Observation of Teaching Methods and Students Interaction - Assignment Example

Observation Log Location: reading room (level 2) October 3, Time: 10.00 AM Purpose: To observe teacher’s teaching method, teacher and students’ interactions, and the important things. Setting Comments The teacher arrived in the class 15 minutes before the class start time. He sat at his chair talking to the ten students present in the class. There were supposed to be 18 students, the rest were just wandering out as there was still time in the commencement of class. The teacher gave a bundle of papers to the girl sitting in the front row and gestured with hands to distribute them in the class. Out of the 18 students, 13 were male students and 5 female students. There were 10 Spanish students, three were French and five were Chinese. When the class finally started (the remaining students were already seated) he started to explain the instructions in the handouts. The handout was like a comic with pictures telling stories. Teacher’s accent was British but he tried to sound as neutral as possible. There was more enunciation in his words. The teacher explained to the students that the second handout contained multiple choice questions and true & false statements. After reading the picture stories, they had to fill in the spaces on question papers with the correct answers. After filling in the question paper the teacher asked the students to practice reading aloud from an English storybook. He did not invite any particular student, the rule was the student sitting in the last row furthest away from the teacher was to read first; just one paragraph. The second was to be read by the next student and so on. There were times when teacher had to go to a student’s seat and explain the picture stories. The rest of the students started talking to each other. The worst part was they were talking to each other in their native language that defeats the purpose of the ESL class. Discipline in the class was not exemplary. The students were supposed to work on their handouts. When they saw only 15 minutes remaining to the end of class they started to ask each other for answers. The teacher got angry at this and threatened them that if they don’t stop asking each other he was going to take their papers and will give them a zero on their papers. The threat worked for a while. The read aloud strategy was working really well for the students. The teacher was good at spotting errors. The students were coming in front of the class to read while the teacher listened to their reading and corrected any mistakes. Most of the students took a lot of time in reading a few lines. The teacher kept encouraging them for their effort. There were other students who received highly positive feedback from the teacher for their reading skills. It was good to note that the teacher was constantly taking notes. From the looks of it, it appeared the teacher was taking notes against each student’s performance so he can effectively improve each student’s weak points. It was understandable to see that almost all students were reading by following their finger moving across the text. Many students had to read one word at least three times as if to jump over a hurdle so they could move on to the next one. There were many occasions when the teacher asked the students to speak in English only. Many of the students kept conversing with each other in their native language. When there were only five minutes left to the clock, the teacher announced the remaining minutes out loud and asked the students to hurry up. When the time was finally over, he collected the papers. It was good to see the teacher in the classroom before time. He was talking in a friendly manner to the students. The emphasis was on bonding with the students. But it was obvious; he was analyzing his students; for instance their English speaking level and their education, so he could plan the lecture ahead of time. The teacher was mostly successful in explaining the instructions. He noticed that the students started whispering to each other asking questions. He started moving around in the class asking questions. He wanted the students to ask him for explanation instead of whispering in their native language to each other’s. The teacher made it even easier for the students by making a doodle on the white board. It was a small picture describing a scene he explained very slowly and very methodically to the students and made sure everyone understood what was required. He asked the students by almost correctly calling them by their respective names. I liked the fact that everyone got an equal chance of reading. No student was left. There were some shy students in the class but the fact that they had to do it, they somehow got in front of the class and read aloud. The reason for commotion was somewhat genuine. There were some pictures in the handout that were difficult to figure out especially for non-English speakers. Maybe there was some wrong judgment in deciding the pictures for the students. It was not possible to go at each student’s desk and explain each and everything. It was only 55 minutes class. The position of the teacher was not helping while the test was in progress. He was sitting at his desk trying to highlight things in his book. Most probably for the last minute instructions. It would have been better if he had sat closer the students. As someone in authority could have prevented the students from whispering answers to each other. The read aloud part was helpful. However, it was not a public speaking contest. The students could have sat right next with the teacher and still would have read aloud. Moreover, there were some students who were trying to highlights words while standing and reading aloud, which was making things difficult. They could have sat down and would have marked difficult words. There was almost no difference in the reading skills among the students regarding gender or ethnicity. Some students were good and some were poor in reading skills. It was not a pretty sight to see the teacher’s efforts go to waste when the students kept talking to each other in their native language. In my opinion the teacher should have been stricter here. He should have fined the students who were using any other language but English as it defeated the purpose of the class. Although I liked the punctuality of the teacher however, there is one thing I did not like. While collecting the papers, he commented on the score of one boy. He did not say much but everyone got the idea that he did not do well on that paper. Reflection I sat in an ESL class on Oct 3rd, 2013 for the purpose to observe the process of teaching. The students were mature and belonged to level II. A total of 18 students were enrolled at that class. Out of the 18 students, 10 were Spanish, five Chinese and three were French. The teacher of the class was a white male from England in his thirties. The teacher arrived at the class fifteen minutes earlier. I really liked the fact that he did because it gave have ample time to ask most of the students if they were doing good. The teacher also distributed some additional handouts for the students that were present in the class. It wasn’t related directly to the test but it was an interest cut out from a magazine. He had them photocopied and distributed them in class to have a healthy discussion. It was an article on language skills. He told the students that he was aware that most of them probably won’t be able to understand every word of it but once they will have the skill set they would love the content of the article. Upon the commencement of class the teacher distributed the test papers very quickly. He looked as if he knew there will be shortage of time if he really wants to make the session productive. The only drawback in his teaching methodology was he wasn’t strict when it came to students communicating with each other. He should have sternly told them that no language other than English will be tolerated in the class. If he had fined one student the rest would have learnt the lesson and the class would have been more productive. The read aloud session had its pros and cons. It was nice to see students trying to read another language. Some of them were struggling really hard in uttering the printed words. I consider that a good exercise as such exertions teach the mind a lot. The problem was in the positioning of the student. The teacher asked the students to come in front of the class and stand while reading. Many students were trying to mark the difficult words with their pencils and highlighters but it difficult for them as they were standing with the book in their hands. Seating them down while they read would have been helpful for them. Moreover, when the test was in progress the teacher should have been sitting close to the students as not to give them any opportunity of cheating or asking each other for explanations. In fact, the teacher could have sat right among the students or on one of the back benches where he could have kept a keen eye on the students. Read More