TESL 0170: Teaching Observation Final Report

I observed three classes (Reading Strategies II, Introduction to Paragraph Writing and English for Tourism) offered by ***** for four days (July 10,11,15,16). The Reading and English for Tourism run from 10:30- 12:30 and Intro to Paragraph Writing runs from 8:30- 10:30. I attended Reading and English for Tourism for two sessions and Intro to Paragraph Writing for one session. In the Reading and Intro to Paragraph Writing classes most students are from Asia such as China, Vietnam, Japan and Korea, and also one student from Peru. In the English for Tourism class students are from China, Japan, Korea and Columbia. The main focus of the classes that I observed was on the vocabulary and reading comprehension from the textbooks.

Learning Outcomes: Students learned new vocabulary and reading strategies; especially identifying the topic and the main idea of a paragraph. Students are able to identify sentence fragments in Intro to Paragraph Writing class. Students learn and study vocabulary and reading about tourism.

Learning Objectives: The objectives of reading and English for tourism classes were more about learning vocabulary and reading strategies and comprehension such as preview and prediction, identify the topic and main idea and supporting details through different activities in groups. Students in the English for tourism class would learn vocabulary based on the topic of the class. In the intro to paragraph writing class, students learn about writing strategies such as identify and fix fragments.

Best Practices in Presenting Materials: I learned that it is important to introduce a new topic with pictures and using variety of examples. I also learned that keeping students active through the whole class is essential. Even in teacher-centered activities there should be an opportunity for students to participate. Using technology is a great asset in presenting materials.

Engaging students: I learned all the students must engage during the class with variety of activities and games. At some points some students felt tried or bored, and the teacher tried to keep them active by providing different games and many group activities which worked perfectly.

Responding to student questions: The teacher would answer all students’ questions immediately. When students were working on group activities, she would walk around and observe them and would answer their questions. Sometimes when she saw students had some difficulties in completing an activity, she would try to give them more explanation.

Incorporating technology: I found that PowerPoint is a great tool in introducing new materials. Also, all students have access to an online platform which they have access to the class materials.

Classroom management: The classroom was managed perfectly. All the activities and new materials were well managed for each class’s timeline.

In the first class, the teacher talked about respect and how to keep respect in the classroom. All the students were very respectful toward their teacher and classmates. 

Error correction: The teacher would usually give the activities’ answers in the class. If students were not able to give the answer or gave a wrong answer, she would ask them again or repeat their answers in question format. I learned that it is a great idea to observe students while they are working in groups and help them with their questions, and also errors.

This observation was not only informative, but also a great situation to gain experience from a real-life classroom. As I had an opportunity to observe three different classes, it was very useful for me to see the instructions in giving new materials and activities in different subjects.