Observational/Descriptive field notes (occurs in the field)
Reflections/Interpretations of field notes (occurs after you leave the field)
Include location of observation, date, and time. A short title can be helpful in identifying the purpose of the observation, or connect observation to the weekly guiding question(s).
Describe what you see. Describe the setting. This may include pencil drawings of the space and furniture arrangement.
Describe the activities that took place in that setting. Reproduce the sequence of actions and behaviors.
Describe the people who took part in the activities and their roles in the activities.
Record exact quotes or close approximations of comments that relate directly to the observation activity
Describe any impact you might have had on the situation you observed.
Include unanswered questions that have arisen from reflecting on the observation.
Ask yourself questions about what you’ve seen. What surprised you? What intrigued you? What disturbed you?
Clarify points and correct mistakes and misunderstandings in other parts of your field notes.
Include insights or speculations about what you are observing.
Analyze the assumptions and expectations you bring into each of your observations.
Field notes These consist of brief descriptions in note form of key events that occurred throughout the lesson. They can provide a summary of the lesson as a whole, or can be time-based (e.g., every five minutes). For example:
8:30 - Class begins. 8:33 - Teacher writes instructions for class on board as students turn on computers. 8: 35 - Teacher gives oral instructions for online reading task. 8:40 - Students engage in online reading task with computers. 8:45 - Silence - reading comprehension ensues. 8: 50 - Silence 8:55 - Teacher checks with a student about why he's not reading and circulates to see how other students are doing. 9:00 - Silence continues as students read. 9:04 - Students finished with online reading task look up at teacher. 9:05 - Teacher takes up answers for the online reading task students were working on. 9:08 - Teacher tells students to go back to computers to do scanning practice. 9:09 - Teacher assists one student to get online and understand scanning. 9:13 - Teacher helps student scan and then tells whole class what they should be doing when "scanning" andfocusing on key words. 9:17 - Teacher circulates room and helps individual students while reading on their computers. 9:20 - Teacher concludes class.