TESOL Certificate Programs

Observation Notebook

Observation Report Form

Name of Observer ___Tian Yu_____ Observation # ___6_____

Observation
Date Environment* Class Skill/Content Level Teacher

01/17/2017 Face-to-face 531 Reading & Writing 500 Johanna Kim

WRITE THE OBJECTIVES ACCORDING TO THE OBSERVATION GUIDELINES:

STUDENTS WILL BE ABLE TO RECOGNISE PREFIX AND SUFFIX OF THE WORD, AND TELL
THE PART OF SPEECH.
STUDENTS WILL BE ABLE TO ANALYSE THE TEXT AND FIGURE OUT CHARACTERS,
SETTING AND PLOT.

Notes while observing

Before the class, the teacher plays soft music.

10:00 Class begins

The teacher writes on the board.
Who influenced you most as a teacher or teenager?
How and why did that person affect who you are today?

The teacher gives the direction, Now, I will give you ten minutes to do a quick
writing for answering these two questions. In this ten minutes, you just keep writing and
dont stop. When you lost your idea, what you can write? You can write I am thinkingI
am thinking and just keep writing until you have your thoughts. Are you ready?
Students say, YES.

10:04 Quick writing (Individual Task)

10:05 One student stops writing and uses his eraser.
The teacher says, No, erasing and move your pencil. Just keep writing.
10:07 Another two students stop writing and use their erasers.
The teacher takes students erasers.
10:08 Five students stop writing and start to think.
10:09 The teacher gives the direction, Five minutes left. You can do it. Keep doing
10:10 One student uses the phone.
10:12 Another student uses the phone.
The teacher gives the direction, No dictionaries. Just keep writing.

Last Updated: 6/16/2017 12:38 PM

 TESOL Certificate Programs
Observation Notebook
10:13 One student stops writing.
The teacher says, Keep writing.
The student says, I have finished.
The teacher says, You are not finished. You have ten minutes. You need to keep
writing for ten minutes.
10:14 The teacher gives the directions, One more minutes. 10 seconds OK,
now stop there. You can finish your phrase or your sentence if youd like to.
The teacher collects the paper.

10:15 Presentation (Suffix and Prefix)

The teacher says, Turn to page 79, so what is a prefix?
Students answer, Before a word.
The teacher says, Then what is a suffix?
Students answer, After a noun.
The teacher says, Good, so a suffix changes the part of speech of a word, and a
prefix changes the meaning of a word. Now, work with your partner and find more
examples that are not in the textbook for each suffix or prefix.

10:17 Practice (Pair work)

10 students work as 5 pairs but 3 students work alone.
The teacher monitors and gives instructions.
The teacher erases the whiteboard.
10:20 The teacher elicits students idea and writes one the board.
Anti-aging Influence, Relevance
Co-worker Wonderful, Painful, Cheerful
Extraordinary
Incorrect, Informal Activate
International Summarize, Recognize
Midnight, Mid-autumn
Misleading, Misinformation
Relocate, Reapply, Rewrite

They dont apply in every case.

10:28 Production (Pair work)

Students work on the exercise on Page 80. Eight of them finish within two minutes.
One student works on the wrong page.
The teacher gives the direction, When you finish, you can check with your
partner. You can ask me if you cannot decide., and then asks each group, Same
answers?
The teacher checked answers with the whole class.

10:32 Presentation
The teacher gives directions, You can put away your textbook, and take out Hole.
The teacher introduces the characters, plots and settings with PowerPoint.
The teacher uses the example of Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi.

Last Updated: 6/16/2017 12:38 PM

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Observation Notebook
Asian students laugh and nod more often than students from Middle East.
Four students take notes.
10:40 The teacher introduces and gives out the chart below.

The teacher gives the directions, Read the paragraph and write down information you
get on Chapter one. Does it tell us the setting, details about the place? Do you think it is
a good idea to write the whole paragraph on the chart
Students answers, No.
The teacher says, You can work with your partner if you like.
Six students start writing quickly and the other nine students read the text carefully first.

10:45 One student asks for instruction, I think this is in Chapter one?
10:46 Two students start to exchange ideas.
10:46 The teacher checks answers.
One students voice is very low and then the teacher speaks very loudly, Its hot.
10:51 The teacher writes one the white board and assigns the homework.

Last Updated: 6/16/2017 12:38 PM

 TESOL Certificate Programs
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)

When I was observing this class, I found something that I agreed with and, of
course, something I disagreed with, based on what I have learned in my TESOL classes.
In this passage, I will explain both sides and give my own point of views.
I believe that the instructor did well in the classroom environment, individual
work and group work arrangement. The instructor played a very soft music before the
class began, which definitely made students less stressed and more relaxed from the last
half of the class and concentrating on the nonstop 10-minute writing task. Besides, the
instructor applied both individual work and group work throughout the whole classs
activities. The individual work allows students to work at their own pace and to work on
activities suited to their own proficiency level or interests. (Richards,2011) Therefore, the
instructor can evaluate students more accurately with their quick writing paper which
indicated students own writing levels. As for the pair works, like practice and production
activities, these all helped promote self-esteem, and increased student talking time and
student motivation by providing a risk-free environment for language practice.
(Richards,2011)
However, the instructor may fail in giving clear directions and suitable examples.
Speaking of the directions, the instructor only did verbally and without modelling or
giving enough examples. The students using erasers and referring to the dictionaries are
good examples, which indicated the instructor did not expect the possible situations
where students may violate the directions and make them clear and specific before the
activity. The other example that one students worked on the wrong page at 10:28 may
also suffice to prove that the instructors failure in giving directions. Additionally, the
example the instructor employed in the presentation at 10:32 is what I considered as an
unsuitable one. This Japanese classic Cartoon movie is quite popular and undoubtedly
can interest Asian students. However, the students from Middle East could not answer the
questions which are closely related to the movies characters, plots and settings. This not
only lowered those students motivation but also hurt the community of the classroom. In
this case, I believe the teacher should consider the students cultural background and
help them to build up the feeling of community.

Last Updated: 6/16/2017 12:38 PM

 TESOL Certificate Programs
Observation Notebook
Reference:
Richards, J.C., & Farrell, T.S. (2011). Practice teaching: A reflective approach. New
York: Cambridge University Press.

Last Updated: 6/16/2017 12:38 PM