it is very important for English teachers how to teach in class

1. Classroom Observation Tasks
BURHAN O. MAHMUD
M.A. STUDENT AT GAZIANTEP UNIVERSITY

3. Topics discussed in this presentation
 Teaching skills and strategies
 Classroom management
 Materials and resources

4. 1. Presenting
 Background
 In recent years a lot of attention has
been given to the varying roles that a
language teacher has.
 Increasing emphasis has been placed
on the less obtrusive roles such as
monitoring language use and facilitating
communication.

5. Procedure
 Before the lesson
 Watching the presentation phase of a lesson.
 It may be of value to watch this in a number of
different lesson.
 During the lesson
 Record what happens in the classroom.
 Record the chronological events in terms of what
the teacher does and what the students do.
 Record the teacher’s movement in or around the
classroom.

6. Presentation Phase
What teacher does
 Greet / chat with SS
 Warm SS up by
reminding them of
yesterday’s lesson
What learners do
 Greet / respond to T
 Recall yesterday’s lesson

7. Procedure
 After the lesson
 Consider the teacher’s voice. A number
of qualities are relevant here.
 Audibility
 Projection
 Speed
 Clarity
 Lack of distortion

8. 2. Eliciting
 Background
Teachers elicit for a range of reasons:
 To set students thinking in a certain direction.
 To steer them towards a certain pre-planned topic.
 To create a context; to warm a class up.
 To generate peer interaction/correction.
 To attract and focus attention.
 To increase student talking time.
 To engage students in the learning process.

9. Procedure
 Before the lesson
Arrange to observe a lesson in which some eliciting is
planned. If possible, get a list of the possible
prompts that the teacher plans to use.

10. Procedure
 During the lesson
 What the teacher says in order to elicit a response.
 How much time the teacher allows before re-
phrasing or re-directing or adding a prompt
 What students offer as a response.

11. Eliciting: teacher prompts
Teacher prompts
 Who can tell me where
the Amazon is?
 Is it in Africa or South
America?
 Note: (wait time) count
the time in seconds and
record it while you are
asking a question.
Student responses
 In South America.

12. Procedure
 After the lesson
 is there any pattern in the language the teacher
used? For example, are the following used: open
questions (what do you think of…?); closed questions
(what’s the word for…?); directed questions (John, what can you
tell me about…?).
 Is it possible to establish the link between:
 The purpose of the question
 The form of the question
 The way the teacher responds to student responses

13. 3. Eliciting: teacher responses
 Background
 As important as the actual eliciting question
prompt, is the teacher’s response to what
students offer. This is especially the case
when the elicitation is designed to take the
lesson towards a pre-planned point.

14. Procedure
 Before the lesson
 Observe a lesson in which the teacher engages in
some eliciting.
 During the lesson
 Close attention to the eliciting prompts that the
teacher uses.
 Record how the student responds.
 Record the teacher’s response to the student’s
response.

15. Procedure
 After the lesson
 Consider the following:
 How might the students have felt during or at the
end of the lesson?
 What effect did the teacher’s behavior (verbal and non-
verbal) have on the students?
 What do you notice about any accept or reject
responses?

16. 4. Giving instructions
 Background
 A key time in the lesson is the transition between
one activity and another, especially when this
entails the students moving from group, pair or
individual work.

17. Procedure
 Before the lesson
 Have a look at a lesson plan for the lesson you will
be observing. Consider the lesson plan from the
point of view of where you would expect instructions
to be given.

18. Procedure
 During the lesson
 Listen carefully for the teacher’s instructions.
Collect these by scripting them as acurately
as you can.

19. Procedure
 After the lesson
 To make a set of instructions more effective.
 Voice qualities
 Visual support
 Cueing to aid memory
 Concept questions
 Attending behavior: teacher’s position, eye contact
movement.

20. 5. Managing error
 Background
 If teachers corrected every language error made in
their class, far too much classroom time would be
given over to correction. This has negative
implications in that it might reduce learner
willingness to take risks and experiments.

21. Procedure
 Before the lesson
 Arrange to see a lower-level lesson, preferably one
with an oral/aural objective.
 During the lesson
 Script the instance of learner error; this might be
inaccurate or inappropriate language.
 Note whether the teacher responded and if so, a
brief note as to what was said or signalled.

22. Procedure
 After the lesson
 Was there a link between the amount of error
correction and the focus of the phase of the lesson?
 How did other students respond to a student’s error
and to the teacher’s response?
 Were there any opportunities for the students to
self-correct?

23. Classroom management
1.managing classroom communication:
 Patterns of interaction
 Background
 How communications take place in a classroom
setting.
 Procedure
 Before the lesson
 Arrange to observe a lesson, preferably one with a
focus on oral/aural skills.

24. Procedure
 During the lesson
 Draw up a seating plan including student’s names.
 Lines are drawn between the names of the people
who are speaking to each other.

25. The Purposes of Research
Obj. 3.4

26. 2. Managing pair and group work
 Background
 Many classrooms these days involve a range of
interactive patterns, using teacher-led activities, pair
work and group work to varying degrees, depending
on learning needs, purposes and contexts.

27. Procedure
 Before the lesson
 Arrange to observe a lesson that will contain a
range of interactive patterns.
 During the lesson
 Organizing the groups and seating
 Giving instructions, including modeling and checking
 Appointing and briefing group leaders
 How the teacher monitors
 In what circumstances she/he speaks to a group

28. Procedure
 After the lesson
 Consider the ease with which members of the pair
or group were able to:
 Communicate
 Relax, be comfortable
 Concentrate on the activity
 See the board
 See/hear the teacher
 Work silently / be included as an equal member

29. 3. Teaching and learning roles
 Background
 In a classic example of a focused instrumental cycle
(Gibbons 1989) such as the presentation-practice-
production style of lesson. The size of the teacher’s
face per stage corresponds to the relative central
focus of the teacher.

30. Obj. 3.7 & 4.1

31. Procedure
 Before the lesson
 Copy of the teacher’s lesson plan.
 study the plan and try to predict the kind of role the
teacher will assume at each stage during the
lesson.

32. Procedure
 After the lesson
 Based on the lesson you observed, as well as your
own experience as a teacher, what do you consider
to be the major roles of teachers and learners?
Obj. 3.7 & 4.1

33. 4. Timing and pace
 Background
 The basic unit of teaching is ‘the lesson’. This may
vary in length depending on any number of factors,
like the age of the learners, the intensity of the
learning program, other subjects being taught,
timetable constraints within the school or learning
context, etc.

34. Procedure
 Before the lesson
 Asking the teacher about how the time has been
planned, and how much time is expected per phase
of the lesson?
Obj. 3.7 & 4.1

35. Procedure
 After the lesson
 How closely did the actual lesson match the
predicted one?
 Discuss with the teacher the predicted versus the
actual lesson timing.

36. 5. Classroom power
 Background
 Traditionally people think of the classroom as the
place where the teacher ‘knows’ and the students
‘don’t know’ and their reason for being there is to
‘find out’.

37. Procedure
 Before the lesson
 Speak to the teacher before the lesson and discuss
with the teacher the plan for the lesson, the aims
and any tasks or material that are going to be used.
 During the lesson
Observe the lesson from the point of view of the
questions in the list.
 Who chose the aims?
 Who chose the language and/or skills focus?
 Who chose the topics and activities?

38. 7. Materials and resources
1.The board as resource
 Background
 Board is usually an integral part of the language
classroom.
 Before the lesson
 What you think the board might be used for?
 How the board might be used?
 During the lesson
 Copy the board’s contents and layout exactly.

39. Procedure
 A system often recommended for board use
classifies things into three categories.
Obj. 3.9 & 4.2

40. 2. The learner as resource
 The greatest resource the teacher has is the
learners themselves.
 During the lesson
 Observe the lesson from the point of view of the
learner’s involvement.
 Using the chart, record the times in the lesson when
the learner is used as a resource, with details of the
phase of the lesson.

42. 3. ‘whole-learner’ materials
 Stevicks believes that the adult language learner
has to be treated as a complete person, not seen in
exclusively cognitive terms.
 The materials should be expressed in language that
has some currency outside the classroom.
 The materials should treat the world and reality as
the learners know them to be.
 The design of the materials should contribute to the
learner’s sense of safety or security in the learning
context.

43. 4. Task design and evaluation
 Good learning tasks should:
1. Involve learners in risk-taking.
2. Involve learners in problem-solving or resolution.
3. Offer learners choice.
4. Provide an opportunity for learners to rehearse
communicative skills they will need in the real world.

44. 5. Task analysis