TESOL Certificate Programs

Observation Notebook

Observation Report Form

Name of Observer Di An (Andy)
Date

Observatio
n
Environme
nt*

Nov.
on-line
26.2016

Observation #

Class

Skill/Content Level

Teacher

English

vocabulary
grammar

Elizabeth Romijn

high
beginners

*Include the URL if the class was online

WRITE THE OBJECTIVES ACCORDING TO THE OBSERVATION GUIDELINES:
STUDENTS WILL BE ABLE TO SPELL THE WORDS IN -ING FORM WITH NO MISTAKES.
STUDENTS WILL BE ABLE TO PRODUCE SENTENCES WITH PRESENT PROGRESSIVE
WHEN SPEAKERS SPEAKING WITH 95% ACCURACY.
STUDENTS WILL BE ABLE TO PRODUCE THE SENTENCES WITH BE GOING TO WITH
95% ACCURACY.

Notes while observing:

6 minutes Presentation
The teacher brings several vegetables and seasonings, as well as some real cooking
utensils to the class.
The teacher introduces the steps of making an omelet, and give them the new vocabulary:
grating; chopping; slicing; breaking; beating; mixing; adding; melting; pouring; shaking;
spooning; folding;
T: You are grating the cheese. (with the action of grating the cheese)
T: and what am I doing now? (with the action of chopping the vegetables)
S: Chopping.

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TESOL Certificate Programs

Observation Notebook
T: Yes, Im chopping the vegetables, ok. What am I doing now?(with the action of
slicing)
S: Slicing the mushrooms.
T: Good, What am I doing now?(with the action of breaking the eggs)
S: Breaking the eggs.
T: Yes, Im breaking eggs into a ?
S: Into a bowl.
T: Good, very good. And what am I doing now?(with the action of adding pepper)
S: Adding pepper and salt.
T: And?(with the action of adding milk)
S: Adding a little milk.
T: ok, what am I doing now?(with the action of beating the eggs)
S: Mixing
T: Mixing? More than "mixing."
S: Beating.
T: Yes beating. Mixing is just combining, right? But this is beating. Ok, now, what am I
doing now? Yes, I'm melting some butter in the pan.
T: What am I doing now?(with the action of pouring the eggs mixture)
S: putting the eggs into the pan.
T: I can put the eggs like this(directly put the bowl with eggs into the pan), but it is not
good, what am I doing?
S: pouring.
T: Yes, I'm pouring the eggs mixture into the pan. What about this?(with the action of
shaking the pan)
S: shaking the pan.
T: Yes, I'm shaking it and cooking it. I'm cooking the eggs, and the eggs are cooking. Ok,
let's see, what am I doing now?(with the action of spooning the vegetables). I'm......?
S: spooning.
T: I am spooning the vegetables.What am I doing now?(with the action of folding the
omelet)
S: folding.
T: Very good. I'm folding the omelet.
5 minutes Practise
The teacher asks individual students to do various actions from the lesson.
T: XXX, could you please slice the potato? Class, what is XXX doing?
S: She is slicing the potato.
T: XX, could you please chop the vegetables?What is she doing now?
S: She is chopping the vegetables.

The teacher asks several students to do the actions and ask students to describe what are
they doing.
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Observation Notebook
5 minutes Dictation
The teacher does a dictation of spelling -ing form of the vocabulary from the lesson.
The vocabulary list is "grating; chopping; slicing; breaking; beating; mixing; adding;
melting; pouring; shaking; spooning; folding."
After the dictation, the teacher asks five students to write down their answers on the
board, and the teacher checks answer together with the whole class, the teacher explains
how to add -ing to a verb when checking the answers.
6 minutes Practice with future tense
the teacher assigns the actions to some students.
T: Who will chop the vegetables?
T: Who will break the eggs?
T: Who will add the pepper?
......
The teacher writes down each students' name and asks the whole class who is going to
perform each action in the lesson.
T: What is XX gonna do?
S: XX is gonna chop the vegetables.
T: What is XXX going to do?
S: XXX is going to slicing the mushrooms.
T: Ok, who is going to break the eggs?
S: XXX.
T: Yes, XXX is going to break the eggs. And what is XX going to do?
S: XX is going to adding the pepper.
......
The teacher asks students several questions until all of the actions are referred.
8 minutes Dictation and practice
The teacher gives a dictation of questions and the answers that the teacher just has been
practicing. And clarify that we always say gonna means going to in spoken English.
T: What is XX gonna do?
T: She is gonna grate the cheese.
T: What is XXX going to do?
T: He is going to chop the vegetables.
T: What is XX going to do?
T: He is going to break the eggs.
......
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TESOL Certificate Programs

Observation Notebook
Then the teacher asks some volunteers to come to the board to write the questions and
answers so that everyone can correct their dictations.
After that, the teacher asks students to check individually.
Then the teacher let students practice in pairs.
T: One person asks the question and one person answer. And when you finish these, ask
with name, like what is XX going to do.
Students strat practicing.

Teaching English (ESL / EFL) to High Beginners -- Live Action English Materials:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HaQrSyNRJDk

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Observation Notebook
What did you learn about teaching or learning from this lesson as it relates to the
theory you have studied in your TESOL classes? Include at least one reference
(with an in-text citation) to support your response. (250-500 words)
The teacher brought some real foods and cooking utensils, such as cheese, some eggs,
some vegetables, a pan, a spoon and several bowls, etc, to the class, and shown to the
class how to make an omelet step-by-step. The students easily remembered the target
words during the process of pretending to make an omelet. From this on-line lesson I
observed, I find the choice of teaching materials is of great importance.
The authentic materials are better than the classical materials, like the textbook.
There was an experimental investigation by Matthew Peacock (1997), the results from
two observation sheets and a self-report questionnaire indicated that while on-task
behavior and observed motivation increased significantly when authentic materials were
used. Besides, a textbook can't always be perfect, so the teacher needs to "make up"
better teaching materials by adding more interesting and real information. Here are
several advantages of using authentic materials, students can acquire the most native
English when reading a report or news in New York Times, and it is a good approach to
help students increase their vocabulary naturally. Such materials are also more interesting
that can attract students' attention. In this lesson, such authentic materials could not only
stimulate students' interest but also make students learn by their senses. Using as many of
students' senses as they can help students better understand and acquire knowledge.
Another point I observed was that before the teacher let students practice individually or
with partners, the teacher said the target sentences many times when doing the
presentation and asking questions to students, during this process, the students didn't have
to say or produce the target language by themselves. That is because students'
understanding of the target language should be developed before speaking(LarsenFreeman,2016). Only if the students get ready to say something, can they benefit from
such in-class oral practice.
As to the face-to-face teaching, the teacher should take it slow to let students get the
comprehension of the knowledge gradually on their own. There are many approaches for
the teacher to wait for the students to get ready to speak the target language. In this online lesson, for example, the teacher repeated the target structure several times while the

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TESOL Certificate Programs

Observation Notebook
students were listening carefully and repeated after the teacher quietly, which is the
process for students to prepare for the later individual production.
Overall, the using of the authentic materials is very helpful, and the waiting for the
students to get ready as well.

Reference
Larsen-Freeman, D. (2016). Techniques & Principles in Language Teaching (3 ed., Vol.
6,). Oxford
University.
Peacock, M. (1997). The effect of authentic materials on the motivation of EFL learners.
ELT Journal, 51(2),

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