THE NEW YORK CITY DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
Edward R. Murrow High School
DESIGNATED A SCHOOL OF EXCELLENCE BY THE UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
ALLEN BARGE, PRINCIPAL
TO:
All Staff
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FROM:
Allen Barge, James Cunningham, Angela Gramegna, Spy Kontarinis, Abbey Lewis, Ryan Mills, Carlos Reyes,
Huda Sami, Thomas Toriello, Gayle Zeitlin
DATE:
September 8, 20154
RE:
PRE-OBSERVATION CHECKLIST/GUIDELINESPRE-OBSERVATION GUIDELINES 2015-2016
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------It is the mission of Edward R. Murrow High School to CARE for our students (Challenge students, Achieve academic
success, Respect differences, and Engage all students in the learning process). During the pre-observation conference,
we always emphasize the importance of the lesson plan.Consistent with our mission, the instructional focus is to
improve planning to increase student engagement. While the format of the lesson plan is up to the individual teacher,
the goal of every lesson must be the same - to maximize student learning. To achieve this goal, the following elements
must be evident during every lesson:
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Murrow Instructional Foci 2015-2016 - Planning and Instruction
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Instructional Objectives and Outcomes – Instructional objectives are the specific expected student learning
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outcomes. The skill and content objectives should be clear and determine the activities for the lesson.
 What do I want my students to learn?
 Which new and attainable skill(s) and content goal(s) will my student acquire through the materials, questions
and activities in the lesson?
 How will students demonstrate evidence that they have learned the new content and skill(s)?
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AIM - Every lesson should have an AIM (preferably elicited from the students), in the form of a question, that is aligned
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to the New York State Learning Standards in content as well as the Common Core Standards in skill.
 What question will I introduce that reflects the objectives/outcomes and rigorous learning that will be expected
throughout the lesson?
 How can I form a critical thinking question that will foster evaluation throughout the lesson?
Motivation - A motivation creates a readiness or anticipation for what is to follow and should last between 5 and 7
minutes at beginning of the lesson.
 What can I do to garner interest in the topic or the question?
 How will I make the content relevant to the students?
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Lesson Development - In this segment of the lesson, a logical sequence of learning activities should be planned in
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which the lesson objectives, materials, questions, tasks and student groupings all come together to promote student
engagement and student learning; time should be allocated for critical thinking, analytical discussion and evaluative
assessments.
 What learning tasks will I plan to ensure my students meet the learning objectives?
 How will I differentiate and scaffold the activities based on the needs of my students?
 How will I include reading, writing, speaking and listening skills into my lesson?
 What materials/resources will I use to support students’ efforts to meet the instructional objective?
 How will I encourage student to student interaction through discussion, strategically planned cooperative
groups, and/or project based learning groups?
 What formative assessments will I use throughout the lesson to check students’ understanding?
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Good questioning technique – Every lesson must include key or pivotal questions that require higher order thinking
skills and serve to promote dialogue among teacher and students, as well as among students.
 What questions will I ask to engage my students in learning?
 How do I incorporate high level questions that challenge students to justify their reasoning and respond to
classmates ideas?
 How can I facilitate student-led discussions with limited teacher participation where students challenge each
other’s ideas and extend the discussion?
 Have I aligned my questions and prompts to correlate with the learning objectives of the lesson?
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Assessment – A highly effective lesson includes formative assessments that check for understanding and includes a
comprehensive final (summative) assessment.
 How will I know my students have met the learning objectives?
 What formative assessments will I use throughout the lesson to check students’ understanding?
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How can I vary the strategies /tasks to stimulate critical thinking and check for individual student
understanding?
How can I provide high quality feedback to my students and use the students’ work for future lesson planning?
Closing- A highly effective lesson should conclude with an activity that consolidates learning from all parts of the lesson.
This is the application of the learning to a big picture question or scenario.
 How can my students relate or apply these learnings to a current or universal scenario at the end of the lesson?
 My definition of a good teacher has changed from “one who explains things so well that students understand” to
“one who gets students to explain things so well that they can be understood” (Stephen Reinhart).
SAMPLE LESSON PLANNING TEMPLATE
While the format of the lesson plan is up to the individual teacher, the goal of every lesson must be the same - to
maximize student learning. To achieve this goal, the following elements must be evident during every lesson:
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Objectives – Content (NYS learning standards):
 List all content standards you will meet
 Consistent and attainable content objectives
align with the materials, activities,
assessments
Objectives – Skills (CCLS)
 List all of CCLS you will meet
 Consistent and attainable skill objectives align
with the materials, activities, assessments
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AIM: (Guiding Question)
 Question allows for critical thinking and evaluation
 Question is clear, concise and aligned to the NYS learning standards or CCLS objectives
 Question fosters evaluation throughout your lesson
Motivation:
 The prompt (image, quote, cartoon, activity) garners interest and excitement in the topic?
 Makes the topic relevant to your students
 Connect to your AIM and objectives?
Lesson Development:
 A logical sequence of tasks ensures your students meet the learning objectives in appropriate
time frames
 Materials/resources and learning activities are differentiated and scaffolded to meet the needs of
your students
 Includes reading, writing, speaking and listening skills to meet your instructional objectives
 Includes activities/tasks appropriate for strategically-planned cooperative groups
 Includes activities/tasks that allow for student choice
Good questioning technique:
 Pose key or pivotal questions that require critical thinking to engage your students in learning
 Require your students to justify their reasoning and respond to their classmates’ ideas
 Facilitate student led discussion with limited teacher involvement
 Students are engage in each other’s ideas and extend the discussion
 Questions and prompts are clearly aligned to your learning objectives
Assessments:
 FORMATIVE assessments exist throughout your lesson to “check for understanding”
 SUMMATIVE assessment exist at the end of your lesson to “consolidates understandings”
 Varied assessments are provided to measure the extent that your students met the learning
objectives
 High quality feedback is provided to your students and used to plan future lessons
Closing:
 An activity is provided that relates and applies the topic to current or universal idea or situation
Instructional Objectives and Outcomes - By pedagogical objectives, we mean the specific expected student learning
outcomes. What new skill will the student have the ability to perform after the activity that the student was not capable
of doing before the activity? What student task behavior will help you determine whether your lesson was effective?
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What specific knowledge will the student be able to demonstrate? Your objectives should be clear to you before you
design the activities for your lesson. Knowing what your specific objectives are determines what activities you plan to
use in order to meet those objectives.
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