Observed lesson tomorrow - help needed!

[tah2]

Im an NQT with my first class. I have my first observation tomorrow and am desperately looking for inspiration.

I teach a mixed year 2/3 class (8 year 2's and 22 year 3's) and we have just begun writing about our recent trip to a museum. Children have looked at recount writing, written a plan and have just started writing their introduction. The next step will be to write the main body of the recount in chronological order.

I was thinking about doing a lesson on time connectives for my observation as this will feed into what children are doing next. So i guess im asking if anyone has any suggestions as to how i could make a lesson on time connectives fun and suitable for both foundation phase and ks2 children? Any suggestion for activities?

bump

The first option on here is an fun way of involving the class across an ability range such as yours. Have a group of children with a flashcard each -ready to literally jump into a sentence when given the nod.

Lots of other resources too for future use.

Do you have pictures of your muesum trip? Im doing the same thing with my children this week after our muesusm trip and im going to use photos to sequence our day first.

Hope it goes well - observations are never nice no matter how many years you've been at it!!

These are both great ideas, thanks.

Might these help?

Good luck!

I was going to say get children to hold cards with either pictures of the trip and useful words, such as , first, next, then, later, finally, before, after, etc and put them in order. what are literacy lessons supposed to be like these days? (been out of the loop for a while) eg, if they are supposed to be "fast paced" or whatever, make sure you find an activity that is .. "whatever"

perhaps pair the children up and each has a set of cards to choose from and hold up. (photocopies on paper)

how are you differentiating work for different abilities and which group are you working with?

brigits link is fab!

Not wishing to sound naive or critical, but why should your lesson be 'different' or 'better' if it is observed?

Isn't the whole idea of observation to see what your current teaching is like?

I wouldn't like to think that people try and 'pull it out of the bag' for one lesson. I would hope that you would be 'pulling it out of the bag' for every lesson.

Sometimes a plan is needed more when being observed to account for nerves!

Lougle, in the real world, you do as much as you can, in view of your deseperate need for sleep, everything else you have to do in class on top of actual teaching (collecting dinner money, putting up dispays, rehearsing for assemblies/plays/concerts, sorting out playground disputes, running after-school clubs, etc) and the actual curriculum you are trying to teach. And then when you have OfSTED or an observed lesson, you make a superhuman effort to jump through an extra few hoops.

Tah, don't forget the basics, like writing up the Learning Intention (or whatever your school calls it) and refering to it in the plenary, showing aspects of AfL, etc.

Make sure you lesson objectives are clear, you have a mid point review of these giving kids a chance to improve their work and plenty of differentiation. Use small whiteboards during introduction so that all children can be answering your questions. Keep them all busy! If you have a TA make sure they are used all the time, including during the introduction and plenary. Give kids short bursts of time to talk to partners before feeding back to you. Best of luck!!! Remember you're not expected to be perfect as an NQT, but make sure you act on any advice given during your next obs.

Good point about TA.
Also, make sure you have plenty of spare whiteboard pens, pencils, sharpeners, white board erasers etc, so that you don't get sidetracked by someone who can't find their pen in the middle of something.
Lots of instant, specific praise ie not "Lovely, Kayleigh", but "Well done for using three different time connectives, Kayleigh."
Peer assessment; pairs of children write their sentences on whiteboards and share with the class; others find two positve things to say and one to improve. Don't do this for every pair, though; too long drawn out. Make sure that you share good work with the class, but make sure that you don't always show the same children.
Give thinking time after asking a question.
Don't only focus on children with their hands up.