PEER OBSERVATION FORM I

Name _Maria Reyna Hernandez Monjaras

Teacher observed _Veronica Rivera Leon
Date of observation February 12, 2014
School Colegio Independencia_ Number of sts _30 students_
Level of course _Beginner_ Average age of sts _14_

The following observation form is for you to reflect on learner centeredness,
communicative activities, and the roles of teacher and the students within a class. Please
observe a fellow EFL teacher and hand in this form with the observed teacher's lesson plan
to Martha for the next input session. Thanks.

1. Did the teacher try to promote a learner centeredness class? How was it done? If the
teacher did not promote it, how could it have been done?

According to my observation the teacher did involve the students in a limited student-
centered approach because of the following reason. First, the teacher challenged the
students by having them work in pairs in a back to back formation; one student had a
picture and would describe the shape and color of the fruit while the other student made a
drawing. This was the only student-centered activity that I saw because the other activities
were very teacher-centered since the teacher was lecturing most of the time. I would have
added more student-centered activities because I felt that the students were not challenged
enough. Maybe the teacher could have done some match-up activities, information gaps or
jigsaws.


2. Comment on the roles of the teacher and the students. Add any reflection of these roles.

Based on what I saw in terms of teacher and students roles, these are my observations. The
teacher was a presenter at the start of the lesson since she was guiding her students by
explaining the vocabulary and grammar terms. Moreover, the teacher was covering
countable and uncountable nouns based on fruits and vegetable so she was also a
transmitter. Additionally, the teacher was also a moderator since she was walking around
and helping out student during the activities. For example, the students worked on drawing
and writing up some dialogues while the teacher was also assessor since she provided
guidance and feedback to correct mistakes.

On the other hand, the students were receptors, negotiators contributors throughout the
learning process, since they first listened to acquire knowledge and then produced ideas that
continued to the success of the acquisition. They were also negotiators with the teacher in
terms of dissecting the meaning and clarifying doubts. Most of the time students were
experimenting with the new language and having fun with it as well.


3. Were there any communicative activities in the lesson? What made these activities
communicative? Were they successful? Why or why not? If there were not any
communicative activities, what could have been changed?

From my perspective there were many communicative activities and I will describe a few.
First, the teacher had the students write out a dialogue using like about their favorite fruits
and vegetables which was pretty successful as the verb like was previously introduced and
made the students complement it with the new vocabulary. Second, the teacher had them do
the back to back drawing activity which worked out well since students were relaying
information and interpreting it in a drawing.

They were successful because they were fitted to students needs and they were fun and
dynamic too. These types of activities are very functional to help the student avoid
passiveness. From what I saw students were having fun interacting with their classmate
especially in the back to back-drawing exercise which was quite fun and challenging. In
addition, in the dialogue building activity, students worked well together and were very
competitive too, but what I really liked was the creativity that was used in the writing.


4. Write about one aspect that you saw in this class that you enjoyed seeing and would like
to use in your class. How could it be used in your program?

Personally, I thought the way the teacher explained the instructions was so clear and
precise. The students seemed to understand her and carried out the activities with
practically no confusion at all. I could use that technique to give out my instructions more
clearly since I feel I speak really fast sometimes and students dont understand me as I
would like. Moreover, I would like to better exploit my flashcards as teacher Veronica did.

Furthermore, I really enjoyed the practice activities which were very communicative and
fun. I would like to try the back to back-drawing activity with my students because it would
work out well since they are very visual and kinesthetic. I would use is as a practice activity
after a presentation or maybe as a form to check accuracy, maybe like a spelling exercise
which would be fun.


5. What are your initial reactions to peer-observations?

To start off, I really didnt know what to expect because I had no previous experience or
knowledge on how to carry out an observation so I did feel nervous and insecure. However,
I was amazed on how much I actually learned from observing my peers as I picked up some
things that I can apply to my teaching to make it more successful. I look forward to
observing more classes in order to learn more things related to teaching and apply them to
be a better teacher. After this initial observation, I feel much more secure and know what to
expect so the next time I observe I wont be so intimidated. On the other hand, I feel that
peer-observations will be a great opportunity for me since I dont have that much
experience as far as teaching is concerned. These observations will facilitate my
development by applying techniques and approaches from watching more experienced
teachers.


6. Additional comments:

In my opinion, I am very fortunate to have the opportunity to observe teacher Veronica who
has been teaching a lot longer than I have and thus has lots more experience and the
students seem to be developing really well under her guidance. His teacher did great overall
and I hope to re-observe her in the future. I feel I learned a lot and will be applying the
good things I saw to my teaching.