Observation report

1. 1
PRACTICE II, DIDACTICS OF ELT and Practicum Primary School level. Adjunto Regular
a/c Prof. Estela N. Braun (2018). Teacher Assistant: Prof. Vanesa Cabral.
REGISTER:
TRAINEE TEACHER: Solange Cortese
SCHOOL: Escuela 92- 6th year
MENTOR TEACHER: Prof. Vanesa Toro
DATE: November, 6th
Lesson plan: Intercultural project
Teacher educator: Vanesa Cabral
Description of the class:
There are fourteen students, they are sat in a U-shape seating arrangement. Solange
greets all of them and tells them that this is their last class. All of them express their
sadness.
She asks for collaboration and cooperation to have a nice class.
She starts with their class routine. One volunteer comes to the front and chooses the
correct words to express the weather and the date. They use a nice board with colourful
pieces of cardboard.
She asks them if they remember what they have seen last class. All of themanswer: “las
partes del barrio”. Suggestion: repeat the same idea in English after them “yes, very
good! The shops/public buildings in our neighbourhood”.
Then, she invites them to activate prior knowledge. She asks them to repeat the
vocabulary in English and to say its meaning.
Meanwhile, she sticks the pictures on the board. Beautiful flashcards.

2. 2
Then, she asks the whole group: can you tell me how we say “hay “ en Inglés?
Suggestion: say “in English?”
Students: “There is”
Solange: ”Ok , and there are”.
Solange writes on the board the affirmative and negative form of there is and there are.
She interacts with the whole group. They answer altogether.
Solange asks a question: “¿Qué lehace faltaa nuestro barrio para mejorar?” Suggestion:
ask the question in English first, and then, if you consider that they did not understand,
say it in Spanish.
They answer in Spanish: “Que no haya desbordes cloacales” one student says.
As regards buildings? Solange answers…Suggestion: although this answer was not the
one you expected, you could have highlighted the importance of this statement for the
improvement of the neighbourhood becauseit had correspondence with your question.
They answer in Spanish and Solange says this vocabulary in English: a toy shop, a
restaurant, a hotel, asphalted streets, a bank, a hospital, a secondary school, a
drugstore, “que haya chinos” a student says (she meant ”a supermarket”), a softball
field, a rugby pitch…
Solange writes all these words on the board for the next activity they are going to do.
She explains the following activity, she says: “We are going to work in groups”.
“De a cuántos? “ a student asks. “De los que uds. quieran” She answers. Suggestion: it
is always advisable to establish a number of students… no more than three, between 3
or 5, no more than 5…etc.
Solange and Angela deliver some colour papers, and Solange gives the instructions:
“Divide the paper into two parts. And write the title ´my community´”
I observe that the information copied on the board is very organised. Solange took my
piece of advice from the previous observation. Everything was legible and well
organised.

3. 3
She gives examples: “there is a public infirmary”. You have to write about all the places
that there are in our neighbourhood.
On the other side of the cardboard, you have to write about the places that there aren´t
for example: “there isn´t a bank”.
The students work in pairs, they are enthusiastic, and they enjoy writing the sentences
in groups. There is one student who stays alone because his classmate has to leave (the
bus driver is waiting for him outside), so the mentor teacher sits with him and guides
him with some oral questions. The student writes without difficulty.
She interrupts them and says that she is going to say something important: “Please,
complete the survey, you can answer it in Spanish”. She reads the questions in English
and translates them into Spanish..
The bell rings. She gives some souvenirs to all of them (candies and a nice pen). They are
very happy, and they all thank her for this present.
To sum up and mention all the good points:
Solange has developed a clear teacher´s stance. She has a good rapport with all the
students, and she has classroom management skills. She could control the group quite
well although they were a bit talkative.
She gaveclearinstructions and she gaveexamples of the activities that she wanted them
to do. Excellent! She had different roles along the lesson: facilitator, controller and
prompter.
She used English all the class and Spanish when it was necessary, although some
suggestions are given before.
She monitored their performance while they were working.
She made them practice oral and written skills. She developed a communicative
approach.
They could learn new words related to places in a city.

4. 4
They worked in a class group and in small groups too. Some of them worked in pairs. So
she promoted different ways of grouping. She promoted different ways of interaction,
what helps them develop social and cognitive strategies.
They were engaged with the activity and they enjoyed working with this topic. I think
that they felt absolutely identified and happy to be working with a project related to
their context.
It was a very meaningful activity.
Pedagogical partner:
Angela worked collaboratively with Solange. She helped her with all the activities and to
monitor the students´ performance too. She was on the alert of each group´s needs.
They could form a good team. They did not overlap, they respected each other´s space
and role. They have worked very hard to provide nice and interesting classes to these
groups and they have also prepared a lot of nice material to develop the didactic
sequence.
Final grade: 10 (ten)
Questions to reflect:
Do you agree that a good teacher is fundamental in this school (a boarding school in a
vulnerable context)?.Why is it important to be a good teacher here? What does it
mean/imply to be a good teacher?
Enjoy the following pictures!

5. 5

6. 6

7. 7

8. 8