1st. Observation report

                               INSTITUTO DE FORMACION DOCENTE CONTINUA SAN LUIS

                                               PROFESORADO DE INGLES

                               RESIDENCIA PEDAGOGICA III.  Prof. Silvia Pedernera

                               1st OBSERVATION  REPORT.

Teacher trainee:  Adela Pérez del Viso	Institution:
Dates: 09, 16 and 17 September 2014	Course: 3rd year
Length of the class: 80 minutes (Tuesdays) and 40 minutes (Wednesdays)	Number of Sts:  36 to 40 sts.
	Level: Elementary. Age: 14 to 15-years-old

LESSONS WE OBSERVED:

We had the opportunity to observe three full lessons. Two of them where the “extended version”, and one of them was a “short lesson”. On September 10^th we could not observe any lessons due to an official celebration.

THE FIRST LESSON: A TEST and A PROBLEM.

The first   day we found that the teacher in charge had scheduled a test.  Therefore we could only observe how they were tested. 

The test consisted in a separate sheet of paper with some exercises on it;  these exercises were related to simple past.  The exercises were T/F activities and  yes/no questions.  Sts. had to answer the questions, taking into account a chart (which was included on the same sheet) which described where certain characters (namely Anna, Paul, etc) had been in,   at certain point in the past. 

There was a problem with the chart: it did not say anything about “Sunday” (v.g.:  where Anna had been last Sunday);  but then, some questions  asked sts. about that specific day.

Therefore,  solving what had happened on “Sunday”  constituted a problem for the sts.,  who looked perplex. T. finally told them to write  “NO” (in the Y/N questions) But in my opinion, a better answer could have been: “I don´t know”, since in the sheet there was no information about Sunday.

Another aspect worth describing about this first day was the Principal´s incident:  

There was a moment when the Principal came in (without greeting anyone), shouting and saying that some of the sts. had developed a terrible behavior (nobody explained to us what had happened). Some the sts. begun to cry. The Principal told them off for some minutes, rising her voice.  

The T. in charge seemed to remain absolutely calm. When the Principal stormed out,  T told sts. to finish their test, go to the bathroom and wash their faces. T. told them that, only after that,  they could go to talk to the principal, as they wanted.

 THE OTHER TWO LESSONS:

The other two lessons appeared  to be simpler.

T. asked sts to bring some books from the library (some minutes were lost in this part).

The book was:  “LET´S GO  for EGB!”  (by Elsworth Steve and Rose Jim), Longman, 1996.

A number of 19 books were brought for 39 sts. Therefore they had to work in pairs.

T. asked half of the class (the ones who were not present during the previous lesson) to sit separately and sit for the exam.

The other half of the class worked with the book, and at the same time they were given the test´s marks.

During these two lessons, the activity revolved around Unit 11  of the book, i.e. the topic “Sea Watch camp”.

They had to TRANSCRIBE A LETTER onto their notebooks.  T. asked to copy it on a separate part of their notebooks. 

In this “transcribing activity”,  all the time available was spent during the second lesson.

In the 3^rd lesson T. asked them to notice the different parts of a letter:

	Place and Date- Address
Adresee
	The BODY of the letter:
Introduction.
Development of the idea
“Goodbyes” (sic)
	Signature.

T.  wrote these parts of the letter on the board (a blackboard), and T asked sts. to MARK or HIGHLIGHT THE PARTS of the letter (the previously copied letter)  with some colours.  T told them that, later on, they would have to draft their own letter.

T. told sts. they would not need to know EVERY word, but the general meaning of every paragraph.

ACTIVITIES:

In sum, activities developed in class were as follows:

**Answering Yes/No questions with data provided on a sheet.  (for the test).

**Solving  False/True activities. (for the test).

**Transcribing  a content, from the book to their notebooks.

**Transcribing  what T. writes on the blackboard.

**Activity of highlighting or marking different parts of the letter (according to the  diagram T. wrote on the board).

THE LEVEL  was: ELEMENTARY.

LANGUAGE:  T. talks in Spanish.  T. develops her activities and explanations in Spanish. 

Nevertheless, there are some instances when T. says something in English:

--T. greets sts. in English.

--T. says some phrases in English, such as: “Come on”, “Very good!”

--When explaining the parts of the letter, T. said at first:  “la última parte es… Greetings”. Then, she changed:  “Bueno, pongamos: “Goodbyes”.

Sts. talk all the time in Spanish, even for simple functions such as asking for permission to go to the bathroom.  Sts. ask questions in Spanish.

T-Centred Lesson:

It is really a Teacher-centred type of lesson, although it is remarkable the way T. handles the situation of this crowded class,  with no room at all for a teacher or a visitor.

T. knows every st. by their name, and they appear to respect and love her a lot, even though there were some moments  when some sts. appeared to mistreat her.  The situation led to her asking for the “Communication notebook”, and drafting a note to their parents about what had happened.

Teacher´s role:

T. is the proponent of the activities.

T. is a monitor and an assessor.

T. is a tutor: she gives them pieces of advice as regards their behavior and problems.

T. is a source of knowledge (v.g. when she wrote the parts of the letter on the blackboard).

T.  gives encouragement and appraisal to sts.

Homework:  No homework was given to the sts.

Resources:

**T´s  explanation and  T.´s chart on the board.

**Books provided by the library.

**Sheets of paper provided by  the T.

**The phone and occasionally a computer (netbook):  to work with wordreference.

**When asked about what happened with the netbooks, T in charge said that many of them were missing or broken.

Student´s interest:

T. told us that she allows them to use the phone as a dictionary, and that this detail gives them a sense of security and “importance”.

One of the girls has a baby and has to feed her (the baby)  in the middle of the lesson.  Her mother brings the baby to the door.

Some of the sts. like to dress with some coats with hoods.

This group is quite live and they appear to be full of good potential.