Observed Lesson Date: 06.11.19
I wanted my first peer observation to be with someone who I respect and look up to as a teacher. For this reason, I approached the teacher to ask if I could observe one of her lessons. I was delighted when she agreed, and we made arrangements for me to observe her Wednesday evening ESOL class.
The teacher in addition to teaching ESOL classes at the college I work for is also a cert TESOL teacher trainer, so I thought it would be an excellent opportunity to observe someone who I knew was going to be very organised and would be teaching a very structured and timed lesson.
The class was a mixed nationality ESOL Level 2 (upper-Intermediate) level with nine students. I had initially planned to observe the class from 18:00 to 18:45 but ended up asking if I could stay for the whole 90 minutes.
The lesson aimed to prepare the student to discuss the topic of climate change and ensure they were familiar with a range of grammatical structures which they needed to use in their speaking exam.
The lesson started with the aims displayed on the smartboard, which the teacher then briefly explained to the students.
The structure of the lesson
- Topic introduced (Climate change)
- In pairs, students discussed questions on board about climate change
- Students watched short climate change video and answered questions on a handout
- In different pairs, students compared and discussed answers
- Students watched the video in short sections then a group discussion about each question
- Teacher gave students a copy of the transcript and got students to underline any new vocabulary
- The teacher focused on one of the paragraphs and got students to underline all the verbs
- She then elicited the names of the grammatical structures the students had identified
- Focused on the form and function of present continuous and present perfect
- Controlled practice using the grammar forms
Video – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7sJHnwpXFV8
As I had expected, this was a very structured lesson. I particularly like the use of the short video and the way the teacher exploited it to create such a well-planned lesson.
I think the things that I took away the most from the experience were how the teacher was able to keep all of the students involved throughout the lesson and how she encouraged peer correction when possible. I also liked how comfortable she was standing back and monitoring while the students were working in pairs. I sometimes think that I feel the need to join in the students’ discussions, so seeing how well this lesson worked it is definitely something I can learn from.
I like the way you are focusing on what you got out of the observation experience and how the teacher’s style was in contrast to yours. Over the months if you get a chance to experiment with varying the roles/ style in which you teach, come back to this post and add a comment about how it went and what it felt like to take a more hands off approach. Also if you find materials that a peer uses particularly interesting, such as the video you mention, then go into more detail and if possible add a link, upload the worksheet/questions because then you’ll be able to find them again in case you get a chance to use them.