Category: Observation Reflections

On the 24^th of May 2023, I observed my fourth class which was a reading class. The class started at 2:30 in the afternoon with 8 students in the class. The class arrangement was in a semi-circle with a desk in the middle front for the teacher.

There was two TESL student who came to assist the teacher as part of their practicum. The teacher asked the TESL student to draw the map of Canada with the major provinces for a ‘’travel the map game activity’’ which they did. The teacher put the students in pairs and handed each pair a marker board and a marker and asked the students to write a summary of a passage that was given to the students as homework. And since most students didn’t do their homework it took a while for some students to finish with the summary. The teacher made each pair read out their summary out to the class while the teacher made general comment and corrections but in all students were acknowledged for their summary, applauded and encouraged them.

The class continued by the teacher introducing the TESL students, explaining their presence and how long they were going to be around. The teacher then put the students in 2 groups selected a leader for an activity. The teacher explained the activity to the class which involved the Map of Canada the TESL students drew earlier. There were questions about Canada and the group that answered the question correctly travels from Kamloops on the map through the other provinces across Canada. And this was an isolation of the lesson plan, and it was introducing the lesson which was on Canada.

Students participated fully and each group really worked together and hard to get all questions correct in order to travel farther than the other group. The TESL students were present in the class, and they naturally brought their personality to the class.

After the activity, there was a 10 minute break and before students could step out the teacher asked the students if they were comfortable to move to a different setting for the 2^nd hour which was story reading time. The students suggested to move to the language center and they were very excited about moving. 

I was impressed and I never thought a teacher who was so much in control of the class could still give students the opportunity to make choices. The students moved to language center and sat comfortably in large bean bag chairs and couches in a semi-circle form as they prepared for the story.

I thought to myself, a good setting for story time and I wished I had this opportunity during my earlier education.

Materials were provided for the students and with the story contents being a little advanced, the teacher rewrote the whole story to suit the level of class and that was super super amazing. Before the reading began, there was a review on previous chapters as a form to refresh students memory and keep them in track for the next chapter.

The teacher started reading the story and would randomly stop to ask students questions about a sentence or a word meaning. I think this made all the students tag along as the teacher read and it got students to engage in the reading more so they can participate in discussions.

Once the reading was done, the teacher gave the students worksheets on the story to work on. After students were done with the worksheets, the teacher went through the answers with the students and the discussions were in a form of debrief.

The class was fun, educative and interactive. The pacing of the lesson was great and the lesson ended right on time.

On the 25^th May, 2023 , I observed my fifth class. The class started a little late after 8:30am because students arrived late to class. There were 9 students in the class and the classroom sitting design layout was in a semi-circle. There was a TESL student who was teaching the first hour of the lesson as part of her practicum.

The class began with a warmup activity where the teacher spoke about pizza and asked the students if they liked pizza and had prepared pizza before. Since it was a speaking class, I thought it was a good speaking activity and also talking about food makes people happy and contributing since food is a universal language. The second warmup continued with a student sharing their favorite quote from their home country and explaining why they liked the quote. 

The class continued with another activity by the TESL student who put students in groups and each group was to pick a number on a cutout paper with questions and instructions at the back of the paper and each group was to discuss and provide an answers to the questions. The students were curious and eager to participate in the activity and each student participated fully. I realized the students were excited and were enjoying the topics and questions they were to discuss and there was total participation from each student. 

During discussion, the TESL student and the teacher went round asking questions and checked if all students were participating or if there was any difficulty the students were facing in understanding the questions or instructions.

Teaching materials were provided for each student. There was a 10 minute break after which the students were put in a group for another round of discussion on learning a new language. It was at moment i thought to myself, group discussions are great speaking activity. The teacher gave a comprehension passage to students to read and an audio of the passage was played for the students and afterwards students were asked to answer the comprehension questions on the passage.

The audio played was clear and audible and it was right for the level of class. This means a lot of research and listening had gone into selecting the right audio, point noted. The class was interactive and students were confident and bold in contribution and in making their suggestions.

The teacher was always motivating students and any idea from students were taken into consideration. This, I believe should be a teacher’s responsibility because motivation helps students to be confident and help them drop all inhibitions, low self-esteem and other feelings that could be a barrier to learning a new language.

To close, the teacher taught students how to do a presentation by explaining every step and processes used in preparing and actually doing a presentation. The teacher after that gave the students a presentation assignment and explained how it would be evaluated. Presentations are good speaking activity and it’s a skill students need in their academic lessons or at their workplaces.

I liked the overall coordination of the lesson and even though the class started late, the lessons were well-paced and it ended on time. As a future ESL teacher, I have learnt that, students can be late and that can affect lessons plans but no matter what, a teacher must reorganize the lesson plan so that at the end lesson objectives can be achieved.

On the 24^th of May, 2023, I continued my observation and I observed the Advanced Writing class, ESAL 0580 class. The class started exactly 10:30am and the teacher was already set up with the objectives of the lesson written on the board. I was introduced to the class and the objectives of the lesson was explained to the students.

There was a warmup activity in a form of a review on the previous lessons and students were put in a group of two and three to discuss what they could remember from the previous class. The students were asked to tell the class what new thing they heard from their colleagues about the previous class and I think this was a great review activity. This is because students learn more from their colleagues and talking or teaching your colleagues improves retention of knowledge. I was  amazed when the teacher asked some students to repeat what a student had shared in the class and this was a way for the teacher to check if students were attentive and listening and if the students could hear and understand their colleagues properly in class.

Some students were late, but they were welcomed equally and the teacher didn’t make them feel uncomfortable. The students were 11 in the class eventually. The teacher later put students in groups and gave them a passage to discuss and shortly after the teacher left the class to attend to something. It was amazing how the students went on with their discussions as if the teacher was around and this support Maria Montessori quote which states, (‘’the greatest sign of success for a teacher is to be able to say, the students are now working as if I did not exist’’) about teaching.

Teaching material were available and so was snacks for the students.

The students enjoyed discussions and orally expressing their essays and writings but the putting their thoughts on paper was a bit challenging. The teacher kept encouraging the students and brought up personal essay topics on the student’s personal interesting experiences to make writing interesting to the students. The teacher also made the students talk about their writings or essays before they were asked to write them down. All the students participated orally but just a few could put them in writing.

The teacher taught about the structures of writings and gave some techniques in writing which I didn’t know myself . The students were given time to express themselves but the teacher was conscious of the time and also made sure students didn’t feel pressured. 

Submitted assignments from the previous lesson was marked with corrections and suggestions and were given back to the students. The students were asked to look at their mistakes and ask any questions they needed clarity on and there was an option of the students redoing the assignment and submitting it to be reassessed.

There was a 10 minute break and to end the class, the teacher put students in groups to talk about what they learnt about the lesson and it was a way of debriefing. I think debriefing helps the teacher to know if the students really understood the lesson and teachers could assess themselves to check if their objectives were met. I think debriefing also helps students to have an idea of the part of the lesson they need to go over when the leave the class and explanations from colleagues through debriefing makes understanding more clearer.

The students putting their thoughts in writing was a little challenging but I liked how the teacher was encouraging, motivating and so accommodating. It made me understand how a teacher should be more empathetic and understanding and do everything possible to make sure your students get the lesson. This is how I want to be as a teacher in future.

On the 11^th of May, 2023, I observed my second ESL class which was ESAL 0450 class. The class started at 8:30 am and 10 students were seated at the beginning of the class. The students were seated in a circle layout with enough room making movement to each student possible.

The class began with a warmup activity and looked like it was a routined warmup activity, students in turns have to present a famous quote from their country and explain why they liked the quote. This warmup was really impressive because I think it was a great way for students to practice their speaking skills and also students sharing something from their culture or country in a new country will make the students feel their culture is appreciated and accepted and this will make the students more comfortable in class.

The teacher started by telling the students what the lesson was going to cover and how it will be done and I think that was how the objectives of the lesson was communicated. Materials for the lesson was provided for the students that included worksheets and passages.

There was a group discussion on a passage and a group activity after reading. During group discussion, the students were giving roles to play in the discussion or the group activities and most of the groups were in 4 roles and it included the devil’s advocate, the leader, the reporter and an active participant. These roles were clearly explained to students and students were giving the chance to choose the various roles they wanted to play in a discussion setting. The students rotate roles, and this makes them not feel too comfortable in a particular role but build student’s confidence in other roles or responsibilities. I think roles giving in group discussions or tasks is very important and useful and this is because each student will have a part to play in the discussion and give out their full participation other than leaving all the task on one student.

In class discussions, students were attentive, the students had their attention focused on the teacher and the students followed throughout the lesson and were not distracted at any particular time. The teacher had control of the class and also gave room for student’s contributions and suggestions. Classroom management was very effective which was really impressive.

The students were not sitting close in the circle of students from their culture, but all students were closely connected with each student irrespective of their culture. I thought this was great because this surely will promote intercultural communication and corporation in the class.

During the group discussions on the passage, the teacher went round each group to make sure the students are participating, and the teacher provided assistance and explanations to groups that needed help. I thought this was really remarkable because the students really felt supported by the teacher and students who felt stuck due to not understand what to do or some words had the necessary explanations to help in their discussions.

The teacher was patient and gave time and tolerance for student’s suggestions and contributions, students did not feel pressured but encouraged to be confident in making suggestions or asking questions and there was no right or wrong response or suggestions. Since there was tolerance and comfortability in the class, the students were more confident with their responses and contributions and there was respect and consideration for each culture in discussions which I think is very important in class with many cultures.

During the lesson, the teacher wrote most of the things he said on the board even though the teacher’s voice and tone was clear and understandable. This made the students more attentive since they had something on the board to focus on, to check spellings and if they didn’t hear a word clearly from the teacher, seeing it on the board really helped in understanding.

There was a 10 minutes break and the lesson ended right on time. I admired how the teacher was patient with the students but managed the time and pacing really well. That is a skill I would want to acquire in my future classroom.

On the 10^th of May 2023, I had the opportunity to observe Michael class, ESAL 0320.The class started on time at 12:30 and majority of the students were in class before the lesson started. When I stepped in the class, I introduced myself to the teacher and he welcomed me and later introduced me to the students before the lesson began. The students were 10 in the class with a U-shaped, well spaced-out classroom arrangement to enhance free movement.

Before the class began, the teacher gave out name tags to each student which was a way of identifying students with their names each time and also know the students absent with the number of tags left. This is something I will do in my class because I think it is very cool and identifying students with their names makes student feel a sense of belonging and gets to trust the teacher. And with name tags, any new student or teacher that should come to your class will know your student’s names and address the students as such.

I realized a group of students from the same country were seated together away from the other students and it made me wonder if it’s a culture thing or its because the students feel comfortable around each other and would want to help each other. Grouping of students for group work was impressive, the teacher gave students the chance to pair with students they were comfortable with and also the teacher paired up so that students would be comfortable with the other students as well.

I thought that really made sense because if students were always made to be paired with only people from their culture or country, they wouldn’t be comfortable interacting with other cultures which they would need at the end of the program and this also show the teachers control on the students.

At the beginning of the class, I realized some students were not confident about their responses and answers and some students did not feel comfortable talking at all. The students were self conscious of their responses and suggestions. The teacher then used humors, jokes and shared an experience he had when he travelled to China which was an interesting experience. These jokes and humors called back distracted student’s attention and the students became more comfortable and interactive. I was so impressed because I didn’t realize funny jokes and interesting cultural experiences shared by a teacher could make students so comfortable and make them want to contribute in class. I decided in future I was going to be more humorous in my class to create that comfortable environment for students so that my students can put away their inhibitions, fears and be comfortable in my class.

The teachers voice control and clarity was great, so students could clearly hear and understand what the teacher said. Instructions given were repetitive with actions and they were straightforward in order to make student’s understanding clearer.

The teacher was encouraging and motivating so the students felt more comfortable in interacting, asking questions and also student’s suggestions were welcomed and there was no right or wrong answer. Teacher waited patiently on students to respond to questions and make their suggestions so the students didn’t feel pressured in class. 

There was 5 to 10 minutes break and even though the teacher was patient with the students he was able to cover the lessons he intended to and the class ended exactly on time, that is 2:20 in the afternoon.

I didn’t have any lesson plan so I didn’t realize what the teacher’s objectives were but I liked the classroom environment and I would want my classroom to have that warm, humorous and encouraging atmosphere.

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