UNIVERSIDAD DE PLAYA ANCHA

FACULTAD DE HUMANIDADES
EARLY ENGLISH TEACHING PRACTICE
2009

OBSERVATION STAGE

Name of student teacher: Andrés Escuti

Name of School: Colegio Coeducacional de Quiplué

Number of students: 2º Medio: 28 / 4º Medio: 32

Date: May 12 2009 Class: 2º Medio /4º Medio

Task Nº1: The school

Refer to the general background of the school in a clear and brief way. Describe:

physical location,

The school his located down town, near the malls and bus stops and alongside the main road of
Quilpué city (Los Carreras), The address is Los Carrera 981
Organisation,

School director: Alejandro Pereira Arancibia

U.T.P. chief: Hernán Almonacid Anteman.

School Manager: Alvaro Días

Discipline Coordinator: Helga Vadani

Language Coordinator: René Salgado

educational psychologist

Chiefs of Department

Teachers

student population,

The total of students who attend this school is 372. It is a mixed school where boys and
girls study together.

School rules.

The rules of this school are based on various articles which defines the following:

Their rights as students; their duty and obligations; the behavioural rules; the attendance
and punctuality; personal appearance and hygiene, their behaviour in the classroom; the
breaks; activities outside the school; belongings; other values; discipline; etc.

Task Nº2: The classroom

Comment about:

The atmosphere of the room

In both classrooms that I attend there is a tendency to follow the instruction of the teacher
even when there are times when the kids tend to talk among themselves a little bit louder
then they should and not to pay attention.

The levels of engagement in the room.

Due to the fact that I attend a private school the students are more engaged with the
activities because they know that their next goal is to be a university student.
 Students seating.

The way classroom is structured is conventional. They are seated in three rows, two
students by row with a table for each student.

Space

The classroom is large enough for the amount of students, they aren´t in any way in a
crowded environment.

Whiteboard location.

The whiteboard is conventionally situated, in the front of the classroom.

Classroom equipment.

The classrooms do not have a tv or datashow, they have to ask for it when it is required.
Those classrooms are equipped with the bare minimums. Tables, chairs, a few books, a
whiteboard and some kind of locker in the back of the room.

Task Nº3: The teacher

Describe the following:

Classroom routine.

First, the teacher salute the students and wait for them to salute back standing up, then he
let them talk among each other for 2 or 3 minutes, then he take the attendance and start with
the lesson. At the end of each period he remind them what are they going to do for the next
class.

Motivation activities performed.

The key of his way to teach can be summarize in “positive reinforcement”. He will
congratulate those who did a good job but won´t punish those ho didn´t, instead he will talk
to them about the importance of each lesson.

Learning activities conducted.

Material resourced used.

The teacher is using a learning a book called “HEADWAY” for theoretical part and he will
make the students prepare several Power Point presentation about any kind of topic for
them to practice their pronunciation.

Stages of the lesson.

Is routine involve a number of steps:

He present the theme that they will study

Background knowledge

Activities

Conclusion and review.

Task Nº4: The learners

In this observation task, focus on the things that help to create conditions for effective learning and
on the aspects that play a part in preventing learning.

How motivated are the learners? Why?

As I wrote before, those are privilege students because of their economical status and
mainly because they attend a private and expensive school that, kind of, ensure their
enrolment in the University, so that is a important factor for them to be motivated but
despite this fact they will always be a few of them who don´t care about one or two
subjects. That could be for many reasons but from what I´m seeing, the vast majority pay
attention to the English class even if deep down they don´t seem to be very interested in
 learning a new language.

Are they expecting the teacher to do the work for them?

Not at all. In fact, the teacher give them a brief introduction to the subjects they are learning
and let them resolve any kind of problems they are faced with. If they have doubts, him and
I will try to help them the best way we can without doing the work for them.

Do they like to participate in group work? If so, how do they behave?

They seem to be at ease when they work with a partner and usually, this partner is normally
the best friend so, ¿do they like to work in group? I think so, but I have never see them
work in a larger group to evaluate this situation and how they would behave in it.

The only time that I saw a group work was when they had to do a Power Point presentation
in front of the class. It was in duo. For obvious reasons some a of them were a bit more
nervous than other mainly because of the lack of preparation or because they have a poor
pronunciation, so they had to read during the entire presentation, which was not the best
way to do it:

What kinds of learning activities do the students like the most? What do they like the least?

From what saw, the students seem to prefer working by themselves, so in that way they can
speak with their classmates and they don´t have the pressure of being controlled or
watched. The activity they don’t seem to like is obviously the tests, specially those who
have a really bad time trying to understand the English language. In those case, the tests are
not an evaluating tool, is more a punishment for them.

AIVV/RAGS
Teaching Practice Team
2009