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Observation Report and Pedagogical Contribution

Course Description
CO150 College Composition (International Student Section) is a reading and writing
class designed to improve critical thinking and academic writing skills for ESL/EFL learners in
Colorado State University. This class met every Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 12pm to
12:50pm. This courses duration was sixteen weeks in the spring semester in 2014. It was divided
into five different topics. The first five weeks focused on summary and rhetorical critique, week
six to week nine focused on annotated bibliography and exploratory, the following three weeks
(week ten to week twelve) focused on academic argument, and the last four weeks, week thirteen
to week sixteen, was focusing on the public argument topic. According to the syllabus, that
through this course, students will:
- Develop critical reading practices to support research and writing.
- Develop an understanding of writing as a rhetorical practice such as choosing
effective strategies for addressing purpose and audience.
- Learn important elements of academic discourse, such as posing and investigating
questions, using sources effectively and ethically, etc.
- Increase students information literacy through strategies for locating, selecting and
evaluating sources for inquiry.

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- Develop effective research and writing processes, including peer collaboration and
response and using feedback to guide revision.
- Engage as an active number of our CSU and larger local and global communities.
At the end of the semester, students who earn a passing grade will be able to reach the
following course objectives:
- Engage in critical reading and identify rhetorical elements of texts.
- Identify writing goals appropriate for specified rhetorical contexts.
- Identify and complete appropriate writing tasks from generating ideas to editing a final
draft.
- Locate and evaluate pertinent source material, including library and Internet-base
sources.
- Draft texts for specified rhetorical contexts
- Understand the principles of revising and editing and be able to revise for focus,
structure, style, purpose, and audience.
- Evaluate and act on revision suggestions from peers and teacher.
In addition, students were also expected to finish the following assignments:
summary/rhetorical critique (15%), exploratory essay (20%) and annotated bibliography (20%),
academic argument (25%), public argument (10%), as well as homework, quizzes and
participation (10%). (Foster, 2014) I made five visits to this class from April 18th to April 30th,
2014 and the class were discussing the public argument topic. I also provided course related

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materials to the instructor to help scaffolding the course structure and expand students
knowledge extent.
Student Population and Instructional Settings
The CO150 course included twenty-four international students. There were thirteen
Chinese students whose native language is Mandarin Chinese or Cantonese, two Malaysian
students who speak Mandarin Chinese, five Arabic students, one Lebanon student whose native
languages are French and Arabic, one Japanese student, one Korean student, and one Vietnamese
student. Due to the business administration craze in Asia, seven out of thirteen Chinese students,
two Malaysian students and the Vietnamese student are majoring in the business administration
or undeclared but have strong interest in business majors. Four students are majoring or want to
major in biological field, four students are interested in choosing engineering as their major. The
rest of the class are majoring journalism, zoology, psychology, landscape architecture, sociology,
etc. Twelve of them are freshmen, and there were only two senior students. There were also six
sophomore students and four junior students.
The classroom was located in Room 114 in Microbiology Building at Colorado State
University. This class meets every Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 12pm to 12:50pm.
Since this classroom is located in a building that is not closely related to the INTO program or
the language department, it does not have special linguistic settings such as notes of words,
phrases, or idioms on the wall. There were one computer, one projector, one document camera
and a chalkboard in the room. The classroom capacity was about 40 people due to the fact that
this class included quite a large number of students. The document camera was used for most of
the time because the instructor did a lot of joint editing with the students, and writing the answers

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down on a sheet and show it on the document camera is one of the most efficient way. In sum,
this classroom was well-equipped and located in a quiet corner of the Microbiology Building,
therefore, it could facilitate students learning.
Instructional Procedures
According to the course syllabus, the sixteen-week semester was divided into five
different phases: The first five weeks focused on summary and rhetorical critique, week six to
week nine focused on annotated bibliography and exploratory, the following three weeks (week
ten to week twelve) focused on academic argument, and the last four weeks, week thirteen to
week sixteen, was focusing on the public argument topic. I made five visits to this class from
April 18th to April 30th, 2014 and the class were discussing the public argument topic.
The instructor would usually start the class by greeting students and asking daily-life
related questions such as How was your weekend? or Hows your paper/homework going? as
her warm-up activities. Students were very willing to share their experiences with the rest of the
class as well as the instructor, hence the class always started in a positive atmosphere. And before
the instructor actually starts the official linguistic topic of the day, she would usually ask if
students have any questions that she could offer help. If students did ask her questions, she
would repeat the questions first to confirm that shes getting students ideas and then give
answers accordingly.
I think that the main teaching methods used in this class were content-based instruction
and task-based instruction for most of the classes that I observed are students working in groups
to solve problems. For example, the instructor would usually give out handouts of several
questions related to the linguistic content of the day, and then divide students into groups to go

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through the questions together. One of the class I observed was about the topic of how to write
introductions and conclusions. Students were assigned for few in-class exercises like organizing
the essay, spotting the thought groups of the essay, analyzing the essay structure, and so on. This,
to me, is the sign of teaching method based on tasks to help students study new information and
enhance their mastery of the previous knowledge.
The syllabus also implied that the other teaching method used in this class was contentbased instruction. As mentioned above, the semester was divided into five different phases with
different topics. Therefore, the instructor needed to pay attention to the content that will be
taught in each section. For instance, the first phase of the semester was about summary and
rhetorical critiques. In that case, the instructor needed to prepare course materials related to
contents such as revising summaries, paraphrasing/quoting, attribution, principles of rhetorical
critique writing, audience appeals, objectivity and transitions, etc. That being said, the instructor
also paid attention to the authenticity of the course materials. For example, the instructor would
use articles from newspaper and the topics were closely related to students academic and daily
life so that the knowledge taught in this course practical and applicable.
However, due to most of the Asian students tend to be modest and introvert, the class did
not have much interaction between students or between the instructor and the students. Even
though there were a lot of group work assignments in the class, these students usually would go
through the tasks on their own, and then discuss the problems they have afterwards. This
somehow limited the chances of interaction for the students. In order to motivate students to get
involved in the discussions, the instructor will usually divide the students in different groups to
finish their tasks. And she also invited the students to share their answers in front of the class.

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Moreover, in order to avoid students whose native language are the same being in the
same group, which will lead to the result that the students will discuss the questions in their
native language, the instructor will mix students from different countries in one group to
encourage them use English as much as possible. She usually would divided the groups in
advance and put the names of the groups on a piece of paper, and show the assignment sheet on
the document camera. If there was any student who was absent that day, she will rearrange the
groups according to the situation.
Most of the class that I observed have similar sequencing pattern. That is, to first review
the previous knowledge or ask if students have any questions about the previous content, and
then transit to the linguistic content of the day, and then practice the new knowledge with the
students. At the end of each class, the instructor would usually remind students the upcoming
plans and assign homework.
Description of Involvement with This Class
I observed five classes for this course from April 18th to April 30th, 2014. I also took part
in the material development for one of the activities. After observing the first class, the instructor
and I were discussing the upcoming class schedule. She mentioned that on the upcoming Friday
there will be an interesting activity of logical writing, which reminded me of my GMAT
(Graduate Management Admission Test) preparation experience for the business graduate school.
For the Analytical Writing Assessment (AWA) section of GMAT, there were previous test
takers who organized a test-prep essay called AWA Seven Sins. The word Sins indicates the
common logical fallacy that people will make during the critical writing process such as
insufficient sample, false analogy, doubtful survey, gratuitous assumption, casual simplification,

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and so on. Thus, the essay gives seven logical and critical thinking patterns as well as language
patterns helps students prepare and organize their writing during the limited exam duration. For
example, if the argument rests on the assumption that A is analogous to B in all respects, the
author provided such language pattern that gives an example of how to phrase the writing: This
assumption is weak, sine although there are point of comparison between A and B, there is much
dissimilarity as well. For example, A , however, B . Thus, it is likely much more difficult for
B to do (ChaseDream, 2005).
After hearing my introduction and description of the essay, the instructor expressed her
interest of the essay and I therefore emailed her the copy of the AWA Seven Sins for GMAT. After
reading the essay, the instructor adapted the essay and used most of the material I offered in the
classroom activity on Friday. Students were highly motivated and actively engaged in the
learning process.
Observation Tasks
Task #1: Lesson Planning
Observation
Give out handouts and explain

Inference
Evidence of planning. Helping

Discussion questions
What sources should be

how to generalize the main

students to identify rules and

looked for? How to organize

idea.
One of the student asked a

organize new knowledge.

Evidence of planning and

the argument body?

How information is to be

question about citation.

previous knowledge. The

organized and shared?

instructor can answer the

Give out a sheet of 11

question quickly and properly.

Evidence of planning.

Checking comprehension and

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questions and ask students to

Students were assigned to

learning?

work in pairs. Answer 3

different groups according to

questions at a time.
Ask students to nod or shake

the plan.
Evidence of adapting. The

Shifting the pattern of

their heads to imply their

instructor will give more time

interaction.

group work progress.

Invite students to share their

if the students are in need.

Evidence of planning.

Involving students and

answers and help them get the

drawing out the previous

correct answers.

knowledge? Integrating skills

involved in this lesson.

Reflection:
The lesson was well-organized and executed in a proper pace according to students
needs. Designing a lesson like this can assess students learning progress efficiently and adapt the
following lessons plans accordingly. Students can also find out what they need to improve and
get immediate feedback from the instructor.
Task #2: Lesson Phases
#
1

What did the teacher say?

Ok. Before we start the class,

What did the teacher do?

Looked around the

When/Lesson phase
Beginning.

does anyone has any questions?

Do you mean that?

classroom.
Looked at the student who

Beginning. After

had the question and

student asked a

confirm his idea.

Looked at the student.

question.
After answering the

Does that answer your question?

Ok. What other questions you

Looked around the

question.
After answering the

have?
U-huh (nodding), U-huh

classroom.
Looked at the student who

question.
After answering the

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(nodding) Oh thats a great

had the question and

question. Ive been waiting for

confirm his idea.

someone to ask it.

So you guys please remember

Looked around the class.

that the assignment is due on

first question.

After answering
students questions.

Friday. And I will have additional

7

office hours for you.

So quite a few of you have

Looked around the class.

When students did not

requested a session with another

raise anymore

Ryan Lucas. Please let me know

questions.

if you would like to do that.

So this is kind of like our last day

Looked around the class.

of instruction. Today I want to

Second phase of the

class. Lecturing.

talk about linguistic issue.

I want everybody to get together

Waved her hands and

After introducing the

10

with a partner.
Does everyone finished their

looked around the class.

Looked around the class.

topic.
When students

questions? Give me a nod or a

Nodded her head when she

finished their group

shake.

said nod and shook her

work.

Pay attention to the transitions. I

head when she said shake.

Looked around the class.

Third phase. After

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do this is because I see students

working through the

use them inappropriately over and

previous handout of

over.
Okay. Now lets take a look at the

Put the handout on

questions.
Fourth phase. After

handouts and correct the use of

document camera.

introducing the use of

transitions in the sample text.

transitional words and

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So my plan was to have you guys

Looked around the class.

phrases.
Fifth phase. After

take a look at your paragraphs

practicing together

that you brought to class today in

with students.

order to check your use of

transitions. But we only have one
minute off, so I would encourage
you to go through your essays
and revise especially for this
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specific component.
Um. OK. So let me just show you

Brought out a homework

Sixth phase.

what you will have for homework

sheet and put it on the

Assigning homework.

here.
Any other questions? Alright you

document camera.
Waved and smiled to the

Seventh phase. Class

class.

closure.

guys, Ill see you on Wednesday.

Reflection

The instructor repeated students questions in order to make sure that she got their main
idea properly so she can answer the correct answer. After answering students questions, she will
confirm that she has answered the question and helped the student appropriately. She also used
the word OK a lot to transit to the next phase of the lesson. By doing so, students can form a
solid pattern of the signature transition sign of the instructor and they will follow the instruction
a lot better. Moreover, the instructor always make sure that the students are on the approximately
same progress by asking the students to give her a nod or a shake.
Pedagogical Contribution

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Statement of Problem
During my time of observing the classes, I realized that since most of the students in this
class were from Asian countries, they tend to be more introvert and quieter than students from
other countries. They also tend to finish the in-class tasks individually and independently, and
only discuss with teammates when they have questions under most situations. Moreover, due to
the content structure, the class was heavily relied on the instructors lecturing. Consequently,
students did not have many chances to interact and collaborate with either peer students or the
instructor. However, being able to study with peer students cooperatively and collaboratively can
not only benefit students knowledge retaining process, but also can help them form the habit to
work cohesively and coherently with others in daily life, academic and professional fields. In
order to fill in the gap of students learnability and practicability, such applicable teaching
method is very necessary.
Theoretical Foundation for the Development
Cooperative Learning Method (Slavin, 1990) is a distinctive way to improve the
classroom social psychological atmosphere in order to stimulate students become coherent and
collaborative learners to make greater progress. This method requires not only the cooperative
interaction among students, but also the interaction between students and teachers, and among
teachers. Teachers should involve students to be a part of the process of collaboration and group
work to ensure the classroom has mutual and equal interactions. Moreover, teachers should
respect the diverse personalities of students, pay attention to their differences and try to meet
their needs. By doing so, students are motivated to participate in both learning and teaching

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process as well as to retain skills and knowledge such as information gathering and analyzing,
problem solving, and collaborative communication.
Community Language Learning (Richards, 1986) is a language-teaching method in which
students work together to develop what aspects of a language they would like to learn. It is based
1

on the Counseling-approach in which the teacher acts as a counsellor and a paraphraser, while

the learner is seen as a client and collaborator. The CLL emphasizes the sense of community in
the learning group, it encourages interaction as a vehicle of learning, and it considers as a priority
the students' feelings and the recognition of struggles in language acquisition. There is no
syllabus or textbook to follow and it is the students themselves who determine the content of the
lesson by means of meaningful conversations in which they discuss real messages. (Wikipedia,
2014)
Content-based Instruction is the integration of content with language teaching aims. (Brinton,
Snow & Wesche, 1989). It involves the teaching of academic subject matter and second language
skills. The students, thus, receive curricular information and do their academic tasks in the target
language and, at the same time, acquire the target language in a very natural way; that is,
eliminating the separation between curricular development and the study of the target language.
(Madrid & Snchesz, 2001).
The Goal I Aim to Achieve
As mentioned above, the goal that my pedagogical contribution aims to achieve is to
motivate the introvert students to be involved in the classroom interactions actively and
confidently. In other words, I aim to increase the interaction, collaboration, and feedback
1

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between students as well as between the instructor and the students. This also require the class to
have more activities rather than lecturing.
Procedures for Development and Execution
Based on the supporting theories of Cooperative Learning Method, Community
Language Learning and Content-based Instruction, I hereby introduce the following activities in
order to achieve the goal of my pedagogical contribution.
1) Graphic Organizers and Essay Planning (Guse, 2011)
Procedure:
- Students will be divided into different groups to work collaboratively.
- The instructor will give the graphic organizer hints such as Introduction,
Details/Problems, and Solution etc. to help students organize the essay structure.
- Students need to read through the handouts of some scrambled fact/essays/arguments
within their groups and use the graphic organizers to recombine the essays/arguments.
- After organizing, the instructor will give out the original text and students can check
their answers.
- Peer review of their answer and discuss how and why they figure out the answers.
2) Joint Construction (Guse, 2011)
Procedure:
- Give out blank sheets.

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- Read the topic question and ask the class to decide on the event or position they want to
talk about.
- Together, the teacher and class will construct a paragraph which represents this view.
Drawing on the brainstorming notes on the board, invite students to suggest sentences
which introduce the main idea of their paragraph. Write these on the board.
- In collaboration with the class, choose one of the sentences to begin the jointly
constructed paragraph.
- Invite students to male suggestions on how to link the ideas in the paragraph.
- Finally, return to the topic question and jointly construct a concluding paragraph and
students need to read the paragraph out loud together.
3) Joint Editing (Guse, 2011)
Procedure:
- Students will be divided into small groups to read through the imperfect sample text.
- Instructor invite students to give improvement suggestions by asking them questions.
- Create a summary of the good revision suggestions on the board.
- Students work in pairs to rephrase the text using the suggestions written on the board.
- Share the well-organized text with the class.
Personal Reflection

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Through this observation assignment, I sure learned a lot ESL/EFL reading and writing
teaching methods techniques as well as some linguistic knowledge. For example, the instructor
created a stress-free, student-centered classroom environment. She would use small talks of
topics like How was your weekend? or Hows your paper/homework going? as warm-up
activities to help students relax and be prepared for the upcoming class. I think this worked really
well because I noticed that there were a lot of times that before the class starts, students were
discussing their problems about assignments, how did they spend the previous days, or what they
plan to do after class, and sometimes they were hard to stop the discussion immediately when the
class started. Therefore, using small talks to gently notice students to smoothly get involved at
the beginning of the class can help the instructor to get to know more about the students, which
is also important for an instructor who has a large amount of students in a class like CO150.
The other technique I learned during the observation was the use of authentic materials.
The instructor chose some materials written by native speakers that are closely related to our
daily health such as sleep quality, obesity, etc. to bring students attention. By doing so, not only
can the students achieve the linguistic objective efficiently, but they also can apply the content in
their daily or academic life.
During the teaching process, I also noticed that the instructor gave a lot of positive
feedback to the students. She has been very patient and helpful to the students, for instance, she
would give affirmative words or phrases like Thats right!, Good, and so on as feedback for
the students who got involved in the classroom interaction. The instructor would also invite
students to answer questions or finish tasks with a friendly smile on her face so that students
would not feel uncomfortable to get involved in the class. Teaching the class with an optimistic,
positive attitude can certainly motivate students to become interested in the subject.

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In order to get every students be involved in the class, the instructor would also call
students names in turns so every students had the chance to discuss their opinions and thoughts.
There were also few times that certain active students answered most of the questions, the
instructor would say Can someone besides these students give me the answer? to ensure that
there were even chances for each students to speak and get the instructors feedback.
Moreover, the instructor is also very considerate. As mentioned above, this class included
a lot introvert students and it was a class with a large number of students, therefore it was
sometimes hard to pay attention to every students feedback of their progress in the teaching
process. In that case, the instructor used the question Do you need some more time to finish the
task? Are you all clear about the content that was taught? Please give me a nod or a shake.
Students need not to speak in public, but only needed to give a simple reaction. I find this
technique very useful because students will not be nervous about the idea of addressing their
opinions in public, but an undertone reaction of nodding or shaking their head can give clear and
efficient feedback to the instructor. The instructor hence can adapt the teaching method or pace
according to students needs.
Reference:
ChaseDream. (2005). AWA Seven Sins. http://www.chasedream.com/show.aspx?id=150&cid=44.
Foster, K. (2014). Syllabus of CO150.403: College Composition.
Guse, J. (2011). Communicative Activities for EAP. Cambridge.
Madrid, D., Snchesz, E. (2001). Content-based Second Language Teaching. Present and Future
Trends in TEFL, pp. 101-134.

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Richards, J. C. (1986) Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching.

Slavin, R. E.(1990). Cooperative Learning. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall.
Wikipedia. (2014). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Community_language_learning