Observation 2

School: A Form: 3rd Length of lesson: 2 periods of 50 minutes each. Only first period observed Objective Description

Subjective Description

Nº of students: 4 out of 8 Level of English: Pre-Intermediate Topic: Crime Content: Cognates Reflection/ Improvement/Suggestion

TIME

13.10

We are in the class. The teacher told us to wait, because she will be a bit late. She is in charge of the organization of the 25th May celebration.

Today they were supposed to have a test, but only half of the class attended (4 students).

13.30

T: -“OK. Sorry for the delait. Ok. In two seconds! Que lo lean, nada más. 2 minutos. It´s in Spanish.”

Is this a kind of introduction to the topic?

She shows sts. a poster of a Bob Marley song (Three Little Birds). And a cartoon. It´s a comic of “Diogenes y el Linyera”, where a millionaire is shown getting out of his car, and telling the dog: “Good dog”, and it answers: “En momentos asi me arrepiento de no haber estudiado ingles”.

I couldn´t understand the purpose of the poster or the song.

Although she told us this always happens, she decided not to make the exam. Perhaps if the students who are absent for the tests should be “punished” with a lower mark, for instance.

No introduction of the topic. The teacher is not clear when explaining the activities. They don´t seem to understand.

S:-“Ahhh, eso nos va a pasar a nosotros!” S: - “¿Qué significa Headway?”.

It´s the name of the book. I couldn´t hear the teacher´s answer.

It´s not clear if they´re going to make the test, an activity or what. What did the poster have to do with the rest of the class?? Probably it would be suitable for the first class of the year.

One of the students translates the rest of them what the teacher says.

Does it help them to acquire the language? I don´t think so, but it probably helps to catch their attention.

T: -“Let´s finish. You were supposed to have a written test. Voy a pasar a la modalidad invento la nota.” 13.40

She shows them the book Headway. T:-“Ok, Let´s open your English folder”. She writes the title on the board: The Perfect Crime. T:-“Is it possible the perfect crime? Why? Or why not?”

13.45 13.50

Sts:-“no”. T:-“Es cierto que los crimenes…if you commit a crime you are condemned for that? Ok. Then you have about the perfect crime”. T: - “Read the text. Do you remember what were cognates? Cognates are transparent words. Son las palabras que se parecen en inglés y en castellano.

It´s the title of the reading. I remember because she showed us last class and said they were going to work on that. She didn´t clean the board from what was written in the morning.

14.00 T:-“Supuestamente esto ya lo vieron todo. Lo que quiero es que come closer”.

Impossible to see the poster from the back. I guess it´s about verb tenses, because of some comments of the teacher.

I think the students didn´t notice the poster or its relationship to the activity they´re doing.

I didn´t understand what the activity consisted on.

The teacher doesn´t follow an order of activities. She interrupts to call the roll. She doesn´t generate a working atmosphere.

Ah!!! They were looking for cognates!!

The class is monotonous. I think the teacher should try to make students participate more.

A student comes in to explain why she hadn´t attended. She calls the roll. She stick a poste ron the wall. T:-“Ok. You have to be working”. T:-“Ok. Let´s start finishing. You´re going to read”. T:-“Ok. Let´s start reading. One sentence each. One sentence each of you. No no no, you have to read. We are going to read and check the word underlined”. They read sentence by sentence and say the cognates. T:-“Then you´re going to write down some key words. Do you know what central heating is?” The period finished.