1

Colleen Lange

Observation Report

1. The teacher utilized multiple techniques to help her ELL students. The first one I

noticed was that she used adapted versions of popular fiction works. This strategy is

certainly effective for the ELL students since they will be exposed to the classic

works of fictions in manageable language. This strategy could be helpful for a whole

class (ELL or not) since some classic works of literature use outdated English that

may be confusing for readers to decipher. The teacher also used a lot of pre-reading

techniques such as vocabulary acquisition, activating background knowledge, and

reviewing literary elements.

2. I did not observe any student behaviors I would consider out of the ordinary. All

of the students in the class seemed eager to learn and attentive. This could be

because they knew a camera was filming them, but the classroom environment

seemed open and friendly.

3. The teacher seems to be very conscious of how she is speaking when in front of

the classroom. I believe this is so she can assure that she is being clear and not

confusing her students. Sometimes teachers can talk too quickly or with varying

pitches that may cause confusion, but this teacher is sure to be concise and clear

when addressing her class. Additionally, she uses a lot of hand gestures to clarify

what she is saying. For example, when she asked for students to focus on three

vocabulary words she held up three fingers and silently counted them out. Plus she

acted out emotions to help students understand different vocabulary and concepts.
 2

4. Some of the resource materials that the ELL students used were the adapted

literature books. They are using these texts by following the strategies as described

previously. They appear to be fairly effective, but the adapted texts alone are not

what really help the ELL students digest the information and language.

6. The students introduced themselves and said what language they speak. Based off

of these introductions I could conclude that the comfort level of the ELL students

in regards to English is varied from very comfortable to not comfortable at all. In his

introduction one of the students even joked that he only knew a little English. Some

of the students appeared to be concentrating very hard to grasp the new

information while others were smiling and contributing to the conversation. This

divide in student participation shows the different levels of comfort amongst the

students.

7. Not applicable.

Video Used: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWpziua8uS8