Scoring Rubric for the Classroom Observation Tool with Examples

The rubric describes the practice at three levels, low, medium and high. Note that the rating scale in the classroom observation tool allows
observers to rate the practice from 1(low), 2 (medium low), 3 (medium), 4 (medium high) and 5 (high).
Low (1) Medium (3) High (5)
Lesson facilitation
1. The teacher explicitly The teacher does not state the The teacher explicitly states a broad The teacher explicitly states the
articulates the objectives of lesson objective(s), nor can an classroom objective and the lesson objective for this lesson the lesson
the lesson and relates objective be guessed from the activities are somewhat aligned to activities closely align to the lesson
classroom activities to the lesson activities. the lesson objective(s). objective(s).
objectives.
For example: The teacher says,
For example: The teacher asks “Today we’re going to learn about For example: At the start of class
students to take turns reading a text multiplication,” without further the teacher states, “Today we’re
about planting and harvesting specification. Alternatively, the going to learn to multiply fractions.
crops. S/he then spends the rest of lesson activities may clearly work First, we are going to practice some
the lesson discussing farming and toward how to divide whole examples together on the
the specific processes involved. numbers, but this is not explicitly blackboard. Then you are going to
The teacher does not state a lesson articulated by the teacher. work with a friend”. Each lesson
objective, and it is difficult to infer a activity is clearly related to the
lesson objective from the activities objective of multiplying fractions.
as the objective could be
developing oral reading fluency,
developing vocabulary, or learning
about agriculture.
2. The teacher's The teacher’s explanations of the The teacher’s explanations of the The teacher's explanations of
explanation of content is content are confusing or incorrect or content, when they occur, are content are clear, correct and easy
clear and correct. content is simply not explained. correct and somewhat clear. to understand. The teacher makes
sure to explain meaning of technical
terms; the explanations are logical
and may be accompanied by
graphic representations or
For example: The teacher uses too For example: While reading a story, examples.
many technical terms without the teacher identifies difficult words
explaining what s/he means and/or and defines them, but does not For example: In a lesson on
may explain ideas without a logical relate them to what is happening in fractions, the teacher provides a
order or connection. Moreover, the the story. clear and thorough definition of a
teacher may say, “A fraction is a fraction, including defining
combination of a numerator and “numerator” and “denominator.”
denominator, without saying what S/he has drawn several fractions on
either of those words mean. the board as examples.
Alternatively, the teacher may not
provide any explanation of content.
3. The teacher makes The teacher does not connect what The teacher attempts to connect the The teacher meaningfully connects
connections that relate to is taught to other content lesson to other content knowledge the lesson to other content
other content knowledge or knowledge or to students' daily or to student's daily lives but the knowledge or to student's daily
students’ daily lives. lives. connections are sometimes unclear. lives.

For example: When introducing a

For example: During a lesson on lesson on fractions, the teacher For example: When teaching a
fractions the teacher uses a picture says, “When we cut a cake, we use class on fractions, the teacher
of a cake and divides it into fourths fractions” and go on to explain relates the content to students’
but does not make a connection to fractions. The connection to experiences by asking, “Who has
students’ experience with slicing students’ lives is superficial and had to slice a birthday cake? How
cake. Alternatively, the teacher nonspecific. Alternatively, the did you make sure there were
says, “Remember, yesterday we teacher says, “Remember enough slices for everyone?
learned about whole numbers? yesterday we learned the rules for Learning about fractions can help
Today, we are going to learn how to adding whole numbers? Now we us divide a cake between people.”
add fractions.” are going to use those rules and The teacher also connects the
apply them to adding fractions.” lesson to a prior lesson on halves
However, when explaining how to by saying, “Remember yesterday
add fractions, the teacher does not when we learned about halves? We
link the rules back to the rules for learned that when we cut a cake in
adding whole numbers. half, we can share it equally
between 2 people. Today we will
learn how to divide the cake into
fourths, so 4 people can share the
cake. When we were forming
halves we made sure we had 2
halves of identical size. The same
thing is true when we are forming
fourths: we have to make sure to
keep slices of the same size.” The
connection between the current
lesson and other content knowledge
and/or students’ daily lives is clear.
4. The teacher models by The teacher does not model. The teacher partially models the The teacher completely models the
enacting or thinking aloud learning activity. learning activity by enacting or
or by showing a final demonstrating all parts of the
product expected of the procedure and/or by thinking aloud.
students.
For example: In an English class For example: The teacher
where the objective of the activity is demonstrates different ways to
to write a paragraph, the teacher solve a math problem (enactment of
only demonstrates how to write a a procedure) and while doing so,
topic sentence. In a math class, the s/he says what s/he is thinking at
teacher shows (enacts) how to draw each step of the equation (think
a bar graph but does not clarify how aloud). Or if students are calculating
s/he extracted the data from the text the area of their desk, the teacher
to create the bar graph. demonstrates each step in the
process (full enactment of a
procedure).
Checks for understanding
5. The teacher uses The teacher either does not ask The teacher uses questions, The teacher uses questions,
questions, prompts or other questions/prompt students at all OR prompts, or other strategies that are prompts or other strategies that are
strategies to determine when s/he does, the class responds effective at determining only a few effective at determining most
students’ level of in synchrony, which is accepted students’ level of understanding. students’ level of understanding.
understanding. without further clarifying for
understanding.
For example: The teacher asks, For example: The teacher says,
For example: When explaining a “What is 7+8?” Only a few students “Please put your hand up if you
concept, the teacher asks, “Have respond by raising their hand, a agree with this statement:
you all understood?” The students group from which the teacher calls Equilateral triangles have equal
in the class respond in unison, upon 1 or 2 students to provide an angles.” The teacher also asks
“Yes, we have.” Another example is answer. Alternatively, the teacher students to demonstrate their
that the teacher inquires, “This is asks the question but does not ask knowledge by having all students
correct, right?” after completing a students to raise their hands in share their answers, e.g., by asking
problem set. The class or an response and simply allows each student to read out the
individual student replies, “Yes, this students to willingly volunteer their sentence s/he wrote using past
is correct.” answers. tense verbs.
6. The teacher monitors The teacher does not monitor The teacher monitors some The teacher systematically monitors
most students during students when they are working students when they are working most students by circulating the
individual or group work. independently or in groups. independently or in groups to check classroom and approaching
their understanding. individual students or groups to
check their understanding.
For example: The teacher sits at
his/her desk or remains standing in For example: The teacher observes For example: When students are
front of the class when students are some student work for accuracy, working, the teacher walks around
working. clarifies concepts, or asks the classroom, making sure to
questions. approach students or groups in a
systematic way. The teacher
observes most students’ work,
clarifies concepts, and asks
questions.
7. The teacher is being The teacher does not adjust The teacher adjusts teaching for The teacher differentiates teaching,
inclusive and adjusts teaching for students. Content is some students but there are still adjusts content and is teaching at
teaching to the level of the either too easy or too difficult for some students for whom content is the right level for all students.
students. most if not all students. too easy or too difficult.
For example: As students complete
For example: As students complete an alphabet worksheet, the teacher
an alphabet worksheet, the teacher notices they are not dotting their ‘i’s.
notices they are not dotting their ‘i’s. In response, s/he briefly stops the
In response, s/he briefly reminds activity and reviews the differences
the class to dot their ‘i’s. between capital and lower case ‘i’s
before continuing with the alphabet
activity. Alternatively, if the teacher
notices that a student has already
completed the worksheet, s/he may
give that student another activity to
complete while waiting for the rest
of the class.
Feedback
8. The teacher provides The teacher either does not The teacher makes some specific The teacher consistently provides
specific comments to help comment gives simple, evaluative comments and draws attention to students with specific, timely
students clarify statements (e.g. “That is incorrect”) misunderstandings but the comments about their work. These
misunderstandings and comments are superficial. comments provide substantive
understand successes. information about what the students
did well and/or help clarify students’
misunderstandings.
For example: When a student For example: In a math class, the
answers a teacher’s question teacher says, “You forgot to include For example: If students are writing
incorrectly, the teacher responds by the negative sign,” without providing stories the teacher may say, “You
saying, “That is not the correct further information or prompts. do a good job getting the reader
answer,” and moves on. interested in this paragraph when
you write ‘no one knew what would
happen.’ This sentence makes me
want to read more.” Moreover, the
teacher may highlight some
students’ work and say to the class
“Look at the work of this classmate,
see how s/he used the number line
to solve this subtraction problem?”
And then proceeds to explain how
s/he solved it.

Critical thinking
9. The teacher asks The teacher asks questions that The teacher asks questions that The teacher asks questions
thinking questions. demand a simple yes/no answer or require more than recall or a simple throughout the lesson to promote
the recall of facts. yes/no answer. high level thinking.

For example: The teacher asks, For example: The teacher asks, For example: The teacher asks,
“Who is the main character in this “Why was the character unhappy? “How do you think the main
story?” or “Which is greater, -2 or - What makes you think that?” OR characters in the story would prepare
6?” “Why is -2 greater than -6?” And for the competition?” After a student
then asks, “How do you use the responds, the teacher then follows
number line to determine if -8 or -4 is up by asking, “What facts or ideas
greater?” make you think that?” Then s/he
asks another student, “What do you
think happens next?” In a math
class, the teacher asks, “How do you
know -2 is greater than -6?” After the
student responds, the teacher
follows up by asking, “What would
happen if the numbers were
positive?” Later in the lesson, the
teacher asks, “How do you use the
number line to determine if –8 or –4
is greater?”

10. The teacher The teacher does not provide The teacher provides low level The teacher provides high level
provides thinking tasks. thinking tasks. Classrooms with no thinking tasks. Low level thinking thinking tasks. High level thinking
thinking tasks include those where tasks are tasks such as matching tasks are tasks such as making
students simply listen to the teacher sets of items, identifying concepts or predictions, identifying patterns,
or perform rote tasks. key pieces of information, and explaining thinking, making
comparing characteristics. connections, interpreting information,
applying learning in new situations.
See definitions of thinking tasks
11. The teacher The teacher is not aware of students’ The teacher responds to students’ The teacher promptly responds to
responds to students' needs OR does not address the needs but may not address the students’ needs in a way that
needs. problem at hand problem at hand. specifically addresses the problem at
hand.

For example: A student may not For example: A student may be For example: If a student does not
have the required supplies for the upset because s/ he does not have a have a pencil, the teacher allows the
lesson, and the teacher does not pencil, and the teacher asks another child to borrow one from his/her
notice or sees it and ignores it. child to share his/her pencil, but s/he spare pencil box. If a student cannot
Alternatively, a student may not be refuses. The teacher carries on with see the blackboard, she suggests a
able to see the blackboard but the the lesson without solving the new place for them to sit, asks other
teacher does nothing. problem. Or the child cannot see the students to make space and makes
blackboard so the teacher tells the sure that after the move, everyone
child to move but does not check can see the board.
that in the new position they can now
see.
 Scoring Rubric for Time on Learning
Low Medium High

All students are engaged in a

Students are engaged in a learning 6 or more students are not engaged 3-5 students are not engaged in
learning activity (except
activity. in a learning activity a learning activity
perhaps one or two students)