Observation Notes

Level of class and composition of group:

Beginners Level. Class consists of 14 students although for the lesson only 7 students attended. The students come from a variety of backgrounds including Polish, Bulgarian, Afghanistan and Turkey. The ages range from 21 to 65 with a variety of speaking and writing abilities with two students unable to write in their own language
Aims of lesson:

To practice job related vocabulary and to be able to spell 5-10 words learnt during lesson
To be able to talk about work and occupations using vocabulary learnt during lesson
To use knowledge obtained during lesson to describe different jobs and to be able to recall 5-10 job words correctly

Overview for Reference

I observed this lesson for 1 hour 10 minutes after which I resumed my role as volunteer for rest of the lesson.

Introduction and Likes and Dislikes activity (15 minutes approximately)

The tutor welcomed the class and explained what she intended to cover in today’s lesson making sure all the students were clear about today’s objectives. The first five minutes of the lesson was taken up collecting previous homework from students and handing out of previous homework. The tutor then spent the next ten minutes recapping on last weeks lesson about dates/months asking students a variety of questions to illicit ate answers from the class.

The tutor then recapped on topic of likes and dislikes asking the class “what do you like” selecting individuals to answer. Once she had asked several students she went on to recap on previous vocabulary including sports and food.

Likes and Dislikes Activity (10 minutes approximately)

The tutor then handed out a set of questions and explained clearly what was required during this activity giving an example using the first question on the list. The class was then told to go around asking everyone in the class the list of questions and write down their answers as either yes or No. Once completed the tutor then asked each student for their totals and recorded the totals using the whiteboard.

Introduction and Job activity (30 minutes approximately)

The tutor then went on to introduce the new topic of work/jobs to the students. She introduced a variety of new vocabulary and then clearly explained the next activity which consisted of students walking around the room looking a pictures that matched their word on the cards handed out by the tutor.

Worksheet and Vocab activity (15 minutes approximately)

The tutor then used pictures of a variety of jobs and occupations to illicit vocabulary from the students repeating several times each word. Once happy the students were confident the tutor handed out worksheets going through various examples until satisfied students were confident to complete activity. Those unable to complete this activity were given cards with pictures of various jobs to cut and match.

From the beginning of the lesson the tutor stimulated the students to contribute by asking a variety of appropriate questions. These questions were set in a variety of ways and contexts but were appropriate to that particular stage of the lesson.

The students were greeted by the tutor in the traditional way. They were welcomed in a friendly way asking them how they were. Once all students had arrived the tutor continued the relaxed atmosphere by asking whether any of the students had watched X factor. The students answered with simple yes or no answers. With the students unable to answer, the tutor asked the question in a different way to illicit an answer such as “did you watch TV” often miming to help the students to understand. The tutor took the opportunity using other questions to encourage all the students to answer what they had done at the weekend. This encouraged all the students to answer either in simple sentences or with one word answers such as “I worked”, “ I cleaned”.

The tutor was very friendly and involved and listened carefully to all the students which helped to encourage all the students to participate. This relaxed environment was continued by the tutor during the recap on the previous weeks lessons. When recapping the topic date/months the tutor used the questions “what is today’s date” to illicit answers from the class who answered in unison. This was then repeated several times to make sure all students were happy with pronunciation. This led to the tutor repeating all the months of the year and getting the students to repeat after her several times. If a student was unable to pronounce the word correctly the tutor would get the student to repeat several times along with the class and then again by themselves. The tutor then recapped on likes and dislikes previous lesson again using particular questions to illicit simple answers from the students. The tutor however selected students individually asking them what they liked or disliked going around the class.

During the first activity each of the students were given a set of questions on likes and dislikes and encouraged to ask these questions to each of their fellow students. The tutor gave simple instructions and used the first question, repeating it several times to make sure each of the students were comfortable with the questions and the pronunciation. During this activity the tutor monitored the students progress constantly going around to individuals listening to their pronunciation of the questions and their answers. The tutor prompted when students were having problems allowing them time to answer and gain confidence in asking the questions. The tutor would repeat any words students had forgotten how to pronounce only after they had tried themselves.

Feedback was given to the group after the activity by asking each of the students how many yes or no answers they had to their set of questions. The tutor would ask individual students placing their answers on the electronic board. All students were praised continually throughout the session. From this activity the tutor was able to monitor who had a good ability on the topic and which students might require further practice.

To introduce the new topic of work the tutor used pictures of various occupations showing the students the pictures in order to illicit answers prompting using questions such as “what’s this” or “who’s this”. Each job description was then repeated several times by the whole class and the tutor praised the class after each new word had been practised. Any students struggling with pronunciation were encouraged by the tutor by repeating the word after the tutor several times and then with the class as a whole.

The tutor then went around the classroom placing a variety of pictures of jobs. Each of the students were then given the names of the jobs on a piece of card. The tutor then went round the class pronouncing each of the cards the students had getting them to repeat the words several times until she was sure all the students knew the words they had. The tutor then explained the activity by using her card and picture as an example showing that they matched. The students were then encouraged to walk around trying to find the matching card. Throughout the activity the tutor walked around listening and encouraging the students and helping any students that were struggling to find their matching picture. This activity continued until all job descriptions had been matched to the corresponding picture
The tutor then praised all the students for matching the pictures correctly. Each of the students were then allowed time to write down the jobs and the matching word descriptions. Each of the students were then given time to practice in pairs the pronunciation and the correct writing of each of the words whilst the tutor continued to monitor this by encouraging each of the students and helping those that had any problems.

The next activity consisted of the tutor holding up pictures of various items such as a sink, a customer, a patient. The students were encouraged to try and answer what these pictures where by questions such as “what’s this” or “do you know what this is”. The tutor encouraged the student to repeat the new words several times praising each of the students for their effort. The students were then encouraged to match these pictures with the job pictures from the previous activity. The tutor did this by holding up the job next to the picture of the item asking the question “is this correct”. This elicited the students to answer yes or no until they had achieved the correct answer. Once the tutor was confident that the students were confident with all the new words she handed out worksheets enabling the students to practise writing sentences matching the items to the jobs. She monitored this activity by going round to each student making sure they were spelling the words correctly and matching them correctly in pairs.

The tutor was very involved throughout the lesson and listened very carefully to the students. She constantly monitored each of the students progress by interacting and listening to them encouraging those that found any of the activities difficult. Although the questions used by the tutor were simple they encouraged the students to try and answer and gave them confidence to try any pronunciation even if they were not sure if it was correct. Constant use of repetition also helped to encourage the students and to reaffirm any issues with pronunciation. All spellings and written work was checked by the tutor as she walked around the room and any correction was done through constant encouragement.

The lesson had been well structured to suit all the needs of the learners and the constant encouragement helped the students to have a go and feel included. Any students struggling were given extra help and were able to participate to their own capabilities. Each activity was well planned and aimed at the needs of all the students and everyone seemed comfortable and at ease and seemed to enjoy the lesson. All students seemed to be confident in their learning and it was evident that all the students were making good progress at their own levels. The tutor used a variety of different questions in order to illicit student participation. She constantly used various monitoring and correction techniques as part of her overall lesson strategy and this in turn enabled each of the students to participate and function independently as well as part of the group.