OBSERVATION WRITE UP

Introduction

During my teaching experience at Wedamulla Maha Vidyalaya, I conducted two observations, peer observation and experienced teacher observation as a requirement to complete the Internship. Given below is the description of the two observations.

Experienced Teacher Observation

The experienced teacher observation was conducted on 24^th of October 2019 from 12:10 to 12:45 p.m. The observation was focused on grade 6 B class. The teacher conducted the lesson “A visit to the zoo” from the text book focusing on the learning point “Developing vocabulary: opposites”. The lesson included two activities from the textbook, “fill in the blanks activity” and “a puzzle”.

The teacher started the lesson with a brainstorming activity allowing the students to participate actively in the classroom. The lead in activity of the lesson helped the teacher to introduce the students to the lesson and the students to activate their prior knowledge. The teacher drew pictures on the white board and asked students to explain them. Hence, the teacher was well prepared for the lesson.

The teacher always tried to explain the students in their target language in order to make them comprehend the meaning of certain words. For example to explain the word, “noisy” teacher used sentences like “the class is noisy when there’s no teacher in class”. Moreover, the teacher used different gestures and facial expressions to explain the meaning of the words like, happy – sad, up – down, left – right. I learned that these teaching techniques facilitate to develop students’ vocabulary knowledge.

However, I think that the teacher could have used collaborative tasks in the classroom. The teaching practices that the teacher used were limited to traditional teaching methods and only a few students engaged actively in the activities.

Peer Observation

The peer teacher observation was conducted on 24^th of October 2019 from 09:10 to 09:55 a.m. The observation was focused on grade 8 B class. The teacher conducted the lesson “It’s a small world” from the textbook focusing on the learning point “Developing vocabulary: reading comprehension”. The lesson included a reading activity (Activity 8.8 – Pg. 93) from the textbook. The reading activity was based on seven diary entries.

The teacher conducted the lesson as a whole class activity. The students were interested in the lesson material that was used to improve vocabulary. For example, pictures were used teach different expressions of feelings like sad, tired, happy, etc. The teacher used different teaching techniques to teach reading punctuation in order to practice fluency. Moreover, the teacher maintained a good control over the class and it was a balanced classroom.

I observed that the teacher used pictures to describe vocabulary related to feelings. It was an interesting method of teaching and the students were also motivated to answer the questions. However, the whiteboard were used to demonstrate these pictures, as a result the teacher could not use the whiteboard in the reading activity to give instructions when it was required. Hence, I think that it is important to adjust the lesson material according the classroom.

Furthermore, I think it could have been better if the teacher conducted the reading passages individually or as group/pair work because some of the students did not follow the instructions and listen attentively.

The teacher used a well prepared lesson plan with interesting activities to teach the relevant language skills and functions related to the lesson.

Conclusion
Overall, I could obtain both positive and negative aspects through experienced and peer teacher observations. Furthermore, this provided me a better understanding of the manner in which I should evolve as a teacher.