TESOL Certificate Programs

Observation Notebook

Observation Report
Forms for inclusion in the Observation Notebook must be typed

Name of Observer Tomomi Yuma

Date
Observation Environment

Observation # 1

Class Teacher Level/Number (Beg./Int./Adv.) July Classroom Oral Skills Intermediate Karen Lindwall 11 Development (400 level) Focus on relevant areas from the What Can Be Observed handout. Notice how the teacher handles these areas during the class.
(include URL if the class was online)

Class Skill/Content

OBJECTIVE OF THE LESSON: Students will recognize and use no-words in English Notes while observing:

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Last Updated: 11/5/2013 8:14 PM

TESOL Certificate Programs

Observation Notebook
What did you learn about teaching or learning from this lesson? Discuss your observation focus, and the theory you have studied in your TESOL classes. Consider the three levels of teacher reflection (surface, pedagogical, critical).

Pair work activities were used many times in this lesson. Students worked in pairs eight times for total 22 minutes in the 50-minute lesson. Pair work activities help students speak English and be involved more in the class. All students have to answer their partners questions in this situation, though they dont need to speak if a teacher asks questions to everyone in the class. It is easier for shy students to speak with their partners than in front of the class. They can help each other by asking questions and making comments. Communicative interaction is thought to encourage cooperative relationships among students in the Communicative Language Teaching (Larsen-Freeman and Anderson 2011). The experience of pair works will help shy students learn more actively in the classroom. They will know that they dont need to be shy and afraid of making mistakes. Then, they will be able to ask questions to classmates or in the class when they do not know the answer. I want to use pair work activities in my lesson when I want students to speak English more. Many Japanese students are too shy to speak English in front of others. Pair work activities will increase the amount of students speaking in the class. If pair works can change the attitudes of shy students, they can change the atmosphere of the whole class. More and more students will be motivated by seeing others speak English much and try to communicate with each other. I should choose techniques according to how I want to change my class.

Last Updated: 11/5/2013 8:14 PM

TESOL Certificate Programs

Observation Notebook
What activities/techniques from this class do you want to remember for your own teaching practice? Discuss specific ways in which you could apply the techniques and methods you saw. Discuss your future teaching environment and your students needs and goals.

As my notes show, the teacher used pair work activities and whole class activities alternately. The time of each activity was very short. Most of them were for one or two minutes. This kept the good speed of the class. Students were not bored because they were given tasks one after another and had no time to wait for the next one. Actually I felt that the 50 minutes passed very quickly. In order not to distract students attention and concentration, I want to give many small and short activities in my lesson. The target of this lesson was non-words in English like Yeah, Uh-huh, and Oops. These target expressions were introduced in the previous lesson, so students already knew all of them. This lesson gave students many opportunities to use the nonwords in the different ways. The teacher asked them to use non-words when they answered questions in the class and in pair work activities. Students played a card game in which they made pairs of the expression and meaning of non-words. Throughout the class, students willingly used the target expressions many times without noticing that it was a practice. Practicing the same thing many times is very boring. Teachers need to make students practice the target many times in different ways which they get interested in. I can use movies and music which include target structures to grab the attention of students. They provide students with not only exercise but also understanding of the actual use of the target.

Last Updated: 11/5/2013 8:14 PM

TESOL Certificate Programs

Observation Notebook
References Larsen-Freeman, D., and Anderson, M. (2011). Techniques and principles in language teaching. New York: Oxford University Press.

Last Updated: 11/5/2013 8:14 PM