Classroom Observation Report

Observer's Name: Ebtihaj Abdullah

Date of Observation: 20-10-2014 on Monday Time of Observation: 10-11am

Class Information

Name of School: The First Secondary school in Abha (Female)

Class/Grade: Second grade Secondary school (Natural Sciences section)

Number of students: 27

Objectives of Observation

To describe instructions, environment and management of the classroom in general

and the use of CALL in particular and its impacts on language learning.

General information about the school

The First Secondary School is considered to be the oldest secondary school for female

in Abha, It is the first school adopts some modern educational systems such as Credit

System(1), also it starts to insert e-learning as an important element in the educational

process.

Actually, when I was taking some photos

from inside the building I have been

attracted by a classroom that contains

adequate equipments as smart board,

projectors, computers and it was arranged

as hall or meeting room, I asked the

teacher who inside the room about it and

she reports that this room is for new project

concerns e-learning which is called live

broadcasting education, through this

system classes can be arranged between this school and other outside schools or

educational institutions. I couldn’t take photos or detailed information about this

project because the teacher who is in charge told me that it must be remained

confidential till they have permission to apply it. Furthermore, this school uses other

impressive online system which enables students to communicate with each other and

their teachers by chatting room and to submit their assignments and exams which is

called Classera.(2)

Moreover, the school have a big lab which is divided into two rooms from inside,

one room is for cooperative learning while the other is for individual learning, that

both of them contains computers and projectors.

Cooperative learning room Individual learning room

This lab contains library which is rich of valuable books in different areas and also it

has CDs and video tapes which are related to the presentation of some courses. The

teacher who is responsible of this lab provides me

of some information about the strategy of using

the lab by teachers and students that if the teacher

present some materials through the lab for

example power point presentation she has to give

her a copy of that presentation and it will be

available in the lab whenever the teacher or

students need it. She also states that this action

makes the lab as resource for both teacher and

students. When I asked her about the attitude of

the students toward the lab she confirms that they like taking classes in the lab

specially if they have access to the internet. She also said that most of students use the

lab because they have freedom to use computers and do their projects and researches.

Observation of the classroom

The teacher started the lesson by writing some questions on the board, and then she

asked the students if they watched the videos she has posted on Classera and they

confirmed they have seen the videos, they said that these videos were about the most

famous hotels around the world and she asked them to describe things that may hotels

have, they participated actively and answered her question. After that, she started

showing them the first video which was about ice hotel, she asked them to describe

things inside the hotels , their knowledge of vocabulary which is related to ice was

developed. The second video were about hotels that are placed in the sea and the third

video were about Capsule hotel in Japan and the last one described some weird hotels

in Brazil. She used the same strategy in explaining the forth videos that she made

them watch first and then she asked them their opinion if they like it or not and she

asked them to describe it and after that she read a paragraph about the same hotel

from their textbook and sometimes she asked students to read and she kept asking

them if they have difficult words. Actually, she avoided using Arabic to explain

meaning that she tried to use the words in another sentence or to use gestures or facial

expressions and the students provided the meaning in Arabic.

When she finished, she asked them one by one what is their opinion of the whole

units which was about travelling and setting in hotels. Most of them said that the

hotels in the unite they have never seen them before and they like the content of the

unite.

At the end of the class she asked them to write down the questions which were written

at the beginning of the class on the board and to answer them in a small paragraph,

these question were about their opinions of the hotels in the unite and about their

descriptions that would be thier assignment for the next class.

In general, the level of students' language were impressive, this includes their

knowledge of vocabulary, their reading comprehension and fluency. I asked the

teacher about their achievements of assignments and exams, she said that they have a

convincing level, they are always active during the class, she observed that they have

strong will to learn the language, and I asked her what may stimulate this desire, she

claimed that they want to learn the language because they are aware of the status of

English in the world. Further, she tries to use CALL as medium of instruction, from

her experience she told me that she noticed the students' enthusiasm toward using

Classera specifically for exams in, she reported that they achieve high marks.

According to the students' interview, they were full of energy after the class, they said

that they want all the classes of other courses hold the same strategy of using video

aids rather than power point presentations which are boring as they believe because it

help to change the routine of the classes. They also demonstrated a convenient

satisfaction about Classera, they like to chat with their teachers about their

assignments and exams. I asked them what kind of technology they want to have

during learning, they all mentioned using cell phones, and iPods. They also said that

they wish they could have courses that depend on using application such as Twitter

and Instagram.

Although, the students and the teachers complain about regular technical problems,

which as they said interrupt the process of learning.

In general, the class was significant and the teacher succeeded to create encouraging

class environment for the students which help to enhance their language learning.

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