TESOL Certificate Programs

Observation Notebook

Observation Report Form

Name of Observer: Maria Maciel Observation #: 2

Observation
Date Environment Class Skill/Content Level Teacher
8/18/17 Online* Beginner Speaking N/A Chris Westergaard

*https://youtu.be/2_38JfVFQoU

WRITE THE OBJECTIVES ACCORDING TO THE OBSERVATION GUIDELINES:

STUDENTS WILL BE ABLE TO FILL IN WORK SHEETS USING LEARNED VOCABULARY.

STUDENTS WILL BE ABLE TO CONVERSE WITH THEIR PARTNER REGARDING DAILY
ACTIVITIES USING LEARNED VOCABULARY.

Notes while observing:

Warm Up
T greets Ss: Hello. My name is (pauses for Ss to answer). Ss: Chris. T: Chris.
Good. Nice to meet you. Ss: Nice to meet you.

0:17 Presentation 1
T gets on the ground and acts as if hes waking up from sleeping. T puts a picture of the
sun with the time of 7:00 OTB and begins to write, In the mo (pauses for Ss to finish
the word morning). T has Ss repeat the phrase multiple times then points to individual
Ss to repeat it. T repeats this process for In the afternoon, In the evening, and At
night. T then introduces vocabulary describing activities they do during those times of
the day (e.g. I wake up, I eat breakfast, etc.). He has them do repetition drills after each
new phrase.

4:45 Practice 1
T instructs Ss to use a sheet with the different times of the day and to match activities that
you do during that time. He demonstrates by matching one activity. T monitors while Ss
work and reminds Ss to only use English to communicate. Once they are done, T has Ss
share what they came up with.

5:26 Practice 2
T gives Ss a sheet with blanks to fill in (e.g. In the m_r_in_ I).

Last Updated: 9/8/2017 11:44 AM

 TESOL Certificate Programs
Observation Notebook
T walks around to monitor and assists when necessary. He uses gestures to hint at
different words they can use. Once Ss are done, T has Ss share the different activities
they wrote on their sheet.

7:05 Presentation 2
T writes OTB: What do you do in the morning? Then lists different things that he does
in the morning (e.g. In the morning I wake up, In the morning I shower, In the morning I
get dressed). Then he has students repeat, What do you do in the morning? several
times.

8:05 Communicative Practice

T pairs up Ss and has them share what they each do in the morning. T walks around and
monitors.

*T repeats the Presentation 2 process and Communicative Practice until they have gone
through afternoon, evening, and night.

11:50 Review
T goes to the different pictures OTB (morning, afternoon, evening, night) and has Ss
repeat all of the questions as review before the production.

12:15 Production
Ss practice all of the dialogue they have learned in the lesson. They cannot use notes.
After practicing with a partner, T goes to each S individually and has a conversation with
them using the new vocabulary. Then, Ss work in pairs and have a conversation using the
new vocabulary.

14:25 Wrap-Up
T writes some errors that he heard OTB and they discuss them as a class. T says, Ok.
Thank you very much.

Last Updated: 9/8/2017 11:44 AM

 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)

This was an observation of a beginner ESL class. The lesson was focused on
learning new vocabulary for daily routines and also speaking practice. During this
observation, my focus was on the language. More specifically, how the language relates
to Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) principles and how the teacher used body
language to enhance learning.
One of the primary characteristics of CLT is that authentic language language
used in real context is used whenever possible. The teacher in this lesson accomplished
this by introducing language that is used on a regular basis. The students also had several
opportunities to practice the language through communicative exercises. Specifically,
through dialogue with a partner. The use of dialogue exercises also allowed the students
to provide their own information instead of using prescribed scripts.
In this lesson, the teacher played the important role of facilitating communication.
According to Larsen-Freeman and Anderson (2016), it is important that the teacher acts
as an advisor, answering students questions and monitoring their performance (p. 161).
He closely monitored the students dialogue during each activity and engaged them
whenever necessary to ensure that they were maximizing their language use. The teacher
also made notes regarding some errors and discussed them at the end of class.
In addition to the CLT principles that the teacher used during this lesson, his use
of body language was quite effective. He used gestures to help define each piece of new
vocabulary. He also used them to provide hints for the students so that they could think of
new words instead of just saying the word to them. This ties back to the teacher being the
facilitator in the lesson and promoting student communication. It also created some fun
moments between him and the students which helped maintain a positive learning
environment.
The lesson was a great demonstration of various CLT principles. It provided me
with a clear idea of how to incorporate these principles and also how they encourage
language use.

References

Larsen-Freeman, D., & Anderson, M. (2016). Techniques & principles in language

teaching. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Last Updated: 9/8/2017 11:44 AM