Weekly Lesson Evaluations

1. Weekly Lesson Evaluations prompt sheet
Week beginning: 18th
April – 22nd
April 2016
Targets from last evaluations:
 Make sure there is enough time for
writing and plenary
 Develop confidence with Year 10
classes by learning names
Reflective Practice: how successful were the lessons?
Year 7
I taught two lessons with my year 7 class, focusing on Chapter One of The
Hunger Games. The first lesson focused on the personality of Katniss, using
adjectives to describe Katniss and quotes from the book to back up what they
described her. This was done using collaborative group work, and all groups
stuck up their work on the wall as a ‘gallery’ to take down quotes that they
thought were beneficial. I felt this worked extremely well, as students would
be able to think about which quotes were important, and write them down in
their books. The second lesson was a formal lesson observation by my
mentor, Huw. I was extremely flustered as I had just arrived back from Senior
Sports day, so I was in a rush to get to the lesson on time. I had to field
questions about my choice of attire, but the lesson seemed to run smoothly.
The lesson focused on reading to the end of Chapter One, focusing on the
description of the reaping. This part is important as this is where two people
from the district are chosen to fight in The Hunger Games, and I asked the
class to write a diary entry using descriptive techniques. We went through the
descriptive techniques, and using collaborative group work to come up with
examples of these techniques. Huw picked out two important points which I
could possibly defend:
 Do not allow students to read – he said that this ‘kills’ the book as they
are not reading enthusiastically. I retorted by explaining that reading
out loud is a skill that is important because they will have to give
presentations in life. Huw said it would depend on department policy
but he feels that it does not promote ‘a love of reading’
 Form of writing – a diary entry that I set for the students does not have
any sense of readership. It is for themselves to read, so there is no
underlying audience. I agree with him, and came up with alternatives
like a newspaper article, where students write a newspaper article
reporting that Primrose Everdeen and Peeta have been chosen to
represent District 12.
I understand that I have things to improve, but I do feel like our differing
pedagogies do clash.
Year 8
I taught three lessons with my year 8 class, focusing on Act Two Scene Two
and Act Three Scene One. The first two lessons prepared students to write a
script for the balcony scene. I felt that this could have been prepared much
better, possibly with script starters and better scaffolding. I feel that I could
have got students to explore ‘modern day’ conversations of characters
confessing their love for one another. For the second lesson, they performed
their scripts in South Hall. I felt that the students enjoyed this, but they are an
extremely shy class. To do this effectively, I could have explained the
importance of performance, and that they have to do this in GCSE. For the
final lesson, we looked at the fight scene in Act Three Scene One. This is

2. where Romeo kills Tybalt to avenge for Mercutio’s death. I feel that I could
have delivered this effectively by showing the clip first, rather than taking on
the whole scene and deciphering it as a class.
Year 9
I taught two lessons with my year 9 class, where I focused on the start of Act
Two, which will be part of their assessment. For the first lesson, we evaluated
the characters from the end of Act One to page 37, 10 pages into Act Two. I
wanted to get them to see how they changed, and pick out quotes in pairs. I
found this to be quite effective as this built up their skills in selecting quotes
which can be discussed further. I also found this ‘timeline’ to be effective as it
was more animated. The second lesson focused on assessment feedback for
the first question about Mr. Birling. I found the lesson to run smoothly, with
clear feedback points and homework focusing on embedding quotes.
Year 10
As I was at Senior Sports Day and eleven were absent on Thursday, I did not
take any Year 10 lessons this week. I have continued to annotate the
anthology.
Action Points:
 Consider carefully the form of writing you are asking the students
to write
 Use different ways of reading to promote ‘a love of reading’