Liceo Cultural Britanico

Student: Cynthia Randerath

Observation 2
“Giving Instructions”
From “Classroom Observation Tasks” by Ruth Wajnryb

Level: Intermediate
School A
Number of students: 6
Duration: 60 minutes

Phase of the Lesson Instructions Comments

Presentation Look at the pictures there and Students could follow all
describe them the instructions.

Presentation Let’s read the introduction first

After reading they talked
Now read the text about vocabulary they did
not understand.

Revision Go to comprehension questions. They had to complete

Read the instructions. First of all some questions related to
complete the questions and the reading with what,
then you find the answers. how long, how far etc.

Teaching moment Go to the first sentence in the

second paragraph and underline
it.
Teaching moment
Go to the last sentence of the
4th paragraph and underline it.
Awareness They noticed that there
Tell me what you can find in were many adjectives in
these two sentences. each sentence.

Recognition They did this after the

Go to the examples and see if teacher’s explanation of
they follow the rule the order of adjectives

Practice
Go to the box there where you
have a lot of adjectives and put
them in the chart.
After the Lesson

 In this lesson I could find some tendencies as regards to “giving

instructions”, the more noticeable was the imperative. Generally, she used
this form and she used many times the verb “go”. I also noticed that she
used simple language and I think that this was the reason why students
could follow without problems.

 Let’s take one of the instructions and reduce it for a lower level of learners:

“Go to comprehension questions. Read the instructions. First of all complete the
questions and then you find the answers.”

I underlined what I think students must know in order to do what is required.

This fact would leave us with the following instruction: “First complete the
questions, and then find the answers.” I think that this simplifies the
instruction which could make students of lower level understand what they
have to do without difficulty.
Now, how do we check instructions? Generally, we ask one student if he can
explain what they have to do. In fact, in this lesson it did not happen, maybe
because the teacher did not find it necessary.

 If we want to guide this teacher into more effective instruction-giving, we

should take into consideration the way in which her language was
segmented, which I found appropriate because she spoke clearly and slowly.
As regards her voice quality, I could not find any problem; I think it was
sufficiently clear. Her attending behaviour was noticeable, maybe because
she had few students and they were sitting very close to her, but there was
eye contact all the time. However, I did not find much visual support; they
only worked with the visuals from the book. Maybe she could have used
more of it.

 According to “Classroom Observation Tasks” one possible paradigm for

instruction-giving is the following:

i) Give signal to engage class’s attention.

ii) State briefly the overall nature of the task.
iii) Organize seating groups.
iv) Give instructions
v) Signal to start
vi) Monitor understanding – repeat/rephrase as necessary.

I think that ii) can be necessary for students, because it gives them a global
idea of what they are going to do next. It can be useful to make them start
focusing their minds on the task and it might make the instruction easier to
understand. As regards iii), I think it would be a good idea to do it after the
instruction has been given, because students can become really disruptive,
especially teenagers, and probably they will not listen to the instruction and
consequently will not know what they will have to do.
In my opinion, we generally give the instruction for a task when we think
students are paying attention and are ready to listen to what they are
supposed to do. Anyway, I found the paradigm proposed above very useful,
because generally I forget the checking of instructions which is a very
important point as regards this matter.
  “Classroom observation Tasks” proposes the following problems to be solved:

a) Instructions “should generally be below the level of the language being

taught” (Gower and Walters 1988:25)

b) Learners “usually understand at a higher level than they speak or write” (ibid
41)

In my view, it is always better to use a higher level of language, because this

makes students be challenged to improve their English. However, it is true that
if students do not understand the instruction given, they will not be able to carry
out the task and this can be really frustrating for them. That is why, we should
not forget to check understanding and I think that it would be a good idea to
lower the level only if it is absolutely necessary.

REFLECTION

After observing this lesson, I have become more aware of the importance of
instruction giving. Generally, as I work with adults, I used to think that they
understood perfectly well the instructions I gave to them, but after some lessons I
learnt that it is better to check learner’s understanding instead of giving it for
granted. We should be aware of the importance of giving instructions because this
can lead us to the tasks´ failure and the learner’s frustration which is even worst. I
think I am learning to give instructions and that it is a process that all teachers
should go through.