ENGLISH PEDAGOGY

STUDENT TEACHING PRACTICE

OBSERVATION STAGE
Name of student: Leonardo Quinteros Ruiz.
Name of School: Escuela Básica San Judas Tadeo.
Number of students: 6th: Boys 8; Girls 6 â 7th: Boys 1; Girls 9
Date: Thursday 6th May
Class: 6th â 7th Primary
Task 1: The School and Learning Environment
Briefly describe the following aspects:
1. The school:
Describe the general background of the school including the physical location, o
rganisation, student population, philosophy and educational and behavioural poli
cies.
San Judas Tadeo School is located in San Juan Hill, in Aquiles Ramirez Street. T
he access is very complicated because you can reach the school, by taxi (N° 41)
, by bus (506). This last way is the best to arrive to school after a taxi and a
ny bus which goes through Av. Alemania, and I have to going up to the rest of th
e hill, until finding the school.
In terms of organisation, the school works as every school staff, such as direct
or, sub-director, teachers, assistants, who tries to do their best in order to k
eep a harmonious environment between the most important things in the school, wh
ich are the students.
2. The classroom
Describe the atmosphere of the room and the levels of engagement in the room. Ma
ke notes on seating, sight lines, space, air, light, whiteboard, equipment, etc.
The environment of the classroom, sometimes is not comfortable; because the stud
ents are too messy and do not keep their classroom clean. You can always find pa
per on the floor; sometimes the room does not smell well, so it is more difficul
t to be concentrate on keeping a nice space to learn. The room is mainly made of
wood; it has a window with an outstanding view, which shows a wide vision of Va
lparaiso. It is not a large room, but all the students have their own seat. The
whiteboard is in the front of the classroom, and next to it, we can find the tea
cherâ s desk. The school has a library and all students and teachers can go there.
3. The activities & resources
a) Make notes on the kind of activities used, the nature of student involvement,
balance of student doing things and teacher doing things
b) Describe the resources used and the materials available within the school. Ho
w are the resources used in the classroom?
It was difficult for me to make some notes about activities used in classes, bec
ause when I was attending the class, the teacher was making a review since their
students had to give a test next week. So she wrote in the whiteboard the exerc
ises about topics that would be evaluated.
Task 2: Student´s learning
In this second observation task, you should focus on the things that help to cre
ate conditions for effective learning and on the aspects that play a part in pre
venting learning.
1. The learners
How motivated are the learners? Why? To what extent are they taking part in thei
r own learning? To what extent are they expecting the teacher to do the work for
them?
Some of them show a little interest in English classes, because most of students
do not like foreign languages, so they are not involved in terms of their own l
earning, they only develop the knowledge the teacher gives them into the classro
om.
2. Behaviour during classroom activities
Describe the ways students are encouraged to participate in activities. Are ther
e any particular strategies for managing issues and motivating students? Are the
re any students with special needs?
The students enjoy participating in classes. They want to demonstrate their know
ledge to the teacher; however, everyone wants to do it. For that reason the acti
vity becomes a mess, since all students are shouting. The strategies of making a
ctivities on the whiteboard are very useful, but sometimes there is a distractiv
e situation because the teacher is not looking after his back, so the students c
an do everything what they want, while the teacher is writing.
3. Discuss the learning styles and levels of English in the classroom.
I think that levels of English are under the expectations. In terms of speaking
skills, students can not talk clearly and fluently. In the activities about reco
gnition of some figures and images, they develop a good way to do it in classes,
but in tests, they fail this objective. Writing skills are also lower than ever
y teacher expects. Even though you explain the easiest thing twice or three time
s, they do not totally understand.