Observation as a method in teacher's work

PART ONE: OTHER TEACHERS AT WORK

ASSIGNMENT ONE

This assignment is based on observation task 1,2,3. This first aim of the assignment one is how I feel about the relationship between the teachers I observed and the learners. The second aim is what I saw similar to what I expected to see during lessons of my colleagues and how would I say these classes similar or different to my own classes.

I thought that I would have some problems with finding teachers to observe but I had not. In my school ten teachers work and I found four persons, who gave me their permissions and we arranged the dates of observations (with some difficulties).

In order to complete Task 1 I went to class 2G (gimnazjum). There were 15 students in the group. They have got English lessons three times a week and the teacher taught the class the first year. This is very good class intelligent and disciplined. They are using 'Snapshot Pre-intermediate' and they rather don't like this book but the teacher does. The topic of the lesson was 'Future I

I with going to, will, present continuous '.

During the lesson I tried to be invisible not to disturb my friend but I noticed that she was a little bit nervous. Students behaved naturally. First they listened to the dialogue (twice) then translated new words and wrote them down in their notebooks. After that they read dialogues (role play) and the teacher explained them different kinds of 'future' in English, did one exercise of their book and made the rule altogether. It was the end of the lesson.

After the lesson I asked my friend three questions:
- Why the first part of the lesson was so long?
- Why did they do only one exercise?
- Why didn't she tell them to do a homework?

My younger colleague replied that it was her first year at school and she had problems with time during lessons, some parts of the lesson are too long (because pupils like reading) and some are too short so there isn't enough time for grammar or tasks. I agreed with her and admitted that I had similar troubles especially with good classes, where pupils like reading, presenting dialogues , etc.

In order to complete observation task 2 I went to class 1A (gimnazjum) where there were 17 students in the group, they also have got English lessons three times a week. They are using 'Snapshot-Elementary '. Before the lesson I prepared a sketch plan of the room and students (my friend helped me with it) and during the lesson I was concentrating on teacher-student attention spread. It wasn't easy to make the lines on my plan! During the lesson. I was making mistakes and correcting them but I did it! I noticed that my colleague didn't divide her attention among every student but only paid her attention to three best students, who wanted to talk all the time, and to one very lively, naughty boy of last desk. I also noticed that to these best students the teacher talked by their names but these "bad boy" only by his surname. Generally the teacher asked questions without saying who should answer and most of students said nothing (two of them drew something in their books, one girl played with her mobile phone under the desk). I think that in such case the teacher should ask more students by names or they should ask each other by names (they like this exercise). This lesson was very interesting for me because I could observe how difficult is to spread attention in the class and activate students.

Observation task 3 was made in class 4B (14 students) of primary school and it was very complicated for me. I made a paper with headings and numbers, I took a watch and a pencil. I really tried to complete his task properly, but it was too difficult to keep the time (every 3 minutes) and to decide very quickly. I did this task but with some lacks. The topic of the lesson was: Parts of the body, without a book. The teacher, my older experienced friend, brought a big board with a man drawn on it and handouts with very short but funny story about human body and some very easy exercises to it. After the lesson I noticed that although the aim of the lesson was to present new words the pattern looked like very regular. The teacher was more active speaking to whole class either to individual student (in the end of the lesson) or the whole class was listening and repeating. I think that if the aims of the lesson are to practise language or revise, teacher should speak very little but students very much.

After these lessons I talked to my friends about my remarks and we rather agreed that it is very difficult to find balance between too strict discipline and too friendly atmosphere during the lesson. We should let our students speak but some of them mustn't monopolise the class. We should remember about shy and less confident children.

ASSIGNMENT TWO

The aim of the assignment is to present my observations based on tasks 4,5,6 in order to see how did the teachers use questions in class what kind of questions were asked and how, what did I learn from concentrating on how teachers talk in class.

Observation task 4 I made in class 2D (gimnazjum) where there are 16 students in group and they are rather advanced in English.

The teacher asked a lot of different questions in English connected with the

Topic: SHOP AND SHOPPING. She knew the answer and her students understood and answered the questions immediately. If they made a mistake, she corrected them in English or asked them for correcting themselves. Only one word the teacher explained in Polish (department store) because pupils didn't understand this word and explanation in English. Balance between foreign language and Polish depends on a group and type of lesson and also on a teacher. But I think that a teacher can speak English only when her group is good and advanced, because less advanced groups have more problems with understanding and asking about new words, very often they are completely lost.

Observation task 5 wasn't very complicated because it was based on watching 2 very active learners (VA) and 2 less active learners (LA).

When the teacher was speaking to the whole class had to decide what type of correction it was. The teacher gave to her learner a chance to self correct (5times) then asked other pupils to correct their friend. Three times she indicated an error with her hand pointing the blackboard and a few times corrected errors by herself.

In my teaching I correct in different ways, it depends on material, time and pupils' abilities. I have my own method for errors -on my first lesson I tell the class that they can correct my or other pupils ' mistakes. I always give one/two minutes time for doing that. I say nothing about the error but, of course, when nobody notices it I correct the error by myself.

It is obvious that teachers talking (questioning, correcting), his(her) body language and voice are very important for teaching process.

SELF-OBSERVATION
ASSIGNMENT FOUR

The aim of this assignment is to describe what I have discovered about myself and my teaching habits. In order to complete self-observation task 1 I chose my class 2E (more advanced group of 19 students). Before the lesson I made a list of names (as you advised) and during the lesson I tried to put a tick next to name of the learner every time one of them speaks. It was rather difficult for me to do this task during the lesson. I could not concentrate on it, of but I managed. I used the names of different students, I always try to ask every pupil during the lesson. Naturally I must admit that some of students were asked more often than others. In this group there is a girl, who always wants to be asked, she would like monopolise the lesson and it is very big problem for me. I think that I rather wait long enough to give my students a chance to speak. I try to remember about encouraging the quieter students.

The aim of the self - observation task 2 are connected with achieving aims successfully. I chose class 2B (15 students) which is very quiet, disciplined and fast. They are using "Snapshot". The lesson was about: Present perfect tense with since, for. The aim of my lesson was to practise structures with since and for to remember them well. I told my students what they were supposed to achieve and they paid more attention to it. In the end of the lesson I checked my students ' knowledge of since and for and I realised that sometimes the aim of the lesson is not so clear to the learners because I do not tell them what we are going to achieve. The teacher should underline the main aim, so that her students will pay more attention to the lesson and can recognise more important exercise. If I plan my lesson very carefully, my students achieve the aims easily. But if not sometimes the aim is not realistic , too difficult.

Self-observation task 3 I made class 2G (gimnazjum). First I tried to prepare a plan of a lesson but it was rather difficult to make it balanced and realistic . I am rather active person and I like speaking but I know hat I should control my speaking to let my students talk. I think that this lesson was better, faster, more clear than others. I felt more confident and my students too. I always should think about the aim of the lesson and try to balance different parts of it in order to achieve the main aim in the end of the lesson.

ASSIGNMENT FIVE

The aim of the assignment 5 is to discuss how I use teacher talk in my class. This assignment is based on tasks 4, 5, 6 from self- observation part. Task 4 was done in class 2B (less advanced group of 15 pupils). We are using "Enterprise -part one" and this class quiet, self- motivated, disciplined, kind but they work slower than better group of this class. The topic of the lesson was the ecology and students ' aim was to know and practise words of this topic like: pre-packaged food, environment, rain forests, rubbish, pollution etc. I recorded ten minutes of my lesson when we read and translated words and after that we did some vocabulary exercises (describing picture and completing gaps). During this lesson I did not talk too much, I think. I spoke rather in English but not all the time, because some words I translated into Polish. Some less advanced pupils want to tell something important for them which is connected with background and they say it in Polish because in English is too difficult for them. Students responded rather with short answers , they asked three questions and were rather interested in lesson.

The aims of task 5 are to develop awareness of the proportion of using Polish during the lessons. I recorded the lesson in class 2 F (less advanced group).

It occurred that in this class I used Polish much more than in other classes. I was thinking about it while I was listening to the tape. I realised that in this group I had some problems with discipline and I wasted time on it and spoke Polish. Another fact was that I had to give instructions in both languages, first in English second in Polish I also had to translate some words into Polish because weaker pupils didn't understand the story. I think that I should try to work with them more in English but it wouldn't be easy.

Self-observation task 6 is connected with correction of errors in speaking activities I chose my class 2E (but the less-advanced group, really weak) and prepared the cassette recorder. These pupils worked with maps of Krakow and practised giving directions and asking about the streets. They made a lot of errors. I usually ask a student to repeat a sentence, when he (she) repeated the error I asked whole class for correct the error. If nobody knows the proper reply I correct myself. Sometimes I only looked at the student and he (she) knew that said something wrong. I always praised for finding the error by the student, even I made it on the blackboard.

Although I have been teaching for eight years I feel that I can change many things in my teacher's manners.

Bibliografia: Materiały Centrum Doskonalenia Nauczycieli w Warszawie.
 

Opracowanie: MAŁGORZATA WŁODARCZYK

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