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MCT/MST Lesson Observations

MCT/MST Lesson Observation
Student teacher’s name: Fatema Grade Level: 3
Unit/Lesson: Properties of sand and water Date: 07Oct18

Competency Area E G S M U

Please tick the boxes using the OVERALL ASSESSMENT LEVEL

DESCRIPTORS attached at end of document

(E = Excellent, G = Good, S = Satisfactory, M = Marginal, U = Unsatisfactory)

Professionalism x
Planning for learning x
(Includes knowledge & understanding of content)
Implementing and Managing Learning x
(Includes behavior management, language and delivery)
Assessment x
Reflection on Practice

First Class – one hour

Engagement
Lesson started with a recap as a bridge of the 3 types of rocks that have been covered so far
(igneous, sedimentary, metamorphic). Q: What is the softest rock that you investigated last
time? A: Sandstone. These were good questions but there has been no serious link back to
this being sedimentary rock so that the parts of the lesson were left disjointed. It is unclear
how students were then supposed to guess the day’s LOs from the information that they
have been given.
Exploration
Building a sandcastle is a fun activity but it must be linked to some LO about types of rock
and that hasn’t been done. In other words, what is the main point or focus of the lesson?
Students were given the opportunity to say what ratio of sand to water should be used to
build a sand castle. The use of a lot of water or a little water should be tied to how much
water sand, as a sedimentary rock, can absorb. Was this the point of your lesson?
The instructions to perform the activity were clear and students had a lot of fun exploring.
Remember to maintain classroom management even during group work sessions.
Explanation
What happened when you added a small amount of water? What was the best sand castle
that you did? Great questions however these needed to be linked to a problem and
hypothesis to give the exercise meaning. For instance, what does ‘best’ mean? That needed
to be defined through the use of a strong hypothesis.
Evaluation
Students were given a worthwhile worksheet to complete that included the headings ‘what are you
investigating?’, ‘what equipment did you se?’ and ‘What were your findings?’.
To the question ‘what are you investigating’ students came up with the following answers : ‘How to
make a sandcastle’, ‘which one would be better?’, and ‘how much water do we need for a sand
castle?’ The aim of the lesson needed to be drawn together under a problem and hypothesis that
would have linked the day’s activities back to the theory of types of stones.
Elaboration
This was not pursued and again, a clearer focus for the lesson would have helped you to show how
the scientific theory that was the focus of today, could be used in everyday life.

Generally
Areas for development:
Practice your English pronunciation and fluency as it stops you from delivering the content
more thoroughly. In many instances it was unclear why you were doing certain activities or
how these scaffolded to achieve the LO. The LO itself was very unclear.
Focus for next lesson:
Problem, hypothesis, prediction, fair test, language