CLASSROOM VISIT 3 : 2ND DECEMBER 2014
TEACHING EXPERIENCE NO 5
TOPIC : LONDON UNDERGROUND
LEVEL OF STUDENTS : E1 (beginner)
OBSERVATION
The class consists of 11 beginner level students who are mostly working as full time office cleaners. They are taking English for Work class to help them communicate better at their workplace. The teaching practice was a very informative session. We were able to elicit responses from the students as well as provide proper guidance to students. Besides that, we noticed that the students are very active in answering questions. However, there is a slower learner that required some L1 translation in order for him to comprehend the lesson better. The students were very interested in the matching collocations’ activity and they were also able to explain the meaning of those words. After the teaching practice, we were able to discuss with the class teacher about our teaching. Overall, she was very impressed by our teaching and she had a few suggestions for us:
1. Check if students understand a certain word/vocabulary, for example, ‘vandalise’
2. Use simple instructions in the worksheet.
3. Use simple language according to the students level.
SOME THOUGHTS
Similar to the classes that we usually teach in Malaysia, our learners here require a considerable amount of encouragement to provide reasonable responses to questions. Apart from that, we consciously tried to reduce TTT so as to increase STT and induce students to speak up. By doing so, we tried to encourage student – centered learning and make students to feel comfortable in speaking up.
We also employed the “walk-around-the-class” strategy while students are attempting to complete worksheets given to them in order to provide assistance where needed. Often time, we encountered students who have difficulties spelling out certain words due to inability to associate sounds with forms. This forced us to be creative and use a table of phonemes to get students to guess the correct sounds. We also used hand gestures instead of giving out answers right away to boost students’ cognition ability. Students feel frustrated after trying for quite some time and if they couldn’t get the answers, and feel elated when they do.
We centered our learning around a theme that is familiar to students, i.e the Underground tube as most students would have come into contact with this form of transportation. We focused on collocations (signs) that are usually found in/around tube stations as well within the trains. The purpose of us doing so is to connect students’ daily live encounters with purposeful use of English language to make, understand and convey meanings. As recent immigrants to the UK, they will need to understand what these signs mean in order to use the Underground facilities more efficiently and reduce accidents. Such purposeful learning can help retention of knowledge and probably help them to teach their family and friends too.
Since most of them are not native speakers of English, they will predictably face the same problems had by our learners in Malaysia. One of the most challenging problems that any language teachers will have is the tendency of these learners to ditch English and resort to their L1 when things become harder for them. It is then useful for teachers to erect some “no L1” in class and around campus, but how can this be extended outside the classroom when these students return home and there are no teachers to supervise them? This requires strict discipline from students themselves to better their command of English and teachers need to constantly engage students or create purposeful engagement opportunities for them outside the classrooms. Still, a teacher can only do so much and it behooves the students themselves to do what is necessary outside classroom to retain their classroom knowledge and expand upon that as much as possible.
PREPARED BY : CHARLES CHENG , GURMINDERJEET KAUR
TEACHING EXPERIENCE NO 4
When we were told that we would have teach a group of foreign students, i have to admit that i felt intimidated and was very worried. A 1 hour teaching session was conducted to teach Job Interview to a group of South Americans aged between 23- 63 at elementary 1 level. The time was divided between Jaime and I with 30 minutes each. The lesson started with a set induction where students were able to describe a picture using simple adjectives. Students also watched a short video on bad interview skills and were able to identify the problems in group, although there were slight problems in terms of students expressing themselves and understanding the word ‘experience’. Generally, the lesson went well and the students responded well. However, i could have done more drilling on the vocabulary and gave clearer and slower instruction during the word grab game. I found it challenging as although i felt i was using simple English. As i was not able to translate certain words into their mother tongue, trying to explain the meanings took longer than expected. This experience opened my eyes that our students are not that bad compared to some other students.
TOPIC : LONDON UNDERGROUND
LEVEL OF STUDENTS : E1 (beginner)
OBSERVATION
The class consists of 11 beginner level students who are mostly working as full time office cleaners. They are taking English for Work class to help them communicate better at their workplace. The teaching practice was a very informative session. We were able to elicit responses from the students as well as provide proper guidance to students. Besides that, we noticed that the students are very active in answering questions. However, there is a slower learner that required some L1 translation in order for him to comprehend the lesson better. The students were very interested in the matching collocations’ activity and they were also able to explain the meaning of those words. After the teaching practice, we were able to discuss with the class teacher about our teaching. Overall, she was very impressed by our teaching and she had a few suggestions for us:
1. Check if students understand a certain word/vocabulary, for example, ‘vandalise’
2. Use simple instructions in the worksheet.
3. Use simple language according to the students level.
SOME THOUGHTS
Similar to the classes that we usually teach in Malaysia, our learners here require a considerable amount of encouragement to provide reasonable responses to questions. Apart from that, we consciously tried to reduce TTT so as to increase STT and induce students to speak up. By doing so, we tried to encourage student – centered learning and make students to feel comfortable in speaking up.
We also employed the “walk-around-the-class” strategy while students are attempting to complete worksheets given to them in order to provide assistance where needed. Often time, we encountered students who have difficulties spelling out certain words due to inability to associate sounds with forms. This forced us to be creative and use a table of phonemes to get students to guess the correct sounds. We also used hand gestures instead of giving out answers right away to boost students’ cognition ability. Students feel frustrated after trying for quite some time and if they couldn’t get the answers, and feel elated when they do.
We centered our learning around a theme that is familiar to students, i.e the Underground tube as most students would have come into contact with this form of transportation. We focused on collocations (signs) that are usually found in/around tube stations as well within the trains. The purpose of us doing so is to connect students’ daily live encounters with purposeful use of English language to make, understand and convey meanings. As recent immigrants to the UK, they will need to understand what these signs mean in order to use the Underground facilities more efficiently and reduce accidents. Such purposeful learning can help retention of knowledge and probably help them to teach their family and friends too.
Since most of them are not native speakers of English, they will predictably face the same problems had by our learners in Malaysia. One of the most challenging problems that any language teachers will have is the tendency of these learners to ditch English and resort to their L1 when things become harder for them. It is then useful for teachers to erect some “no L1” in class and around campus, but how can this be extended outside the classroom when these students return home and there are no teachers to supervise them? This requires strict discipline from students themselves to better their command of English and teachers need to constantly engage students or create purposeful engagement opportunities for them outside the classrooms. Still, a teacher can only do so much and it behooves the students themselves to do what is necessary outside classroom to retain their classroom knowledge and expand upon that as much as possible.
PREPARED BY : CHARLES CHENG , GURMINDERJEET KAUR
TEACHING EXPERIENCE NO 4
When we were told that we would have teach a group of foreign students, i have to admit that i felt intimidated and was very worried. A 1 hour teaching session was conducted to teach Job Interview to a group of South Americans aged between 23- 63 at elementary 1 level. The time was divided between Jaime and I with 30 minutes each. The lesson started with a set induction where students were able to describe a picture using simple adjectives. Students also watched a short video on bad interview skills and were able to identify the problems in group, although there were slight problems in terms of students expressing themselves and understanding the word ‘experience’. Generally, the lesson went well and the students responded well. However, i could have done more drilling on the vocabulary and gave clearer and slower instruction during the word grab game. I found it challenging as although i felt i was using simple English. As i was not able to translate certain words into their mother tongue, trying to explain the meanings took longer than expected. This experience opened my eyes that our students are not that bad compared to some other students.
PREPARED BY:
MARINA ABU BAKAR
TEACHING EXPERIENCE NO 3
The lesson went on as planned. All activities were carried out according to the allocated time. The topic taught which was 'Adjectives of Comparison' will be tested in their coming examination. Hence, it was a form of revision and preparation for them.
Students were mainly African, Turkish and Bengalan. They are adults who are of intermediate level. They do have the intrinsic needs to improve themselves to get a better job cum life in London. Therefore, they are very motivated to learn.
In the process of teaching and learning, they were responsive and participated in all activities. For example, when they were asked to describe about their two friends, they were able to use an adjective and elaborate. The only problem they faced was in pronunciation but it was mostly due to their mother tongue influence. There were some students with physical disabilities which was also a challenge for us. One had an eyesight problem and one with a hearing disability. Nonetheless, they were able to contribute ideas showing knowledge of the topic taught.
Students were also actively involved in the writing task. They were able to construct sentences describing their peers. They were very willing to stand up and share their ideas with the class.
Personally, both of us were satisfied with the outcome of the lesson. Our tutor, Ms. Elizabeth Procopio mentioned that the lesson was well-planned and relevant to what the students will be tested on. It was a new, challenging yet interesting experience for us.
Prepared by:
Kala and Fadzli
TEACHING EXPERIENCE NO 2
Our session with the students went well. Apart from the differences in their languages and countries, they enjoyed the session. We tried few new approaches that we learnt from our classes; such as elicitation information by using pictures, use cut out dialogues and asked them to rearrange the dialogues according to the sequences.
Feedback from the teacher
Jonathan gave us feedback on our session and of course, as a teacher, there are always room for improvement. There were few areas to be looked on such as:
1. The pronunciation for words that the students are not familiar with, maybe together with the phonemic. Only few words should be focused on rather then the whole words so that the students might be able to memorise later.
2. Additional activities should be prepared for those who have finished rearrange the dialogue such as:-
a. Ask the groups to work in pair to memorize the dialogue by turn over the dialogue while their partner will need to ask them the questions in the dialogue.
b. The strips of the paper can be divided according to the characters for example; Chris and Maya. The dialogue for Chris will be given to 1 person and Maya’s dialogue will be given to the other one. This pair needs to figure out the sequence of the dialogue.
By: Rozalita Saupi
Ros Hana
TEACHING EXPERIENCE NO 1
Classroom Teaching Reflection
The experience of teaching the students in Westminster Kingsway College, Soho was indeed priceless. Even though, it was almost the same with our teaching routines with our polytechnic students in Malaysia, but there was an added bonus to it. We had a chance to teach non-English speakers students who basically have been in London for quite sometimes. As a whole, the lesson went well and the students were very supportive and actively participated in the activities conducted.
For our teaching session, we chose ‘Making Suggestions’ as our topic. We started the class by asking students the interesting places in London that we should be visiting. This is as to get the students engaged in the discussion, as well as to give an overview to suggestions. From there on, we developed the lesson by giving lectures on making suggestions and asked the students to do activities involving writing and speaking.
Apart from that, we had a good discussion with the class teacher, Mr Hugh Macdermott. We appreciated the sharing of knowledge session that we had with him. One idea that we like the most is the “disappeared teacher” technique. Mr Macdermott encouraged us to let the students to have freedom in the learning process so that they are not totally relied on the teachers. The idea of the teacher being disappeared is promoting autonomous learning.
It is essential in any learning process that the teachers teach the content first before testing the students’ understanding through exercises, activities and tests. Students need to be guided as to make sure that they are on the right track. As the learning goes on, the teacher should allow more and more freedom for the students to apply things that they have learned on their own. In other words, each activity conducted after the lesson should consider less of teacher involvement in the activity and perhaps to one extent, there is no teacher role in an activity. But, the teacher is always there to monitor the learning process. This is all the idea of disappeared teacher is about.
Reflecting on our own teaching experience before, we think that we hardly give our students a total freedom of experimenting with their own learning. We would always make sure that the teacher figure is there all the time as we thought that the students always need us and we need to ‘be seen’ in order to make sure the learning is taking place. This implied that we did not fully put the trust in our students’ ability to expand and explore the lesson more on their own. Mr. Macdermott has proven us wrong!
Thus, we really hope that we are able to make us ‘less important’ in the teaching and learning session. Definitely the knowledge that we get from the teaching experience is priceless. We hope to change for the better teachers!
Written by:
Noorasmawati Shafee
Aida Fazlin Hisham
The lesson went on as planned. All activities were carried out according to the allocated time. The topic taught which was 'Adjectives of Comparison' will be tested in their coming examination. Hence, it was a form of revision and preparation for them.
Students were mainly African, Turkish and Bengalan. They are adults who are of intermediate level. They do have the intrinsic needs to improve themselves to get a better job cum life in London. Therefore, they are very motivated to learn.
In the process of teaching and learning, they were responsive and participated in all activities. For example, when they were asked to describe about their two friends, they were able to use an adjective and elaborate. The only problem they faced was in pronunciation but it was mostly due to their mother tongue influence. There were some students with physical disabilities which was also a challenge for us. One had an eyesight problem and one with a hearing disability. Nonetheless, they were able to contribute ideas showing knowledge of the topic taught.
Students were also actively involved in the writing task. They were able to construct sentences describing their peers. They were very willing to stand up and share their ideas with the class.
Personally, both of us were satisfied with the outcome of the lesson. Our tutor, Ms. Elizabeth Procopio mentioned that the lesson was well-planned and relevant to what the students will be tested on. It was a new, challenging yet interesting experience for us.
Prepared by:
Kala and Fadzli
TEACHING EXPERIENCE NO 2
Our session with the students went well. Apart from the differences in their languages and countries, they enjoyed the session. We tried few new approaches that we learnt from our classes; such as elicitation information by using pictures, use cut out dialogues and asked them to rearrange the dialogues according to the sequences.
Feedback from the teacher
Jonathan gave us feedback on our session and of course, as a teacher, there are always room for improvement. There were few areas to be looked on such as:
1. The pronunciation for words that the students are not familiar with, maybe together with the phonemic. Only few words should be focused on rather then the whole words so that the students might be able to memorise later.
2. Additional activities should be prepared for those who have finished rearrange the dialogue such as:-
a. Ask the groups to work in pair to memorize the dialogue by turn over the dialogue while their partner will need to ask them the questions in the dialogue.
b. The strips of the paper can be divided according to the characters for example; Chris and Maya. The dialogue for Chris will be given to 1 person and Maya’s dialogue will be given to the other one. This pair needs to figure out the sequence of the dialogue.
By: Rozalita Saupi
Ros Hana
TEACHING EXPERIENCE NO 1
Classroom Teaching Reflection
The experience of teaching the students in Westminster Kingsway College, Soho was indeed priceless. Even though, it was almost the same with our teaching routines with our polytechnic students in Malaysia, but there was an added bonus to it. We had a chance to teach non-English speakers students who basically have been in London for quite sometimes. As a whole, the lesson went well and the students were very supportive and actively participated in the activities conducted.
For our teaching session, we chose ‘Making Suggestions’ as our topic. We started the class by asking students the interesting places in London that we should be visiting. This is as to get the students engaged in the discussion, as well as to give an overview to suggestions. From there on, we developed the lesson by giving lectures on making suggestions and asked the students to do activities involving writing and speaking.
Apart from that, we had a good discussion with the class teacher, Mr Hugh Macdermott. We appreciated the sharing of knowledge session that we had with him. One idea that we like the most is the “disappeared teacher” technique. Mr Macdermott encouraged us to let the students to have freedom in the learning process so that they are not totally relied on the teachers. The idea of the teacher being disappeared is promoting autonomous learning.
It is essential in any learning process that the teachers teach the content first before testing the students’ understanding through exercises, activities and tests. Students need to be guided as to make sure that they are on the right track. As the learning goes on, the teacher should allow more and more freedom for the students to apply things that they have learned on their own. In other words, each activity conducted after the lesson should consider less of teacher involvement in the activity and perhaps to one extent, there is no teacher role in an activity. But, the teacher is always there to monitor the learning process. This is all the idea of disappeared teacher is about.
Reflecting on our own teaching experience before, we think that we hardly give our students a total freedom of experimenting with their own learning. We would always make sure that the teacher figure is there all the time as we thought that the students always need us and we need to ‘be seen’ in order to make sure the learning is taking place. This implied that we did not fully put the trust in our students’ ability to expand and explore the lesson more on their own. Mr. Macdermott has proven us wrong!
Thus, we really hope that we are able to make us ‘less important’ in the teaching and learning session. Definitely the knowledge that we get from the teaching experience is priceless. We hope to change for the better teachers!
Written by:
Noorasmawati Shafee
Aida Fazlin Hisham
CLASSROOM VISIT 2 : 27 NOVEMBER 2014
Observation 8
LECTURER: ANNE-MARIE BELLIARD
DATE: 27/11/2014
TIME: 2.30 – 3.30 PM
VENUE: WKC, Regents Park
TOPIC: MATERIAL EXPLOITATIONS: THE THREE
C’s
Content, communication and
cognition are important factors for the selection of materials used for
classroom purpose. These are the also known as the three C’s.
For content, teachers need to consider the
type of materials which are used in a lesson. We also need to consider the
materials encourage communication as well as how the materials encourage
students to use thinking skills.
During our visit to
Anne-Marie’s class, she used a handful of materials to facilitate her students’
language learning. In terms of content, she used several handouts, power point
slides, whiteboard and paper strips which contain few sentences related to the
topic.
The materials prepared by
the teacher did encourage the students to communicate among themselves, as well
as to the teacher. They had peer
discussion within the same group about the task they need to accomplish, based
on the materials distributed by the teacher.
That was a good practice since the better students can help weaker
students, especially by supplying new vocabularies to their friends. The teacher also prompted questions along the
way to check students understanding and kept the discussion running.
The teacher also had
successfully used the materials to encourage thinking skills. For example,
‘Good Husband and Bad Husband’ handout.
Students needed to analyse the text given and construct their own sentences
based on their knowledge. In doing so,
they applied the knowledge that they had learned in the previous lesson.
FURTHER COMMENTS
Choosing good materials
are important in any classroom. Good
materials will encourage students to become more enthusiastic in their learning
process. However, having good materials
will not be as meaningful if teacher cannot exploit the materials wisely in
order to suit students need in the classroom.
In conclusion, having good materials are as important as knowing how to
exploit them so that the aims of the lesson achieved.
Prepared by:
Aida
Jamie
Observation 7
Observation Area : Classroom Management - Instructions, Monitoring and Feedback
Lecturer : Cathy Flynn
Venue : Room V005, WKC Soho Centre
Student Level : E3 (Intermediate)
Topic : Quantifiers
Observation 7
Lecturer : Cathy Flynn
Venue : Room V005, WKC Soho Centre
Student Level : E3 (Intermediate)
Topic : Quantifiers
Findings:
During the class, our focus
is on observing what the students were doing. This included:
- Are there any points where the students do not seem to understand what they have to do? Why do you think this? How does the teacher resolve this?
- Does the teacher try to check understanding in any way? How does he/she do this? How effective do you think this is?
- Does the teacher spend much time monitoring what students are doing or saying? Does the teacher offer them any advice?
- How does the teacher check that students have got correct answers? Does he/ she use a variety of ways to do this? Does the teacher correct all the time, or do students correct each other as well?
- Does the teacher encourage lots of different students to feedback in the class? How does the teacher do this?
- Does the teacher have a rounding –up section at the end of the class where he/ she checks what everyone has learnt?
We noted that the students
understood what they had to do as they had learnt the grammar item (quantifier)
in the previous lesson. The teacher went into the lesson by asking
students to answer a few questions using the quantifiers that they had
learnt. The whole class managed to answer all the questions accurately.
The teacher checked on the
students’ understanding by going to individual groups and listening to their
responses during pair and group activities. We think that this is an effective
approach as the teacher could listen to the students carrying out the
activities and correct them individually. Each student in the group managed to
get the full attention of the teacher.
The teacher did spend time
monitoring what the students were doing and saying. Whenever the students were
unsure of their responses, the teacher gave them a brief explanation on why the
responses were inaccurate and offered suggestions on how to improve it.
The teacher checked that students got
the correct answers in the worksheets by directing questions to a few students in class.
Although most of the time the teacher corrected the student if the answer was
wrong, there were students who volunteered the correct answers. In the group
discussion, some of the more active students helped the others in getting the
correct answers.
As this was a 2-hour class
and the observation was for an hour, we could not ascertain if the teacher had
a rounding-up at the end of the class where she checked what everyone had
learnt.
Further Comments:
We noted that the number of
students in the class is small, numbering between 12 to15 students. This small
number allows the teacher to move around the class to monitor and give feedback
to every student. Almost all of the students get some attention from the
teacher.
We also noted that the
students were placed in groups of four or five. The teacher could move around
these groups to give special instructions and monitor the progress of these
students easily.
We observed that the
teacher used the CRA (Clarification and Focus, Restricted Use, Authentic Use)
framework in teaching quantifiers and pronunciation. This is not very
different from what the kind of lessons we would do in Malaysia.
Having said that, we noted
that most of the students were very motivated in learning English. This could
be seen by how they tried to get answers for the worksheets, their
participation in discussions, their attempts to use dictionaries from their
mobile devices etc. Their motivation could be due to their desire to look for a
better job (most of them are working) and their effort to assimilate into the
British society.
Another important
observation is the classroom set up. The students sit in hexagon- shaped tables
(see below). This encourages interaction. In addition to that, the computers
located at the sides allow students to search for information on the Internet.
Perhaps it’s time to
reconsider how our classrooms are arranged back home. Having our students sit
in rows makes our classrom teacher-centred by default and it requires lots more
effort to do student-centred activities. This does not only apply to teaching
English but other courses as well.
Prepared by:
Tan
Sui Chee and Prasanna Kesavan
Observation 6
Observation Area : Classroom Management - General
Lecturer : Jonathan Wareham
Venue : Room R301, WKC Regents Park
Topic : Making suggestions/
inviting someone out
OBSERVATION :
1. How are the tables and chairs arranged?
2. Does the teacher stand up or sit down?
Generally the teacher was standing and moving around through the lesson. The teacher walked around the classroom during activities for monitoring purposes.
3. Does the interaction vary? (Work individually/ pairs/ groups)
Students were seated in groups around the tables and the activity started with a whole class interaction where the teacher revised structures used for giving suggestions. This was then followed by a group work activity which again reinforces the language structure before, they were asked to form a circle and suggest to each other places to visit. Students then broke up and went round suggesting places to visit.
4. Does the teacher monitor the students during the class?
Monitoring was done throughout the lessons by going round the groups and tables.
5. Does the teacher involve the students in instruction? i.e. asking question/ checking the students has understood the question?
There was an incident where an explanation was given by the teacher, but the student did not quite understand. The problem was resolved when another student explained it to him and the teacher acknowledged and praised the student. The teacher also consistently move about the classroom and asking individual student questions and checking their answers.
6. How does the teacher deal with difficult issues? e.g. late students / disagreement between student?
There were no significant issues , however, when a student who was not appointed blurted out an answer, the teacher reminded her that she was not the appointed one and refocused on the chosen student for the required response.
REFLECTION:
It was such a pleasure to watch Jonathon teach. His approach has shown that drilling can be interesting and fun for learners and at the same time, help internalize structures taught. The same materials were used in different situations and activities. We would definitely consider using this strategy with our Malaysian students.
1. How are the tables and chairs arranged?
2. Does the teacher stand up or sit down?
Generally the teacher was standing and moving around through the lesson. The teacher walked around the classroom during activities for monitoring purposes.
3. Does the interaction vary? (Work individually/ pairs/ groups)
Students were seated in groups around the tables and the activity started with a whole class interaction where the teacher revised structures used for giving suggestions. This was then followed by a group work activity which again reinforces the language structure before, they were asked to form a circle and suggest to each other places to visit. Students then broke up and went round suggesting places to visit.
4. Does the teacher monitor the students during the class?
Monitoring was done throughout the lessons by going round the groups and tables.
5. Does the teacher involve the students in instruction? i.e. asking question/ checking the students has understood the question?
There was an incident where an explanation was given by the teacher, but the student did not quite understand. The problem was resolved when another student explained it to him and the teacher acknowledged and praised the student. The teacher also consistently move about the classroom and asking individual student questions and checking their answers.
6. How does the teacher deal with difficult issues? e.g. late students / disagreement between student?
There were no significant issues , however, when a student who was not appointed blurted out an answer, the teacher reminded her that she was not the appointed one and refocused on the chosen student for the required response.
REFLECTION:
It was such a pleasure to watch Jonathon teach. His approach has shown that drilling can be interesting and fun for learners and at the same time, help internalize structures taught. The same materials were used in different situations and activities. We would definitely consider using this strategy with our Malaysian students.
Prepared by:
Marina
Abu Bakar & Mohd Azmiruddin
Observation 5
Observation Area : Material
Exploitation - General
Lecturer : Hugh Macdermott
Venue : Room S103, WKC Soho
Student Level : E1 & E2 (Elementary & Pre-intermediate)
Findings:
Hand out
1
When we
entered the class, the teacher was doing an article entitled Jung’s Dream. This
was a reading text with two comprehension questions at the end of the text. The
students read the text and then discuss in pairs on the given questions.
Hand
out 2
After
that, another photocopied activity sheet was given to each and every one of the
students in the class. There were three activities in tis photocopied hand out.
But the teacher only focused on activity one and two. The students read the
sentences in the box, discussed with their partner and then together tried to
match these sentences with the pictures of the doors printed in the hand out.
They would refer to the teacher on any words that they were unsure of.
Then the teacher asked the students to read the question written on the white board and then discuss in pairs to answer the questions. Those questions are related to the doors In hand out 2. For example; what does does an open /closed door symbolize to you? The students did not answer literally but could give the metaphoric meaning of an open/closed door.
Hand out
3
This is a
listening activity and it is also a photocopied sheet. Before the listening
task, the teacher asked the students to listen for three important details in
the listening text. He asked the questions verbally. Then he played the
recording. After that, the students discussed the answers to the three
questions given by the teacher before the listening input. Then the teacher
checked the answers with the students. The third hand out was given to the
students who had to focus on task 3 in the hand out. Students had to mark true
/ false to 8 statements given based on the listening text. Then the teacher
played the recording for the second time. Again, the students had to discuss
their answers before the teacher checked their answers.
Hand out
4.
In this
hand out, there was a list of 12 questions based on the topic “A visit to your
grandparents’. The students had to ask each other the questions and made notes
of the answers. This activity was basically to scaffold the students for their
writing task.
Hand out
5.
In this
hand out, students are expected to write a description of their visit to their
grandparents’ during their childhood days and compared the visit when they have
grown into their adulthood. To guide the students in this writing task, they
could refer to hand out 4. This was a take home task where the students have to
complete before the next class.
Further comments :
The
teacher incorporated all the four skills in the lesson by starting with
speaking followed by reading before going into listening and culminating in the
writing task as homework. In hand outs 1,2, 3 and 4, there were a lot of
discussions among the students with some reading in between. The teacher also
encouraged the students to ask questions during the discussions and facilitated
the discussions by posting questions. This has led to lively and interesting
discussions. Throughout the lesson, the teacher refused to speak other than
English language and encouraged peer learning among the students. He would not give the answers directly but
induced them from the students.
Although
there were a few tasks in each of the handout, the teacher only focussed on one
or two tasks. The teacher could ask the students to do the tasks at home or
just delete the task from the handout. In doing so, the students would focus
directly to the task given.
Prepared by:
Roslan Mamat & Ooi Kien Bee
Observation 4
Observation Area : Material Exploitation - General
Lecturer : Peter Hall
Venue : Room K219, WKC King's Cross
Student Level : E3 – Intermediate
Topic : Expressing your opinion – language and style
Findings:
The materials used by the teacher were a two-sided hand-out with different tasks on each side, small whiteboards and marker pens. One side of the hand-out contains a letter to the municipal council and the other side contains tips on how to express opinions. The materials were used to practise reading skills, vocabulary, pronunciation and spelling.
The students were instructed to read the letter. Once the students have read through the letter, they were selected at random to read a paragraph each. After each paragraph was read, students have to give the main points of the paragraph. As the students read the paragraphs aloud, their pronunciations were also corrected and meaning of certain words was also discussed. Along the process, the students became more articulate when explaining or substituting the meaning of the words in the letter with their own. Next the students were told to hide their copy and Peter flashed the same letter onto the board with some words omitted. Students had to write their answers onto a small whiteboard made available to them and show to Peter and he went round checking their answers after every question.
The second text was also flashed onto the whiteboard with gaps which the students had to fill in with the correct words. The first letter of the missing words was given as a clue to guide them. Peter used the same material to encourage different types of interaction among students. The students worked individually, in pairs and also as a whole class to complete the task.
For use in a small class, the small whiteboard is an excellent idea as students can individually write down their answers and the teacher can immediately see and tell them whether they have the right answers. It also allows peer-checking as they can check their answers with the person next to them.
Prepared by:
Aliza Abdul Razak
Radika Subramaniam
Noorasmawati Shafee
Observation 3
Observation Area : Classroom
Management: Instructions, Monitoring and Feedback
Lecturer : Marian Loughran
Venue : Room V323, WKC Victoria Centre
Student Level : E3 - Intermediate
Findings:
There were times when students did
not understand what they have to do. For example, students were unable to
follow instructions when they were told to just listen (and not write the
answers for the listening task). So the teacher stopped reading and repeated
her instructions. Additionally there were times when students did not
understand vocabulary. For example, the word ‘vocational’. The teacher gave
further elaboration for the students to guess the meaning from context.
The teacher checked the understanding
of students by asking questions. For example, she reinforced the use of correct
articles before the words such as ‘university’ and ‘uncle’. In addition, she
used drilling in pronouncing words. For example, ‘work’ and ‘worst’.
The teacher spent a lot of time
monitoring what students are doing. The teacher moved around from group to
group, monitoring their work. She corrected and commented on their mistakes.
The teacher used two methods of
correcting students’ work. Peer correction was allowed in class. For example,
when a student wrote something on the board wrongly, other students corrected
her. Also, when students asked for spelling of words, the teacher would get the
peers to help. The teacher only corrected students’ work when the peers were
unable to help.
The teacher encouraged pair and group
work. During the interview (group work), the teacher required each student to
take turns asking questions.
Further Comments:
The teacher was proactive in getting the Malaysian teachers to participate in the lesson. She provided an authentic opportunity for students in her class to get more exposure to the English language by asking them to interview the Malaysian teachers.
This particular lesson is seen
relevant to these foreign students who will attend job interviews in the
future. The language used was not overly formal but authentically used in
interviews. Additionally, the language
taught was also relevant for when writing resumes (a task that students will
have to do in the future).
On the whole, the lesson objectives
were achieved. The students managed to create questions as part of an interview
and conducted an interview.
Additionally, the lesson objectives were very much relevant to the
students’ needs.
Prepared by:
Kalaimagal KSS Nathan
Nurazmira bt Ab Wahab
Anita Mary Fathi Rosary Rajan
Observation 2
Observation Area : Classroom Management -
General
Lecturer : Peter Demetriou
Venue : Room V318, WKC Victoria Centre.
Student Level : E2
- Elementary - Pre-intermediate
Topic : Rubbish Collection System
Findings:
Findings:
Overall, the classroom arrangement was arranged in a way that the
students were placed in groups of four facing the teacher. Still, the teacher
and the students were able to move around and this enabled both parties to
communicate easily. This diagram provides a better understanding on how the class
was arranged.
At the beginning of
the lesson, the teacher sat at the middle of the classroom listening to the
students' discussion regarding the 'Rubbish Collection System' in London and
Malaysia. The teacher stood up whenever he wanted to write any important points
stated by the students. He also took down notes and paid attention to the group
discussion. After the group discussion, the teacher stood up and continued on
the topic.
Based on our observation, we could see that the interaction in the classroom
varied. Students worked om pairs and group discussing about the topic. For
instance, the students discussed about the problems faced in Rubbish Collection
System and wrote down explanation on that. Later, they exchanged their written
work with their pair.
In addition, they teacher monitored the students by going to each group and
checking on their notes. He corrected the students mistakes while going around.
Subsequently, there was a student with speaking disability in the class who was
accompanied by her support worker/helper. For this, the teacher monitored the
progress by asking and prompting the helper.
The teacher did ask questions to check the students' understanding. If the
student has problem understanding the question he would them rephrase the
questions to make sure that the students understood them clearly. The teacher
also gave the instructions in a very clear and helpful manner and therefore no
difficult issues arisen.
Further Comments:
The class was successfully conducted as the teacher managed the class
outstandingly. The teacher also scaffolded the students' learning process by
giving model sentences for the topic. He also focused on the pronunciation's
stress for the word “disarray”. Vocabularies enrichment was also given by the
teacher whereby the students were encouraged to use the most appropriate
lexical choice in sentences. Some examples given were; 'rat' to 'vermin', 'bin'
to 'skip' and many others.
Prepared by:
Gurminderjeet Kaur, Mohd
Fadzli and Charles
Observation 1
Observation Area : Material - The Three Cs
Lecturer : Katerina Ashiotis
Venue : Room V322, WKC Victoria Centre
Student Level : E1 & E2 - Elementary & Pre-intermediate
Topic : Jobs - Writing a CV
Topic : Jobs - Writing a CV
Findings:
1. Think about the CONTENT. List of the different kinds of material that are used in the lesson.
1. Think about the CONTENT. List of the different kinds of material that are used in the lesson.
a. Brainstorming
activity words related to JOBS
b. Complete
the questions – gap fill
c. Handout
– Worksheet on Getting a Job
2. Think
about COMMUNICATION. Do the materials encourage the students to communicate
with each other or with the teacher? Make a list of material and the kind of
communication which occurs.
Material
|
Communication
|
Words related to JOBS
|
Brainstorming –students came out with the correct vocabulary related
to jobs .
Teacher corrected pronunciation, spelling and sentence stress.
Peer correction was evident.
|
Have you/ever/job?
Do/you/job now?
How/long/this/job?
|
Students constructed the questions.
Students asked each other in which the exercise became personalized.
Teacher asked students to share the information they gathered about
about their friends.
|
Handout – Worksheet on Getting a Job
|
Teacher asked students what the pictures are about. Students gave
opinions and explanation about the pictures.
Students related their own experience with the pictures
|
3. Think
about COGNITION. Do the materials encourage the students to use thinking
skills? Make a list of the material and the kind of thinking skills might use
to complete the task.
Material
|
Thinking Skills
|
Words related to JOBS
|
Brainstorming- Students have to think about words related to the
topic.
|
Have you/ever/job?
Do/you/job now?
How/long/this/job?
|
Students had to construct the question and answers correctly.
Students have to relate their own personal experience to the questions
in the role play.
|
Handout – Worksheet on Getting a Job
|
Students had to come up with words or phrases related to the picture.
|
Further Comments:
The lesson was structured
and it was a lead in to a more complex activities which are composing a CV and
role play an interview. Students were enjoying their classes with a lot of
opportunities to speak in a guided environment facilitated by Katarina.
One feature which we found useful and interesting was the way the projector was facing directly to the whiteboard. Katerina manipulated this facility by having the topic written on the board, and as students shout out words relating to it, she could just write them out rather than presenting them on powerpoint. This allowed students to enhance and expand their vocabulary without realising it and Katerina had the freedom to write more rather than be confined to what was already planned.
We hope to try this out in our colleges, and project the powerpoint or ms word to the whiteboard, and not the screen.
We find that we need to hone our drilling, rephrasing and questioning skills in order to draw the languages and ideas from the students.
One feature which we found useful and interesting was the way the projector was facing directly to the whiteboard. Katerina manipulated this facility by having the topic written on the board, and as students shout out words relating to it, she could just write them out rather than presenting them on powerpoint. This allowed students to enhance and expand their vocabulary without realising it and Katerina had the freedom to write more rather than be confined to what was already planned.
We hope to try this out in our colleges, and project the powerpoint or ms word to the whiteboard, and not the screen.
We find that we need to hone our drilling, rephrasing and questioning skills in order to draw the languages and ideas from the students.
Prepared by:
Ros Hana Ariffin, Alfred and Rozalita Saupi
Ros Hana Ariffin, Alfred and Rozalita Saupi
CLASSROOM VISIT 1 : 25 NOVEMBER 2014
Observation 10
Area of Observation: Interaction Patterns
Date: 25 November 2014
Lecturer: Hugh Macdermott
Venue: Soho centre
Room: 103
Level of Students: E3 Intermediate
Topic: Describing People
OBSERVATION:
From our observation, we noticed that there were different types of interaction patterns applied by the teacher, namely
1. Teacher – whole class interaction
2. Teacher – individual student
3. Learners in pairs
4. Learners in groups
5. Working individually
Although the students we seated in group of four, but the interaction that took place were varied. Different interactions took place even for the same task. For example, the students were asked to write a short paragraph describing a person. Later, each student had to read his/her own paragraph to the group members so that they can guess who the person was. As a result, each student contributed fairly in each task given.
Besides, we noticed that the students were asked to work individually, the teacher attended to each individual student and offered help and comments on the area that should be improved. That was a good practice as it made the students motivated and at the same time kept them on track.
FURTHER COMMENTS
It is important for a teacher to be able to apply different interaction patterns so that the classroom will become more lively. Besides, different types of interaction provide different types of scaffolding to the students. Weaker students may feel more secure working in pair/group rather than completing the task alone. Thus we believe that a teacher should apply different interaction patterns in a classroom so that we can encourage more participation from the students and at the same time making the lesson more interesting and effective.
Observation 9
AREA OF OBSERVATION : Learner Centred Classroom-Student Behavior
DATE : 25 November 2014
LECTURER : Peter Demetriou
VENUE : Victoria Centre
ROOM : V 323
LEVEL OF STUDENTS : E 3 (Intermediate)
TOPIC : Exchanging Information About Rubbish Collection In Your Area
OBSERVATION :
There were a total of 10 students in the class. One of the students is deaf and cannot speak. She had an interpreter to assist her in the class activities.The class consisted of eight South Americans, one Somalian and one Eritrean. It is a mixed ability class. The topic of the day was ‘Rubbish’ and the focus was on vocabulary related to this topic.
This is a learner-centred classroom and we had to observe the students’ behaviour as they participated in the classroom activities. In the format given, we had to identify students for each of the categories below:
The activities given generated a lot of speaking among the students. Students 4,5,7,8 and 9 showed enthusiasm in the activities without any prompting from the teacher. They questioned one another whenever they wanted further explanations and their friends would paraphrase what was said to make it easier for their friends to understand. Student 10 who joined the class later also participated enthusiastically in the activities. The same students participated actively in their group work.The students themselves prompted each other whenever one of them could not find the words to convey the message.
There was one student who was very quiet throughout the whole observation. She would not participate in the group discussion. She seemed shy and didn’t like speaking although she did answer when the teacher asked questions to the group. The answers were in short phrases and whenever she was left on her own, she would hardly contribute to the discussion.
Two students 9 and 10 showed their eagerness to learn by asking the teacher questions whenever they were unsure of any words. Other students checked their answer with their friends for confirmation before they answered. This in a way showed that these two students were quite confident of their answers.They also showed their confidence through initiating the discussion. From their behavior, we could see that they were also outgoing. These two students also stood out among other students by learning quickly and they were able to complete the assigned activities earlier than the other students. Student 2 and 3 tended to get support from the assistant of the deaf student. They referred to her for explanation and confirmation. For the short period of time of the observation we did not notice any students showing signs of confusion. All of them were able to participate in the activity.
Reflection
Once in a while the students would lapse into their mother tongue to convey their messages just as Malaysian students usually would. This, however, did not occur often during the class we observed, and we think it was something that could be accepted. Having said that, we should not let this be a common feature in the group discussion.
During the class, the shy students would only participate when the teacher sat with them. The teacher did move the shy students twice to other groups in the one hour of lesson that we observed.
We feel that supervision by the teacher is critical so that the shy students are not neglected. The teacher needs to identify these student and ensure that they are paired or grouped with other students who can encourage them to participate in the activities.
As for the methodology used by the teacher we observed that the teacher started with an authentic task where students spoke from their knowledge of garbage collection in their areas and compare and contrast the information with their friends. Then the teacher consolidated and focused on the vocabularies needed for the discussion. Students focused on the vocabulary associated with ‘refuse’ and the pronunciation of it. After that they again discussed using vocabulary learnt based on the headlines given. Thus we could relate to Jim Scrivener ‘ARC’ *whereby the teacher used ACA and since we left before the lesson ended (its a three hours lesson) we could not observed the ‘R’ (Restrictive Exercise).
* the ARC approach (as outlined by Jim Scrivener ‘Learning Teaching’ (1990)
Authentic Exercise Stage,
Restrictive Exercise Stage
Clarification & Focus Stage
PREPARED BY : OOI KIEN BEE / MOHD AZMIRUDDIN BIN MOHAMMAD
DATE : 25 November 2014
LECTURER : Peter Demetriou
VENUE : Victoria Centre
ROOM : V 323
LEVEL OF STUDENTS : E 3 (Intermediate)
TOPIC : Exchanging Information About Rubbish Collection In Your Area
OBSERVATION :
There were a total of 10 students in the class. One of the students is deaf and cannot speak. She had an interpreter to assist her in the class activities.The class consisted of eight South Americans, one Somalian and one Eritrean. It is a mixed ability class. The topic of the day was ‘Rubbish’ and the focus was on vocabulary related to this topic.
This is a learner-centred classroom and we had to observe the students’ behaviour as they participated in the classroom activities. In the format given, we had to identify students for each of the categories below:
The activities given generated a lot of speaking among the students. Students 4,5,7,8 and 9 showed enthusiasm in the activities without any prompting from the teacher. They questioned one another whenever they wanted further explanations and their friends would paraphrase what was said to make it easier for their friends to understand. Student 10 who joined the class later also participated enthusiastically in the activities. The same students participated actively in their group work.The students themselves prompted each other whenever one of them could not find the words to convey the message.
There was one student who was very quiet throughout the whole observation. She would not participate in the group discussion. She seemed shy and didn’t like speaking although she did answer when the teacher asked questions to the group. The answers were in short phrases and whenever she was left on her own, she would hardly contribute to the discussion.
Two students 9 and 10 showed their eagerness to learn by asking the teacher questions whenever they were unsure of any words. Other students checked their answer with their friends for confirmation before they answered. This in a way showed that these two students were quite confident of their answers.They also showed their confidence through initiating the discussion. From their behavior, we could see that they were also outgoing. These two students also stood out among other students by learning quickly and they were able to complete the assigned activities earlier than the other students. Student 2 and 3 tended to get support from the assistant of the deaf student. They referred to her for explanation and confirmation. For the short period of time of the observation we did not notice any students showing signs of confusion. All of them were able to participate in the activity.
Reflection
Once in a while the students would lapse into their mother tongue to convey their messages just as Malaysian students usually would. This, however, did not occur often during the class we observed, and we think it was something that could be accepted. Having said that, we should not let this be a common feature in the group discussion.
During the class, the shy students would only participate when the teacher sat with them. The teacher did move the shy students twice to other groups in the one hour of lesson that we observed.
We feel that supervision by the teacher is critical so that the shy students are not neglected. The teacher needs to identify these student and ensure that they are paired or grouped with other students who can encourage them to participate in the activities.
As for the methodology used by the teacher we observed that the teacher started with an authentic task where students spoke from their knowledge of garbage collection in their areas and compare and contrast the information with their friends. Then the teacher consolidated and focused on the vocabularies needed for the discussion. Students focused on the vocabulary associated with ‘refuse’ and the pronunciation of it. After that they again discussed using vocabulary learnt based on the headlines given. Thus we could relate to Jim Scrivener ‘ARC’ *whereby the teacher used ACA and since we left before the lesson ended (its a three hours lesson) we could not observed the ‘R’ (Restrictive Exercise).
* the ARC approach (as outlined by Jim Scrivener ‘Learning Teaching’ (1990)
Authentic Exercise Stage,
Restrictive Exercise Stage
Clarification & Focus Stage
PREPARED BY : OOI KIEN BEE / MOHD AZMIRUDDIN BIN MOHAMMAD
Observation 8
Observation Area : Learner centered
classroom – general.
Lecturer : Penny Munoz
Venue : S102, WKC Soho
Student Level : E1 & E2 (Elementary - Pre-intermediate)
Topic : Parts of Speech - Adjective
Findings:
Findings:
The topic was on parts of speech
(adjective) and it was presented in an interesting way. The students were
required to describe about clothes and the lecturer used realia to help the
students generate ideas in their descriptions. The lecturer started the class
by giving a vocabulary list on adjectives that describe different kinds of
clothes. Then, students were instructed to discuss in small groups and later
presented their answers individually. The lecturer acted as a facilitator
during the discussion. This could be clearly seen when the students were given
freedom in presenting their answers and the lecturer consistently corrected any
mistakes along the way. We also noticed that the lecturer consistently praised
the students for their good work. The lecturer also welcomed questions from the
students and responded to them in a positive way.
Further comments:
Prepared by:
Roslan
Mamat & Bakrin Alfred Valentine
Observation 7
Observation Area : Motivation - Raising Interest
Lecturer : Jonathan
Wareham
Venue : Room 1E3, WKC Regent’s Park
Student Level : E2-E3 (Pre-intermediate - Intermediate)
Findings:
There were 12 adult
students in the classroom with mixed ability and different nationalities.
The lesson taught was on
Future Tense and its different functions and situations using “will”, “going”
and “going to”. We arrived in the middle of the class after a coffee break and
missed the first part of the lesson and missed the lead-in.
Timing
|
Whole Class / Groupwork/
Pairwork/
Individual
|
Activity
|
ARC
|
10 minutes
|
Groupwork
|
Matching activity using strips of paper – Future sentences / Functions
|
R
|
5 minutes
|
Whole Class
|
Check answers via a competition
|
C
|
10 minutes
|
Pairwork
|
Gap fill – One student with words missing, the other with the answer.
Swap.
|
R
|
10 minutes
|
Groupwork
|
Same exercise but this time they had to give the right function to the
future sentences. Then an answer key was given to check answer.
|
R
|
10 minutes
|
Whole Class
|
Everyone picks up one strip of paper containing missing words. Teacher
demonstrates the exercise with a student. The whole class mingle and
ask future questions to the other student and then swap the strips of paper.
|
A
|
The aims of the lesson was
easy to identify as it was focused to using the future tense. The teacher
ensures that students know what they are learning by reinforcing the functions
on handouts and the whiteboard. Jonathan turned the checking activity into a
simple game by giving points to the group who could answer the answer
correctly. Students were eager to give the right answer, competing with each
other. Jonathan gave a lot of opportunities for peer assistance and monitored
closely during pairwork and groupwork.
Further Comments:
It was a challenging class
due to the mixed ability adult students with different nationalities as well as
one with a speaking disability. However, the teacher managed to conduct
the class well and kept the 3 hour class interested with the different
activities.
Prepared by:
Ros Hana Ariffin & Rozalita Saupi
Ros Hana Ariffin & Rozalita Saupi
Observation 6
Observation Area : Learner Centred Classroom - General
Lecturer
: Ms. Cathy Flynn
Venue
: Room S101, WKC Soho Centre
Student Level : E3 – Intermediate
Topic
: Food / Men and Women’s Relationship
Grammar Focus - Quantifiers
Findings:
The main area of the
classroom observation was on learner-centred environment, generally. There are
a few things that could be brought to light through the observation, ranging
from teacher-students relationship to students’ active participation. Although
it was a two and a half hour lesson, we only managed to observe the last 40
minutes before the class ended. There were several important things which were
noticed within the span of 40 minutes such as follows:
1. The relationship between the teacher and students was positive.
2. Teacher acted as a
facilitator in the class.
3. Teacher expected
students to work together to solve problems and complete activities.
4. Teacher welcomed
questions from students and responded to them in a positive way.
Getting down to discussing
on the topic presented, however the teacher did not follow the scheme of work
(planned topics). The teacher admitted that it was completely out of the
initial plan. However, she made some justification over this issue. It was
learned that some of the students in the class were still struggling to grasp
certain topics and definitely taking a longer time. To ensure students’
understanding, it was one of the best solutions thought by the teacher.
The lesson which was
carried out during the observation was on grammar point (i.e., quantifiers).
The handouts used for students’ practice in the class were quite simple ones
where we felt that more challenging tasks could have been provided to test on
the intermediate level students. Nevertheless, the teacher explained that the
students had just completed E2 and entered E3. Hence, these tasks were found
useful to strengthen the E2 level English language knowledge to be able to
perform better in E3 level.
The classroom was
interactive as both the teacher and students exchanged information while
discussing the answers for the tasks given. Students were asked to sit and work
in groups before sharing their answers with the whole class. Most of the
students looked confident in sharing their answers with the rest of the class.
Looking at this from the point of the ARC model (A-Authentic Use, R –
Restricted Use, C – Clarification and Focus) by Scrivener, we assumed that the
teacher had provided some input or explanation on the grammar point before the
students were asked to work on the tasks. It was generally a CRCA framework
which was applied by the teacher in this lesson where more explanation was
given to students after the restricted use (handout practices) and in later stages
(in the next lesson), a speaking activity has been designed to be conducted to
give the students the practice in more authentic situation. Overall,
learner-centred environment was present in this class.
Prepared
by:
Radika Subramaniam & Aliza Abdul Razak.
Radika Subramaniam & Aliza Abdul Razak.
Observation 5
Observation Area : Learner Centred Classroom – Interaction Patterns
Lecturer :
Katerina Ashiotis
Venue :
V327, WKC Victoria Centre
Level Student : E1(Beginner)
Findings:
The class consisted of working
non-native speakers from different parts of the world such as Equador,
Columbia, Bolivia etc. The age group ranges from 30 to 60 years old. It was a
three hour lesson but observation was for one hour only.
Set Induction: Teacher
revised areas covered in previous lessons and stated aims for today’s lesson.
Activity 1:
Teacher wrote 4 sentences
about her likes/dislikes on the board.
Eg : ‘ I love
Paris’ , ‘ I have never been to New York’
Students were required to
ask questions in relation to the given statements on the board.
Eg: Why do you
love Paris? / Would you like to go to New York?
As many students as
possible were given the opportunity to ask questions. Some errors in question
formation were corrected by the teacher, while some were corrected by their
peers. Teacher prompted the students to give them the opportunity to self
correct their mistakes. Stress and pronunciation were also touched on when
necessary. Teacher used drilling repeatedly for reinforcement.
Eg: Have you
visited the Eiffel Tower?
Activity 2:
Teacher gave a statement “I
have 12 children” and asked students how they felt about it. This led to
expressions of disbelief. Students were given the opportunity to give examples
of polite expressions before the teacher provides the correct expressions. (You
must be joking, No way).
Activity 3:
Students were asked whether
they have visited any places of interest and this led to the introduction of
simple perfect tense. ‘I have ...../ i have never ...../ have you......./ have
you ever.....’The teacher also revised on regular and irregular verbs. Students
were randomly selected and asked to formulate questions, as well as, make
sentences using the given structures. When responding, students were required
to listen to the verb used in the questions to enable them to respond
correctly. A reinforcement activity was carried out where student A had to ask
a question to student B and student B has to listen to the used verb and
respond correctly.
Eg: Student A : Have you
been to London?
B : Yes , i have.
B: Do you like hotdogs?
C : No, i don’t.
ACTIVITY 4:
Students were given a
handout and instructed to listen carefully, but not to write anything. The
teacher then read sentences about herself in relation to the given phrases in
the handout. Students were then required to sit in pairs to discuss and list as
many sentences as possible in 5 minutes. The teacher then goes through the
answers.
Further Comments:
Generally, the first part
of the lesson involved teacher to whole class interaction with
students being selected randomly to answer the questions. The 1st hour
focuses on speaking and listening activities to reinforce language structures.
Repeated drilling on identified structures was also carried out throughout the
lesson. Errors in language structures and pronunciation were corrected by the
teacher and sometimes, by their peers. Teacher-individual student
interaction took place during error correction when eliciting answers
from individual students. Where appropriate, the teacher shares British
expressions and vocabulary for cultural exposure. E.g. ‘nosey’. ‘Learners
in pairs’ took place after whole class interaction to enable more
speaking and listening practice.
It is felt that the
framework used for the 1st hour of the lesson was based on ACR
(Authentic Use, Clarification & Focus Use, Restricted Use).
Prepared by:
Marina Abu Bakar & Jaime AK Mundu
Observation 4
Observation Area :
Motivation - General
Lecturer : Elizabeth
Procopio
Venue : Room K330, WKC King's Cross Centre.
Student Level : E3
(Intermediate)
Topic : Comparing Places
Findings:
We were given an opportunity to observe on a
teaching session at the Westminster Kingsway College, King's Cross Centre.
Below are the points that we looked at in relation to motivation.
TEACHER'S TECHNIQUE
|
REMARKS
|
A. The teacher raises the students' interest early in the class
|
YES - The teacher had instructed students to obtain information
regarding their respective countries from a website called 'FACT MONSTER'
|
B. The aims and topic of the lesson are clear for the students
|
YES – The students were able to respond to the teacher's questions and
tasks
|
C. The topic / activities are interesting and engaging for the
students
|
YES - The topic given was personalised based on the needs of the
students.
|
D. The teacher ensures that students know what they have to do during
each activity
|
YES – Clear instructions were given and the instructions were also
written on the whiteboard
|
E. The teacher encourages both stronger and weaker students to
contribute to the lesson
|
YES – The teacher called on every student to share their views despite
their levels of proficiency
|
F. The teacher praises or draws attention to students who make a
positive contribution to the class
|
YES – Very evident. Teacher used words of encouragement such as 'well
done', 'very good' and 'fantastic'
|
Further comments:
Motivation is a key aspect in the teaching process. It helps to captivate students' interest in the topic that is being taught. In the class that we observed, there were 12 students from various ethnicities. In addition, these students were all adults from different social backgrounds.
Throughout the lesson, the teacher was able to conduct it in a way that got
students involved and interested. First of all, the topic chosen had relevance
to students' background knowledge. Students were keen to share their
information about their respective countries. The teacher reinforces students'
ideas by writing what they said on the board. Relevant vocabularies that
described their countries were written on the board. For example, population,
weather, food, and others. This gave confidence to students to use those words
in their speaking and writing activities.
Another point that showed students were motivated is that peer-guidance was
evident. When a student presented her idea with a wrong pronunciation or
spelling, the peer would guide or correct them. Motivation was also evident as
students were keen to use the dictionary to locate meanings of words.
In conclusion, motivation plays a very important
role for language learners to be actively involved in a language lesson.
Prepared by:
Kalaimagal KSS Nathan & Mohd Fadzli
Observation 3
Lecturer : Sophie Quadir
Venue :
Room R010, WKC Regent's Place Centre
Student Level : E1 (beginner)
Topic : Weather
Findings:
1. The teacher told the students the aims indirectly by showing them pictures and giving explanation when needed. She elicited responses from students by asking them questions regarding the subject.
1. The teacher told the students the aims indirectly by showing them pictures and giving explanation when needed. She elicited responses from students by asking them questions regarding the subject.
2. The teacher used maps, pictures, and illustrations. She used the map to get
response from students regarding the location of a country. She also used the
map to differentiate between “cold” and “freezing” weather. The teacher used
pictures of earthquake and volcanoes in her slide.
3. The teacher used word jigsaw to get students to remember specific vocabulary she used
in previous lessons. She also provided clue and students were trying to guess
the meaning of the word.
4. Students were able to talk about various weather that they had
experienced in their own countries. Then, she asked students the meaning of
“snow” in their own language and students were able to respond to it.
5. The
teacher conducted a dictation session with the students and asked them
questions randomly based on the text. The teacher also asked them about
synonyms of certain words related to the topic. The teacher also differentiated
her worksheet and gave the students gap fill exercise to evaluate their
understanding on the topic. The good students helped the weaker students by
explaining to them in their own language (teacher reminded them not to use too
much of their own language).
6. The
teacher spent about 15 minutes for the lead-in. The time spent was adequate
because she used this time to link the previous lesson to the current lesson as
well as introducing new vocabulary.
Further comments:
The
students were seated in groups to promote co-operation and students were free
to choose what worksheet they want to do. This allowed the instructor to
differentiate between different levels of competency. Overall the class
was very interesting and the teacher had so much energy and passion in
conducting the lesson. The teacher was very helpful when the students needed
guidance.
Prepared by:
Charles Cheng & Gurminderjeet Kaur
Observation 2
Observation Area : Motivation: General
Lecturer : Peter Hall
Venue : Room K219, WKC King's Cross Centre
Student Level : E3 (Intermediate)
Topic : Letter of Complaint
Findings:
There are numerous strategies used by the teacher
in order to increase motivation level in class.
Firstly, the teacher conducted a game to raise
students’ interest early in class because they were all tired after working
long hours. He conducted a game in which students had to contribute as many
words as they can about the topic (complaints about services). The students
were divided into two groups and the group with the highest number of words
won. This game motivated the students to focus in class and activated their
prior knowledge.
Then, the teacher encouraged the quiet students to
participate in class. For example, he called upon a quiet student to spell a
word. When other students helped him to answer, the teacher refused to accept
the answer. Instead, he asked the particular student to spell the word again on
his own.
The teacher also praised the students by using
words such as “Well done!”, “Exactly” and “Good” . Even when the students
provided the wrong answers, he praised their effort and prompted them till they
got the right answers and praised them. Additionally, when a student managed to
answer a particularly difficult question, the teacher asked the whole class to
give the student a round of applause. He motivated the weaker students by
saying “It’s okay, you got it” and acknowledged that some things are not easily
learned by saying “It’s not easy”.
The teacher also assured the students when they
were worried about their performance. When a student exclaimed worriedly that
she didn’t know the word, the teacher said “Don’t worry, that’s why you’re here
to learn”.
All these techniques really motivated the students
to use the language confidently. Hence, active participation was seen in the
class.
Further Comments:
Although some of the students come from the same
linguistic background, we did not hear them using their mother tongue
throughout the whole lesson.
The teacher also took the time to address students’
confusion. For example, when the student mistook ‘dined’ for ‘denied’, the
teacher highlighted the differences between the words.
To encourage group work, the teacher used a few
strategies. For example, he did not immediately give the answers when students
asked. Rather, he asked them to check with their partners first. The teacher
also assigned the essay-writing task as pair work so that the students can get
more ideas and support from each other. On top of that, he continuously
encouraged students to help each other in completing the task.
An interesting technique used by the teacher was
when he asked the students to think about a particular question in a limited
time and vote. Additionally, the teacher conducted a ‘back to board’
activity in pairs as a recap. It was a useful exercise to reinforce the
vocabulary learned in the class.
Lastly, as part of classroom management, the
teacher ensured that the students knew what they had to do during each activity
by asking the students to repeat the instructions that he gave.
Prepared by:
Nurazmira bt Ab Wahab & Anita Mary Fathi Rosary
Rajan
Observation 1
Observation Area : Learner Centred Classroom –
Student Behaviour
Lecturer : Marian Loughran
Venue : Room V318, WKC Victoria Centre
Student Level : E1 (Beginner)
Topic : Qualities Associated to Occupations
Findings:
During the class, our focus is on observing what
the students were doing. This included:
- How enthusiastic and responsive the students were? Did they answer / ask a lot of questions?
- Did any student avoid answering questions?
- Did the students participate actively in pair and group work?
- Did any student dominate a discussion?
- How confident and outgoing were the students?
- Were any student shy and did not like speaking?
- Did the students learn quickly and complete the activities easily?
- Were the students confused and needed to ask for help from the others?
We noted that most of the students were
enthusiastic and responded actively while carrying out the tasks given by the
teacher. There were a couple of students who were reluctant to answer questions
from the teacher and participate in pronunciation drills. Nevertheless, they
were comfortable in pair work, especially when the partner was a more active
one. We did not see anyone dominating the group discussion. There were two
students who were particularly confident and outgoing. They responded well to
all the questions put forward by the teacher, and were supportive toward their
classmates. They were also able to complete the activities easily.
We feel that on the whole the lesson was learner
centred whereby students were involved in carrying out the tasks, with the
teacher monitoring and facilitating the process. The students were able to
reproduce the lexical and grammatical items taught in previous lessons. This
was done through reinforcement activities and materials. The fact that the
students were able to demonstrate the use of the lexical and grammatical items
indicated that the learning outcomes had been attained.
In our opinion, it is important to identify
students who are not very responsive and think of how to ensure that they
participate actively and not be left behind. Getting an active and outgoing
student to partner an introverted one could be helpful.
Further Comments:
We noted that the lesson not only integrated the
teaching and learning of all four language skills, but also grammar, lexis and
phonology.
Although some of the students come from the same
linguistic background, we did not hear them using their mother tongue
throughout the whole lesson.
The students in this class are working adults who
are trying to improve their English language proficiency in order to obtain a
better job. This motivates them and makes a lot of difference in their
participation in the classroom.
Prepared by:
Tan Sui Chee & Prasanna Kesavan
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