Observation 4

Liceo Cultural Britanico Student: Cynthia Randerath

Observation 4 “Attending to the learner” From “Classroom Observation Tasks” by Ruth Wajnryb Level: Beginners II Place: Liceo Cultural Británico Number of students: 14 Duration: 40 minutes In the lesson I observed, I found the following sitting arrangement: F,N,P E, S ++++

M,N,E +

M,N,E +

M, N, E +

M,N,E +

F, N, E ++

M,N F,N,E F,!,T ++

+ ++

F,N, E, S +++

M,N +++

F,N,P ++

F,N,! ++

F,N, E ++

FRONT I could observe the following attending strategies which can be seen in the previous scheme: Name (N) Eye contact (E) Nod (!) Point (P) Smile (S) Other: Number of times being attended (+) Female (F) Male (M)

Comments: Generally, all students were attended and the teacher called them by their names and by establishing eye contact at the same time. Some students participated actively in the class but others did not talked at all if they were not called by the teacher. Sometimes the teacher pointed at them or smiled at them, but the more noticeable pattern was her calling their names and making eye contact. I could not identify any particular pattern in the teacher’s attendance, I mean that they were chosen at random and the teacher called them no matter if they were boys or girls, or tall or short. There was no pattern at all. However, generally girls tend to speak and participate more than boys. As regards the sitting arrangement lending to a particular spread of the teacher attention, I could not find any pattern at all. The teacher called students no matter where they were sitting, maybe as they worked in a semi-circle and all students were facing the teacher it helped to the attendance. Generally speaking, stronger students were given more opportunities and they showed more enthusiasm to participate than the others. Weaker students needed to be called in order to participate but stronger students participated spontaneously. As regards the attending strategies, I think that I found many of them in this lesson. Anyway, what is really interesting is that generally we do not pay much attention to the way in which we attend our students. I mean that before observing this lesson I was not very conscious about this matter, so I found it really useful so as to pay more attention to my own way of attending students. I also paid attention to the way students attended to each other, and most of the times they use their names or touch to the other to make someone know that he was being called. Sometimes they used nicknames and generally they treated among themselves with respect. It was a really nice group. REFLECTION I think that this lesson was really useful for me so as to be more conscious about the attending strategies I use during my lessons. In fact, I know that sometimes I do not give everyone the possibility to participate, because I keep on calling the same people, so I will try to correct this in the future. Besides, I do not know which strategies I use, so I will pay more attention to that in following lessons, I might discover that I use many strategies to attend students but I am not aware of it.