Lesson Observation 7 (School Practice)

I observed a CLIL lesson about spiders. Some unexpected things happened, but I think it both me and the teacher gained a lot after this lesson.

At the beginning of the lesson, the teacher showed pictures of some insects, then a spider. After each picture, she asked about students' feelings (happy, sad, scared etc.). When she asked their feelings about spiders, most of the girls said they scared. She asked students "Have you ever seen a spider at your homes or outside? Is spider an insect?" All students said "yes", then she taught students that spiders are arachnids, not insects. She compared spiders with flies to help students to understand that a spider is not an insect.

Then, she taught the students about the body parts of spiders. While she was teaching, two students got so scared and wanted to leave the classroom, and some of them refused to look at the board. The teacher was so patient, and she never lost control.

Then, she asked students questions such as "Have you heard the word meadow? What do you think it is?",  "What do you know about spiders?" With these questions, she activated students thinking skills.

Then, the teacher taught the students about the superpowers of spiders (They can jump very far, they can see everywhere with their eyes etc.). This part of the lesson helped students to utilize spiders with a different perspective. 

Then, she taught students the differences between Australian spider and Polish spider. In this part, her aim was to help students to understand that spiders in Poland are not harmful and they don't need to afraid of them. After she gave information about two spiders, she asked students "We live in Poland. Are we safe?" then, she said "Polish spiders are not harmful. We are safe!"

Finally, she used ClassDojo to divide students into groups and asked them to create their own spider. Then, students came to the board to present their work.

I can clearly say that it was not an easy lesson to conduct, but the teacher was so professional. She never lost control, and with her smart questions, she managed to keep the students' attention on the lesson. Although some students were scared, I believe that in the end, they all learned something about spiders and will remember it.