Effective individual, group and whole class monitoring
9
Used a range of appropriate strategies, resources and differentiation to motivate pupils
10
Lesson pace is appropriate to participants’ ability
11
Effective use of voice
12
Demonstrated enthusiasm for the subject
13
Good teacher/pupil relationships.
Quality of Learning
G
S
I
14
Participants are attentive and on task
15
Participants demonstrate appropriate levels of contribution and enthusiasm
16
Participants demonstrate confidence and independence
Classroom Environment
Y
N
17
Classroom is neat and organized
18
Appropriate use of multimedia tools
Other Notes/Suggestion for further professional development I think the teacher did her best in preparing her handouts: everybody was interested and active during the lesson. While explaining the tasks he came up to each desk in order to make sure that everybody understood her and encouraged them. And the topic was chosen according to the students’ interests, tasks were variable and what I appreciated more was that the teacher could manage the time well. But one thing I’d like to mention: all tasks were oriented to individual work. I think sometimes students need to do the tasks in group. I enjoyed her lesson and wish him good luckSigned: _____________________ Dated: _December 2
MODULE 4 : CLASSROOM INVESTIGATION LESSON 20 Theme: Data collecting tools: interview Sample of interview Context: Teacher in the classroom and students in the background busy working on posters.
Interviewer:What are your students doing now? Teacher: As you see, they are all busy at the moment (about the students) … working on the final version of their posters.
Interviewer:Can you tell me something about the group? Teacher: I am teaching them for the second year. They’re very interesting and I even started a journal last academic year in which I have put all interesting things that happened during our classes. They’re all future irrigation engineers. English is not very important for them. May be only for those who intend to study abroad.
Interviewer:So what kinds of problem do you have with the group? Teacher: My biggest problem with them was that they ‘visited’ my classes only to get marks in order not to fail the subject. They had no genuine interest in English. I believed something should be done about it. After all, I have always been so enthusiastic about learning a foreign language myself that I thought I could spark anyone with my enthusiasm. To spark this group was a real challenge.
Interviewer:I can understand that. So how did you go about it? Teacher: Well, traditional exercises seemed to annoy them although they did them obediently for the sake of getting a mark. I decided to try out some new activities and see if it would make any difference. So, one day they came for the next assignment and were completely surprised when I said there wasn’t one. Instead, I asked them to help me to do a crossword. I made enough copies for everyone and we managed to finish the puzzle successfully with a certain degree of interest. I observed the students’ behaviour during the activity and saw that some of them were more involved than others. Then I decided to start a discussion about the educational usefulness of crosswords. During this discussion I noticed that those not very interested before got involved this time. They commented about ‘wasting time on childish activities, instead of doing grammar exercises from the textbook’. I wrote in my journal that day: how to balance ‘interesting’ and ‘serious’ so that everyone feels the need to be in my lesson not only ‘physically’ but ‘mentally’ as well?
Interviewer: I see. And how did you take this further? Teacher: Well, I offered more activities – I got a lot of the ideas for them from books - and every time I watched for reactions and made some written comments. After a while, I had a rough idea what worked best for the whole group. But to double check my conclusions I designed a very simple questionnaire. What I got from it - by the way I think questionnaires are very useful - was guidance on how I can run my classes to address everyone’s needs, to satisfy all learners.
Interviewer:Sounds very promising. Did you try anything else? Teacher: Yes, during one of the classes I encouraged my students to ask me as many questions as possible about the way we study English. I was amazed by the quality of their questions. It was a kind of non-traditional interview with questioning and answering roles reversed, and it ended up with an open discussion during which we planned our future classes together.
Interviewer:This really seems like a big breakthrough. Have you gone any further with these ideas? Teacher: Well, this year a new colleague joined our team. During one of our discussions she complained about very similar things. I told her my story and showed her my journal notes. She found them very useful and suggested that I could describe my experience for our colleagues or even present it as a case study at a conference.
Interviewer:Great! Go for it! And thanks for sharing all this with us. It was fascinating.
Hometask. Create an observation form and observe your teachers’ lessons and prepare your report about the lesson.
