Category Archives: Observation Reflections

This was my favourite video observation because I was introduced to my future grammar students! I will be teaching a grammar lab throughout the rest of the semester to a class of twelve students, all of whom I met today. I was able to meet the students and understand their English proficiency level. The students had great interaction, were keen learners, and understood the lesson material very well. The students were also very polite which was amazing.

During the attendance, the professor asked students how their weekend was. This was a great way to start the class as it facilitated classroom discussion. The instructor spoke in a nice clear coherent tone, making it easy to follow the lesson material. During the warmup, the professor provided an overview of how to navigate the course website, how to access grades and assignments. This was a great way for the students to be reminded of the expectations of the course while allowing students to ask any questions they may have regarding their previous assignments. The professor asked the students to review their grades and comments, seeking out help when necessary. The instructor plays a supportive role, making sure every student succeeds. When I begin teaching, I would also like to take a supporter role to ensure every student comprehends the lesson material to succeed in the course and future situations.

The instructor had a nice PowerPoint presentation outlining the unit and the course objectives. Using colour-coordinated PowerPoint slides, allowed students to understand the lecture material and more specifically the grammar being used. A variety of resources were used, such as a PowerPoint presentation, a live video, personal examples, and textbook resources. This provided an opportunity for the students to learn through different techniques.

The class was two hours long, the instructor allotted 10 minutes of break time after the first hour to allow students to get a drink, a snack, and refresh before heading onto the second hour of class. The instructor finished the class with worksheet activities presented in class. Students worked together to do the required activities to test their understanding of the lesson material.

Each lesson is recorded. The students found this very helpful as students can reflect on previous learning as well as study past material. This is a technique I would like to use for my future lessons as I want students to have the resources and availability to review any of the material needed to help them succeed.

Observing Centro Universitario Anglo Mexicano in Cancun is always a blast. I love to see how engaging the students are and how eager they are to learn. Observing the teaching methods by the professor is also very insightful. In this observation lesson, the focus was on reading.

The professor provided a PowerPoint slide to outline the lesson objectives. This allowed the students to read over the objectives and ask any questions that they had in regards to the lesson format. This also provided the professor with the opportunity to discuss the necessary materials needed to complete the assignment within the lesson. The professor had a great way of opening up the class making sure to interact with each student and clearly stating the lesson objectives.

For the assessment, students were expected to read a passage then answer true, false or not given based on the questions provided. There were eight questions in total. Before starting the assignment, the professor provided several examples to allow students to understand the activity and to warm-up their brains for reading.

Upon completing each question, students were expected to explain their answer, by doing this, the professor incorporated the student’s understanding of the passage while practicing their speaking skills. Students were actively engaged with the class when answering the questions. The students had strong pronunciation skills, strong listening comprehension and were strong readers.

I have learned a lot from this observation, I have learned that students will appreciate you, will dedicate their full attention to you, they will value your time, as well as they will be eager to learn and come to class when your provide a fun, engaging, learning environment. I felt honoured to be able to observe this class, as the students were so well behaved and were very respectful. The teacher was one of the best teachers I have observed as she was caring and passionate about teaching her students and she provided all the necessary resources to make her students succeed.

The class being observed today was an advanced English class with Grade 12 students from Cancun. The teacher identified the goals as being able to challenge students to speak, understand, and listen better than they did in the previous class.

The teacher started the class by asking each student how they were doing and what activities they were getting up to. This was a great warm-up activity to get students prepared to start talking.  The professor then went on to discuss the lesson objectives for today. The professor clearly stated the structure of the class while advising the students on what material was needed to complete the lesson assignments.

The language skills that were integrated into this lesson were listening comprehension, pronunciation, speaking and the ability to initiate a conversation by understanding the material being taught. The professor introduced a Ted Talk video, the students were able to watch the video twice. During the Ted Talk video, students were actively listening to answer the required questions given by the professor. After watching the video, the first time, students were asked what they thought was the meaning of the story. This allowed for an open-ended discussion, students were comfortable talking because there was no wrong answer as it was an opinion. When watching the Ted Talk video, a second time, students were to answer True, False, or Not Given questions. This technique tests writing, understanding, and listening comprehension. After watching the video, a second time, students took turns reading the question and providing an answer.

The teacher provided flexibility for her students when it came to communication, the completion and the submission of assignments. The teacher provided a variety of technological resources for her students such as WhatsApp, WeChat, and Microsoft teams.

The professor provided a fun, engaging, interactive language learning environment for her students. She taught with enthusiasm and the students valued her time. This has been the most engaging and fun class I have observed as I was able to see how eager the students were to learn and how enthusiastic the professor was to teach.

20 Minutes of Video Observation Intermediate Adult TEFL Class

The class size is small, and students are sitting in a U-shape, this allows all students to interact with each other and the professor. The professor is discussing real-life situations and asking students to identify the problem and provide a solution. For example, the professor said he had a cold and asked the students what remedies are best to cure a cold. From this question alone you can tell the students are at an intermediate level of English.  Students are being challenged by testing their listening comprehension, their ability to formulate a sentence, and their speaking and writing skills. The professor provides appropriate feedback and tests the student’s vocabulary and understanding. The professor will then correct the error if any. Students were given the ability to personalize the lesson as students could choose two aspects they would like to improve with their English skills. Working with peers, students discussed techniques on how to strengthen the desired skills they wish to improve. I would like to allow personalized lesson plans for students within my classroom as every student has different strengths and weaknesses. Having an individualized lesson plan allows students to incorporate their strengths while improving their weaknesses.

20 Minutes of Video Observation Language Teaching Methods: Communicative Approach

This video demonstrates the communicative approach to English language teaching. The communicative approach emphasizes language functions and grammar structures. The professor is teaching students how to make a persuasive argument and how to provide strong evidence to support their desired case. Students participate in role-playing while the instructor takes an advisor and facilitator role. This allows students to apply their knowledge and skills learned in class to make a valid, structured argument to support their case. The professor is engaging and has made the lesson plan personal, which shows he cares and trusts his students. The professor plays an essential role as an advisor and facilitator for the communicative approach. I believe it is beneficial to follow a communicative approach in the classroom, as this allows students to express their opinions and share their feelings. It is a great way for students to learn communication.

20 Minutes of Video Observation ESL Class Management Video

This wasn’t my favourite video observation class to watch as I didn’t enjoy the teaching method the instructor had used. First off, I would be more interactive with the class and I would continuously be standing, walking around the classroom rather than sitting on the desk facilitating a discussion with the students. I would show professionalism and be attentive towards the students. I would have liked to have seen the instructor go more in-depth about each time management skill and discuss factors and solutions to time management. The teacher and students are constantly getting distracted, personal discussions are going on. I found it hard to follow the lesson objectives. The professor could have improved by providing more support academically and explain why a sentence may not be a good sentence then provide an example of what is considered a good sentence. This way students can understand what they are doing wrong and not make the same mistake again.

Immediately, the professor was very energetic within the first few minutes of class time. The professor’s workspace was well lit, using a professional microphone allows for clear concise listening and speaking. There were no distractions in the background making it easier for students to pay attention. The professor interacts well with students, using facial expressions and gestures help to articulate the words being spoken.

The professor uses a textbook and provides photos of the activities to be done in class. The professor used both a video camera as well as a PowerPoint presentation. The professor provides clear instructions on the activity and helps students to formulate sentences based on the activity. The students practiced their writing, listening comprehension, and pronunciation.

The instructor asked students to think of activities that fall under the following categories: fascinating, thrilling, frightening, and disgusting. Students would work together to write their thoughts under shared notes. A classroom discussion was held to discuss why some of these activities fall under such categories. The students were very engaged in this lesson. The activities have gone beyond my expectation of the learning objectives. Students were able to discuss through the microphone how the activities affected them. It was great to get to know the students on a personal level. The professor was very engaged with all the students, he provided feedback to each student, he corrected students when making mistakes and he played a supportive role in teaching.

I observed five students working together to discuss different places they like to study and why. Students expressed that they preferred to study at a coffee shop. Each of the group members led part of the discussion and facilitated questions addressed to the other students. During this observation session, I learned about different cultures around the world, I learned how the students communicate with one another, and how they help each other out when a student is struggling. Teamwork was an essential part of this lesson, students assisted one another through the following skills: listening, reading, writing, and speaking. It was great to see these students work together to improve their English skills.

For this observation session, I would not change a thing! I enjoyed learning from the students and the professor. The professor provided great techniques for students to improve their English. The instructor had a clear, well-lit background, and most of all the instructor was passionate about teaching. The lesson plans the professor provided were great and students were engaged throughout the lesson.

The topic for today’s conversation club was food. Students answered the following questions:

• What is a common meal in your country?
• What are the ingredients?
• How is it prepared?
• How is the meal eaten?

These types of questions allowed students to get to know each other and to explain their culture. I watched and participated as students were able to facilitate a friendly discussion. The Conversation Club is done entirely online due to COVID. If universities were open and classes were back to normal, the conversation club would be conducted on campus.

The instructor provided the students with clear objectives. The topic of discussion was food. The instructor provided a PowerPoint presentation as well as a live video that allowed us to effectively understand the lesson objectives and the topic being discussed.

The teacher asked the students to create one dish with a selected list of ingredients. Students had to work together to present this dish to the teacher. Students then had to describe how to prepare the dish. This allowed students to interact with one another and it tested the student’s ability to understand the lesson objective. The instructor was actively engaged with the students learning, Professor Hilda, described different food items, writing each word and pronounced words several times to ensure all students understood what was being discussed.

Throughout the lesson, students were tested on their listening comprehension, reading skills, writing skills, speaking skills, and sentence formation. Participating in group work allowed students to formulate ideas to be presented to the instructor. Groupwork was a fun activity as students were able to work together to find appropriate answers when playing games.

I have learned a lot from this observation class. I would like to bring some of the games, the lesson plans, and the enthusiasm Professor Hilda has into my teaching classroom. I would like to lead a conversation-based lesson that focuses on group work, presentation, and communication.

Week 2: 40 Minutes of Video Observations EFL Class in Korea With Jake Broe

At the beginning of the class, Mr. Broe asked the students how they were doing. Almost all the students said “fine”. Mr. Broe then went on to ask if any of the students are feeling very good or feeling different. I found this to be a great technique because it allows for students to test their English skills and express differently from the classroom norm. This is a great way to start a conversation and to prepare students for the upcoming English lesson.

The classroom was quite large for an English class, however, it seemed that despite how large the classroom was, all the students were eager to learn. The instructor used presentations, video dialogue and textbooks to communicate the lesson objectives. Students are being exposed to many different forms of English through visuals, dialogues, reading, writing, speaking, and understanding. After listening to the dialogue, fill in the blank activities were used to have students complete the sentences. This is a great technique to use as it tests a student’s understanding and listening comprehension. This is a tactic I would like to use in my classroom.

I found that Mr. Broe talked very fast when he was presenting to the students about his vacation. My observations from this class seemed to be that the students were more advanced in their English skills with reading, writing and listening compared to Tanya’s English class.

Songs, games, and practicing with partners encouraged all classmates to participate in the lesson and practice the conversations outlined in the textbook. When students engaged in the lesson and actively participated in answering the questions correctly students would receive a token ticket.

I found some of the lessons to be rather scattered and hard to follow. There was a lot more group work than individual work. If I were to change this lesson, I would have it more structured and organized. I would target individual activities for each student to practice their understanding and communication rather than doing consecutive group work.

20 Minutes of Video Observation EFL Grade Six Class in China

This lesson focused on holidays. Students were presented with a photo and they were asked what the photo represented and how to spell the location of the photo. This activity engaged all students and tested their ability to pronounce, understand, speak, and spell. The professor had a great way of explaining English terms such as skyscraper to her students. The lesson plan was very well organized and structured, the PowerPoint presentation was clear with visuals and words describing the image. The students were actively engaged in the lesson as the teacher asked the students what the image was representing and how to spell each word related to the image. This is a lesson plan I would like to bring into my classroom as it’s easy to comprehend and tests a variety of English skills.

Throughout all of Tanya’s lessons, she provides a nice easy, coherent flow for instruction and understanding. Each lesson advanced from the previous lesson while continuing to study the topic of shopping.

Tanya is an engaging and encouraging instructor as she interacts with each of her students. Tanya continuously points to her students as she makes all the students repeat back to her what she is saying. Repetition is one of her key techniques for learning and understanding a new language. The students are actively listening to what the instructor and the other students are saying. As well as the students are reading what is on the whiteboard then pronouncing what is written. The students are learning how to create sentences and how to respond to questions. Students are interacting with the teacher in a conversation base. Both the students and the instructor are active in participation. The structure of the conversation is very simple and basic, allowing the students to understand easier and having the ability to initiate and participate in the conversation.

The instructor makes the students stand up and speak, making sure all students are paying attention. Making facial expressions and tone of voice enhances the pronunciation of the word and sentence. Tanya ensures each student is addressed directly. The teacher provides two different options for a conversation allowing students to challenge themselves if they wish.

Playing an activity such as a card game allowed for the students to interact with one another, to ask questions and to respond, to exchange or pick up cards and see different visuals for items pictured on the card. Students learn how to form questions for what they need to match a pair. Students are helping each other with pronunciation.

Using a visual helps the students to see what the item is to help pronounce the correct item. The instructor is using a fill in the blank technique to help fill sentence structures. As the teacher is describing location, she is pointing to a direction to allow students to follow the conversation and where to find an item if they were in a store. Elimination of words tests the student’s memory and understanding. Active participation in student roles such as being a shopper and a store owner tests the student’s ability to understand the lesson and how to communicate with others within a shopping experience. At the very end of the lesson, Tanya did a short-individualized assessment for each student, asking what the student was wearing to class and the colour of their clothing.

It was nice to see Tanya get personal with her students when she pulled out a suitcase full of clothes and she was asking her students if they were her son’s clothes or her husband’s clothes.

I would like to bring Tanya’s techniques into my classroom. My goal is to be organized and have a structured, easy flowing lesson plan similar to Tanya’s. I would like to engage with each student and allow each student to have a turn talking within the classroom.