New Forms of Observation for New Forms of Teaching (TESOL SPAIN 2015)

NEW FORMS OF

OBSERVATION FOR

NEW FORMS OF

TEACHINGDavid Lind

http://www.britishcouncil.org

https://todaysmeet.com/te

sol


NEW ROUTES IN ELT


What comes to mind when you hear the word

“observation”? https://www.facebook.com/davidlind.elt


NUMBER OF OBSERVED LESSONS

1990-2015

AS OBSERVEE AS OBSERVER

60 40

https://todaysmeet.com/tesol


PROS AND CONS

"We teach in a way that minimalises risk taking and

highlights the buzzword EFL wisdom of the moment

that our managers have felt to be the latest way to

up quality in the classroom.” - an EFL teacher in

Spain

source:

http://doodle.com/fqczqkgkyi3kmv88



BEYOND TRENDS

L2 input

“Is there a lot of input, so as to optimise the chances of repeated encounters with language items, and of incidental learning?”

source: https://scottthornbury.wordpress.com/



https://scottthornbury.wordpress.com/


PROS AND CONS

“I felt (and still feel) that I was not myself when I wasbeing observed. I continuously felt the pressure ofbeing observed by the [supervising] teacher on oneend, and the students on the other. In trying to beacceptable to both, I seemed to lose all focus on thelearning demands of the students.”

– Vidya, CanadaRichards and Farrell (2011: 91)


“I have an observation on Tuesday and I would say Iput in ten times the prep time.”

– Maria, inSpain


Prep time“For me the number is somewhere between 8-10

times, simply because I always seem to creatematerials for the observation in an effort to lift oradapt the course material, which I wouldn’t normallydo.”

– Jacob, in Spain

PEER OBSERVING

“I think that I have learned more from

observing other teachers than from being

observed myself. Observing others means

you can learn from their mistakes and from

the wonderful things that you see them do in

the class.” – Harry

source:

http://doodle.com/fqczqkgkyi3kmv88http://www.britishcouncil.org



Yes:24 No:5

Not sure:3


TWO SCENARIOS

Spain Uruguay

SCENARIO A: NATIVE SPEAKER

ASSISTANTS


source: http://comoconsultingspain.com/a-day-in-the-life-of-an-auxiliar-what-teaching-is-like-for-a-language-and-

culture-assistant/

SCENARIO A


“I teach English, Science and Arts

and Craft in a public school. The

students are 11 years old, 6th grade

of Primary School. We are working

on a bilingual project, and there are

some [native] assistants with us.”

- Marta, in Madrid

SCENARIO A


“Most assistants aren’t trained

teachers and are often

undergraduate university students

who do the year abroad as part of

their course.”

- James, former assistant

CO-TEACHING

How does the presence of native teaching

assistants in the room influence your teaching

experience?

“In one hand, assistants are a very helpful

resource in order to have a clear and accurate

model of language. ” -Marta

OBSERVATION

Have you been observed?

“No, I haven´t. I think it would be necessary

because I guess that everybody needs

feedback to know if what you´re doing is

correct, but...no one comes to see you in the

class.” -Marta


CO-TEACHING

Did you feel supported by the teachers?

“Yeah, they were excellent. They were very

friendly and helpful ” -James

OBSERVATION

“I wasn’t ever observed” -James


SCENARIO B: PLAN CEIBAL


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-2lJdutHAw 4:38-

6:15

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-2lJdutHAw


Can a teacher who doesn’t speak English teach

English?https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hNBhEv_4ZpU 3:32

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hNBhEv_4ZpU

OBSERVATION OF CEIBAL

LESSONSThe content covered in each remote

lesson is reinforced by two follow-up

lessons taught exclusively by the

classroom teacher.

OBSERVATION STRUCTURE

Mentors

OBSERVATION CRITERIA

“Does she still try to use the target language as much as

possible being aware that she might and will make

mistakes?” –Alfred

“Does she/he help build a learning environment (by

setting up billboards, signs, using classroom language

regardless of her pronunciation)?” –Joanne

“I would say the best thing a CT does is to show sts how

to learn, what habits a good learner has. CTs learn with

their kids so what they do is actually show kids how to

learn.” -José

REMOTE TEACHERS

REMOTE OBSERVATION

http://www.britishcouncil.uy/en/programmes/education/ceibal-en-

ingles


David Lind

Ceibal en Inglés

The British Council

https://www.facebook.com/davidlind.elt

References

Ceibal en Inglés subtitulado 2013 (video file) Available from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hNBhEv_4ZpU [1 February 2015]

Como Consulting Spain 2014 A Day in the Life of an Auxiliar Available from http://comoconsultingspain.com/a-day-in-the-life-of-an-auxiliar-what-teaching-is-like-for-a-language-and-culture-assistant/ [2 February 2015]

Richards, JC and Farrell T, 2011 Practice Teaching: A Reflective Approach

Thornbury, S 2015, S is for A-Z of ELT: SLA Available from https://scottthornbury.wordpress.com [26 February 2015]







SOURCES

Photographs:

Slide 2: http://instituto2005.org/2013/09/plan-ceibal-entrega-la-

ceibalita-numero-millon-en-escuela-publica-no-177/


http://instituto2005.org/2013/09/plan-ceibal-entrega-la-ceibalita-numero-millon-en-escuela-publica-no-177/

Education

New Forms of Observation for New Forms of Teaching (TESOL SPAIN 2015)