Carlton CO #1

First classroom observation. Tuesday March 4, 9-10am
Ryan Flemming, Grammar group 3, 10 students

Pace of Lesson: Brisk and continuous. He engaged a few students before class began on a spelling and pronunciation point in Portuguese and jumped directly to the syllabus when class was due to start. Students asked a variety of questions during class, and were engaged most of the time because there was a variety of short segments.

Teacher Presentation: Class period was about 50% lecture and modeling and 50% student group activities. Agenda was all preplanned. I was introduced as an observer of the teacher, so students were clear I was not evaluating them. Ryan asked permission of the group for a time for correction. Lessons were presented as short presentations followed by 5 minutes of group work. During the group, Ryan circulated and made notes that he used to present at the end as a set of "beautiful mistakes" that were not attributed to any student, but presented for the benefit of all.

Classroom Management: Focus questions to start or wrap up a segment were addressed to specific students, so they were aware they could be called on at any time. It was assumed they all had smartphones, so sometimes Ryan asked them to just "take a picture of the screen" to capture notes and many did.

Teaching Aids: Computer screen projection included the lesson outline with annotations. A blank MS Word document was used for presenting grammatical errors and corrections. A present/past word list was projected to support the tense review. A familiar online dictionary (www.grammar.about.com) was helpful to quickly present information to answer student questions.

Student Production: Students were called on by name to contribute, ask or answer questions. Groups chose topics from subset like "movies" and expanded examples of compound sentences. Direct interview of partners with clear expectation to produce 4 sentences reporting what the partner said, integrating listening, writing and speaking.

Overall Impression: Ryan impressively manages to seem flexible and responsive to the students while keeping to a detailed and explicit lesson plan. The classroom is a quiet, yet busy environment. No time was wasted during setup or changing activities or groups. An excellent model of our books advice to build in accountability yet let students control choices so they become more motivated and involved.