparation and Data Collection

Your first field assignment is to observe your mentor teaching a lesson and interview your mentor, then report on your observation and interview. You can observe your mentor either before or after the interview. If you have a partner, you can do the data collection part of this assignment together, but you should write separate reports. Your data collection will have two parts:

1. Classroom observation. Pick one class to be your “focus class” for this semester. Observe and take notes on a lesson that your mentor teaches. Your notes should include information about how the students are organized, what they say and do, what sense they make of the class, as well as information about what your mentor says and does.

2. Interview. Interview your mentor to find out about (a) upcoming topics in your focus class, (b) how you can learn the names of the students in your focus class, (c) what expectations he or she has for you in terms of using his or her plans and materials when you teach, and (d) his or her ideas about good science teaching.

Report Part 1: Classroom Observation

Report on what happened during the lesson that you observed, including both students and the teacher in your story. Describe what you noticed about your mentor’s strategies for managing the class and engaging students in learning activities. Suggest some questions you have or things that you would like to learn more about, with respect to your mentor’s class.

Report Part 2: Schedule of upcoming topics

Find out as much as you can about the topics your mentor plans to teach during October and November (particularly the week of October 24th when you will teach you first lesson). Find out about textbook chapters, labs, or other teaching resources that you will be using. Briefly report what you learned, and include copies of materials you collected as appendices (try to get anything you can in electronic form for convenience). Use the table below to summarize what you learn.

Week / Possible or Likely Topic / Teaching Resources
Oct 10
Oct 17
Oct 24
Oct 31
Nov 7
Nov 14
Nov 21
Nov 28

Report Part 3: Strategy for learning your students’ names

Briefly describe how you will learn the names of all the students in your focus class.

Report Part 4: Your mentor’s ideas about good science teaching

Ask your mentor about what qualities s/he would look for in a new science teacher hired in the school. More specifically, ask about his or her ideas of good science teaching. Compare your mentor’s ideas to the ideas that we have discussed in class.

When you are finished delete all red italic text, upload this document to your LON-CAPA Portfolio, and from there to the assignment page.

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