Class Observation Form

(3)

Faculty Member Observed: Ms. Dawn Seddon Observer: Basma Abdulla

Class Observed: Foundations Level 1 Section 2 Date and Time of Class: Wednesday, 29th
October, 2014; 8:30 10:10

The goal or outcome for students during this class session is:
o Reading Practice: Unusual Places to live and unusual buildings around the world.
o Vocabulary practice

Describe what happened in this class session.

o The teacher wrote the objectives on the board. The teacher warmed-up with
questioning and follow-up questions as students named places they could live and
why. The projector was used to display pictures of places people live. Students
were given worksheets to solve, starting off with easy worksheets where they
simply labeled places to live, working on matching vocabulary, a whole-class
vocabulary activity, short passage reading, full passage reading, and then finally
solving reading questions about the passage.
o It was a very interactive students, with students showing how much general
knowledge they had. The lesson was also very visual, which caught the students
attention and made them all feel like participating. The reading practice goal was
accomplished successfully.

What worked particularly well during this class session?

o What worked really well in this classroom was using visual aids, and keeping the
students busy with smooth flow of activities. Most of the work was done
individually, and there was one whole-class activity where one group of students
was given the main terms, and another group was given the definitions. Students
from the first group had to call out the word and students from the second group
had to call out their definitions that matched the word, and then check their
answers on the worksheets.
o A good teaching strategy used today was timing students, the whole-class activity,
and using lots of preview activities before even starting the reading process.

Was there a point during this class session when the faculty member lost student
attention?
o The technology stopped working, and students started getting loud. The teacher
responded by giving students their first worksheet, asking them to work alone and
then share answers with partners as she tried to fix what was wrong. Her efforts
were effective as she had them very quiet, busy and focused as she tried to
determine why the PowerPoint wasnt working. She also had a backup of pictures
that she used later on when it was clear the PowerPoint presentation was not
going to work.
o Another problem was one student trying to translate every single word using a
dictionary. The teacher addressed this problem by doing a whole-class advising
session where she explained to them ways to tackle reading difficulties without
having to translate the whole paragraph (e.g. searching for key words, only
looking up words that were related to the question, understanding that words that
usually start with capitals are names so they were not words that we could
translate, etc.)

o The teachers efforts on both regards were effective, as the paper work she had
prepared was enough to cover the lesson for the whole class, the backup of
pictures was enough for students to create visual images in their heads of the
vocabulary words, and she tackled a commonly made mistake where students
spend too much time searching or translating words that did not have value to the
text or questions.

How did the physical surroundings or environment of the class session affect the
learning experience, if at all?
o The class session was done with individual and whole-class tasks in mind, so the
physical surroundings were effective in having students focus on their work and
then just turn to compare and share answers. Having lots of windows helped with
students describing words like view or nature.
o The only problem was with technology but the students were kept busy with the
worksheets and were drawn in to the visuals.

What would I have done differently in terms of expansion of particularly effective

teaching strategies, improvement of teaching strategies that didnt work well,
solving problems you observed, etc.?
o If I were teaching the lesson, I would have needed to look up grammar rules to
make it easier for me to explain it, but with the teacher she seemed to know the
rules really well and it was easier for her to remind them about it.
o I would have some ground rules as they entered the classroom to minimize
disruption:

Walking quietly to your place when you enter a class late

Think about what you want to say before shouting out answers (maybe
introduce a thinking strategy)

Have cues/a bell for when they have to listen

o I would like to plan a lesson where the students do much more work than I do, but
maybe at a stage when they have practiced independent learning or are more
motivated than just now.
o I would have tasks ready for them when they finished.