Observation Residencia

8/12/2019 Observation Residencia

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IES N 4 R. S. ORTIZPractica y Residencia

Juste, Marianela Castillo, Melisa4rd year

Prof. Mara de los Ros de Janikow

2014


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IES N4 R. S. ORTIZ RESIDENCIAJuste, Marianela Soledad Castillo, Melisa

2014

INTRODUCTION

How is English as a foreign language taught at secondaryschool? How is the organization of the teaching-learning process?

What is the development of the lessons like? In order to answer these

questions we have observed 7th grade at Escuela N 12 Bernardo

Monteagudo, 2nd , 3rd, 4th and 5th year at Colegio Secundario N2

Francisca T.de Rocha Solorzano.

In this report, we present an objective and comprehensive

picture of those classes. It is not intended to test or criticize the

teachers performance but to analyse and learn about the way the

classes take place.

We have taken into account the classroom layout, the teachers

management, the students interests and the class itself. Being in a

class gave us the opportunity to reflect about our future role as

teachers. Moreover, this experience was worth doing because it

showed and taught us that teaching is more than being in front of a

class.

Teaching is closely related to being responsible not only for the

students learning but also for their lives, as each of them will

eventually be able to use the different topics that were learnt in our

classes.

It is important to mention that because of the inconveniences

during the year in which the observations took place, a teacher from

3rdyear did not allow us to proceed with the scheduled observation of

her classes due to the lack of time holidays had left her with, and

another teacher from 1styear was absent for that day.


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Finally, as observers we could see how we are going to manage

a class properly and how to put into practice all the learning we have

received in our training to be a teacher. In addition to this, these

experiences show us that there are many important points to bear inmind when doing our practice and residence.


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SETTING

The classes we have observed have an average number of

students of 24, -with the exception of 7thgrade, which had about 35

children- having approximately 65% of students being girls in all

courses. Most of the classes lasted about 80 minutes, with the

exceptions of 7thgrade that lasted 90 minutes more or less including

break-time, and 4to year that lasted half period.

Both institutions are public but the first (Esc. Monteagudo) is

only a primary school, while the latter (Secundario Solorzano) is a

secondary school. Everything has been taken into account, from the

classrooms facilities, to the students motivation and attitude towards

English and the teacher.

What is more, taking into account the aspects of the

classrooms, they both are in very good conditions. Although Escuela

Monteagudo is known for being a respected institution - therefore it

shows a very tidy and clean organization Secundario Solorzano also

shows a very well designed and tidy administration of space and

order.

Firstly, the layout of the classrooms in Escuela Monteagudo was

in rows. Inopportunely, there was not enough room for the teachers

and the students to move around the classroom because of the

overwhelming population, which made the teachers monitoring task

very hard. On the other hand, Secundario N2 had an average sized

classroom with enough space for students to work together, but not

for the teacher to monitor or walk around.

Secondly, the classroom we visited at Monteagudo was really

dirty because students were about to go home. Walls were well kept


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and had pictures on them showing elementary knowledge like

numbers, nouns and days of the week; light was adequate for the

blackboard, which was very large. In Secundario N2, the classroom

seemed tidy and the walls were also in good conditions but showedno pictures. Light was good enough for there were windows that

allowed more light for the classroom. There were also windows at

Monteagudo School but they were covered with curtains.

The classrooms weve visited had two ceiling fans each.

Granting most students in Secundario N2 seemed to have the

governments net-books, there were no modems or AP in theclassroom we observed. Nor did they seem to have Wi-Fi.

Finally, it is worth mentioning that during one of the

observations in Secundario N2 was difficult to start with the class

because students were trying to redeem their grades by re-doing

their tests, which took around 45 minutes of the class.


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OBSERVATION OF A 7THGRADE

1.THETEACHER

The teacher was a young woman who was very efficient atmaintaining a good management of the classroom. Moreover, she had

this soothing voice that could easily turn into a more demanding one

if needed, or if student happened to misbehave. Although she was

dressed up as a teacher and behaved as one, she did not noticed that

her face was tainted with green dust from the chalk she was using,

which made her look as if she had been beaten. Nevertheless, she

was very clean and tidy not only with her person, but also with herlesson.

2.THELEARNERSThe learners consisted in blissful children who were eager not

only to learn, but also show themselves off. Their excitement for

activities that included playing, talking, singing or moving was

present from the very beginning or the class, until it concluded.

Moreover, so many of them would raise their hands to participate in

class that it was hard for the teacher to pick one up. Yet, there were

some boys and girls at the back who seemed very shy up raise their

hands, but when an exercise was checked orally they would speak

loud along with the class.

3.THE

LESSON

The class started on time. The teacher started her lesson with a

very active warming up in which she made her students find the

school objects that she had taught in order to make a quick review of

classroom objects. Moving on, she greeted her students and asked

them for the date and weather, to which the students would almost

scream to answer first. This resulted in a choral answer in which

some mispronunciation was omitted. A girl was asked to stand up and


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write the date and weather on the blackboard, and then the teacher

came to us to explain that this class was intended to teach the ABC

Song.

In order to develop the presentation, the teacher wrote

the ABC on the blackboard with a piece of chalk, and below each

letter she would write the phonetics symbols as well. Spanish was

used in order to explain the students what the symbols represented,

some rules about the ABC in Spanish and the fact that some letters

we commonly use in Spanish do not exist in English, such as .

Then she started singing it in a very enthusiastic way.

She had this facility to look for examples of the sounds students

could not pronounce, like for example dz in jeans.

Regardless of how vivid and enthusiastic the students were with

things that were not related to the class, she managed to keep their

attention by asking students to repeat the song. Furthermore, there

was a particular student who seemed ahead of the rest but she

wasnt bored with the class, nor she would misbehave.

Firstly, she made them repeat the song chorally. Then she

asked to repeat it in groups which she would point at random.

However, some of them were left behind because they would still be

copying the ABC from the blackboard.

She would always encourage children to participate, focusingmainly in the pronunciation of the letters. Whenever she students

misbehaved, the teacher would threaten them by saying that there

would be no break-time.

It is important to say that during that class no student was seen

using their cellphone, but they did talk a lot. We would later be told

that it is part of Monteagudos policy that students cannot bring


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cellphones with them; otherwise that Institution is not responsible for

what it may happen to it.

Immediately the practice stage was developed. She wrote the

first activity on the blackboard while turning her back on the students

who would seize this opportunity to start chatting.

This time students had to complete a chart within the ABC

letters, following a rubric that stated write the letter in the correct

group. It was a nice activity because it made students think about

the sounds which had a similar ending. After that she asked them to

copy the ABC in their folders. If a task was not very clear for them,she would use Spanish to explain it.

Likewise, students would mimic the teacher and whenever she

explained a task, they would answer O.K. and Very good. These

structures among with the ways teacher would pronounce a letter or

words was imitated by the students.

After 10 minutes or so, the teacher asked if there was a

volunteer for the first activity, so a girl stood up to write her answers

on the chart. Her answers would be checked orally with the whole

class, who were also asked to raise their thumbs if an answer was

correct. Most of the students who volunteered were girls. Thus, boys

were called by the teacher.

Checking this activity took a considerable amount of time.Nonetheless, by the time they had finished the bell that indicated

break-time rang. We waited outside with the teacher who started

chatting with us about her experience in teaching when she was

younger. She gave us this amazing advice that we had never took

into account before: it is better to write on the blackboard for your

students than handing in copies, that way you not only keep them

busy and you can check for example the attendance, but also youforce them to practice the written aspect of English.


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When break-time was over, students entered the classroom

without them being called to. They sat and it was time for the next

activity which was a similar game in which the students had to circle

the odd sound. Consequently, the teacher wrote on the blackboardanother sort of chart and explained the meaning of odd using

Spanish. Discovering the odd sounds had a purpose: to fill in an

incomplete sentence that stated E _ _ _ _ _ _ is fun.

After some minutes were given, random students were called to

check the activity in front of the classroom. Though the teacher would

call random students, there were a lot of them who were raising their

hands willing to participate. The tougher task was not the activity

itself, but choosing a student without having another complaining

about not being chosen.

Once they unhide the sentence, some of them laughed because

they already knew English was the word. Alas, they moved on to

the last activity which was a game called bingo. As it is known, this

game consisted on checking if you have the numbers that are given.

Therefore, the teachers made her students to design their own bingo

cards using ink so that they wouldnt be able to cheat.

However, the ABC was used instead of numbers. Since the

teachers explanations were quite simple and understandable, the

game started with problems. What is more, children paid attention

and were eager to participate. The teacher would say a letter fromthe ABC and write it down on her note block, but the game was

interrupted by a principal who came to notify those students who

carried the flag for an act. When the principal left, the game resumed

and a winner appeared.

Since the class was about to finish, a last minute game was

proposed and the class accepted to play. They were divided into 3

teams: blue, purple and red team. Students already knew how to


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divide themselves into three groups, so there was no indication from

the teacher needed. The game consisted on spelling their names

correctly in turns, and for every correct spelled name a team scored a

point. With no time left to keep playing, the final result was a drawbetween the three teams.

In a hurry, the teacher said good-bye to them and the

Headmistress in charge entered the classroom. She gave an speech

about how she hoped the student behavior represented the values

that are taught in the Institution, and how pleased they were to have

us the trainee teachers observing them. Both, the Headmistress

and the students saluted us and prepared to leave.

Finally, the teacher had to take care of the children even when

they were leaving the school as English was the last subject of the

morning.

OBSERVATION OF

A 1RDYEAR

1.THETEACHERThe teacher was a woman who had a strong and loud voice

which allowed her to have a better control of the class. All students

seemed to respect her a lot, but they would still challenge her

authority. Moreover, she could engage rapidly conversations with her

students but unfortunately 50% of her speech has made using

Spanish or translation. However, she remembered all her students

last names and called them using mister or miss. On the other

hand, she would rarely motivate her students, or encourage them to

use English. Finally, she would also yell at those students who would

misbehave during the class. Her only resources were her book -

Whats up?Starter but apparently they had not used it up to now.

2.THELEARNERS


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These students were teenagers who would hardly laugh or

make noises. Furthermore, they were too scared to challenge the

teachers authority. There was agroup of girls sitting at the back of

the classroom who were very talkative, but only when the teacherwas distracted. The rest were the average kind of student. Finally,

their English was very Spanish-like.

3.THELESSONThe teacher greeted the students who would answer back after

standing up. This class was in fact a test day. Therefore, the teacher

split them before handing in the papers. Likewise, she told them whatthey were supposed to do, using Spanish. Then, she wrote the date

and weather condition on the blackboard. The test was about

numbers, days of the week, months and seasons.

She started to monitor the class, and while doing so she

reminded them that the days of the week and months are written

using capital letters at the begging of each word. However, she would

use Spanish instead of English.

Students would hardly ever speak, unless they would need

something like a corrector pen in which case they would ask a

classmate, using Spanish.

While the class was doing the test, students showed that they

hadnt studied, and so they asked their teacher for help. However,she reminded them that they had to keep quiet and think for

themselves.

Having passed thirty minutes, one student gave up and handed

in a test that from afar seemed to be very incomplete. Nevertheless,

the teacher asked him to quickly review his own test, for he wouldnt

be allowed to complain later. The student reacted by handing in his

test anyways.


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Some of the students at the back were trying to cheat by

looking their folder, but it was useless since the teacher noticed it.

They even made up silly comments to distract the teacher, like

profe, el Alvaro tiene machete.

Having only fifteen minutes left, they started to hurry and the

whole classroom went silent. Since they were having difficulties in

finishing the tests, there was no noise of people writing. With no time

left, the teacher asked for the students to hand in their exams; while

some of them did, others demanded more time but when the teacher

exclaimed she was not receiving any more papers, they handed in

theirs.

Students seemed unsatisfied not only with the test, but also

with their performance. After the teacher said good-bye to them and

asked them to clean whatever they have left dirty or untidy, they left

with a long-face.

OBSERVATION OF

A 3RDYEAR

1.THETEACHERThe teacher was a young woman who had a soft voice but still

was able to control her class. She was tall and thin; none of the

students were taller than her. Moreover, she could rapidly interact

with her students but unfortunately she would do it using Spanish

most of the time. Likewise, she remembered all her students last

names. On the other hand, she would motivate her students by

making use of her voice and complimenting them, but she would also

offer some punishments for those students who were misbehaving.

Her only resources were her book - Whats up? - of which she

selected the copies with which her students were going to work.


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Lastly, she would allow participation of the students, but most of the

time is has her lecturing.

2.THELEARNERSThe students were very noisy teenagers; they would hardly

ever stop laughing or making noises. Furthermore, they would

challenge the teachers authority as much as they could. There was a

group of girls sitting in front of the teacher who would participate in

the class, while the rest had to be called to come to the front or to

respond some question. Their English was very Spanish-like, as they

would not say, for example, the days of the week in English butinstead they would read it as if it was Spanish.

3.THELESSONThe teacher greeted the students who would answer back after

standing up. They were about 22 students of which 10 were girls.

This was a special class because most of the students had failed their

previous exams and the trimester was coming to an end. Therefore,

the teacher offered them 45 minutes to correct their own exams.

Then, she introduced us in Spanish, and also used it to explain why

they would have to re-do the wrong answers in their exams.

When the students got very noisy, she again used Spanish to

threaten them. Likewise, some instructions like open your folders

are given in Spanish.

To continue with the test, she did not separate them, nor did

she ask some of them to switch their seats. They would just stay in

their places. Once more, instructions like you must use a color pencil

different from black or blue were given using Spanish. The test

covered up the topics Present Simple and Present Continuous.

While the class was doing the test, students once more gotnoisy and started to speak with each other. There were some


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students who had passed and so they were given homework to do in

class in order to keep them busy, but the rest of them would still talk

even though they were doing and exam. Alas, the teacher tried to

keep them quiet but they were too much for her.

Suddenly, two people interrupted the class to give a speech.

They were supposed to be in charge of some workshops and so, they

invited the students to come to a meeting on Saturday. Students

didnt pay much attention to them, so they left. Back to the test, the

teacher monitored them by walking around the classroom; the room

is big enough for her to walk freely. When one of the students

whistled, she reacted by threatening him to leave the classroom.

Most of the students at the back were playing or chatting

instead of doing the test. Some of them tried to cheat by looking

their folder, but it was useless since the teacher noticed it. They even

made up silly excuses to avoid doing the test like chalk dust makes

me sick.

When there were only fifteen minutes left, they started to

concentrate and the whole classroom went silent. Since they were

having difficulties in relating adverbs of frequency with the correct

tenses, she teacher decided to help them a little by, for example,

saying how the verb ended. Having those minutes passed, the

teacher asked for the students to hand in their exams; while some of

them did, others demanded more time but when the teacherexclaimed she was not receiving any more papers, they handed in

theirs.

Finally, the class started. She hadnt used the blackboard yet,

but when she did she wrote Revision and the date on the

blackboard. By now, she was using English to tell her students to sit

down. However, they were using translation to understand the

meanings of words; in this case the modal must in its affirmative,


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negative and interrogative form. Moreover, she asked for examples in

English, but she gave her lecture about how and when to use this

modal in Spanish. Furthermore, when she finished refreshing the

concept her students were supposed to know already, she gave aspeech again, using Spanish on how much effort should they put

in the next trimester, since theyve been a bit lazy on the previous

one.

Back to the class, she asked for more examples and got some

of her students to participate while others were only making jokes.

She even explains how to pronounce some words like talk. Once the

affirmative form was clear enough, she asked if you want to make a

question, where do you put must? and some of the students

answered out loud. However, their misbehavior once again

interrupted the class and the teacher was forced to threaten them to

swap seats unless they answer correctly. Although they were unable

to answer in a proper way, the teacher moved on with the lesson, but

this time the same misbehaving group had to turn an affirmative

sentence into a question as a punishment. With the help of their

classmates, they managed to turn the sentences into questions.

Then, the teacher explained that although must is not often used in

question, it is important that they know how to use it. This whole part

of the class, except of the exercises and what not, was given in

Spanish.

Then, she checked the time and wrote an activity. The rubric

stated circle the correct option and some sentences like you

must/mustnt drink a lot of water were given. Furthermore, she

made the class read the rubric and then she asked for the meaning,

to which they responded using translation. Once they had finished

the exercises, they used translation to check the answers with the

teacher.


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Finally, they were given homework from the copies of a book

which we would be told later it was Whats Up! and the students are

allowed to close their folders. The teacher did not call for the

attendance.

OBSERVATION OF

A 4thYEAR

1.THELESSONThe teacher was an old lady who was dressed in a proper way.

Her tone of voice was soft but she could manage with the students

very well. She had a good management of the classroom too.

Furthermore, her pronunciation was quite proper.

2.THELEARNERSThis group of adolescents of forth year was similar to the ones

of fifth year. They appeared to be eager to learn as they participated

and raised their hands when the teacher asked. The group was very

respectful. They addressed to the teacher calling her as Ms.

Moreover during the lesson they wanted to be listened by the

teacher.

3.THELESSONThe teacher entered the class and started greeting her

students, who stood up to greet her back. She asked a student to

write the date and weather and once the students had finished, she

stood up from her desk and started to resume what she had taught

during the past classes before the presentation of the new topic.

She then made questions about the previous topics so that

students could relate what they have seen and had a solid base on

which she could develop her class. Then she delivered a copy with the

heading of what does my school specialize in?


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She made her students read the text by turns, and later asked

if they had a question about the vocabulary. Spanish was used to

explain the meanings. Then she gave them questions about the text.

It seemed that they were practicing the present simple and

continuous. Teacher gave 15 minutes to finish the activity. She had a

good tone of voice and that was why adolescents seemed to feel

comfortable with the lesson.

After that, the teacher checked the activity on the blackboard.

Then she asked her students to open their book and complete the

activity that were related to present simple and continuous. Somestudents were quicker to finish the task; therefore, the teacher gave

those students extra activities.

Although it was a very short period, the lesson finished in a

proper way. However, there was no homework given, and production

stage was skipped because of the lack of time.

Finally, the teacher said goodbye to the students and left the

classroom first.

OBSERVATION OF

A 5THYEAR

1.THETEACHERThe teacher was a woman who had a very loud voice with which

she would call students attention immediately. She was very

interested in her students and would treat them as if they were her

children. Moreover, she would take care of herself, dress as a

professional and speak to people other than her students like a

professional. Finally, we can state that her whole presence embodied

the kind of teacher that those particular students needed.


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Also, it is important to point out that in terms of phonetics and

intonation, she was really skillful.

2.THELEARNERSThe students were the kind of teenagers that most teachers

would like to have. While they were very noisy sometimes, most of

the time they would pay real attention to their teacher and would

show real interest in her lectures. Even though they are supposed to

challenge older peoples authority, these students knew how much

they could misbehave before making their teacher angry, and if they

happened to anger her, they would stop misbehaving. Although oneof them was wearing earphones, we were close enough to notice that

she was not listening to music.

4.THELESSONAs soon as the teacher walked in, the whole class stood up. She

did not only greet us, but also asked them to greet us since we were

future teachers. Immediately, she introduced a new topic which

happened to be past continuous in its negative and interrogative

form, since it seemed they have already seen the affirmative form-

by drawing a timeline on the blackboard. In this timeline, she marked

some hours and started making question about what they were doing

at that time, for example, last Saturday. Since the teacher would use

English to teach the entire class, the students realized they couldnt

use Spanish, so when they answered using Spanish, they rapidly

translated their ideas and formed sentences.

There was a lot of laughter in the class, but the teacher was

wise enough to handle the noise without overwhelming her students.

To do this, she would only change her smiling face to a more serious

one, and use her loud voice to yell quiet! Why are you so noisy

today?


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Then, to keep her students busy, she would write some more

questions on the blackboard and ask random students to answer one

of them. Then she would pick one of them to write his/her answer on

the blackboard and so on.

It is important to mention that even though the teacher seemed

to have a great relationship with her students, she would not

remember their names and would either call them by their last names

or try to guess, which made students laugh a bit.

She continued asking questions and tried to made them see the

difference between actions they commonly do or dont- at a certainperiod of time and actions they were performing at a specific moment

in the past. This activity made them laugh even more because some

student had really funny things to say about what they were doing,

for example, last Saturday at 11 PM.

Moreover, some of them seemed to have difficulties when using

was or were, especially with the constructions such as my friends

and I because they would use was instead of were. So, the

teacher explained than when you have this kind of utterances, you

need to think it as a group, as a whole, so that my friends and I

would mean we and therefore, they should use were instead of

was.

Unfortunately, some of the students didnt catch the meaning of

this, so the teacher was forced to use Spanish. However, little

Spanish was needed for them to get the idea.

When her presentation concluded, she asked them to open the

folder and copy everything there was on the blackboard. Then she

would write the date and weather condition by herself.

She gave them about ten minutes to copy, and then she moved

on to the practice stage. The first activity consisted in half of a


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sentence that the students had to use in order to build up a new

sentence, using the theory they had just seen plus they one they

already knew. Although this seemed to be an individual activity,

students were allowed to work together as a whole group, so theywould use translation to help those students that couldnt understand

a sentence. This exercise took them about fifteen minutes and it was

checked orally; if some student were unable to answer correctly, the

entire class would help him/her out.

After this activity, came time for a written exercise. While the

teacher was writing the activities, students would call names at each

other and became really noisy again. Naturally, the teacher would

turn and yell quiet! with her demanding but caring voice. The rubric

was pretty simple, since it only stated order. Moreover, the exercise

was about ordering the sentences. However, there was no use of caps

or punctuation that could give hints of the order of each sentence.

Nevertheless, students would easily order the sentences in the

correct way. This would take them about fifteen minutes and it was

supposed to be checked orally, but a student complained that no

exercise had a number and that the teacher was being lazy. Thus, the

teacher laughed and asked that student to not only read his answer,

but also to write in on the blackboard. Still, she would use her

soothing voice to encourage the students, by saying excellent,

very good, and thank you.

Last activity was about filling in the blank, which a very simple

rubric that stated Write true sentences using Past Continuous. Once

again, the students got noisy while she was turning her back on them

to write the activities. Yet, she would join them by making jokes to

help them remember previous knowledge that would help them to fill

in those blanks.


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Finally, this last activity which took about fifteen minutes

was checked orally and students were allowed to close their folders

and prepare for the break. Before they left, the teacher handed them

some copies which she asked them to bring for next class, otherwisethey wouldnt be able to work. It is important to say that it was she

who paid for the copies.

She said goodbye, and so did her students. Then she would

stay with us telling us about how much she loved her work, how sad

it was to not be able to use internet, and how she managed to keep

students from using their cellphones in class, although she also said

she wasnt able to take a cellphone away from a student if he/she

misbehaved.


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CONCLUSION

By observing these classes, we have learnt a lot. One of the

things that we realized is that although we plan our class carefully,

there might be events that are unpredictable and we may not teach

what we have planned. That is why a teacher must be able to

manage any situation.

All these observations have changed our point of view, in

particular in our beliefs; they taught us that theory is important, but

more important than that is to know how to put it into practice.

Another thing that we have learnt is that we have to be ready to

enter the classroom not only with all the material and lessons

organized but also with enthusiasm and predisposition.

Moreover, it has also made us aware about all the responsibility

teachers have on students education and in their lives. This is to say

that teachers must take the time to think about teaching strategies

and interesting activities.

Finally, having in mind our desires of being good teachers we

paid attention to all the classes and observing them made us think

carefully about the importance of the teachers attitude, presentation,

motivation, encouragement and planning.

Documents

Observation Residencia