Patrick CO #3

Date: September 4, 2018

Time: 1:00-1:50 p.m.

Topic/Skill: Speaking Group 3A; Review of last week’s work (How to start a conversation; using various prompts to start and continue a conversation).

Twelve students were present.

Teacher Presentation: Before class began, the teacher wrote on the whiteboard, “Groups of 3 or 4.” After a lengthy introduction, which included an explanation for being away last week, notation about the tailgate party and football game on Saturday, the teacher led the class in a review of English conversations. Emphasis was placed on “politeness” that tends to be in American culture. She provided several examples of “polite” type conversation. For example, she indicated that rather than directly asking someone for a ride, they would ask general questions and to ask for a ride in a round-about manner.

Because this was a speaking class, the teacher modeled crystal-clear pronunciation and enunciation. She maintained this speech model throughout the entire class period.

An online stopwatch was used to track times of small group and individual activities.

Individuals were engaged in conversation, and also via small group discussion. While this approach promoted a student-centered approach to learning, most of the time was used for teacher-led presentation/explanation.

Classroom Management: The teacher used circulation as a method of assessing student performance and encouraging engagement. If a group had somewhat stalled in discussion, she asked questions to prompt additional conversation. Students were given prompts from the text to use as a means of guiding initiating and extending a conversation. Thus, such techniques, used in practice, provided a means for generating conversation (technique in isolation is not as useful as using techniques to foster real world use).

Student Participation: Students participated freely. The teacher circulated during small group activities to monitor engagement and performance. At one point, the teacher said, “I just overheard a beautiful mistake.” This moment provided reinforcement of correct grammar use. In particular, she led a discussion of “hard” vs. “hardly.” The students’ attention on word meaning and in-context use provided an opportunity for further learning and correct grammar use. Grammar is important for speaking, as well as writing.

The teacher also asked the students about count and non-count words. This discussion occurred as a result of hearing “homeworks” (“homework” vs. “homeworks”) spoken by a student in one of the small groups.

Feedback Provided: The teacher explained the purpose of the lesson. The teacher provided praise about good responses that demonstrated good ways to start and continue a conversation.

Lesson(s) on teaching you learned: Keeping a balance between teacher-led and student-focused activity is important. When teacher-time is needed for introducing new concepts, one has to keep an eye on embedding sufficient student-centered activity so long periods of teacher-talk is of an appropriate length. Planning for “an appropriate amount of time”, and strategically embedded in the lesson, for maximum student-centered activity might be challenging, especially for a beginning TEFL teacher. This teacher provided many opportunities for students to apply conversational techniques, but, a question to ponder always might be: “How much time is actually needed for optimum skill development?” This is a question I know teachers always grapple with. Too, avoiding a predictable pattern of small group and individual activity might be a challenge. Some variety will be important and something to always keep in mind during the planning process. This teacher appeared to be effective and skilled. My comments here are only thoughts that occurred to me having completed three observations.