Heart racing, palms sweating, panic setting in – all tell-tale signs of a lesson observation. Will the students behave? Will I be able to show pupil progress clearly enough? Will my assessment for learning work? Do I have lunch stuck in my teeth?!
I’ve been there myself and am happy to say that Educake can help take the dread out of lesson observations. Here are some practical ways you can incorporate Educake into a lesson:
Superstar Starters:
- Bring up a homework quiz on the whiteboard.
- Hide student names.
- Use colour coding and percentages to address questions where the class scored poorly.
- Click on individual questions to show detail and have a class discussion, get students to try again, or scaffold by assigning similar questions.
- Differentiate your starter by previewing which students had weaker scores (you can see exactly what each student put as an answer) and then direct your questioning accordingly.
This shows the observer you are reviewing previous material, repeating skills and addressing misconceptions.
Perfect Plenaries:
- Give the class a quiz focusing on the key lesson objectives to complete at the end.
- View a detailed analysis of the results after the lesson and find out how much the class has understood.
This shows the observer you have tangible evidence/data to help with your forward planning and that you can clearly identify students who will need extra assistance.
Prominent Progress:
- Get the class to complete a quiz as a starter on the material you are going over in the lesson (that they haven’t seen before).
- Hide the names and beam the results – it should show a sea of red and low scores .
- Give the class the same quiz at the end of the lesson.
- Hide the names and beam the results – it should show an improvement with amber and green.
You could show the observer the two quiz results without hiding the student names, so they can see that each student has improved.
Amazing Assessment for Learning:
- Use midway through a lesson to boost student engagement.
- Randomise question order to prevent cheating.
- Rather than project the results, you could consult students’ answers for targeted, quickfire questioning.
- You can also use the results to go back over any material the class has struggled with in the first half of the lesson.
This shows the observer you are being dynamic and reacting to the needs of the students, it shows you can be proactive and address any issues during the lesson to ensure students are fully understanding the content you are delivering.
Soaring Student Confidence:
The student reports can be printed out and stuck in students’ books as a constant reminder to them of their weak and strong topics.
This means students have confident and accurate answers when observers ask them how they are doing and what they need to work on.
Dreamy Data Analysis:
- There are many different methods of data analysis on Educake: Track Progress, Mark Book, Student league tables, Compare and Contrast
You can show the observer these, which is a great way to highlight pupil progress over time!
Author bio:
Sophie Green, having been a teacher herself, fully understands innovative pedagogical approaches and has first-hand experience of all the triumphs and challenges teachers experience. Working in Edtech provides a unique way to help support both students and teachers achieve their aspirations.
Outside of work Sophie loves spending time with her two young children and husband. Sport and adventurous challenges play a big part in her life, including learning to fly a plane!
