TESOL Core Certificate Course - Practice Teaching Observation Sheet

Teachers name: Pedro Level: High Intermediate

Date: May 10th # of students: ~11
Trainer: Nico Lesson type: ECRIF Vocabulary
Time: 45 minutes
Lesson plan: Was handed in on time and feedback was provided via email.

General feedback from trainer: Pedro, congratulations on your very first ECRIF lesson under the TESOL Core
Certificate Program at CCDA! The general sense I got from your lesson can be encapsulated in the word
'connection', which was demonstrated and brought to life in different ways. The initial handshake seems to be a
perfect example of this, together with the body-shake energizer and the Pictionary activity. Students had plenty
of opportunities to use the energy they had in favor of practicing the Target Language, boosted by your
playfulness and humor. Please keep bringing those and being yourself!

Something that I consider helped learning was having a diverse set of activities that respected the students'
pacing, not cascading the information but engaging them with different tasks that helped them practice Target
Language smoothly. Part of this successful sequence of activities was the balance between individual and group
work, which (after weeks of observation) these students seem to need. You gave students time to check in with
each other, but also came to a big group at different points to check correct answers or elicit ideas. From my
perspective, these factors played a key role in the focused energy they displayed.

One element that might have hindered the progression towards fluency was the listening section. Although I can
imagine the reasons why you implemented it, that was the only moment when students were not producing
language rather actively throughout the class and it unfortunately took place right before the Fluency activity.
Although not the only factor, this drop in the overall energy might have contributed to the brief answers
students shared at the very end of the session.

In regards to your work on action points during this lesson:

* I will try to give clearer instructions.
It's hard to gauge this (I invite you to make action points more concrete!), but I can say I didn't notice students
struggling to perform any of the activities you implemented. Modeling and CCQs were good allies!

* I will manage time in a more effective way.

I'm not 100% sure what you meant with this, but you seemed to be able to complete the core of your lesson
plan in the time allotted. No activity was overly hurried nor dawdled. What's your own analysis in regards to
this?

Time I notice I am wondering and/or I am offering

(Description of students and teacher
actions or words)
thinking.
Interpretation: what helped/hindered
student learning & Generalizations:
Themes and inside or outside theory
that connects to and/or explain what
might have helped and/or hindered
student learning
(specific and measurable
possible action
plans/suggestions/questions
for consideration and
exploration)

19.45 [T writes objective on the board]
T: No Spanish please! / Ss: Sorry
T: Hi class! / Ss: Hi Pedro!
[T greets every student individually]
T: Can you stand up?
S: Why do we always have to stand up? I
don't like it, it's awkward.
T: OK, do you know how to count? Do this
with me [Ss shake their legs and arms]
19.48 T: So, today we will be talking about ...
T: What is the resource you have been
talking about today? / Ss: Water!
T: Can you tell me the company that
distributes water in the Dominican
Republic?
S: CAASD!
T: Good! And where do you wash the
dishes in your house! / Ss: Kitchen! ...
Sink!
Wow, I thought this was a quick Whenever you deem it
way to break any potential ice in can have a particularly
the atmosphere. I deeply positive effect, I
appreciate that you took some encourage you to
precious minutes to help students continue implementing
connect with you right at the quick ways for students
beginning of the interaction!
to connect with you and
Shaking hands seems so simple, to be seen as individuals.
yet the message was clear: you
were seeing each one of the
students as individuals. Also,
thanks for keeping your positivity
and sense of humor no matter
what!
It caught my attention how the
students' energy at this point
calmed down and focused on
brainstorming answers for the
questions you were offering. In my
opinion, part of this initial
transition had to do with questions
being relevant to the students'
lives relating directly with
Dominican culture.

T: Let's see... 1, 2, 1, 2... 1s, make a line!
T: You have 2 sets of words. You are going
to have some words, and you will say the
definitions. What are you going to do
with the words? / Ss: Match the
definitions
T: For example, what's "water"? / S: A
liquid!
Your instructions here were both
time-effective and clear! Students
did not have much trouble
performing the activity, which
made me think the brief modeling
you offered and the CCQs you
asked were enough for them to
get the gist of what you expected
them to do.

19.54 [Ss perform the activity, T plays music]
S: Who has "water"?
T: Do you have all of the definitions? / Ss:
Yes!
T: Check with your group you have them
all
Jean Paul: "turn off the faucet and save
water"
[Ss read out loud their definitions]
As I see students moving around
without complaining (as it has
happened earlier today), I had the
realization your jigsaw definition
puzzle naturally makes them walk
around and interact with each
other so the Kinesthetic
component in this task just makes
sense. To me, that's a key aspect
of implementing virtually anything
in the classroom: helping them
make sense of what's going on,
which in this case happened
almost organically.
Please do continue
infusing a variety of
learning styles in your
activities, so they
become an organic part
of the tasks' completion
rather than an extra
element that might feel
forced.

The element of music snuck in

without much announcement, but
in no case it disrupted the
atmosphere. I was curious: What
was your intention with it?

20.00 T: I have a question, did you watch the I loved this moment of movie
movie "Cars"? / Ss: Yes! reference your example
T: Do you remember the name of the seemed to click with some
company? members of the group!
 S: We don't talk anymore
T: Do you take conchos? / Ss: Yes! No!
T: Where can you find mercury?
S: In the water! / T: Really!
S: Did you know fish have mercury in
them!?
T: I had no idea / S: It said it in the book
T: Oh thanks, you are helping me!
20.05 T: Do you remember the games you were
playing with Viannet and Wilfred? What
were the rules of the games?
Ss: You need to guess the mimic
T: What is this? / S: a player!
T: So, the next game we will play is
Pictionary!
Have you played it? / Ss: Yes!
T: Yes, you can only draw! ... Oh, my
beautiful art!
T: We need 2 teams
[Ss perform the activity]
Ss: A car! A Ferrari!
[Ss seem excited]
I have to confess I didn't expect
the group to be so successful at
leading and self-organizing this
circle share! Even if energy had
been wild before, it was just great
to give them this responsibility
and see how they reacted. The
'rapid fire' of questions later on
was a great follow-up that
challenged them to think fast but
also opened a space for them to
share unexpected information with
you.
Two things seemed effective at
this point: you referenced
information from the previous
lessons before yours and
displayed a healthy sense of
humor. Especially for the latter, I
see humor as a way to "ride the
wave" of the group's energy
rather than confronting it or
crushing against it. Certain types
of humor can be beneficial for the
class, and I think yours here was A broad action plan, I
exactly that. invite you to continue
reading the group's
What did you notice in this
personality and
Pictionary activity? In my eyes,
implementing activities
students started even running to
they seem to enjoy
you when it was their turn to run,
and any resistance turned into that here included
interest to draw and guess the friendly competition and
Target Language items. Thanks for working as a team.
turning around their energy with
fun!!
20.13 T: Good job guys! I want you to go to
your books, page 112. I just want to do a
little review. You are going to listen to
this vocabulary. I want you to identify the
words you heard.
Ss: faucet! / thief! / water purifier!
T: Which ones did you hear? [Ss call
answers]
It was an interesting choice to
have a listening text for word
recognition! While it successfully
integrated their textbook, I
wonder about your rationale here
and how this will scaffold their
way into the final Fluency activity.
I encourage you to devise
and implement tasks that
allow students to connect
their own reality and
experiences with the
Target Language directly
at the Internalize stage.

20.17 [T writes questions on the whiteboard] Perhaps a detail: at some point I

T: To wrap up this class, I want you to
discuss these questions:
- How important is water for you?
- Do you and your family conserve
water?
- What are some ways in which you can
conserve water?
saw you writing the prompts for
the Fluency activity, and when
students noticed you were not
with them while they listened,
participation went down. What
could be a time-effective way to
set this task while not sacrificing
monitoring time?

Having a conversation at this

[Ss talk in small groups]
stage of the evening is intrinsically
[T checks in with groups individually]
hard they know they are about
to leave! Regardless, what did you
notice in their interactions and
answers as you checked in with
each group?

20.25 Class dismissed!