TESOL Certificate Programs

Observation Notebook

Observation Report
Forms for inclusion in the Observation Notebook must be typed

Name of Observer Tomomi Yuma

Date
Observation Environment

Observation # 3
Class Level/Number (Beg./Int./Adv.) Intermediate/ Advanced Teacher

(include URL if the class was online)

Class Skill/Content

August http://www.youtube.com Writing Tanya 4 /watch?v=aQusQWPjd Conover Mo Focus on relevant areas from the What Can Be Observed handout. Notice how the teacher handles these areas during the class. OBJECTIVE OF THE LESSON: Students will analyze and discuss the organization of a paragraph in English. Notes while observing:

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Last Updated: 11/5/2013 8:09 PM

TESOL Certificate Programs

Observation Notebook
What did you learn about teaching or learning from this lesson? Discuss your observation focus, and the theory you have studied in your TESOL classes. Consider the three levels of teacher reflection (surface, pedagogical, critical). (100-200 words)

I focused on and timed how much the teacher spoke in the class. This class used many activities, so apparently students spoke English much. However, the teachers spoke for 35 minutes in this 60-minute lesson except pair and group activities. She spoke much partly because one of the aims of the lesson was to explain the organization of English paragraph. Students were not required to speak much but to understand the rules. Besides the aim, the students speaking levels were relatively low, which made the teacher speak more. Before students finished their speaking, the teacher often interrupted them and explained by herself. The last possible reason for the teachers speaking was that she used many kinds of activities which required her to instruct the every procedure. In order to increase students speaking and decrease the teachers, I would like to try three things if I were the teacher. First, I would decrease the number of pair and group activities and spend more time on each activity. In this lesson, students seemed to enjoy talking with other students, so if they had had more time for activities, they could have spoken much more. Second, I would provide students with more chances to speak by using more questions. Finally, I would like to give students more repetition practice in the class. Repeating important words or phrases can increase their output and learning. These activities would help the students speak more in the class.

Last Updated: 11/5/2013 8:09 PM

TESOL Certificate Programs

Observation Notebook
What activities/techniques from this class do you want to remember for your own teaching practice? Discuss specific ways in which you could apply the techniques and methods you saw. Discuss your future teaching environment and your students needs and goals. (100-200 words)

Using the metaphor of a hamburger to explain the organization of English paragraph was interesting and easy to understand. The top and bottom of bun represent well the relationship between topic sentence and concluding sentence. They are similar, but not the same, so students understand that they have to write a different sentence at the end of a paragraph. Cookies and spaghettis do not belong to hamburgers, so they cannot be put in hamburgers. This metaphor effectively shows that students have to focus on one topic in a paragraph and are not allowed to put irrelevant sentences. The picture also helps visual learners who can understand things better through visual aids. I would like to use this hamburger metaphor when I explain an English paragraph to junior high school students. The Structure of a Japanese paragraph is different from English one, so it is difficult for Japanese students to understand and write an English paragraph. The picture of a hamburger will help students get interested in the topic and distinguish the different structure. In the class which I observed, even adults learners enjoyed using the pictures of hamburgers, so younger learners will have more fun. I learned that good metaphor can help learners to understand the difficult and abstract concept of English language. I try to learn and find more examples of using metaphor in English class, and use them in my class to make learning easier.

Last Updated: 11/5/2013 8:09 PM