TESOL Certificate Programs

Observation Notebook

Observation Report Form

Name of Observer: Rebecca Hur Observation # 4

Date Observation Class Skill/Content Level Teacher
Environment*

5-21- Online ESL Demo demo class beginning Peter

17 Class for aimed at 7-11
Young year olds
Learners

*Include the URL if the class was online

WRITE THE OBJECTIVES ACCORDING TO THE OBSERVATION GUIDELINES:

1. GREETINGS
2. INTRODUCING THE FLASHCARDS
3. FLY - SWATTING GAME
4. MATCHING GAME
5. STEPPING STONES

Notes while observing:

class began in Chinese
maybe a coteacher introducing the English teacher
begins by saying hello (greetings)
teaches class in solely English
Hello, my name is Peter, whats your name? - asks each student this question
Then starts assigning students a name, elicit students to give him the number 3
assigns groups 1-4 as group A and group 5-8 as group B
Has the students say hello multiple times and gives tallies according to each section
depending how loud they are
class most likely has a co-teacher - - in the background you can hear someone say
what is that to the students in Chinese

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Observation Notebook
Next, brings out visual aids and tries to get students to tell him what they are by acting
out the actions of the animals
On the board, he writes Its a as a cue to get students to produce the target structure
Teacher gives tallies each time a student produces the target response - - effective
method as it can get the students competitive and motivated to participate
Continues same method of eliciting correct vocabulary terms from the students and
have the students model the corresponding physical action with the vocabulary while
saying the target structure
Has students put the visual cues on the board
After introducing the vocabulary, asks the students Whats this while pointing to the
visual cues
Brings out fly swatters - gives one to the co-teacher and both model how the students
will play the game - - the teacher says its a cat, fish, dog, etc and the students will
use the flyswatters to run to the board and swat the correct picture
Has students call out Its a . to the students with the flyswatters to get the game
more interactive for the whole classroom
Then the teacher says then cat is uh ca? tries to elicit correct spelling from
students
then incorrectly spells cat on the board.. students point out mistake then asks one
students to come up to spell out cat
Repeats process with the remaining vocabulary words
has #1-4 come up and rearrange the picture cues on the board
before they sit down, the instructor asks what is this
Then the instructor puts the visual cues on the board in random orders while holding
one in his hand behind his back - beings counting down from 10
then asks students what is this
repeats to instill target structure Its a
Then says I like pandas and takes of the visual cue off the board
Asks students what do you like then takes the visual cues off the boards
Then has the instructor come up again to model game
each would take a turn saying the target structure using the visual cues that are now on
the floor, while taking a step forward and when they are close enough they would play
rock paper scissors
calls out students to play the game
After game, again goes over the target structure
Then counts the tallies accumulated from the exercises

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TESOL Certificate Programs
Observation Notebook
What did you learn about teaching or learning from this lesson as it relates to the
theory you have studied in your TESOL classes? Include at least one reference (with
an in-text citation) to support your response. (250-500 words)

For new teachers, I believe classroom observations to be an invaluable learning

tool. It allows one to see the theories and lesson planning in real life situations and how

experienced teachers influence the learning environment. For this observation, I observed

an online ESL course for young learners. This classroom was based in China and this

lesson was aimed for young learners around seven to eleven years old. In this

observation, I focused on how the instructor would carry out his lesson plan and how he

would handle classroom management especially in a setting for young learners.

In this lesson the instructor began with introductions by saying hello, my name is

Peter. Then, the instructor modeled the response he wanted from the students with the

co-teacher. After assigning each student a number, he split up them in to group A and

Group B. An important factor to note in this lesson was the instructors use of the

eliciting technique. The instructor would try to elicit responses from the students such as

the number and the target vocabulary by using visual cues. Then using the visual cues,

the instructor models a certain motion/movement that would correspond with the target

vocabulary. For example, for the word bunny, he had a student come up and model an

action that they thought would correspond with the word. Then the instructor had each

student produce the target structure Its a and jump like how a rabbit would while

saying the vocabulary word. Another game the instructor implemented was a fly swatting

game and a rock paper scissor game. Before the start of each gamer, the instructor and

co-teacher would model what they expected from the students. To exemplify, for the fly

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Observation Notebook
swatter game, someone would call out Its a and the students with the fly swatters

would run to point at the correct vocabulary. For the rock paper scissors game, the

students would take a step forward while saying Its a while following the visual

cues on the floor and then play the rock paper scissor game when they reach each other.

In this lesson, I believed that the instructor implemented many techniques to engage the

young learners in his lesson. For example, when introducing the target vocabulary he

utilized some aspects of the Total Physical Response method which I believed to be an

effective way to introduce the material. When first introducing the vocabulary TPR

activities are great for developing receptive vocabularyitems that the students

recognize, but cannot necessarily produce without help (2011). Also, later, when the

instructor had the students give out the instructions during the fly swatting game, the

instructor was testing out how comfortable the learners are with the items because this

method is an effective way to get these target vocabulary words into the learners

productive vocabulary (2011). Overall I believe that this was an effective lesson for

young learners.

Sources

Nunan, D. (1999) Teaching English to Young Learners. Anaheim,CA: Anaheim

University Press.

Last Updated: 2/20/2017 3:08 PM

TESOL Certificate Programs
Observation Notebook

Last Updated: 2/20/2017 3:08 PM