Interview Protocol
Teacher
Interviewer: Kinsey Reber
Interviewee: Frederich
Date: 3/11/16
Time: 11:30 am
(These are sample questions. Please add your own questions to learn more about
your specific classroom. This interview should take place in your initial meeting,
prior to the two week intensive).
Planning Questions:
How do you write a typical lesson plan?
- The grade level team shares the roles of lesson planning. A team of two
teachers each creates lessons for a specific subject for every week. For
example, I create the science lessons while Mrs. Robinson next door creates
the reading lessons.
What types of materials do you need available when you plan lessons?
-We always look over the standards first thing when planning. We look at
what we covered the week before and what we will be covering this next
week. From there I use my science resources, such as, Orange County Public
Schools 2012 planning to create the lessons.
In what ways do you plan to accommodate individual differences in the
classroom?
-The main individual differences I have in my classroom are my Talent
Development students. For lessons I always have to plan ahead and have
extra work ready for them in case they finish the required work early.
Instructional Questions:
What are some of your instructional challenges as a teacher?
-The hardest thing is planning your time wisely for lessons. You need to know
exactly how long the centers are going to be, how long you will give students
to complete the warm up or worksheet, how long it will take your class to
transition, etc.
What do you consider essential characteristics for successful teaching?
- You have to be patient. It is easy to forget sometimes that they are children
who are 8 and 9 years old. You also need to always be your students
cheerleader. My students in particular are very competitive with themselves.
They want to get an A on that math test, they want to beat their goal on the
MAPS testing and if they do not they take it really hard on themselves.
How often do your students receive social studies/science instruction?
-We teach science 4 times per week and social studies integrates with literacy
3 times per week. I also do the weekly Time for kids article as a part of social
studies or science.
Are you satisfied with the amount of time that you currently allot for social
studies/science instruction? Explain.
- Yes. We teach science a lot compared to other grades and other schools.
Science is my favorite subject to teach, so we are always doing cool
experiments and centers to go along with the standards being taught.
What social studies and science topics/units will be studied during the second
week of my clinical experience? What are possible goals/objectives I could
address for my lessons? Do you have any instructional resources that would
support these goals/objectives?
-For social studies, students will be finishing up their living museum
requirements to turn in for grading. For science, we will be creating solar
ovens and testing them. Students have to create their own designs and build
their solar ovens by themselves during class.
What does reading instruction look like in your classroom (e.g. readers
workshop, basals, etc.)?
What reading topics will be studied during the 2 nd week of my clinical
experience? What are possible goals/objectives I could address for my
reading lesson? Do you have any instructional resources that would support
these goals/objectives?
-For next week, we are covering figurative language. We will go over idioms
and similes during the week. In writing, we will be working on context clues.
Classroom Management Questions:
What motivation tactics do you use to ensure a desire to learn?
Tell me about the classroom community. What are the class rules?
How is
student behavior monitored? In what ways is positive behavior reinforced? In
what ways are negative behaviors prevented? Tell me about the
consequences for negative behavior.
Tell me about the pacing of lessons and interaction in the classroom- use of
time- and other aspects of timewait time, and time using teacher talk and
student talk. What works well with your students?
Describe: What did I observe?
- I completed the teacher interview in person to really understand the
emotion that goes into teaching. What I saw when my teacher was
giving her answers was joy written all over her face. She was so excited
to talk about the happy moments and the learning moments of teaching
and getting to share her personal experiences.
Analyze: What do I think (opinions, thoughts, comments, questions)
about what Ive observed?
-I loved and agreed with all the answers she gave for my questions. She
had evidence to back up what she said and even brought out student
work samples to explain her answers and opinions.
Appraise: How did this observation influence me as a future teacher?
-I took everything she said about teaching: the good, the bad, and the
sometimes ugly, to heart. It was a great learning experience for me. I
will definitely take all the advice given by her to better myself.
