Observation 2

Liceo Cultural Britanico Student: Cynthia Randerath

Observation 2 “Giving Instructions” From “Classroom Observation Tasks” by Ruth Wajnryb Level: Intermediate School A Number of students: 6 Duration: 60 minutes Phase of the Lesson

Instructions

Comments

Presentation

Look at the pictures there and describe them

Students could follow all the instructions.

Presentation

Let’s read the introduction first Now read the text

After reading they talked about vocabulary they did not understand.

Revision

Go to comprehension questions. Read the instructions. First of all complete the questions and then you find the answers.

They had to complete some questions related to the reading with what, how long, how far etc.

Teaching moment

Go to the first sentence in the second paragraph and underline it.

Teaching moment

Go to the last sentence of the 4th paragraph and underline it. Awareness

Recognition

Practice

Tell me what you can find in these two sentences.

They noticed that there were many adjectives in each sentence.

Go to the examples and see if they follow the rule

They did this after the teacher’s explanation of the order of adjectives

Go to the box there where you have a lot of adjectives and put them in the chart.

After the Lesson

 In this lesson I could find some tendencies as regards to “giving instructions”, the more noticeable was the imperative. Generally, she used this form and she used many times the verb “go”. I also noticed that she used simple language and I think that this was the reason why students could follow without problems. 

Let’s take one of the instructions and reduce it for a lower level of learners:

“Go to comprehension questions. Read the instructions. First of all complete the questions and then you find the answers.” I underlined what I think students must know in order to do what is required. This fact would leave us with the following instruction: “First complete the questions, and then find the answers.” I think that this simplifies the instruction which could make students of lower level understand what they have to do without difficulty. Now, how do we check instructions? Generally, we ask one student if he can explain what they have to do. In fact, in this lesson it did not happen, maybe because the teacher did not find it necessary.

 If we want to guide this teacher into more effective instruction-giving, we should take into consideration the way in which her language was segmented, which I found appropriate because she spoke clearly and slowly. As regards her voice quality, I could not find any problem; I think it was sufficiently clear. Her attending behaviour was noticeable, maybe because she had few students and they were sitting very close to her, but there was eye contact all the time. However, I did not find much visual support; they only worked with the visuals from the book. Maybe she could have used more of it. 

According to “Classroom Observation Tasks” one possible paradigm for instruction-giving is the following: i) ii) iii) iv) v) vi)

Give signal to engage class’s attention. State briefly the overall nature of the task. Organize seating groups. Give instructions Signal to start Monitor understanding – repeat/rephrase as necessary.

I think that ii) can be necessary for students, because it gives them a global idea of what they are going to do next. It can be useful to make them start focusing their minds on the task and it might make the instruction easier to understand. As regards iii), I think it would be a good idea to do it after the instruction has been given, because students can become really disruptive, especially teenagers, and probably they will not listen to the instruction and consequently will not know what they will have to do. In my opinion, we generally give the instruction for a task when we think students are paying attention and are ready to listen to what they are supposed to do. Anyway, I found the paradigm proposed above very useful, because generally I forget the checking of instructions which is a very important point as regards this matter.



“Classroom observation Tasks” proposes the following problems to be solved:

a) Instructions “should generally be below the level of the language being taught” (Gower and Walters 1988:25) b) Learners “usually understand at a higher level than they speak or write” (ibid 41) In my view, it is always better to use a higher level of language, because this makes students be challenged to improve their English. However, it is true that if students do not understand the instruction given, they will not be able to carry out the task and this can be really frustrating for them. That is why, we should not forget to check understanding and I think that it would be a good idea to lower the level only if it is absolutely necessary. REFLECTION After observing this lesson, I have become more aware of the importance of instruction giving. Generally, as I work with adults, I used to think that they understood perfectly well the instructions I gave to them, but after some lessons I learnt that it is better to check learner’s understanding instead of giving it for granted. We should be aware of the importance of giving instructions because this can lead us to the tasks´ failure and the learner’s frustration which is even worst. I think I am learning to give instructions and that it is a process that all teachers should go through.