TESOL Observation Field Notes

Class Observation #__eng 107__

Teacher

__Sarah_Hynes___________

Class

____ENG107_______________

Date/Time_2.15.2016__3:00-4:00_______ Location______Coor L1-34____________

Effective Principles of Observation:

Wipe away preconceived notions before starting your observations.

Collect observations under different circumstances and from varied perspectives.

Take thorough notes, including quotes and details about the setting and atmosphere, and collect
important class documents.

Engage in active listening using a detached observer approach.

Keep systematic track of observations that surprise you or contradict your prior beliefs.

Pre-Class Notes (e.g., what are the teachers goals for the lesson? what are the demographics [e.g., student population,
class size, proficiency level] of the class?)

Issue Social attitude in the Past and Now

LGBT Rights
Will have quiz on Wednesday.

Description/Observation of the class

Reflection on/Interpretation of the class

Talking about student will have quiz on Wednesday

She is really good at manage the class, she

encourage students to talk and share their
experience.

(i.e., what is happening?)

Issue Social attitude in the past.

now

--LGBT rights (U.S.):

(i.e., what does it mean?)

She lists all the information, ideas, tips on the white

board to help students to organized the minds, give
their tips for their projects.

1. PASS: No legal right, wrong, mistis, unaccepting,

judgmental, punishing
2. Now: legalized, marriage, accepting, respect
-------What we can look for:
Government action/laws
Majority of people

She always encourage students to answer the

questions, if they dont have students to answer the
questions she will give some tips to the students
become an example to help students to answer her
questions. She will share her own story , those story
are very interesting and give students some tips to
let them relax and them have the brainstorm.

Observe social behavior

Surveys
Popular culture

Goal for today :

Find out many ideas about the social attitude (can look
relationships (Sexual relationships, familychildren(19 th in
peoples mind : child labor, responsibility, no work, taken
care of, the number of kids, having children, freedom for
child) parents, spouses(divorce, marriage a necessity for

I was walking around and helping the students with

their discussion topic, some groups they have ideas
about their topic but some groups they have no ideas
about their topics, they need some tips for the topics.
Some even ask about my ideas about the thought, I
think its really necessary for me and my class
teacher to help and listen each groups ideas and help
them.

family, partner qualifications), education, religion, careers,

jobs, leisure, health, wellness.
Doing a brain storm (society minds doing relationships).

Separate the groups to discover the topics( recent and

now, how the topics change)Each group have their own
topics.

Students example:
Religion: inferable or chosen

Post-Class Notes (e.g., are there follow-up questions for the teacher? does anything need to be clarified?)
HM for Wednesday
1. Carefully read the assignment sheet for WP2 (in Content).

2. Prepare for a quiz on your reading homework on Wednesday.

3. Come to class on time on Wednesday. We will start class with the quiz

2016 From point A to Point B assignment

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From Then to Now

Because we are often bombarded by the same news-stories over and over again, or by everybody talking about
the same thing at the same time on social media, it can be easy to only live in the present moment of any given
issue. It can be easy to forget about the historical context of an issue or that any different reality existed before the
current paradigm became so prominent. This is especially true when it comes to social attitudes, beliefs, or feelings
(of course, not each person in a society will have the same attitude, beliefs, or feelings toward something.
Nevertheless, it is safe to say that the overall society will share a certain attitude, belief, or feeling toward
something. We can see that this is true when we see pop culture, the media, prominent figures like politicians,
cultural critics, celebrities, etc., and a majority of ordinary people espousing the same attitude or belief). When the
overall society has embraced a particular attitude toward an issue, it can be difficult to remember that people, and
society as a whole, once embraced a different attitude toward the same issue.
For example, many young Americans have an attitude of acceptance and respect for LGBT people. They may
take for granted the labor required for LGBT people to gain rights. They may forget that as recently as the 90's and
early 2000's, gay people were regularly subjected to social scorn, abuse, and even physical violence. For another
example, many Americans might take for granted the existence of a loud anti-vaccination movement in the U.S.,
but many might not know the origins of this movement or how it became so prominent. This blinder-vision itself
might be a relatively recent phenomenon: perhaps it's only recently that society as a whole immerses itself in one
moment after another without much thoughtful consideration of their historical antecedents or how they might
connect with each other.
For this project, you will identify a contemporary social attitude toward or stance on an issue that is very
different from the social attitudes toward the same issue in the recent past. You will also use critical thinking and
primary and secondary research to choose one important influence on society's collective understanding of and
stance on the issue. You will use critical thinking and primary and secondary research to figure out the exact way
and degree to which your chosen influence affected society.
You will include the following research in your essay:
1. the results of one interview (that you will create and conduct)
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2. the results of primary research that you conduct into appropriate source material either produced by
your influence or produced in response to it
3. one relevant and credible secondary source
You may have your own views about whether the development is a positive or a negative one, but you will
present your findings in a way that minimizes your own feelings and opinions about the change and that achieves
the kind of objectivity that will make readers of any persuasion consider your findings.

Learning Objectives

In this project, you will learn to

brainstorm a topic that fits the criteria of the assignment, is appropriately focused, intellectually challenging
and interesting to a wide audience
create and conduct an interview as a source of knowledge
conduct primary research into source material as a source of knowledge
conduct secondary research as a source of knowledge
critically evaluate material you find on the internet
synthesize and analyze multiple points of view
develop new ideas to contribute to an ongoing conversation
identify and rectify errors or weaknesses in logic
adjust your writing to appeal to an audience that will include people who do not agree with you
consider and control the tone of your writing
write an annotated bibliography
use MLA style

Audience

Your readers are well-educated people and well-read people. They are the kind of readers who also read online
newsmagazines like Slate.com, theAtlantic.com, theNation.com, etc. (you can read these websites to get ideas of
the kind and quality of thinking and writing your readers will expect from you!). These readers already have a
general understanding of current issues and have a general sense of the common attitudes that people have toward
these issues. They may even already have a general knowledge about the origins of these attitudes. To keep their
interest, you must pick one influence and conduct a focused and deep investigation into how and to what extent
that one influence affected society's overall thinking.
Because they are well-educated, they will expect you to make a logical argument and support it with strong
evidence from credible sources. Many of your readers will probably accept the prevailing social view of your issue.
Some may not. In this essay, it is not your job to pick a side. Instead, it is your job to show both sides how the
current state of affairs came to be so that they can perhaps better understand how and why they've come to believe
what they believe.

Genre of Research Paper

In your introduction, you need to introduce the current social attitude toward your chosen issue and then draw a
compelling contrast between the current and past attitudes. You will provide an overview of different influences in
this attitude-shift and then direct your readers' attention to one very compelling influence that you will focus on. In
your thesis statement, you will make an argument about the exact way and the extent to which your chosen
influence affected society's overall attitude and brought us from then to now.

In the body, you will support your thesis with strong evidence and reasoning.
Specifically, you will first explain what your influence did. This explanation will include primary source material.
So for example, if you are trying to figure out how celebrity spokespeople influenced the anti-vaccine movement,
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you need to find and examine the actual content of those celebrities' speeches/Tweets/blog posts/etc.

Then you will develop an argument for how your influence's actions affected society as a whole. You will have to
prove that your influence actually did affect society and to the degree you say it did. For example, if you are trying
to figure out how celebrity spokespeople influenced the anti-vaccine movement, then you need to find out exactly
how individual people/the media/etc. responded to the celebrities' statements. This part will likely involve a few to
several paragraphs and will likely include your interview data and perhaps your secondary research.

Finally, you will create a connection between your influence and the other reasons that you mentioned in your
introduction. You will have to figure out how they are connected, how one led to the other, etc.

Your conclusion will concisely take your readers from then to now, clearly presenting the role your influence had
on the overall social attitude toward your issue. Your conclusion should answer the questions So what? and Who
cares?

You will use MLA style, providing in-text citations and a Works Cited list.

Length Requirement
The body of your essay must be a minimum of 1,200 words. A significant grade penalty will be imposed on essays that
fail to meet this requirement.
Grading Rubric for the Writing Project
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Topic Proposal/Brainstorm
Research

10%

15%

Power Drafting in class

15%

Full Draft

5%

Peer Feedback

10%

Research Log/Reflection 10%

Final Draft

35%
____

Total

100%