ENGLISH PEDAGOGY

STUDENT TEACHING PRACTICE

OBSERVATION STAGE

Task 1: The School and Learning Environment

Name of student: Tatiana Grimaldi Olea

Name of School: Colegio Presbiteriano David Trumbull

Number of students: 30 students

Date: 23 and 25, August 2010 Class: 6th Grade

Briefly describe the following aspects:

1. The school:
The school is located in Guillermo Rivera street # 440, in Yungay Hill, in
Valparaiso. The school is divided into two buildings, the oldest one that
looks like an old three-story house is where the elementary students are
and the newest one, right across the street from the other, is where the
middle and secondary student are. The later, counts with a big yard
where children play and exercise during the physical education class, a
casino, a chemistry lab and two big Enlaces classrooms. The school has
approximately 450 students: 200 students in elementary and 250 in
middle and secondary.
This school has belonged to the Presbyterian Church since 1869 and it
transfers the Christian values through education. These are excellence,
freedom of conscience, equality of men and faith. The school applies
these values by means of setting the example, from the director to the
people in charge of the cleaning.
Rules inside of the establishment are very clear, and each student knows
them. Both, teachers and the principal of the school are continually
getting together to discuss different changes concerning behavioural
policies.

2. The classroom
The classrooms are wide and spacious. They have enough light, both
natural and artificial, something really necessary to have a proper
learning environment. Instruments like seating are in very good
conditions. The space inside the classroom is adequate for the amount
of children in it. Windows are continually open, so air can change inside
of the classroom. Whiteboards are spacious enough. Classrooms do not
count with technological equipment like data shows or a computer, but
they do have radios. However, if you need some of these devices to
prepare your class, you have to ask for them one or two weeks earlier.
3. The activities & resources

The activities my guide teacher uses are very similar from one class to
the other. These are writing on the board, the use of activities from the
English Students Book and the use of the Enlaces classroom to
complement the student’s learning. Some students spend their time
talking and sharing what they have done lately with their friends. There
are few of them that do not participate actively in the class. The teacher
does the class stopping few times to ask for silence and most students
seem to be engaged in the activity.
The school counts with many instruments teachers can use to prepare
their classes in the best way. They have a data show, radios, computers,
etc. If a teacher wants to use one of these devices, he or she has to ask
for it one or weeks days before the class takes place.

Task 2: Student´s learning

In this second observation task, you should focus on the things that help
to create conditions for effective learning and on the aspects that play
a part in preventing learning.

1. The learners
Being inside the classroom I notice that most students are very
motivated. They participate a lot and seem very enthusiastic about
learning new things related to English. They seem to like English
very much, but at the same time seem less compromised,
however, with their learning process. This must be because the
6th graders are in a transition stage between childhood and
adolescence and tend to take things not too seriously. However,
students from 3rd grade secondary do their work, and study as
they are expected. The teacher has to make sure they do what
they are assigned to do and help them find the answers. Most of
the time they stay quiet in the classroom and pay a lot of
attention.
My guide teacher is constantly encouraging them to do their work.
Sometimes students tend to get really noisy, so she has to find the
way to keep activities interesting and engaging. The idea is that
they do not start standing up and lose their focus. She motivates
them to participate, to raise their hand and answer. There are
some students with differential evaluation, so they are not treated
like the rest.
Something I that recognized immediately was the different levels
of English there are in the classroom. For example, there is this
student in classroom that understands everything. He can
recognize everything the teacher says in English, what the text
book says and speaks in English. Some others understand very
little of what the teacher is saying. But these students try to
understand by asking their classmates that understand better for
help.