HLTA Observation

One of the best way to develop as a HLTA is to observe a teacher who is delivering a lesson in a classroom. This is very important practice which needs to be carefully planned in advance where clear focus must be chosen and be followed by effective procedures that will help to point out what we have been observed, what we have been seen and listened to. Keeping the rules of observation as to be unobtrusive, to have clear focus, to pay attention, to report succinctly, to compare with others and to be consistent we will be able to undertake it and use it which will benefits directly us and the teacher and indirectly the whole class because at the end there will be feedback given to the teacher and further action plan will be established.
Most of the time when we are doing observation we are trying to familiarize our self with the activities which the teacher is using, the methods of his/her teaching, the ICT devices used for support and the of course the personal style of delivering a lesson.
We need to know what the purpose of that observation is and what the main focus will be. We need to have a pre-meet with the teacher, who we will observe, before the lesson so we can discuss the nature of our observation, the focus, and the aspects on which we would like to see more. We can also discuss what kind of procedures we can undertake of making effective records.
Some of the focuses that we can choose as our pre-observe procedures could be:
• Lesson structure – looking at how the lesson start, reach its target and finish, what activities have been used and in what order
• Classroom management- focusing at how the students are split in groups, where they have been put to sit, keeping good timetable and managing