LESSON OBSERVATION REPORT 1

Teacher observed: Bernice Jan Level: 4A low intermediate Skills: Grammar / Vocabulary / Speaking Number of Students: 05(five)

Date: 25 Jan 2011

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Observer: Karla Rebecca Campos

1. What do you think worked in the class? The teacher observed had great organizational skills and a very clear and concise lesson plan. For that reason, not only were the stages of the lesson clear, but its content and topics were of easy comprehension. One important feature of this lesson was that the addressed themes were all connected to each other somehow, allowing both students and teacher to refer back to any of the stages presented. In addition to that, most of the exercises selected for that one lesson were well designed and would have worked perfectly for any lower-intermediate level revising previously taught vocabulary through games, using reading exercises to teach vocabulary and contextualization, role-plays and more importantly, freer and/or open conversation activities. The observed teacher also made good use of ICQs and was constantly asking students for feedback, allowing TTT to be lower than STT which was successfully achieved by lots of S-S interaction during the whole lesson. Monitoring was also present in 80% of the lesson.

2. Things that could have been improved Even though the lesson seemed to be well designed, timing was a one of the main concerns. Most of the activities that were planned for the controlled and freer stage of the lesson had to be interrupted by lack of time allowing lots of gaps between one topic and the other. Boardwork, which is one of the features of an effective lesson, was also to be improved in what concerns organization of ideas and information: for instance, it would be easier if students could see different information in different colors to emphasize the relevance of something.

3. How would you do differently? Overall, the observed teachers lesson combined all the important features of an ideal ESL lesson. However, some of the objectives of the lesson were not reached. In terms of timing, as a teacher, I would have chosen less complicated activities, which would demand less instruction time and more learners production, avoiding gaps bet ween stages. In other words, instead of interrupting one of the topics which students were engaged in, it would be more productive to just allow them to work and finish the lesson rather than start a new one.

All in all, the lack of dynamism in the lesson was compensated by a variety of activities that would allow a great deal of conversation and target language production in class. It was easy to notice the natural pace of delivery from the teacher and total comprehension from learners. It was definitely a good example of a successful ESL lesson plan and delivered lesson.