TESOL Certificate Programs

Observation Notebook

Observation Report Form

Name of Observer _John Quinteros__ Observation # _ 2 __

Date Observation Class Skill/Content Level Teacher
Environment*
8-14- Classroom Grammar College 300 Debbie Petersen
2017 446

*Include the URL if the class was online

WRITE THE OBJECTIVES ACCORDING TO THE OBSERVATION GUIDELINES:

-STUDENTS WILL BE ABLE TO DIFFERENTIATE THE USAGES OF THE ARTICLE A, AN,
AND THE BY CHOOSING THE CORRECT ARTICLE FOR EACH SENTENCE.
-STUDENTS WILL BE ABLE TO RECOGNIZE WHEN TO USE AN ARTICLE AND WHEN NOT TO
USE AN ARTICLE BY ANALYZING THE SUBJECT IN THE SENTENCE.

Notes while observing:

Before class begins
-Teacher sits at her desk and reads from the class workbook to prepare for todays class
lesson. Meanwhile, Teacher makes small talk with Students, asking them about their day
and whatever else is happening.
-Eventually, Teacher then writes Practice with Articles on the board

2:10
-Teacher asks the students where do you get the news? Students then answer the
question (ex: T.V., internet, radio, etc).
-Teacher then tells the students to turn to page 94 of Grammar and Beyond 2. Teacher
instructs the students to read the article about news on the internet. Students then read
the article individually and quietly.

2:15
-Teacher then asks the students questions about the article theyve read, which the
students answer together.
-Teacher then mentions that the news is becoming more and more individual and how
we can personalize the news so that it focuses on subjects we like to hear about. Teacher
then takes note of a side-conversation occurring between two students and addresses the
two students. One of the students had a question about the meaning of a word analyze,
which the Teacher then defines for them (analyze is a verb that means to think about
and then make a decision). Teacher then asks if there are any other confusing
vocabulary terms.

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Observation Notebook
-Teacher then asks the students about what are some popular news topics trending on the
internet. One student mentions a wildfire in the mountains. The teacher includes the
violent riots in Charlottesville and Trumps response to the riots.
-Teacher then asks the students about what international news was trending. Students do
not answer. Teacher then answers with the situation between North Korea and the United
States.

2:20
-Teacher then goes into todays grammar lesson. First, Teacher reviews the articles a
vs an. Teacher then leads the class in an activity, What Goes Here? The teacher
writes a sentence (i.e. I read ____ news article.) and then asks the students what article
goes in the blank.
-Student replies with a, because its a singular count noun. Teacher then asks if news
was erased (so the sentence now reads I read ____ article.) what would the article be.
The students reply with an. Teacher confirms the answer and explains we use an
because of the vowel sound of article.
-Teacher explains that todays class would be mostly practice on using the articles.

2:25
-Teacher instructs the students to turn to page 96 and complete activity 2.1 in their
workbook. Teacher explains that students must complete the sentences by choosing
between a or an. During the explanation, Teacher emphasizes pronunciation of a
with the ahh sound, as opposed to the simple aye sound.
-Teacher then goes through the article, pausing to allow the students to answer and fill-in-
the-blank with the correct article. Teacher then reminds Students that its not just
spelling that must be taken into account for choosing the right article, but that vowel
sound as well (i.e. an umbrella, a used bookstore, etc).

2:30
-Teacher then reviews the difference between using a/an or the as an article, going
back to the exercise they did the previous class. Students use a/an for when something
is first mentioned, while the is used for when something is mentioned the second time
and beyond. Teacher then tells the students to turn to page 97 of their books. Students
are to look at the pictures and pick which question is the best given the context of the
picture.
-Teacher goes through the first picture with the class.
Teacher asks the class which is the preferred sentence: Did you see the movie?
or Did you see a movie?
Students answer that the first sentence is the correct answer.
Teacher asks the students why the first sentence is the correct answer.
Students reply because both people in the picture know
Teacher confirms the answer, then repeats for each picture.
-Teacher asks when not to use an article. Students answers when the noun in the
sentence is noncount.

2:35
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 TESOL Certificate Programs
Observation Notebook
-Teacher then writes a sentence on the board: she needs security on her laptop.
Teacher asks the students to identify the nouns. Student reply security and laptop.
Teacher asks what kind of noun is security. Students reply noncount. Teacher asks
what kind of noun is laptop. Student replies with singular count.
-Teacher then has the students work on exercise 2.3 of the textbook. Students must go
through the article, write the correct article for each sentence (or leave blank if no article
is needed), and explain why the article was chosen.
-Students then reach each sentence while giving the answer. Should a Student makes a
mistake or chooses the wrong article, the other Students steps in to correct them. For
each answer, Teacher explains in detail why certain articles are used over others.

2:50
-Teacher then has the students work on Exercise 2.4, which is focused on using the article
the. The students work on Part A of the exercise. Teacher explains that why most of
the sentences only have one possible answer, a few of the sentences could have more than
one possible answer. Students must use a word from the word bank at the top of the page
and choose which word is more appropriate for the sentence.
-As the students are working on the activity, Teacher is walking around answering
questions and explaining any unknown vocabulary.
-Afterwards, Teacher reads each sentence out loud, pausing to allow the students to
answer and fill-in-the-blank. For each answer, the Teacher asks the student why the
answer was chosen.

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 TESOL Certificate Programs
Observation Notebook
What did you learn about teaching or learning from this lesson as it relates to the
theory you have studied in your TESOL classes? Include at least one reference (with
an in-text citation) to support your response. (250-500 words)
For this classroom observation, I was primarily focused on how the teacher
prepared and then delivered the lesson for the class. Before the class began, the teacher
was looking over the class textbook and planning out how the class would be set up for
the day. As the class would be focused on practicing the grammar rule that they learned
the previous class lesson, all of the class activities came from the textbook, making the
lesson a very textbook-heavy lesson. The teacher primarily used the textbook as a guide
for the lesson as opposed to writing down a detailed, structured lesson plan. As said in
Practicing Teaching, a Reflective Approach, For both teachers and learners, the
textbook provides a map that lays out the general content of lessons and a sense of
structure that gives coherence to individual lessons as well as to an entire course. This
can give learners a sense of autonomy, which dependence on daily or weekly teacher-
prepared lesson handouts does not provide.
For an individual lesson, sometimes relying on the textbook can be a vital help to
a teacher for when a lesson plan is not ready in time for a class or when the focus is more
on mechanical exercises based on a previous lesson as opposed to learning new material.
However, the lack of a ready lesson plan meant there was no account for time for
each activity. For each activity, the teacher didnt say how much time a student had to
work on the activity, however, the teacher was monitoring the class and would notice
when students were finishing up so that they can move on to correcting as a class.
However, without a set time limit, the class (which was supposed to end at 3:00) ran over
by seven minutes. So while it is important to plan out your lesson ahead of time before
the class starts, every once and awhile, a teacher would have to improvise and come up
with something on the spot, even if it means relying heavily on the contents of the
textbooks.

Last Updated: 8/19/2016 2:38 PM

 TESOL Certificate Programs
Observation Notebook

Last Updated: 8/19/2016 2:38 PM