Classroom Observation Tool
CHS111 Foundations in Early Childhood Education
PRINT THIS FORM to use for your classroom observation. Once completed, print this form again and type the information you recorded into the form. The completed, typed form will be submitted in Unit 4.
Observer’s Name: _____Insert your name________________________________________
Time(s): Start: ___9:00am___________ End: _____11:30am___________
CENTER/SCHOOL INFORMATION
Program Type (Place “X” for all that apply): public __ private _×_ non-profit __faith-based __ corporate __ other: _____________________
Observed Classroom
Teaching Staff
Total: ___21___Teachers __10___ Assistant Teachers ____9__Other: _____2___________
Observed: ___16___Teachers __8___ Assistant Teachers __7____Other: ______1__________
Child Enrollment
Total Enrolled: ___141_ Infants _18_____ Toddlers __24___ Preschoolers __45___ Kindergartners __54___ Primary (1-3)
Total Observed: __106___ Infants __12____ Toddlers _22____ Preschoolers ___33__ Kindergartners ___42__ Primary (1-3)
EDUCATIONAL APPROACH
You are looking for signs of quality, applied theories, one or two specific approaches, and developmentally appropriate practices.
Program’s Philosophy (This information is usually found in the staff handbook, family handbook, the program or school’s mission and vision statement. Ask if there is a specific theory-based philosophy, model, approach or curriculum. What is their approach to family engagement?)
Mission: to be a school of choice for the young minds exercising academic excellence and personal growth
Vision: To offer quality education to the American Children regardless of ethnic and cultural differences and nature discipline and responsibility in them.
Educational philosophy: we believe each child is special and unique in their capabilities and they need adequate, secure, caring and motivating atmosphere that they can grow intellectually, socially, emotionally and physically in exercise of their rights.
Curriculum Approach: A conceptual curriculum model is adopted in the efforts to ensure that elements that are developed relate to each other, and with relevance to the current global situations.
Family engagement: Ensuring that there is a continuous engagement and commitment of the parents and the community across the child’s life in meaningful ways that include learning and development.
POSTED CLASSROOM INFORMATION
(Put “X” for all that are observed): Daily Schedule_______ Lesson Plan___ X ____ Parent/Family Bulletin Board______ Other: __________________
Lesson Plan: Describe evidence of developmental domains and early learning standards? (Hint: Ask the teacher for the week’s lesson plan. It may be posted on the Family Bulletin Board.)
The school teaches basics in language, mathematics, sciences, social studies, and creative arts to the children who are enrolled to kindergarten and progressive classes. All the children including toddlers have continuous learning and physical development from the toddler age through physical health and motor development practices such as playing with toys and other items, playing and relating with others, sharing meals among other activities. As they socialize, they communicate using basic language hence improving their language, and also attending basic classes for literacy and cognitive development.
OBSERVED EXPERIENCES
Write only what you see and what you hear! Only the facts! No opinions! You are not required to observe each of these locations. Please plan to spend 1 hour observing. Location (Check all that apply): Classroom _____ Outdoors (for instance, playground) __ ___ School Gymnasium _____Other: __________
Daily Schedule Routine (Free Choice, Morning Meeting, Transition to Outdoors)
Classroom activities begin at 8am where children from the kindergarten level get to learn basic subjects. Outdoor activities for the children begin at 9am, and ends at 11:00 am. In class, it is mainly teacher dominated with few interactions among children. Children are left to socialize and play with one another after classes. Teachers monitor their field activities and in gymnasium, and guide them how to play with one another.
Materials being used:in the classroom, books, pens, crayons, artworks, counting materials, wallpapers, maps, models, among other materials are used. balls, see-saws, bouncing castles, ramps, ropes, among other playing items are used in the field and gymnasium.
Signs of Children’s Interest and Engagement in the activities: the children show willingness to learn in class and play with one another. They compete with one another and they are excited when doing those activities. They cheer at one another as they play in the field. Almost all children participate in one activity or the other. They also acts basic questions in class by raising their hands and handing notes.
The teacher’s guide the children as they engage in class and field activities. They teach them basic subjects and makes them understand through illustrations and questions. They pick students who raise their hands to answer questions and they also give them interactive sessions in class. They direct them by telling them what to and what not to do as they play, they help those who have been defeated from something for instance lifting them to the swings, or see-saws, they comfort those who are challenged and they also stop fights between the children. They apply basic words like sorry, apologize, do not, do this, do that, among others as they direct the kids
Child-Child Interactions (Including Words Spoken, Gestures, and Actions)
The children interact with each other through play and learn in class. They help each other solve a problem, ask each other questions to challenge one another intellectually. They select their teams, call each other names as they play, they celebrate a win, others cheer on them, they also help the junior ones to learn the game among others. they also teach each other new techniques by sharing what they watch in TV at home. They use common words like; come, sorry, run, here, there, pass, among others as they play.
Other (add any relevant additional information that you gathered below) – not required.
The children are free and open to their teachers and they are not shy to tell them of any occurrence in the classroom and the field.
Early childhood care is a crucial stage in every child developmental stage, and it is important that parents and guardians see that their children are under quality care in the childcare centers and schools that they attend. Regular inspections, monitoring, and evaluation of these centers are always carried out to ensure that it continues meeting the required standards set by the department of social services in the United States. Certain guidelines are used to analyze these standards including the Developmentally Appropriate Practices and the quality criteria to find out if these standards are implemented. Child cares a component that cannot be omitted in the society, but rather it should be given a great priority for their development determines their future behaviors in their society. In this paper, we shall carry out an observation then fill out the “Classroom Observation Tool,” then analyze the results as per the observation data filled in the tool.
Analysis Paper
Overview of the program.
Developmentally appropriate practice (DAP) is a teaching approach examining how young children develop and learn in what is known about efficient education (Developmentally Appropriate Practice, 2009). It is a deliberated to promote optimal learning and growth among the children (Developmentally Appropriate Practice, 2009). DAP is involved in actions such that include teachers meeting young children where they are, during a particular phase of development, as persons or even part of a group and helping them meet the difficult yet realizable learning goals in the process(Developmentally Appropriate, 2009). There are three considerations in the program: first, it deals with knowing about how the child develops and learns, second knowing what is singly appropriate and third knowing what is culturally accepted in the society that the child grows in.
Classroom observations are known to make teaching and learning visible, and also encouraging collaboration between colleagues to improve the teacher practice and student learning. Resources are paramount as an introduction to the common observation strategies in the field (Developmentally Appropriate, 2009). Using the instructional guides, videos and resources would help one explain what he/she needs to know in the choosing process and implementation of the appropriate observation strategy in the school.
The Educational Approach
The school applies the classical approach that where subjects are taught concurrently, but divided into phases. It is an approach, which builds a child through association of the words and the subject that it is taught (Classical Education, 2016). At this stage, children often love memorization, classically observed as they sang songs relating items with words continuously in the classroom and the field. The children find it exciting to memorize at his face, and it is also known as “grammar stage” because children enjoy pronouncing big words at this stage. The minds of these children are ready to absorb the information. Teachers spend most of the time at this stage teaching children facts.
In the school visited, most classroom lessons were spent feeding children with facts, rules of language, poems, stories in history literature and vocabulary of foreign languages, description of plants and animals, mathematical facts among other learning activities (Rating a Teacher Observation Tool, 2011). The children found it fun learning songs that associated letters with words, and also mastery of arithmetic. Very basic information was fed to the children from kindergarten while toddlers were given information mainly through songs and rhyme schemes.
Lessons Planned and Implemented
Lesson planning focuses on ensuring that there is a balance between learning play and rest. The lessons that are taught should have relevance towards child intellectual development (Rating a Teacher Observation Tool, 2011). A lesson plan should be accompanied by lesson objectives that give clarity of the objectives and standardization. It should be planned strategically involving activities and what is required to be delivered by the teacher. It should create a physical environment where there is evidence of interaction between students and teachers and among students themselves.
In my classroom observations, the teachers had lesson plans prepared prior starting a lesson. They gave introductions and objectives of what they were going to teach the children before they entered into the actual learning. As the lessons continued there were evidence of interactive sessions between teachers and the children through asking questions and giving out comments. Teachers allowed students to discuss various lesson activities as part of interactive learning and at the same time, giving them room to learn from one another. Lessons proved enjoyable to the students through their active participation and eagerness to learn.
Observed Teaching Practices
According Kiggundu & Nayimuli, teaching is not an easy task because a teacher has the responsibility of meeting the wants of all the children in the classroom (2009). Thus, the teaching practice that is exercised should be adequate and sufficient to meet the special needs of all the children in the classroom (Kiggundu & Nayimuli, 2009). In this school, I observed that teachers preferred interactive lessons, which allowed children to participate in learning. Though most of the lessons involved teaching facts to the children it provided room for children to give their opinion on what they did not understand in the process. Allowing students to be creative in an art class by drawing their imaginations, or modeling them is part of interactive teaching that is widely practiced in the school.
Children’s Engagement in Different Learning Experiences
Children engagement is a sure way that a particular lesson is either understood or not by the children. Active participation through asking questions, completing assignments, and answering questions correctly is an important indicator that a child is progressing well in class (Developmentally Appropriate Practice, 2009). My observation of child engagements in the school showed that a significant number of them engaged themselves well in different learning experiences. Children are gifted in different ways, and they might not be good at everything. Their active engagement was a sure proof that their teachers were trying their best to feed information in their young minds in an enjoyable manner.
Child-teacher interactions are crucial as it indicates their confidentiality in them. There should be no barrier between a child and a teacher, because if there is one, it blocks the child’s ability to learn in a friendly environment (Rating a Teacher Observation Tool, 2011). My observations proved that there was a well-established relationship between the teachers and the children in the school. Children were free to ask questions in their classes, and their teachers showed the willingness to answer them and direct them further. Children were also free to tell their teachers the ideas they had. The teachers also were friendly to the children as they tried to listen to them. They also guided them in performing tasks such as modeling, drawing among other activities. Teachers also resolved children fights in a “win-win” situation to prevent barriers among children.
Child-Child Interactions
Child to child interactions is also very important elements in a learning institution. The way children relate to one another portrays a very important element of social interaction in the school environment. The observations made by the school showed that child-to-child interaction was good, regardless of their ethnic and cultural backgrounds except for few extremist cases (Developmentally Appropriate Practice, 2009). Class discussions among themselves did not create barriers but was free. As they played on the field, they seemed to get along with one another. They also supported ideas that any of them developed as either a team in the field or as a group in class. Though they could differ in opinions leading to fights, a solution to that opinion did not divide them.
How my Observation Findings Compare To Quality Care and Education, DAP, and the Code of Ethical Conduct
The findings in my observational studies in the classroom rhyme with the what I have learned about quality care and education in very many ways. Just as quality care and education is a basic right for any developing child (Rating A Teacher Observation Tool, 2011). The school that I undertook my observation practices and tried the best of its capabilities to offer quality care and educations to the young children. That is done through teacher support programs, parent and society engagements, policies and quality standards.
Classical education that is practiced in the school is concurrent with the requirements of DAP as it gives room for one to know the special qualities and talents each child possesses at a very early stage (Developmentally Appropriate Practice, 2009). Adequate attention given to the children by their teachers is sure enough that they help them grow both intellectually, socially, physically and emotionally at every stage of development. The teachers interact with children from different cultural backgrounds, and though it is a challenge to fulfill all their cultural needs and interactions, their universality helps them achieve what is required in the society,
Ethics are very important in the exercise of any profession in the United States. Failure to implement any policy in a social setting is often considered unethical (Code of Ethical Conduct and Statement of Commitment, 2005). The fact that the school hires qualified staff who pass through relevant training in childcare is sure enough that their code of ethics is still intact. The school follows all the standards and procedures that are required by the department social services. They also ensure that the children regardless of their ethnic and cultural backgrounds receive equal treatment, and their differences scrubbed out of the picture. Every teacher is also accountable for what they teach the children in the classrooms knowing that any unethical conduct is unlawful and that they are ready to face any consequences dictated by the school and the state in general.
References
Classical Education | Helping parents, educate their children in the classical tradition since 1999. (2016). Welltrainedmind.com. Retrieved 22 July 2016, from http://www.welltrainedmind.com/classical-education/
Developmentally Appropriate Practice in Early Childhood Programs Serving Children from Birth through Age 8. (2009) (1st ed.). Washington, D.C. Retrieved from https://www.naeyc.org/files/naeyc/file/positions/PSDAP.pdf
Kiggundu, E. &Nayimuli, S. (2009). Teaching practice: a make or break phase for student teachers. South African Journal Of Education, 29(3), 345-358. Retrieved from http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0256-01002009000300004
RATING A TEACHER OBSERVATION TOOL: Five ways to ensure classroom observations are focused and rigorous. (2011) (1st ed.). New York. Retrieved from http://tntp.org/assets/documents/TNTP_RatingATeacherObservationTool_Feb2011.pdf
