OBSERVATION TASK 1 Classroom snapshot Roghaiyeh

Class 9
Ask permission to go into a colleague’s class for just five minutes. Your aim
is to gain a ‘snapshot’ image of what is happening. Persuade the teacher not
to prepare any special activity for this time.
For the first questions, aim to describe factually as far as you can (rather than
interpreting or finding positive or negative aspects). Add your more
subjective impression in answering the last question.
1 Describe how the learners are seated/standing in the room.
Classroom is arranged in a semicircle or horseshoe layout.

2 Describe generally what is happening (e.g. ‘A tape is being played and

learners are writing answers to printed questions’). The teacher enters the
class and after greeting, one of the learners starts talking about his thesis
defense that is going to be held the other day. The teacher congratulates him.
After that they start a great discussion about education in which all the
learners participate.

3 Who is talking? Who is doing any other things? The teacher is changing his chair while
talking to the students, simultaneously the learner sitting next to the teacher is trying to help
him with his chair. One of the students is taking off his jacket and then opens his book and
tries to participate in the ongoing discussion.

4 Describe (a) the atmosphere; and (b) levels of engagement in the room.
The atmosphere of the class is almost friendly and most students show an
average level of attention and interest in the class.
OBSERVATION TASK 2 What helps people learn?
What is there about the classroom, the activities, the teacher and the learners that
helps to create conditions for effective learning? What things do you observe that
seem to play a part in preventing learning?

The classroom
Make notes on seating, sight lines, space, air, warmth, light, whiteboard, equipment,
etc.
There is a whiteboard behind the teacher’s desk. There is not any TVs and CD players
in the class and the teacher uses his laptop in order to play the task recordings. The
space between the seats are ok. The learners are physically comfortable, but as I notice
there isn’t any left – handed seats. Students can see anything presented visually very
well, but I think the learners who are sitting in the front chairs can see the board well
than the others. There is an average temperature condition in the classroom. This class
has enough light for the learners.

The activities
Make notes on the kind of activities used, the nature of student involvement,
balance of students doing things and teacher doing things, etc.
First there was a discussion about education in the beginning of the class that lasted
for almost half an hour. Then the teacher started the lesson by asking some
questions and engaging students with the materials. The class started to listen to
the listening part and doing the related activities. Later, the teacher gave some tips
about the listening. All in all ,although there was a fairly balanced interaction
between the teacher and the students , the teacher played the major role in doing
things in the classroom.

The teacher
What personal qualities does the teacher have (i.e. not teaching techniques)?
The teacher is very engaging and holds the attention of the students in all
discussions.
What kind of rapport does this teacher have? The teacher treats all pupils
equitably and develops a strong rapport with students and establishes trusting
relationships.
What is the personal psychological atmosphere generated by this teacher? The
teacher creates a positive classroom atmosphere in which every student feels
safe and important.
What is it like to be a student in this classroom? This class is fairly beneficial to almost
everyone. Attending this class would be a logical decision.
.

The learners
How motivated are the learners? Students are fairly motivated. Why? As the
students are from different age groups, they don’t show the same degree of
curiosity and passion for the activities.
To what extent are they taking an active part in their own learning? The
students participate during lessons and it is easy for the teacher to make them
involved.
To what extent are they expecting the teacher to do the work for them? They
don’t expect the teacher to do it all and they are trying to have a balanced
interaction.
OBSERVATION TASK 3 Teachers and learners
For each line, decide if the statement on the left or right fits best as a description
(or somewhere in the middle). You could use the chart to:
• think back to a language lesson you can recall from your past;
• use the chart as an observation task the next time you go into a class to watch someone else teaching;
• review your own teaching style, perhaps in a specific lesson.
The teacher

The teacher smiles. ● The teacher doesn’t smile.

The teacher is unnaturally loud or ● The teacher speaks at a natural,
quiet. conversational volume.
The teacher behaves and interacts as ● The teacher behaves and interacts in a
he/she might outside the classroom. distinctively ‘teacherly’ way.
The teacher talks a lot. ● The teacher talks very little.
Task instructions are clear. ● Task instructions are not clear.
The teacher asks mainly open ● The teacher asks mainly questions with
questions. expected/fixed answers.

The teacher seems impatient. ● The teacher is patient.

Information is conveyed clearly and is Information is conveyed unclearly or is
understandable by learners. ● not understood by learners.
Teacher doesn’t seek or take note of ● Teacher seeks and takes note of learner
learner feedback through the lesson. feedback through the lesson.
Teacher adjusts the lesson content in ● Teacher doesn’t adjust the lesson
content
response to learners. in response to learners.
The teacher is working at his/her ● The teacher is working at the pace of the
own pace. learners.
Comments: The teacher has developed
teaching experiences that almost cater
to the needs of all students. He has built
solid relationships with his students
through informal conversations.

The learners

Learners are generally engaged. ● Learners are generally not engaged.

Learners are largely passive. ● Learners take an active role in lesson.

Learners are mainly obeying ●
Learners are largely autonomous.
instructions.
Participation levels are roughly ●
Some learners dominate.
balanced
Comments: Almost all of the learners are generally engaged and follow the instructions.
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OBSERVATION TASK 5 Options and decisions
The term ‘classroom management’ refers to the moment-by-moment decisions
made and actions taken by the teacher in class, e.g. writing on the board, giving
instructions, organising the class into pairs, etc. For every decision made, there
will have been other options that the teacher did not choose.
For each of the following headings:
1 note one example of a classroom situation in the lesson you are observing.
What does the teacher do?
2 note one or two other options that the teacher had at that point in the lesson,
but did not choose.

Example: Dealing with unexpected problems

Situation: A student arrived twelve minutes late for the lesson.
Action: Teacher said ‘hello’ politely. (The student then sat down quietly
and found out what was going on from his neighbour.)
Other options: Teacher could have asked why the student was late. Teacher could
have pointed out the time to the student.
Student participation in lesson Situation: One of
the students didn’t participate actively during the
lesson.
Action: The teacher asked two questions to encourage the student to speak.
Other options: The teacher could have asked more questions in order to create an atmosphere
in which the learner could speak and participate better.

Grouping of students; arrangement of seating

Situation: Students sat in the same place from the beginning till
the end of the class. They didn’t have any pair or group works.
Action: The teacher didn’t make any arrangements for students’ pair or group work and they
practiced the lessons individually during the lesson.
Other options: Teacher could have changed the seating arrangement or could have asked the
learners to have a pair or group work.

Setting up activities; instructions

Situation: One of the students started talking about his
thesis defense in the beginning of the class in which
almost everyone participated.
Action: The teacher didn’t set a time boundary for the warm up activity. And the speaking
lasted for half an hour.
Other options: The teacher could have managed the time and limit the warm up activity.

Board; classroom equipment; visual aids

Situation: The class is lacking devices like TV and CD
player.
Action: The teacher used his own laptop.
Other options: He could have asked the manager for a video projector in order to provide the
students with a better visual aid.
Dealing with unexpected problems
Situation: the registration manager came to the
class and asked two learners to go to the office
because of their photos.
Action: One of the learners wanted to go at the end of the class, but the teacher said that, they’d
better go now.
Other options: Teacher could have asked his colleague to have the students photo at the end of
the class, because it disturbs the learners’ concentration.

Teacher’s role and participation

Situation: One of the students had lots of mistakes
during his speaking.
Action: The teacher ignored to correct the learner’s mistakes.
Other options: Teacher could have taken notes and correct the mistakes later in order not to
distract the learner.
Other notes about the lesson: Overall the class was useful and almost all of the students
participated. The teacher was knowledgeable but in my point of view his poor time management
effected the class’s lesson plan.
OBSERVATION TASK 6 How can a teacher influence the learning environment?
The table lists some ways a teacher can influence the environment in which
students learn. Choose a few of these headings (four or five is probably enough).
Observe and make detailed notes about what the teacher does/doesn’t do to help
learning. Where possible, note specific concrete examples of techniques, e.g.
what precisely does the teacher do to help create a warm classroom atmosphere?
Aspects of the learning
environment The teacher’s role

Classroom atmosphere The teacher can help establish and maintain an appropriate, warm,
focused working atmosphere.
Organisation The teacher can take an active role in organising how time, space,
materials, etc. are used.
Encouragement and The teacher can provide positive, realistic support and
support; promoting encouragement to take an active role.
participation
Promoting guided The teacher can elicit answers, construct questions, offer partial
discovery examples, encourage hypotheses, etc. that lead the students to work
out answers for themselves.
Presenting content The teacher can explain, lecture, answer questions, etc. on areas
information of the learning content.
Provision of samples Instructions, comments, questions, stories, etc. in the target
of language language provide language exposure for the learners.
Materials and tasks The teacher can propose, suggest or select what work is done in
class and the texts and other materials used.

Monitoring The teacher can monitor what is happening in class.

Informative feedback The teacher can offer objective information that may help the
learning process; for example, information about errors made,
information about how language is formed or used, information
about how a task was performed, suggestions for future work, etc.
The teacher can notice and help to draw attention to progress made,
problems encountered, etc.
Habit of learning As part of a regular timed lesson, the teacher can help provide a
sense of form, regularity and concreteness to an otherwise more
formless learning process.
Selecting, packaging The teacher can plan that new material is met and worked with in
and grading ways that students may find more manageable than if they had to
deal with the entire language in one go.
Structuring and The teacher can suggest or help select what to study and how to
sequencing organise the programme of learning and the shape of individual
lessons.
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Authority The teacher can use her authority where appropriate, e.g. to make
decisions, to close activities or discussions, to require certain actions
from individuals, etc.
Raising awareness The teacher can ask questions, give information or do other things
that help learners to notice areas they may otherwise not have been
aware of.
These may be to do with the subject being studied or about other
things, e.g. about themselves and their way of learning, their
relationships with other students or their behaviour.
Guidance and direction The teacher can use her knowledge and experience where
appropriate to counsel, guide and direct individuals.
Learner training The teacher can raise learners’ awareness about their own process of
learning and can suggest ways they could become more efficient and
effective learners.
Democracy and The teacher can help ensure that all students are equally respected
personal responsibility and their views and working styles equally valued and catered for.
The teacher can make efforts to allow students to stay at the centre
of their own learning and not resign ownership to the teacher or
other members of the class.
Natural motivation The teacher can work to allow natural motivation to flower – and
especially take care not to get in its way or otherwise prevent it!

Areas chosen The teacher’s role – comments

Organisation Although the teacher is so knowledgeable, he cannot manage the time
and the pace of the lesson is a little slow.

Structuring and First the teacher asked the learners to open the specific page of the
sequencing book, after that they did the listening part and the teacher taught that
pages by all details and at the end he gave some resource book’s name
for improving their English knowledge.

Informative feedback During the lesson the teacher gave some information to help the
learning process. He gave listening tips and some difficult words on
the board. He explained listening skills very understandably and
simply, with all details.
Classroom atmosphere The teacher creates a positive classroom atmosphere. So students
learn better. He builds motivation and confidence among the
learners although the learners are from different ages (teen, young
and middle aged).

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OBSERVATION TASK 7 The learners
This task may help you to see a lesson from a student’s point of view.
As you arrive in the classroom, choose (privately!) one student to focus on in
your observation. Watch this student throughout the lesson and make notes
under the headings below.

A Choose a random two-minute period. Write a narrative description of what

he/she is doing. He is wearing a mask because of his headache, his book
is open, he is speaking with the teacher about the education system in our
country. It seems like he enjoys the class.

B Choose a random two-minute period. Write a narrative description of what

you imagine he/she is thinking/feeling. Having a sense of belonging is a
common experience and I believe he feels a sense of belonging in the class.
In my point of view, he thinks that although I have headache, coming to
the class was a good idea. Because I learned some useful tips about
listening which I would miss if |I didn’t attend the class.

C Towards the end of the lesson, write the student’s own description of
what has happened in the lesson. Have you enjoyed it? Have you
learned something? What helped you? What would you have preferred?
What worried you, annoyed you, hindered you? How are you feeling?
I found the class helpful. The teacher’s explanations are clear and tips
about listening part are thorough. There is a positive learning
environment in the class. But I am annoyed about
wasting our half an hour just for class discussion.

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OBSERVATION TASK 8 Errors and correction
Note down some student errors. Categorise each error (e.g. wrong tense, wrong
phoneme, meaning unclear, etc.). Describe in detail what happened.
Error: I am agree.
Type of error: unnecessary word
Indication/correction: The teacher held up three fingers (to represent the three
words of the sentence) and then ‘picked out’ and ‘threw away’ the middle
finger. The student looked puzzled, then said the sentence again without the
middle word. The teacher acknowledged this correct sentence with a smile and
said ‘Good’. The student seemed to not quite believe that this was now a correct
sentence. He repeated ‘I agree’.
Error: Give me that pen.
Type of error: rude
Indication/correction: not commented on or dealt with
Some considerations:
• Did anyone notice that there was an error?
Who? • Did anyone indicate that there was an
• Did the teacher do anything? error?Who?
• Did the student do anything? • Did anyone correct the error? Who?
• Did the other students do anything? Who? • How was it corrected?

Error: he employed.
Type of error: verb form error
Indication/correction: The teacher corrected it immediately and said that, he was employed.

Error: enthusiasm
Type of error: wrong pronunciation
Indication/correction: The teacher correct it immediately and pronounced it correctly.

Error: Because of this if the government don’t pay enough money to us.
Type of error: subject – verb agreement error
Indication/correction: The teacher didn’t deal with it.
 During the lesson:
I noticed: The teacher ‘s phone rang when one of the students were speaking and
he took his phone from his pocket and answered.

and I wondered: After hearing his mobile ring, he could have turned it
off.

I noticed: When the teacher was listening to one of the learners who had many mistakes
during his speaking, he ignored his mistakes.

and I wondered: The teacher could have taken notes during the student’s speaking and he
could have corrected most of the mistakes.

I noticed: During the listening part the teacher gave some very useful tips about it, which I
haven’t heard before,

and I wanted to ask you: If you could recommend some helpful tips about listening and the
other skills. Because as I notice you are so knowledgeable.
OBSERVATION TASK 10 Stolen goods
Note several things that you would like to ‘steal’ from the teacher and the lesson
in order to make them part of your own teaching, i.e. personal qualities, teaching
skills and techniques, activities, classroom atmosphere. Finally, choose
something you feel you would like to give this teacher in return for your many
thefts.

Stolen item 1
Description of item: The class finished and the teacher picked his laptop and got ready to go,
at the same time one of the learners asked him some questions and he explained it thoroughly.
I stole this because: In order to be a great teacher it is very important to be kind enough to
answer the students’ questions even after the class time.

Stolen item 2
Description of item: Explaining all difficult words and everything which is needed during
lesson.
I stole this because: Some of the students are shy or some may be impatient to ask the words
which they do not know.

Stolen item 3
Description of item: Good knowledge of the subject matter
I stole this because: Because teachers who have comprehensive knowledge of their subject
matters, are aware of the problems the students counter while learning. So they are ready for
any questions put by the students and the answers these teachers provide are not evasive or
ambiguous.

Stolen item 4
Description of item: Using the board
I stole this because: Students can learn and remember the lessons easily and can keep them in
their mind for a long time, also it helps the teacher to teach some lessons very understandably.

Stolen item 5
Description of item: The teacher builds a good relationship with his students by treating them
the way they would like to be treated.
I stole this because: Developing positive relationships between a teacher and a student is a
fundamental aspect of quality teaching and it maximizes the learning potential of all students.

Gift
I’d like to give you: To starting the lesson by reviewing prior lessons and asking some questions
about that lesson.
I think you’d like this because: Reviewing the previous lessons are very important and is often
a wonderful opportunity to consolidate everything your students have learned.