OBSERVATION STAGE

Task 1: The School and Learning Environment

Name of student: Pamela Correa Gurtubay

Name of School: Liceo Pedro Montt

Number of students: 38 (but around 16 attend regularly)

Date: September 8th Class: 1° medio A

Briefly and objectively describe the following aspects:

1. The school:

Describe the general background of the school including the physical

location, organisation, student population, philosophy and educational
and behavioural policies.

Liceo Pedro Montt is located in Avenida Alemania 5196 Cerro Cárcel,

Valparaíso; in front of Bismarck square. It belongs to CMV Corporación
Municipal de Valparaíso and it is considered a Heritage School. There are
2 coordinators one of them works with elementary and middle school
teachers, and the other one works with high school teachers. The
number of the students is 542. Only 229 of them belong to high school,
269 to elementary and middle school and 44 to kindergarten. The school
philosophy deals with arts (dance, theatre, and so on). There are not
stated rules in terms of educational and most important behavioural
policies; in fact there are many problems concerning this two last
points, since there is a lack of behavioural policies students feel free to
do things that are not suppose to do in a classroom or at school.

2. The classroom

Describe the atmosphere of the room and the levels of engagement in

the room. Make notes on seating, sight lines, space, air, light,
whiteboard, equipment, etc
The atmosphere of the room does not engage students at all, there is no
handle on the door, there is no basket to through the garbage, so the
classroom is pretty dirty; the classroom is an old room (the building is
very old) the windows are kind of narrow and long sometimes there are
not glasses on the windows. There is a kind of shelf but there is nothing
in it. The board is white and dirty it is very hard to write and some
students write with permanent markers on it. The walls are empty there
are no papers stick on the, and they are not painted with just one colour
someone must used white colour to delete students writing. The tables
and chairs are all full of dirt, broken and scratched.

3. The activities & resources

a) Make notes on the kind of activities used, the nature of student

involvement, balance of student doing things and teacher doing
things

I observed only one kind of activity and it was about filling the
gaps about sentences that the teacher wrote on the board,
students did not copy on their copybooks, some of them did not
even bring a pencil. They were listen music loudly with their cell
phones. The teacher focused on a book and copy exactly was he
reads on the board and he does not adapt the material for
students, he tried to explain the grammar rules but no one
seemed to understand him.

b) Describe the resources used and the materials available within the
school. How are the resources used in the classroom?

There is wireless internet connexion but most of the teachers do

not know the password, there is a very nice and new library but
unfortunately we cannot use it because the school is developing a
project during the periods of the English class. There is a radio, a
laptop and 2 data projectors, and again they are all required for
some other classes so we could not use them. There is a computer
lab, although there was no time available for our class, we are
looking for the chance to use it, in fact we will talk with the teacher
that uses at that time, in order to arrange some moments for the
class.

Task 2: Student´s learning

In this second observation task, you should focus on the things that help
to create conditions for effective learning and on the aspects that play
a part in preventing learning.

1. The learners
How motivated are the learners? Why? To what extent are they
taking part in their own learning? To what extent are they
expecting the teacher to do the work for them?

Not all of the students are motivated; however the majority is

starting to be interested. It seems the way classes have been done
this last few weeks are brand- new for them, in spite of that,
students have a regular behaviour against working. They do not
want to speak English at all; it is very embarrassing for them. They
want me to go to their seats, bringing them pencils, asked them
several times to the activities assigned. However, I have the
feeling they are trying to change little by little.

2. Behaviour during classroom activities

Describe the ways students are encouraged to participate in
activities. Are there any particular strategies for managing issues
and motivating students? Are there any students with special
needs?

I always asked them all to participate during the class, even if the
answer is not the correct one. The majority is willing to participate,
although 3 or 4 students do not want to do anything. I encourage
them, and congratulate them any time, every class there is a point
for their participation, and if a student likes or is good at English I
tell him or her that he or she is good at it. Sometimes, I tell them
that I really trust in them in terms of behaviour. I still do not know
if there are any students with special needs because the
attendance is too irregular.

3. Discuss the learning styles and levels of English in the

classroom.

Observation scale High Mediu Low Not

m Observ
ed
Observations clear & well informed
X
Demonstrates understanding of
X
social and educational factors
Objective & factual information
X
Evidence of active search of
X
information
Use of English expression clear
X

IVV/RGS
2009