Observation Report: Ray and Alexandra
January 20, 2010
Reading: Food Preferences
Overall, excellent work you two! I have so many praises and my only suggestions/comments in this observation report are rather nit-picky. Any advice I have for you guys is just keeping in mind that some of the great techniques you use in the classroom here might not translate well abroad.
The atmosphere in the classroom was great! Everyone was relaxed and therefore open to new experiences. Ray, you opened up the class in a very amiable manner, asking everybody about their weekend etc. Then you transitioned well to homework review when you instructed them to take out their HW and then share with their classmates. I like how you keep a very laid back attitude but maintained control of the class and stayed in a “teaching role” A+.
I liked how you made T-charts and wrote up the vocabulary on the board by country. That was a great connection! Then everyone got to present and it was very student-centered activity and it mattered, it was interesting, there was a reason to pay attention and to be involved. I also liked how you incorporated the whole audience by having everybody raise their hands for the foods they liked vs. disliked = this kept everyone involved. Ray, you stayed very animated and kept the class flowing by asking each student to present his or her assigned country.
I think this first half of the class certainly established that there are different food preferences which was a fun/creative pre-reading activity. Speaking, listening, and reading were practiced. It was also a good vocabulary review.
Reviewing the first paragraph was key since there were students who were not present yesterday. It would have been nice if there had been a handout with the reading of the key words that were to come up. I attached one to give you an idea of what I mean. This gives the students a concrete place to apply the new phrases they are learning from the reading. All of the explanations of the new words were very clear and the drawings on the boards really helped. Sometimes I think you guys might have been speaking a little fast. “Franks-like hot dogs-right?” This might have gone over some heads. Drawing the clam-shells vs. oysters was great. With to be turned on/to be turned off = I’m so glad you brought this up with examples! The Alexandra when you were talking about cultural biases you said, “How did I explain this yesterday, do you remember?” but kind of rhetorically - you should have kept going with this! I love overall how you ask students to explain the words to you before you describe the meanings to them.
It might be helpful to take notes on each student when they are reading so you know which are the tricky sounds they are mispronouncing. Jeronome’s “raw” was basically incomprehensible. I hope tomorrow they get to practice the new words/phrases in a story of their own and answer comprehension questions about the reading. Maybe they can even respond with their own ideas about what is beyond the tip of the iceberg?
What won’t translate abroad: Speaking so naturally. You will probably have to slow down a tad and keep instructions far simpler, especially if you have a classroom with 40 students and no ESL teachers. Having a vocab sheet with the reading will be useful in a class with multiple students at different levels because it will help those follow along anyways if they are lost in the reading and it will be something extra and concrete for them to work with if they are having trouble taking notes!
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