Our class observations 1.
- 2. The first class that we observed was in the 6°5 grade in the Institution Educativa Cristobal Colon de Morroa. The topic of the class was the present continuous. The teacher begins the class explaining his students the topic on the board, he writes on the board how the present is formed in his forms negative, interrogative and affirmative, after he draws some images of people who are doing a different action and the students participate voluntarily to write on the board the sentences, after the teacher reads the sentences written by the students and they repeat after the teacher. The students who participated received extras grades. The last activity consisted in that the teacher gives his students a verb and they do a sentence with this verb in present continuous, they go some times where the teacher for him to review their sentences. We felt very comfortable while the class took place and motives to be a teacher more than ever. We think most students felt motived by the classes, also the teacher felt happy since his students were interested in participating. The students sitting in the front felt very interested in the topic, but there was a bit of distraction with about five students sitting in the back, the teacher should focus a little more on the students sitting in the last of the room to avoid distractions. The positive of the class was that although the teacher did not use many didactic activities most of the students were motivated and they were very interested by the class. The negative thing was that the teacher did not use English much, most of the class was developed in Spanish and the work environment was not the most adequate because there was a lot of external noise. It is very important to emphasize that the way to motivate students by matching them with extra points is good for motivating students to participate. If we were exposed to similar situations we would try to do more dynamic activities where everyone is involved to avoid distractions of the students and we would use more the foreign language.
- 3. Our class observation number two was done in the same grade. The aim of the class was first make a short review of what was learned in the last class. The teacher asks them that they remember of the topic studied the last class, he asks some students to go to the front of the class and show the images they brought to their classmates, after they describe what the people in the image were doing. The teacher helps a lot of the students who have difficulty pronouncing some words and correcting the grammatical errors then the teacher asks them to translate what they said in Spanish, after this activity the teacher begins a new topic: countable nouns and uncountable nouns. First he gives a small definitions of which are countable and uncountable nouns so he gives examples. The last activity, the teacher wrote on the board 25 words one for each student and they say if it is a countable or uncountable nouns. In this class we felt very distracted and unmotivated because the students this time were not as attentive to the class as the first time, while their classmates are saying their description the others students were speaking. The use of English is little as in the first class, most of the class is Spanish; explanations are said in Spanish and the examples are said in English and translated into Spanish. It is important to mention that the activity of describing an image was very good because they could put into practice the speaking and listening skill. We think that the translation should be avoided to the maximum, so that the students will be able to begin to understand in English. It is better that the teacher use corporal gestures or Realia instead of direct translation, in this way the students will assimilate the sounds with the words and they will understand soon this words that they listen .The motivation of the teacher is very important and in this class we felt little motivation on the part of the teacher in the class.
- 4. When we observed the class we could see that it is a traditional class, based on grammar. The theme was the indefinite articles and the use of there is and there are. First teacher says the topic and he makes a review about some nouns. Then, the teacher asks to students write a noun on the board, after that he explains the topic; teacher use Realia to do some examples. Now, teacher gave a sheet of paper to each student where they had to write in front each noun the correct indefinite article and finally they socialized these answers. In the next activity, students have to describe an image and this activity they should use there is and there are, for example, there is a house, there are four cars, some students participated. And the last activity was in groups of three people, where they had to fill in the blanks in relation to the thematic view. In the development of the activities it was noticed a low participation of the students. The teacher used didactic tools, but, he did not motivate the students when he started the class. Also he did not use very well classroom space. Without any intention of demeaning the class, we noticed that in the development of the first activity, the teacher had problems in reestablishing order in the classroom, this was noticed at the moment that he had to repeat several time the request that everyone sit down. The teacher used the first language for the class, he pronounced in English only some main words of the subject, he gave incentives like giving a good note to those who participated. The teacher at times, looked for meaningful examples to make it easier for children to learn new vocabulary. For example in the class they learned, among other words, the word milk, since the teacher compared the word milk with the brand Klim, and they assimilated that Klim is in reverse milk in English.
- 5. When we observed the class we could see all methodologies implemented by the teacher into the class. In this class we could observe all the more appropriated ways that the teacher used to teach their students, for example. During the first 15 minutes, the teacher explained the subject; the subject presented was «the present perfect». The teacher used different ways to explain this subject as the writing on the board, questions between students and guides where students could read as professor explained. This was with the purpose that all students could understand the subject in general. At the end of the explanation, the teacher decided ask students about the subject and the students write their concepts basic in a paper that after was read by students. The last activity was in groups of three fill a series of questions that later was delivered to teacher. The class was not very dynamic because the teacher did not use different strategies allowing a little more interaction with students. Teacher did not use strategies as the use of books or songs to make fun the class. the lack of motivation by professor at the beginning of the class made students were a little demotivated and not understand well class, for this reason professor decided to change a bit rate class and got students to change your mood. Teacher used the native language to explain your class, he spoke English certain times to explain examples. The used examples like, I have visited Barranquilla twice. Examples as they did those students understand an easy way the subject.