Lesson Observation 2 (School Practice)

Class: 3

Lesson title: My day (reading comprehension)

The lesson began with a remarkable warm-up activity that the teacher said, "I have some difficult questions for you." This beginning was very successful in terms of attracting the attention of the students to the lesson immediately. The teacher asked the students short but thought-provoking questions such as “What month are we on?”, “How is the weather today?”, “Tell me two mammals”, “Tell me three insects.” Thanks to these questions, students both practiced speaking and quickly probed their vocabulary.

After the warm-up, the teacher drew different pictures of the sun on the board and presented the parts of the day (morning, noon, evening). She wrote morning, afternoon and evening under the drawings. This visual-assisted explanation was a very effective method, especially when working with the younger age group. At the same time, she contributed to the understanding of the students with sentences such as "If the sun sets, ... becomes".

After these drawings, the teacher asked the class, "What do we do in the morning/afternoon/evening…?" By listening to the answers from the students, she naturally connected the subject to daily routines. Then she did a listening activity. After the students listened to the words, they repeated them all together. In this way, both listening and pronunciation skills developed. 

Then the teacher asked questions such as “Can you show me how to wash?”. When some students struggled, she supported by dramatizing. Such kinesthetic learning practices are very effective for making the language learning of young students permanent.

Then, she asked the students to put their fingers on the text and follow while listening. Thanks to this, listening and reading skills were activated simultaneously. The teacher went around the class and checked exactly whether the students followed the text and offered individual support to those who did not understand. This was very appropriate in terms of being sensitive to different learning speeds in the classroom.

Then, the teacher asked the students read the text quietly once, then she made the text listen aloud and the students repeated the sentences they listened to. Although there was a short-term sound confusion in the classroom during this time, the teacher quickly regained control.

Then, in a fun way, she asked a student to come to the board and whispered a word in his ear. Then the student explain this word to the class without talkking. During this game, patterns such as “get dressed”, “have breakfast“ were reinforced. This activity both ensured the active participation of the students and allowed them to repeat the language structures learned in a fun context.

In the following minutes of the lesson, the teacher asked students to finish the activity on the workbook. Each student was given 5 minutes for the activity. At the end of the time, the teacher checked the answers with the whole class. This was very useful for students to manage time and evaluate their own work.

At the end of the lesson, the teacher played a song about the subject. The song was connected to the words the students learned and they made a pleasant closing to the lesson both dancing and singing. Such multi-sensory activities make language learning both more permanent and more fun.