OBSERVATION EIGHT

School: Petar Koi, Ini!a

"ate: A#ril $%
&t
, $'()
St*+ent&: $$
,e-el: Inter.e+iate
Despite the teacher's apparition in the classroom, the students keep talking and acting like
they are
unaware of her presence. However, from the moment she opened the registry book and loudly
called certain names, her authority becomes so strong that the students do not make any more
problems for the rest of the lesson. To loosen-up the atmosphere, she asks questions about the
students' interests and their day. They voluntarily participate in the conversation, but are now
still fully aware of the rules of behaviour appointed by the teacher.
The teacher then introduces the new activity and states the obectives. The first part of the
lesson is focused on the speaking, it takes !" minutes and the topic is #$usic#. %he asks a
series of questions related to the students& previous e'periences and their interests. (y
mentioning her personal taste in music her approach becomes slightly friendlier.
%he writes new vocabulary items on the blackboard and asks the students if they know the
meaning of the words. The teaching of the vocabulary is deductive, usually through e'amples,
which triggers the students) creativity. *n addition, she repeats new words several times for
the auditory learners, while the written words on the blackboard are useful for the visual ones.
The teacher mostly follows the instructions from the workbook but she induces creativity and
connects different activities by introducing a witty comment or oke. The ne't part of the
lesson is a reading comprehension where the students are to single out the unfamiliar words.
%he gives precise and clear instructions in both +, and +! to make sure everybody has
absorbed the information. +ater, while the students are doing the e'ercise, the teacher
circulates from student to student to make sure that everybody is doing what they were told to.
%he asks several times if the students understood everything and asks some students to repeat
the instructions and the aim of the e'ercise.
%ince it is the last class for that day, the students seem bored and e'hausted at the final part of
the lesson. They are to fill in the gaps with the new vocabulary items and read the answers out
loud. The maority of students respond to the questions but some of the passive students look
as if they want to participate but they are tired or even shy. -enerally, the students do not
participate completely voluntarily and * could conclude that they are not overly enthusiastic,
since they often check the time, stare through the window or are unable to respond to the
questions. The teacher obviously thinks that it is unprofessional to neglect passive and shy
students whose language skills are not that developed. %he manages to activate them by being
especially curious and thrilled about their answers. The two uninterested students sit in the
back rows with closed workbooks. The teacher deliberately chooses them to do the remaining
half of the e'ercise. They are displeased, but they do what they are told and the teacher finds
it satisfying enough and does not ask them any more questions until the end of the lesson.
.s for the proportion of teacher talking time to the students& talking time, only the
instructions, questions and the feedback can be heard from the teacher. $ost of the time the
students are active, they talk in +! in front of the teacher, but they switch to +, while talking
among themselves. The teacher does not try to limit the use of the +, and, when dealing with
vocabulary, she even uses -T method. To avoid misinterpretations of the new words she
always translates them into +,. However, the already learnt vocabulary must be e'plained
only in +!.
The teacher rarely corrects the students herself. %he does not try to point out every error
because she wants her students to overcome the fear of speaking and thinking in +!.
However, the mistakes related to the lesson are implied by her intonation and gestures but she
almost always permits the students to perform self-correction. %he leads the students to reali/e
the mistake, understand it and correct themselves. *f they cannot correct themselves, they are
allowed to turn to their peers for help, so the student to student correction is also present.
.ll in all, altough the students are tired, the class was very interesting for all of us. The
teacher and the students have a good rapport, despite the clearly implied teacher's authority. *t
is obvious that the teacher loves her ob which positivelly influences her students. 0ell
organi/ed class, emapthy of the teacher and atmosphere in general makes the students both
rela'ed and interested, which greately contributes to the efficiency of the learning process.