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- 1. JOURNAL Entry 1 Tasks Teachers Perform in Classes Before starting your Class Observation Period, list the tasks you think teachers perform in classes. After visiting your school class for the first time, contrast your list with what you observed. I think teachers carry out the following tasks in class … These are the tasks I observed the teacher carried out in class … 1. Teacher carries out music for doing listening. 2. Teacher speaks English in the class. 3.Teacher asks students to do projects based on their real lives such as campaigns, advertisements, etc. 4. Teacher ask students to accomplish challenging activities. 5. Teacher plans interactive and interesting classes for students 1. Teacher only brings worksheets. 2. Teacher does not speak English in the class. 3. Teacher complains about students every class. 4. Teacher does not plan any motivating and engaging activity or lesson. 5. Students are oppressed by the teacher. Personal Reflection It is a bit sad to realize that sometimes students are seen as incompetent people that cannot do challenging tasks. As a consequence, the teacher does not carry out a prepared lesson for students, and more sad is that teacher does not use the aids that are available to display a good English lesson. In fact, all the techniques and strategies, which should be used during the learning process are not presented; moreover, the idea of how to teach a second language that is taught during our training at universities is not observed in real performance of many teacher of English.
- 2. JOURNAL Entry 2 TASK 1 The role of the teacher: Bibliographic research Write down the sources you used for the bibliographic research you carried out. Remember to use APA Norm. As basis of our observation task we have done some researches about the techniques, and strategies to teach a second language properly. One of thebibliographic research that explains some techniques clearly was made by Naiman (1978) in the book learning strategies in second language acquisition: “Naiman et. al identified what they referred to as “techniques” for second language learning, which differ from strategies….. The techniques with selected examples of each, as are follow: Sound acquisition: repeating aloud after a teacher, a native speaker, or a tape; listening carefully; and taking aloud, including role playing. Grammar: Following rules given in texts; inferring grammar rules from texts; comparing L1 and L2; and memorizing structures and using them often Vocabulary: Making up charts and memorizing them; learning words in context: learning words that are associated; using new words in phrases; using a dictionary when necessary: and carrying a notebook to note new items. Listening comprehension: Listening to the radio, records, TV, movies, tapes, etc; and exposing oneself to different accents and registers. Learning to write: having pen pals; writing frequently; and frequent reading of what you expect to write. Learning to read: reading something every day; reading things that are familiar.” (O'Malley & Chamot, 1990, pág. 6) Strategies as well as techniques is an important part into the learning process; so that, is extremely important to know what they are in order to use them in our own work with our students. Below, Cohen’s words about what a language learner strategies are “Thoughts and actions, consciously chosen and operationalized by language learners, to assist them in carrying out a multiplicity of task from the very onset of learning to the most advanced levels of targetlanguage performance” (Cohen, 2014, pág. 7)
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- 4. JOURNAL Entry 3 TASK 2 Observation on a teacher in a university class Observe one of your teachers at the university, using one of the Classroom Observation Tasks introduced in classes. Insert below. CLASSROOM OBSERVATION TASK6: Teacher Questions Monitor the teacher’s questioning techniques and answer the questions. ● How many real questions does the teacher ask? (These are questions for which the teacher does not know the answer, such as what did you do at the weekend?) The teacher makes at least 3 real questions to students such as how are you today? How was your weekend? . Moreover, he also talks to students about their lives so he can know a bit about every student. This strategy works not only as a engagement for students, but also students can perceive that the teacher worries about them as people, not only as pupils. Knowing students makes a difference in terms of the relationship they create and on students’ behavior, because students participate in the class actively. ● How many display questions does the teacher ask? (These are questions the teacher asks in order for the learners to display their knowledge, such as what is the past of the verb “go”?) The teacher asks students at least 5 questions about the topic of the class, for instance, what was the video about? What are the topics? What is your opinion about..?. As consequences, students can display their knowledge or opinions openly, because they have several opportunities to speak in the class generated by teacher. He has stated that in his class students have to show their English and it is a good instance to improve and correct mistakes as well. ● What is different about the stages in the lesson when there is a high proportion of real questions, as opposed to stages which are dominated by display questions? In this class, there are no big significant differences between stages where real or display questions dominate the class, because in both real and display questions students are invited by the teacher to speak in the class, give their opinions, and create a good atmosphere to learn, where students feel confident when participating, and that is because the teacher has been able to create a good relationship with their pupils as well as he has established that in his class there are not wrong answers.
- 5. JOURNAL Entry 4 Classroom Observation Task 1 Options and decisions The term‘classroom management” refers to the momentbymoment decisions made and actions taken by the teacher in class, e.g. writing on the board, giving instructions, organizing the class into pairs, etc. For every decision made, there will have been other options that the teacher did not choose. For each of the following headings: 1. Note one example of a classroom situation in the lesson you are observing. What does the teacher do? 2. Note one or two options that the teacher had at that point in the lesson, but did not choose. Example: Dealing with unexpected problems Situation: A student arrived twelve minutes late for the lesson. Action: Teacher said “hello” politely. (The student then sat down quietly and found out what was going on from his neighbor.) Other options: Teacher could have asked why the student was late. Teacher could have pointed out the time to the student. Student participation in the lesson Situation: Ss are doing some exercises in a worksheet. One of them asks to the teacher about a specific sentence that he can’t understand clearly. Action: Teacher answers that it would be better if the student asks the same question to the teacher to be. Other options: Teacher solves student’s doubt by herself. Teacher tries helping student to discover the solution by himself. She can lead the student in order to get a better comprehension of the whole exercise. Grouping of students; arrangement of seating Situation: Ss have to complete a long worksheet related to the content. Action: Teacher arranges students in rows and makes them work individually.
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- 8. Taken from Scrievener, J. Learning Teaching. Macmillan Publishing Limited, 2005 JOURNAL Entry 5 Classroom Observation Tasks 2 The teacher´s position and body language Classroom Observation Tasks 3 Interaction CLASSROOM OBSERVATION TASK 2: The teacher´s position and body language Note the teacher’s position and movement. Draw a ground plan showing the teacher’s movement during the lesson. ● When and where does the teacher sit? The teacher sits down while students are working on the worksheet she gave them. she sits on the teacher desk, which is located on one corner of the classroom in front of the students’ chairs. ● When and where does the teacher stand? The teacher stands when greeting the students and giving the instructions, in addition, sometimes she stands up to observe students when they are working. The teacher also stands up for complaining about. ● How near does the teacher approach the learners at different parts of the lesson? The teacher principally is far of the students. As we mentioned before, she is located in front of them the whole class. Sometimes some of the students approach her in order to clarify doubt about the work. However, this is almost the only moment in which she is closer with them.
- 9. ● When does the teacher move around? The teacher moves around the classroom when a Student calls her asking for help and sometimes for for observing student’s work. ● Does the teacher project to all the learners? No, she doesn’t. She is constantly in front of the class; so that, shy students who aren’t be able to ask preferring to maintain their doubts, and they don’t solve them. She doesn’t approach of all students in order to verify their comprehension about the topic or exercise. ●Can the teacher be heard and seen clearly by all the learners? Yes, the teacher is seen and heard by all the students in the classroom. She speaks loudly and all the students are seated so they can see her very well. ● Does the teacher use gesture effectively? No, she does not. She does not use much body language and facial expression. ● Does the teacher make eye contact with individual learners? Yes, she does, but only when a student goes to her desk asking for help and clarification.
- 10. CLASSROOM OBSERVATION TASK 3: Interaction ● Observe the different interactions in each lesson and complete the table. Then answer the questions. ● What is the predominant type of interaction? Students working individually. ●Does it seem appropriate to the aims of the lesson? No, it doesn’t. Teacher never declared the Aim of the lesson to the students; so that, they don’t know about their final objective. However, students should learn how to communicate with the language, and during the class their work mainly individually in worksheet, which they need to develop in written form about grammar aspect of the language, principally. ● In which interaction were the learners most productive? Students work better with a partner or within a group. They help each other, so it promotes collaborative work Interaction pattern Amount of time spent Teacher – whole class 16% Learners in pairs 2% Learners in groups 2% Learners working individually 70% Other 10%
- 11. Taken from Thornbury, S. & Watkins, P. The CELTA Course. Cambridge University Press, 2008. JOURNAL Entry 6 Classroom Observation Task 4 How can a teacher influence the learning environment? The table lists some ways a teacher can influence the environment in which students learn. Choose four of these headings. Observe and make detailed notes about what the teacher does/doesn`t do to help learning. Where possible, note specific concrete examples of techniques, e.g. what precisely does the teacher do to help create a warm classroom atmosphere? Aspects of the learning environment The teacher´s role 1. Classroom atmosphere The teacher can help establish and maintain an appropriate , warm, focused working atmosphere 2. Organization The teacher can take an active role in organizing how time, space, materials, etc. are used. 3. Encouragement and support; promoting participation The teacher can provide positive, realistic support and encouragement to take an active role. 4. Monitoring The teacher can monitor what is happening in class. 5. Informative feedback The teacher can offer objective information that may help the learning process; e.g., information about errors made, information about how language if formed or used, information about how a task was performed, suggestions for future work, etc. The teacher can notice and help to draw attention to progress made, problems encountered, etc. 6. Authority The teacher can use her/his authority where appropriate, e.g. to make decisions, to close activities or discussions, to require certain actions from individuals, etc. 7. Provision of samples of language Instructions, comments, questions, stories, etc. in the target language provide language exposure for the learners. 8. Presenting content information The teacher can explain, lecture, answer questions, etc. on areas of the learning content. Aspect Chosen The teacher’s role comment Classroom atmosphere The teacher does not help to create an appropriate atmosphere for learning. She generates a stressed relationship between her and the students. She enters the classroom and starts immediately complaining about students’ personal appearance, if
- 12. the classroom is dirty, if students have or not their materials, ect. and she spends almost half an hour doing that. For instance, she said “you! sit down properly, where is your notebook, your book and your dictionary? It’s always the same situation with you and your classmates!” Organization The teacher does not have an active role in terms of organization in the classroom. She almost always orders students to sit where they have been assigned by their headteacher and does not allow students to work in pairs even when they are seated in two rows together. Also, the teacher asks students to have the book, the notebook and the dictionary with them all the classes and most of the time they do not even use that material. As a conclusion, she keeps the traditional way of teaching. Monitoring The teacher sometimes does monitor students. She walks around the classroom and helps students when they ask her for help, but also sometimes she observes students in order to complain about them and does not solve students’ doubts Provision of samples of language The teacher does not use the target language as much as she should, for instance, she reads the instructions of a worksheet in English but then she explains them in Spanish. She also teaches English in Spanish and only provides one or two examples of the exponent of the content in the target language. Comments and feedback are also given in Spanish as well as answers and questions. The target language is almost never used in class.
- 13. Taken from Scrievener, J. Learning Teaching. Macmillan Publishing Limited, 2005 JOURNAL Entry 7 Classroom Observation Task 5Error and Correction Note down any instances of learner error, the teacher´s response (if any) and the learner´s response, e.g. self – correction. Learner´s error Teacher´s response Learner`s response A student commits a mistake in a specific sentence in his worksheet. He wrote down “ You like eat ice cream”. Teacher tells him that the sentences is not right, she says: “You need to fix that one, the second verb is not correct”. Student asks for some help, and she responds: “we have already checked that, you must ask to one of your classmates, or to the teacher to be” The student goes to ask to the teacher to be, who helps him with the doubt explaining again why the second verb must be with ing. The student fixes the incorrect sentence, and others with the same problem. Students and teacher are reviewing aloud a set of exercise. Teacher asks to Benjamin, who is one of the students of 8A about a certain sentence. Benjamin’s answer was not correct, he commits a syntactic error “she do like swimming? Students and teacher are reviewing aloud a set of exercise. Teacher asks to Benjamin, who is one of the students of 8A about a certain sentence. Benjamin’s answer was not correct, he commits a syntactic error “she do like swimming? One of the students rises his hand and responds correctly. Benjamin fixes his answer on his own worksheet. During the same reviewing of exercises described above, another student commits a similar mistake of the Benjamin’s one. She said “ does like he eating apples? Teacher responds saying: “again!, please be careful, when you write down your answers. Sacha ( the name of the student) please check the previous ones, and try to identify the The student “Sacha”, checks the previous one, and finds the correct form of the sentence. She corrects herself, and finally she gives the appropriate answer
- 14. mistake.” (Teacherwaits 1 min) Otoniel, a student, who has special needs, asks to the headteacher about a set of picture ,which they need to describe using “like and dislike”. He tries to create a list of sentences describing what he is looking in the images. All the sentences contain the same mistake, he writes : e.g “ You dislikes read books” Teacher checks the sentences, and the first time she doesn’t realise about the error; however, she checks again and finds that Otoniel generalises the third person rule and he had added an s to all the verbs like. She says: Otoniel you only use “likes” when you are using she, he or it, with the other pronouns it is not necessary. Moreover, you had to remember that you must add ing at the end of the second verb. Otoniel tries to fix the mistake according to his teacher’s indication. Finally, he changes the answers, but he still commits some mistakes that the teacher highlights in order to repair them. Taken from Thornbury, S. & Watkins, P. The CELTA Course. Cambridge University Press, 2008.
- 15. JOURNAL Entry 8 Classroom Observation Task 6Teacher Questions Monitor the teacher’s questioning techniques and answer the questions. ● How manyreal questions does the teacher ask? (These are questions for which the teacher does not know the answer, such as what did you do at the weekend?) The teacher does not make any real question to students. In fact, Miss Luciana talks to the students when she enters to the class and greets them. However, she stops to speak after that, and all the exercises and activities are guided by the teachers to be. So that, she observes the class, sitting in her chair in front of the students, or sometimes she goes out of the classroom to monitor the class of 6th grade, which is under her responsibility. Teachers to be are who ask some real questions to the students. They ask about their previous classes, their weekends, or their moods. All this questions helps the teachers to catch the attention of the students mainly at the beginning of the class, because they feel more engaged and more closer to the teachers. ● How many display questions does the teacher ask? (These are questions the teacher asks in order for the learners to display their knowledge, such as what is the past of the verb “go”?) The teacher does not ask any display question to students. To follow the same line of the previous question, the mentor teacher Miss Luciana Rojas does not teach to the students content, at least while teachers to be have been present. She has delivered some worksheet to the students; however, she has asked to the teachers to be to give instructions. Moreover, display questions are not predominant into the class, teachesr to be ask few questions in this term. During the session of “Like and Dislike”, they asked about How is this verb carried out with the third person singular “she, he , it “? this question was successfully answered by the students, who knew the response, and they raised their hand in order to answer.
- 16. ● What isdifferent about the stages in the lesson when there is a high proportion of real questions, as opposed to stages which are dominated by display questions? In fact, the mentor teacher, who was observed, does not achieve neither a lesson with real questions, nor a lesson with display questions. These both lessons are so different to our students, because the attitude that they show when they feel the teacher closer to them differ widely to the attitude through a teacher who prefers to use grammar questions, and many times she/he does not explain how to use the content in a real world. The stages also differ each other, because these different teachers performing different roles guide their classes with a variety of strategies. Real questions bring the content to a familiar situation, so it makes the rules easier to follow by the students and with sense. On the other hand, when the class is dominated by display questions the content goes far from the students and their interests. They observe the class with distance and they do not get the sense to learn something that is not important for them. The stages vary, because in order to open the class with real questions teacher engages students, and gives them the possibility to introduce to the topic without forcing them. This fact gives to the teacher a great advantage over another kind of lead in or warmup, because the first stage of the class is essential to catch the attention and the interest of our students.
- 17. Taken from Thornbury, S. & Watkins, P. The CELTA Course. Cambridge University Press, 2008. JOURNAL Entry 9 Classroom Observation Task 7Teacher´s “inflight” decisions Observe a lesson for which there is a detailed lesson plan. Keep a record of how closely the lesson follows the plan and answer the questions. Read the justification below the questions. a. Are there any points when the actual lesson departs from the plan? b. Does the actual timing differ from the anticipated timing of the lesson? c.Can you account for these differences? d. If possible, talk to the teacher after the lesson. How does your account of the teacher´s “inflight” decisions compare with his/her own? The mentor teacher Luciana Rojas does her classes without planning. Some classes she brings some worksheets; however, the majority of the classes were performed by the teachers to be. The task of observing a planned class was not possible during the period spent at school. When teachers to be ask to the mentor teacher about how she does the planning of her classes, in her own words she said that she does not like planning and she prefers to bring worksheets in order to spend the class time. However, it was possible to observe that during the sequences of lessons, the mentor teacher uses a similar structure, which is repeated every session, she greets students, and she talks about their personal appearances and their misbehaviour. After that, she delivers the worksheet to teachers to be for being delivered to the students.