TESOL Certificate Programs

Observation Notebook

Observation Report Form

Name of Observer: Emily Wilkinson Observation # 2

Date Observation Class Skill/Content Level Teacher

Environment*
11/26/16 Online Grammar Using the Intermediate Diane Dowejko
simple past
tense

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Re-FWcA03I

WRITE THE OBJECTIVES ACCORDING TO THE OBSERVATION GUIDELINES:

STUDENTS WILL BE ABLE TO REWRITE EIGHT SENTENCES IN THE SIMPLE PRESENT TENSE
INTO THE SIMPLE PAST TENSE.
STUDENTS WILL BE ABLE TO COMPLETE FOUR SIMPLE PAST TENSE SENTENCES USING THEIR
OWN WORDS.
STUDENTS WILL BE ABLE TO HAVE A CONVERSATION ABOUT PABLO PICASSO USING
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS IN THE SIMPLE PAST TENSE.

Notes while observing

0:00 Warm-up activity: The T explains that shes going to show the students a picture
for 10 secs, and afterward they should talk to their partner about it and about how it made
them feel, etc. Then T asks comprehension questions (What are you going to see? How
long are you going to talk about it?). T puts a painting by Picasso on the projector to
introduce him as the focus of the next activity. Ss discuss the painting.
2:00 T stops the discussion, asks a S what his partner said about the picture, then asks
some other Ss about their discussions.
3:00 T gives Ss each a paper with a passage on it about Pablo Picasso, along with
another page that has statements on it that are true or false, and tells Ss to mark the ones
that are true. The Ss have 3 min. Then T asks Ss comprehension questions about every
detail of the assignment. Then she passes out the questions first for them to read, then the
passage.
5:00 T asks Ss to compare answers with their partner. Then T checks the answers with
the class- she asks different Ss for their answers to make sure that the text has been
comprehended.
6:00 T takes one of the correct sentences read by a S to use as an example. She asks
what tense the action is in, and asks how we know that it happened in the past, drawing

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Observation Notebook
Ss attention to the ed on the verb. T asks what kind of verb it is and labels the sentence
S + past simple. Then T calls on another S to read the correct answer for another
question, and also uses it as an example. Then T takes that sentence and asks what would
happen to the verb if she changed the subject to other singular pronouns.
11:00 T calls on another S to read one of the sentences from the exercise that was false.
T has the Ss correct the sentence, then asks what is different about its structure from the
first two examples. T asks Ss to help her label each part of the sentence, discussing what
makes the sentence simple past-tense. Then the T asks how they can turn the sentence
into a question, and writes it on the board with did and the subject rearranged. The T
asks Ss if she can say the ___ did not statement with an -ed on the end of the verb, to
which they answer no, because the two forms of past tense cannot be combined.
16:00 The T reads each of the sentences now on the board and has the Ss repeat after
her a few times. T asks how she was saying them and explains that she was putting the
stress on the verb each time. Then T asks how she pronounced did not as didnt,
and explains that theres a rule in English that you always stress negatives.
19:00 The T discusses pronunciation of -ed endings as t if the last letter of the word
is unvoiced, or d if the last letter is voiced.
22:00 (Controlled) Practice: T tells Ss that she is going to give them a worksheet with
sentences in the simple present form, that they should rewrite in the simple past tense and
begin each time with the word yesterday. The Ss have 3 minutes for 8 questions.
24:00 The Ss discuss answers with each other. Then the T calls on Ss to read their
answers.
25:00 The T tells Ss that she has one more writing activity for them. She has written
opening phrases for four past-tense sentences written on the board that the Ss need to
complete with their own ideas, true or false. She asks for examples of verbs that they can
use for the sentences, but tells them that they can write anything they want.
27:30 T stops the activity to have the Ss listen to each others sentences. Then the T
asks a few Ss to tell the class one of their partners sentences.
30:00 T divides Ss by labeling them A or B and tells the class that the As will be
acting as museum guides and the Bs will be acting as tourists. The Ss should stand up to
ask and answer questions about Picasso to each other. Ss stand up, move around, and get
animated as they act out their parts.
33:00 T calls Ss back to their seats and asks the As if they got any tricky question. Ss
tell the hard questions they received and the class laughs together as the Ss repeat their
amusing answers. Then the T quickly thanks the Ss and dismisses them.

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 TESOL Certificate Programs
Observation Notebook
What did you learn about teaching or learning from this lesson as it relates to the
theory you have studied in your TESOL classes? Include at least one reference (with
an in-text citation) to support your response. (250-500 words)

I was very curious to observe this class, because I hadnt observed a grammar
class yet and had always assumed that grammar would be the most difficult to teach.
Dowejkos lesson had a clear PPP format and flowed well. I liked the warmup
activity that she chose- having the students discuss a Picasso painting- because it was
simple, relevant, and transitioned easily into the rest of the lesson.
I found it interesting to analyze Dowejkos teaching style by following her use of
the Simple Six. The first step, Give Directions, she did very clearly before each activity.
The second step, Model, she didnt do before every activity, but she did when it seemed
appropriate, for the ones that required more of an explanation.
I thought that Dowejko actually over-did the third step, Comprehension Checking.
As Lindwall says, consider [the students] level and the complexity of the task (2011).
However, it seemed that Dowejko was ignoring those things and asking questions
robotically; she seemed to ask too many with too much detail. Every time that Dowejko
gave directions, she immediately asked five or so comprehension questions, almost
spending more time on them than she did on the actual explanation. A few times she also
mixed in questions that she had not even given the answers to, so the students were just
guessing at what she wanted.
Dowejkos execution of the fourth step, Give Time, was hard to assess because of
how the video edited out chunks of time during each of the activities. However, it seemed
that the students had enough time to complete their activities. Also because of the of the
video edits, it was hard to tell if she was Monitoring & Giving Feedback or not, but it did
not appear that she walked around the room during activities.
Last of all, Dowejko did not exactly Correct as a Class, by [c]hoos[ing] the top
3 most common mistakes [she] saw during your monitoring as Lindwall suggests
(2011). Rather, she called on students to give their answers and then discussed and
dissected each of them with the help of the students. It is also possible that footage with
student mistakes was cut out, but I didnt notice that.
One last thing that stood out to me about the lesson were a few times that
Dowejko asked a question and the students answered it wrongly because they were
interpreting what she said differently from how she meant it. She had to quickly
recognize the misunderstanding and rephrase to explain what she meant, which I thought
she did skillfully (as it seems that all experienced teachers can).

References

Lindwall, K. (2011). The Simple Six. Riverside, CA: UCR Extension Center.

Last Updated: 5/20/2017 1:17 PM