Preparing for a classroom observation, whether it’s your very first or your fiftieth, can be a nerve-wracking experience — but it doesn’t have to be! Use our tips below and make your first classroom observation a success!
1. Respect Tradition
What you do in your classroom matters. In most schools, administrators are looking not only at your teaching practice, but also at student dispositions and the physical artifacts that indicate your compliance with building, district, and state policies.
Before your classroom observation, be sure to talk with your administrator about what to look for, you can set up your room so that you have everything organized and visible but queuing your administrators' attention to what matters most can help them focus more on learning than soft symbols of schooling. In a more traditional setting you may need to be sure to maintain a clean desk and place your lesson plans and any other required materials there so that your observer can easily access them. In schools with more rote practice requirements, you may need to clearly label the board as needed with the day’s objective, standard, and any other required information.
Finally, be sure to have a place set up where your observer can sit comfortably and take notes. Your desk is fine, or a single chair with a clear sightline. Many observers like to move around, or even engage with your students, but be sure to have a space for them so they feel welcomed in your room. In general the more your observer can interact directly and informally with students to understand their view on the lesson, and their lens on learning, the more accurate your observation will be to the quality of your teaching.
2. Demonstrate Your Time Management Expertise
One of the skills classroom observers may be looking for is time management. How do you plan your time effectively to meet the learning objectives for the day? By writing the goals and standards you plan to cover on the board, and describing them clearly for your students, you are starting off on the right foot.
Time is perhaps the most basic and uncontrollable force in schools. Dr. Ron Ritchhart (2015) documents 8 cultural forces that shape and influence teaching and learning. Those forces are: model, opportunities, routines, environment, language, interactions, time, and expectations.
It’s important to set clear expectations for each portion of the day’s activities, so that students understand what is required of them. Setting and sticking to a timeline, with some wiggle room when needed (especially when students are actively engaged and asking for more time!), helps keep students confident that they are on the right track. However it's important to think about all 8 cultural forces as playing an equally important role in spring learning outcomes.
Release of responsibility is perhaps the most important leap for teachers to make in their instructional practice, allowing students to lead their own science investigations, anticipating one result where students finish steps at different times may be uncomfortable at first it also opens a new level of possibility for differentiation. Building in check-ins where students can collect personalized feedback is one way to keep everyone actively engaged. Set clear expectations that when students finish one part of an activity, they move on to the next or go back to review and consider what they’ve learned in preparation to share their findings with the class. Students helping one another when one group is “stuck” is another way to continue to engage the entire class.
3. Prepare Your Students
Before the observation, be sure your students are clear on any logistical procedures, including the entrance of a visitor. Teaching procedures can eat up valuable classroom time, so make sure your students are clear on how to transition between tasks so you can focus on teaching the day’s objective. In fact “teaching procedures” isn’t how the process is learned. A more effective practice is to allow students to gain these practices through practice, trial and error where they can own and analyze the outcomes.
Before deciding on your learning objectives for the day, it’s important to understand the objectives of the observation. Is it a formal or informal observation, an assessment, or something else? Are there specific instructional methods the reviewer is looking for? Make sure to plan adequate time for your students to be seen using their critical thinking skills in action, while meeting the requirements of the observation.
4. Avoid Reinventing the Wheel
It's tempting to try out a new teaching technique during an observation, but stick to your typical practice in order to feel comfortable. This will also give your observer an idea of what a normal class session looks like.
Include practices in your lesson that showcase your own professional development as well. What skills have your students developed this year? What classroom practices and opportunities have helped them develop their own creative problem solving and collaboration skills? Carefully consider how you can showcase that success in your lesson.
For future observations, you may want to discuss a new technique you’re planning to use beforehand, and then get specific feedback on your implementation. For your first classroom observation however, just try to deliver the best version of what you usually do!
5. Be Open to Feedback
After your first observation, you’ll typically receive some form of feedback. Some schools may simply provide a copy of their observation report, but you may also have a short follow-up conversation to debrief. When reviewing the feedback, work to form action steps for improving your areas of weakness.
If there are things you don’t understand in your observation report, it is appropriate in most cases to ask for clarification. In some cases, you might also be able to provide additional information to assist your reviewer, in written form or face-to-face after the observation. If your classroom observation includes a post-event follow-up, prepare with questions and observations of your own to ensure you get the most out of this opportunity to receive direct feedback on your teaching methods.
What are the Benefits of Observational Assessments in the Classroom?
Observations are a great way to improve your practice, and adopting a curious and open approach will help you get the most mileage out of your observation. Listening to feedback with a positive attitude will also communicate your professionalism and commitment to lifelong learning.
With the overall goal of improving student engagement and achievement, classroom observations provide an outside point of view that can help us see things from a different perspective. Just like we teach our students the importance of learning from the diverse experiences and ideas of their peers, we can learn a lot from the vast experience and knowledge our colleagues have. But to do this effectively, we have to be open to feedback and interested in trying new things in our classroom.
