My third peer observation with me observing was an online lesson given by my Director of Studies. Even though he manages the ESOL department, he still teaches 15 hours a week. I am unsure if this is something that he does because of his love of teaching or is something required by the college. I suspect the latter.

I was looking forward to this observation as I thought it would be an invaluable opportunity to see such an experienced and well-respected teacher in action and to see another teacher’s approach to some areas of online teaching that I had been struggling with.

My aims for this observation were:

• To see how the teacher integrated technology into the lessons
• To see how the teacher handled student feedback and error correction in an online lesson

The class was a mixed nationality, C2 level, ESOL class English class of eleven students: six female and five male. The level within the group ranges from low to high C2. The lesson focus was IELTS speaking which was something I have experience with so I was intrigued to see another teacher’s approach to this.

The lesson aims were to introduce and practice using discourse markers in part 3 of the IELTS speaking exam. The teacher had produced his own materials for this lesson and told me after the lesson that he had used them many times before.

The first thing I noticed was how relaxed the students were. This was another topic I discussed with the teacher after the lesson, and he explained that he had spent some time when the lessons had first moved online addressing student concerns and any technical issues.

The lesson itself was engaging and productive. I had wanted to see how the teacher integrated technology into the online lesson and thought that he utilised this well. Students were put into groups and then broke off into ‘rooms’ that he had set up beforehand and which both he and I could drop in and out of. Another thing he did which I was impressed with and am hoping to utilise in my own teaching was to use an online mind map for a class brainstorm. What I really liked about this lesson was that the technology that was incorporated into the lesson served a purpose and didn’t feel like it was shoehorned in there just because it was an online lesson.

An area that I think wasn’t as strong was how the teacher handled student feedback and error correction during the lesson. In a classroom setting a student can just raise their hand and ask a question, or even ask a fellow student, in an online setting, this isn’t the case. When the students asked the teacher questions, it felt like the flow of the lesson was interrupted, and there was no interaction between the learners apart from the stages that specifically required it.

We discussed this afterwards, and he said that he felt it was an unsatisfactory element of teaching online that he hadn’t quite found a way to get round yet. He also added that he always told the students to email him with any questions after the lesson, but they rarely did. After the lesson was over, I contacted one of the students I give extra lessons to and asked if she had the same arrangement with her teacher. She told me that she didn’t email her questions either as she didn’t feel her questions were worthy of an email, and it was something that frustrated her too.

I enjoyed observing this class, and I think I gained a lot from the experience. I also definitely saw some things that I could use to improve my online teaching. It was interesting to see how well another teacher had adapted to the online environment we are now teaching in and to know that I am moving in the right direction with regards to my online teaching development.

For my second observation of a colleague, I chose a teacher that is close to finishing her DELTA and is a teacher I hold in high regard. The class was an ESOL Entry level 1 class which on the common European framework equates to an A1 level. The course usually had 15 students, but only 11 were present on the day I observed. It is a mixed nationality class with learners ranging from 18 to 55 years old.

The first thing I noticed was how relaxed the students were and that the teacher clearly had an excellent rapport with them. I had taught this class previously on several occasions and had a good rapport with them, too, so my presence didn’t seem to affect them in any way.

• After my second assesed observation, one of the areas that I wanted to focus on was how the teacher transitioned between stages. It had been an area for improvement that my observer had pointed out to me, so I was keen to see how another teacher did this.

The lesson was about shopping, and the material was taken from the British council website. The teacher gave me a copy of the lesson plan, which stated that the aims of the lesson were:

1. To understand different words for shops
2. To ask for items sold in different shops
3. To make sentences about different shops

Lesson plan – Shopping lesson plan

Student worksheets

Shopping student worksheet 1 – Different shops

Shopping student worksheet 2- Shopping lists

Shopping student worksheet 3

The lesson itself was great. The learners were engaged throughout, and the teacher was able to bring the lesson to life through personalisation of the topic using her extensive knowledge of the learners. Clearly, the teacher knew the students well, and this allowed her to maximise learning and create a positive and comfortable learning environment.

I paid particular attention to the instructions the teacher gave, especially as they were such a low level.  When I had taught them I sometimes had to rephrase my instructions for some of the learners so they could understand. I was impressed with the teacher’s use of instruction checking questions and concept checking questions and felt like the learners fully understood both what they had just done and what they were about to do before the teacher moved to the next activity. Regarding the transition between stages, it was interesting to see the teacher provide both verbal and physical cues that a transition was approaching and is something I would like to incorporate more into my teaching.

I didn’t really have any criticisms of the lesson. Instead, in my feedback,  I focused on the positive things I had seen and discussed how impressed I was with the flow of the lesson and how well the learners responded to her. She told me that she had used the materials several times before and was comfortable with the content, especially with this group which she described as ‘easy to teach’. I think there was a lot of positive elements that I took away from this observation and consider the following points important to reflect upon with regards to my continuing professional development:

• How having a good relationship and knowing your students can help to facilitate learning.
• The importance of giving clear and understandable instructions especially at lower levels and asking instruction checking questions
• That verbal and physical cues can be given before transitions to improve the flow of the lesson.

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

1. Topic introduced (Climate change)
2. In pairs, students discussed questions on board about climate change
3. Students watched short climate change video and answered questions on a handout
4. In different pairs, students compared and discussed answers
5. Students watched the video in short sections then a group discussion about each question
6. Teacher gave students a copy of the transcript and got students to underline any new vocabulary
7. The teacher focused on one of the paragraphs and got students to underline all the verbs
8. She then elicited the names of the grammatical structures the students had identified
9. Focused on the form and function of present continuous and present perfect
10. 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.