Centre Rgional des mtiers de l'Education et de la Formation -Fes-

Class Observation Report

Submitted by: Ahmed Touhami Ouazzani

Tutored by:Youssef Sakout

Academic Year 2 !2"2 !#

No doubt that class observation is one of the most important mechanisms that would certainly improve future teachers performance in classrooms. Along with observing an experienced tutor teaching, trainee teachers draw benefit from classroom observation as they can be the object of observation and, consequently, take advantage of the tutors remarks and guidance.
he following report will delve around our experience in Abdel !arim "ais high school with #r. $akkout %oussef as it tries to highlight the main conclusions that we have drawn, especially those related to the classrooms environment, the teachers performance, and my own performance. o start with & have to admit that before having a foot step in this school & elicited our colleagues feedback about students , the classroom and school environment in general. o our choc, we were told that students in this high school are very troublesome and they show no respect to their teacher. 'aving heard that, & was obsessed with the question how can a trainee teacher control a class with such spoiled students while their teacher could not( )onsequently, & did not expect that my experience will be that successful. he first day in this high school was enough to find out that the classrooms environment is completely different from that we have heard of. $tudents are very respectful, and supportive and their interest in the course to be taught results in a very suitable environment for the teaching process. *ne has to admit that there is a slight difference between second year students and those of the common core where students are noisier and some of them are still affected by their experience in private schools. As far as students level in +nglish is concerned, one can safely say that most of them have an advanced level, compared to those in ,no "ochd high school, and they can go beyond grammar and writing

lessons to debate hot issues such as gender equality, globali-ation and politics, in #orocco and worldwide, to name but a few. he relationship between students and #r $akout is based on mutual respect, and when it happens that some of them make some undesirable gestures, an ironic look by #r $akkout was enough to regain control over the class and prevent others from attempting to commit similar ill behaviors.

&t was salient that the teachers flexibility allows him to manage whatever classrooms situation. 'e sometimes shows a firm reaction, especially with first year students because they are in a new stage of their life and, hence, he does his best to prepare them to be well disciplined in future school years. &n other similar situation he would turn a blind eye, especially if the act does not interrupt the fluidity of the lesson. #oreover, #r. $akkout has a remarkable philosophy of teaching and students see in him the father, the educator, and the teacher. he first class observation was of great help to me in the sense that & came to reali-e that the more relevant you make the content of the lesson seem to your students, the likelier they are going to be motivated to identify with it. Accordingly, as a future teacher of +nglish, & have become aware of the fact that it behooves one to substitute the textbook with extra materials to make the content of the lesson more interesting and relevant and make meeting the objectives easier. A point that #r. $akkout used to insist on saying that the text book is not sacred and, hence, can be substituted at any time they prove irrelevant. &n addition to this, & have learnt that what counts is not only teaching per se but rather meeting other important objectives namely developing the communicative

skills of students and opening new doors on the world for them. eaching would be of no use if it is isolated from students concerns in their daily life. As far as my performance is concerned, & taught listening to $econd year baccalaureate which took the form of an interview with a #oroccan writer .oubna 'anna $kalli. o my chance, it was +nglish was the first class they have that morning. $tudents were very active and energetic which found expression in their participation. After a short warm up about the role of discussing women issues & moved to provide a context for the dialog and present some new words that are out of their reach in order to understand the passage. & gave too much importance to comprehension rather than answering the questions in the text book. & did not feel at ease because & felt that not all students were involved and this was due to my performance, that is why & read for the second time, an initiative that seem to be needless for the teacher as the time devoted to the second reading can be exploited in another fruitful activity. & took this remark into consideration in my second performance. he second time, & taught the )omparative /orm to common core students and & stuck to #rs. !assab lesson plan which & find very interesting. .ikewise & provided a warm up in order to draw students attention by explaining a statement by ,enjamin /ranklin. hen & moved to discover comparative form with students. $tudents

interaction was very important to me as they provide me with vivid examples that demonstrate that they have fully grasped the lesson. &t was a successful experience in the sense that & changed my view about common core students and their level in general. it must be noted that students in their school have good levels in +nglish and this can be attributed to different reasons. his is double aged in the sense that

teachers are obliged to prepare their lessons before coming to school, otherwise, they can find themselves in situations of embarrassment.

& also had the opportunity to attend a qui- where the students were given some vocabulary about the unit. 0e have seen how he managed to control the class the number of students was a bit high almost 12 students per class. And he taught us how to evaluate each paper demonstrating that students in a vocabulary test should not be penali-ed for grammar mistakes and vice versa. his experience was very successful in the sense that we have drawn quite a lot of benefits from an experienced teacher and good students. & do know that this is not the case in all schools in #orocco and & hope that our next practuims would enable us to improve our performance at all levels and at any classrooms environment as a good teacher is the one who can adapt to whatever. At the end & must thank #r. $akout %oussef for his help and support even when our performance was that successful, the administration of Abdel !arim "ais 'igh school /or facilitating our training days and all those who contributed directly or indirectly in this instructive period.

,ensouda report
*ur last practicum took us to ,ensouda high school. & have repeatedly hear of bensouda but & rarely had the opportunity to ge their though ia m living in fes. *ur impression before going their was restricted to what we were told by our collegues who visited it before. here are two tutors in ,ensouda high school3 #r Amrani and #r %oussfi and both of them enjoy a very good reputation. *ne may ask does it really matter that a teacher has a good or a bad reputation, while it is obvious that this reputation influence the trainees attitudes towards the tutor and his students as well. &t was a bit challenging to adapt with a group of 4 trainees especially when you are working with a group from the beginning of the year. ,ecause some high school hosted some exams. $abah ,oudra and .eila Nahari were sent t joind the same group. &t was very benefitial for us to be observed and evaluated from some nes trainees who have not witnessed our way of teaching he first impression we had about that high school was completely positive as things were organai-d in the way they should. )lean yard, large and well decorated school and a cooperating stuff, are only few elements, compared to the long list of positive aspects that characteri-e this high school. he first class took place in the multimedia room and, of course, we had the opportunity to see #r Amrani way of taching. *n the whole we could see the felexibilty of this teachr in terms of delivering the lesson and class coverage and consequently control. hat he managed to maintain successfully.

,ecause of the timing of this practicum, the majority of trainee teachers were less motivated especially when informed that students may not attend the last classes as they would resort to preparing for their baccalaureate exam at home. #r Amrani highlighted the importance of this last practicum as there are very important things that should not be missed. 5ealing with the last moment of schooling during the end of the school year is very important for the teacher as he should have different tactics in order to manage teaching well in this special period. he first lesson that & was supposed to teach was writing, and everybody know how challenging to teach writing to literary students who have, on the over all, weak levels. 'onestly speaking, & was reserved to have the first contact with students in a writing lesson because what is commonly believed is that a teacher should know the level of his students before planning the lesson. $ituations of embarrassment are what & have always avoided in my whole life, and embarrassment was the real concern & had in mind. he success of the first lesson would certainly affect the whole

practicum in that school given the fact that the first encounter determines the relationship between students and their teacher.