TESOL Certificate Programs

Observation Notebook

Observation Report Form

Name of Observer Yiyuan Zhang (Tiffany)_ Observation # 5

Date Observation Class Skill/Content Level Teacher

Environment*
08/18/2017 Face-to- UCR Extension, Intensive Oral Skills Mixed levels Madeleine
face English Elective Development (500-700) Schamehorn

*Include the URL if the class was online

WRITE THE OBJECTIVES ACCORDING TO THE OBSERVATION GUIDELINES:

STUDENTS WILL BE ABLE TO TALK WITH THEIR PARTNERS THE EXAMPLES OF COMPLAINING IN
PERSONAL SITUATIONS DEMONSTRATED IN THE LESSON.

STUDENTS WILL BE ABLE TO COMPLETE FIVE DIALOGUES WITH THEIR PARTNERS ON

COMPLAINING AND GIVE APPROPRIATE RESPONSES ACCORDING TO THE FIRST HANDOUT.

STUDENTS WILL BE ABLE TO ANALYZE THE THREE DIALOGUES ON THE THIRD HANDOUT BY
USING THE INFORMATION FOR HANDLING COMPLAINTS WITH AT LEAST 90% ACCURACY.

Notes while observing:

Classroom Diagram

1-5min
Warm up
T greets Ss and asks them what did they learn the last lesson.
Ss: Make a plan!
T asks Ss to talk with their partners what are they going to do this weekend.
T divides Ss into five groups (G1: S1, S2 and S3. G2: S4 and S5. G3: S6 and S7. G4: S8
and S9. G5: S10 and S11.) and asks them to talk with their partners.
T stands in front of the classroom and listens to Ss talk.
T stands in front of the classroom and listens to Ss talk.
T writes OTB

Complaining
1. Personal situations 2. School/business situations
T uses a timer to
end Ss discussion.

6-18min
Preview of Complaining
6-9min
T tells Ss that one of her friends is good at cooking but every time she cooks, the kitchen
will end up with a mess.
T then tells Ss that last week she received the package of a pair of sneakers she bought at
Amazon, but she found that there were no holes on the sneakers for the lace. So, she
called the customer service of Amazon and finally got the sneakers with holes.
T: So, in everyday life, we have to complain about something.
10-14min
T asks Ss if they have any personal situations about complaining or any school/business
situations about complaining.
T asks Ss to think of an example for both the first and the second situations of
complaining and discuss the situations with their partners.
Ss talk in groups.
T stands in front of the classroom and listens to Ss discussion.
T moves from one group to another.
T uses the timer to end the discussion.
15-18min
T asks Ss to think of the words used for complaining or the steps for complaining both
for the first and the second situations.
T tells Ss that they will have two minutes to brainstorm the words and the steps for
complaining with their partners.
T moves around the classroom.
T uses the timer to end the discussion.
T asks each group to choose one student to write OTB the words and the steps for
complaining.
Ss write OTB the words and the steps for complaining.

19-31min
Learning how to complain about personal situations
19-24min
T tells Ss that they are going to learn the first part - personal situations of complaining -
in this lesson.
T passes out the first handout.
T explains the content of the first part on the handout.
T gives Ss some examples of the meanings of the bolded words.
T moves on to the content of Section A of the first handout.
T: For the sentences in section A, they have different degrees of politeness. The first
sentence is the strongest one, and the last sentence is the politest one.
T tells Ss that if they want to make the request politer, they may lengthen the sentences
they use (with gestures).
T asks Ss to repeat the sentences after her one by one.
25-27min
T tells Ss that when complaining about something, they should make the request
appropriate for the context.
T: If you want to make a request about something that is not that important, it is strange
to use the last sentence in section A.
T: Nicole (S1s name), I was wondering if it would be possible for me to use your pencil.
T: Nicole (S1s name), I was wondering if it would be possible for me to use your pencil.
Ss laugh and T tells them for requesting things that are not important, they can use short
sentences.
T: But, if you need to make a request of some important things, you cannot just say Hi
Nicole, Give me your car. It is not polite in most situations.
28-31min
T passes out the second handout to Ss.
T asks Ss to read the dialogue under Situation #1.
T: Which one is softer? 1a or 1b?
Ss: 1b!
T: Why do you think 1b is softer?
Ss: Kind of Would it be okay if?
T: Yes! Very good. 1b uses the tips for making a request softer by using kind of and
would it be okay if I. Please underline these words.
Ss underline the words.
T asks Ss to read the dialogues from Situation #2 to Situation #5 and choose the softer
answer for each dialogue, and underlines the words which make the sentences softer.
T monitors Ss and answers S4s question.
T uses the timer to end the task.
T checks the answers with Ss.

32-52min
Practice on complaining
32-35min
T asks Ss to practice the five dialogues with their partners.
T moves slowly from one group to another.
T answers S7s question of how to pronounce vacuum.
T uses the timer to end Ss conversation.
36-45min
T passes out the third handout to Ss.
T asks Ss to turn to P56 of the handout and practice Practice 1.
T asks Ss to write the answers for the five situations of Practice 1 and tells Ss that they
can use the first handout for reference.
Ss work on the exercise.
T moves around the classroom and writes OTB Handling complaints next to 1.
Personal situations.
T keeps monitoring Ss.
T reminds Ss of the last one minute to complete the exercise.
46-52min
T asks Ss to work with their partners on the five dialogues of Practice 1.
T asks Ss to listen carefully to their partners words because they do not know what their
partners write for the specific exercise.
T tells Ss to take turns to ask and answer questions.
Ss talk with their partners.
T takes out her notebook and moves from one group to another.
T writes OTB
Would you mind ?
I think you should .

T keeps monitoring Ss discussion.

T uses the timer to end the discussion.
T discusses the two sentences OTB with Ss.
T firstly explains the grammatical error she heard during the discussion.
T: After mind, you should use -ing.
T then explains that when giving a request, the word should is too strong.
T tells Ss that maybe the word can be changed to may or could.
T tells Ss that maybe the word can be changed to may or could.

53-61min
Handling complaints
53-56min
T: Now we have a basic understanding of how to complain about personal situations.
Lets move on to how do we handle complaints. How do we solve the problems?
T asks Ss to take out the first handout and pay attention to Section B.
T explains to Ss that when people handle complaints, they apologize, explain, correct and
make a promise.
T goes through the Apologize section and asks Ss to repeat the sentences after her.
T gives S3 positive feedback because he does a good job in pronouncing Im so sorry.
with the prolonged so.
T asks Ss to read the sentences of the second section of Section B of the first handout.
T moves on to the If you dont want to apologize of the first handout and asks Ss to
repeat the sentences after her.
57-61min
T asks Ss to turn to P58 of the Handling Complaints part of the third handout.
T asks Ss to look at Dialogue 1.
T asks S4 to perform the role of Joe and asks S5 to perform the role of Ali.
S4 and S5 complete the dialogue.
T: What is the function of the first sentence Ali said to handle complaints?
Ss: Apology.
T: Very good! Please underline the apology. What about the second and the third
sentences?
S2: Explanation.
T: Good job! Now please circle the explanation. I want you to analyze the second and the
third dialogues. You can underline the apology, make a circle for the explanation, make a
square for the correction and make a triangle for the promise.
T monitors Ss.
T asks Ss to complete the dialogues with their partners and check the answers.

62min
T assigns the homework and reminds Ss to read the sentences in the exercise carefully to
give appropriate responses.
What did you learn about teaching or learning from this lesson as it relates to the
theory you have studied in your TESOL classes? Include at least one reference (with
an in-text citation) to support your response. (250-500 words)

The class I observed is an Intensive English Elective class offered by the UCR
Extension Intensive English Program. According to the instructor, all students in this
class are at 500 level, 600 level and 700 level. This Oral Skills Development class is
designed to improve students conversational skills and make them be aware of different
language functions. In this observation, I concentrated on how the instructor Madeleine
Schamehorn used the Communicative Language Teaching method and Classroom
Management techniques to achieve her teaching objectives.
To incorporate Communicative Language Teaching in this lesson, the instructor
behaved like a facilitator and a supporter in the language learning process and employed
effective error-correction strategy in her class. To be specific, she kept standing in front
of the classroom when students talk and occasionally moved from one group to another
group to support students discussion. Instead of interrupting students conversation or
participating in students discussions, the instructor let students talk, and communicated
with them only when students had problems. Being a facilitator or a supporter of the
learning process is especially beneficial for intermediate-high and advanced learners
because they need to practice using the language items they have established in their
minds and identify the knowledge gap through authentic interactions (Benson, 2013). In
addition, the instructor took out her notebook and wrote down the errors she found when
she monitored students and then corrected the errors as a class. This strategy not only
ensures that students can focus on language fluency, but also largely lower the affective
filter in L2 learning (Hendrickson, 1978).
To make the language classroom a warm but firm one, the instructor Madeleine
Schamehorn used two major Classroom Management methods to promote effective
language learning and teaching. For one aspect, she managed her class time in a proper
way. She began the class by a brief warm-up activity and used a timer to make sure each
activity progresses at the estimated pace. If the instructor had enough time, she could
make the wrap up section in her class to summarize the content of this lesson. For the
other aspect, she designed several activities and arranged the content of the lesson in an
effective way for developing oral skills. She used group work and pair work in her lesson
to maximize the amount of student talk and to engage students in authentic language use
situations. Furthermore, the instructor told the observer that she asked students to draw
lots and have the seat according to the number on the lot. This strategy is particularly
useful for speaking classes because students need to be exposed to different accents and
exchange their ideas with different people. Hence, the instructor used the Classroom
Management techniques to facilitate effective language learning.
In conclusion, the instructor successfully incorporated Communicative Language
Teaching in her class and made the classroom a warm but firm one by the Classroom
Management techniques.

References
 Benson, P. (2013). Teaching and researching: Autonomy in language learning.
Routledge.
Hendrickson, J. M. (1978). Error correction in foreign language teaching: Recent theory,
research, and practice. The modern language journal, 62(8), 387-398.

Last Updated: 9/8/2017 9:02 AM