Pamela Observation Stage

OBSERVATION STAGE Task 1: The School and Learning Environment Name of student: Pamela Correa Gurtubay Name of School: Liceo Pedro Montt Number of students: 38 (but around 16 attend regularly) Date: September 8th

Class: 1° medio A

Briefly and objectively describe the following aspects: 1. The school: Describe the general background of the school including the physical location, organisation, student population, philosophy and educational and behavioural policies. Liceo Pedro Montt is located in Avenida Alemania 5196 Cerro Cárcel, Valparaíso; in front of Bismarck square. It belongs to CMV Corporación Municipal de Valparaíso and it is considered a Heritage School. There are 2 coordinators one of them works with elementary and middle school teachers, and the other one works with high school teachers. The number of the students is 542. Only 229 of them belong to high school, 269 to elementary and middle school and 44 to kindergarten. The school philosophy deals with arts (dance, theatre, and so on). There are not stated rules in terms of educational and most important behavioural policies; in fact there are many problems concerning this two last points, since there is a lack of behavioural policies students feel free to do things that are not suppose to do in a classroom or at school. 2. The classroom Describe the atmosphere of the room and the levels of engagement in the room. Make notes on seating, sight lines, space, air, light, whiteboard, equipment, etc

The atmosphere of the room does not engage students at all, there is no handle on the door, there is no basket to through the garbage, so the classroom is pretty dirty; the classroom is an old room (the building is very old) the windows are kind of narrow and long sometimes there are not glasses on the windows. There is a kind of shelf but there is nothing in it. The board is white and dirty it is very hard to write and some students write with permanent markers on it. The walls are empty there are no papers stick on the, and they are not painted with just one colour someone must used white colour to delete students writing. The tables and chairs are all full of dirt, broken and scratched. 3. The activities & resources a) Make notes on the kind of activities used, the nature of student involvement, balance of student doing things and teacher doing things I observed only one kind of activity and it was about filling the gaps about sentences that the teacher wrote on the board, students did not copy on their copybooks, some of them did not even bring a pencil. They were listen music loudly with their cell phones. The teacher focused on a book and copy exactly was he reads on the board and he does not adapt the material for students, he tried to explain the grammar rules but no one seemed to understand him. b) Describe the resources used and the materials available within the school. How are the resources used in the classroom? There is wireless internet connexion but most of the teachers do not know the password, there is a very nice and new library but unfortunately we cannot use it because the school is developing a project during the periods of the English class. There is a radio, a laptop and 2 data projectors, and again they are all required for some other classes so we could not use them. There is a computer lab, although there was no time available for our class, we are looking for the chance to use it, in fact we will talk with the teacher that uses at that time, in order to arrange some moments for the class. Task 2: Student´s learning

In this second observation task, you should focus on the things that help to create conditions for effective learning and on the aspects that play a part in preventing learning. 1. The learners How motivated are the learners? Why? To what extent are they taking part in their own learning? To what extent are they expecting the teacher to do the work for them? Not all of the students are motivated; however the majority is starting to be interested. It seems the way classes have been done this last few weeks are brand- new for them, in spite of that, students have a regular behaviour against working. They do not want to speak English at all; it is very embarrassing for them. They want me to go to their seats, bringing them pencils, asked them several times to the activities assigned. However, I have the feeling they are trying to change little by little. 2. Behaviour during classroom activities Describe the ways students are encouraged to participate in activities. Are there any particular strategies for managing issues and motivating students? Are there any students with special needs? I always asked them all to participate during the class, even if the answer is not the correct one. The majority is willing to participate, although 3 or 4 students do not want to do anything. I encourage them, and congratulate them any time, every class there is a point for their participation, and if a student likes or is good at English I tell him or her that he or she is good at it. Sometimes, I tell them that I really trust in them in terms of behaviour. I still do not know if there are any students with special needs because the attendance is too irregular. 3. Discuss the learning styles and levels of English in the classroom. Observation scale Observations clear & well informed Demonstrates understanding of social and educational factors Objective & factual information

High

Mediu Low m

Not Observ ed

X X X

Evidence of active search of information Use of English expression clear

IVV/RGS 2009

X X