A report on lesson observation of primary level
in a private language school in Athens, Greece
On the 13th of January 2017 the team of NIS teachers had an opportunity to visit a private language school for lesson observations. Twenty-five English teachers were split into 7 groups (named A-G) so that to be able to see various classes of different levels.
I became a member of group F with 3 other colleagues and our team was meant to have two lesson observations: one of level Spark 2 and the other of Fairyland 4. As far as I found out later from the teachers, Spark 2 is close to grade 5 in Kazakhstani educational system, while Fairyland 4 corresponds to grade 3.
Having been provided with appropriate sets of books we proceeded to the classrooms where students were gathering for the lessons. Our first observation started at 5 o’clock, the time when the students of the first shift come to their classes.
Both observed groups consisted of 10 students of almost the same age (group 1 – 9-10 years old, group 2 – 8 years old). The first class used the book Spark 2 and the second one had Fairytale 4.
The first lesson observed started with the teacher’s explanation of the topic (Module 4: Sports & Chores) and after of what the students are going to do at the lesson. The teacher was not simply explaining, she was eliciting from students making them reflect and speak their minds.
The second observation took place in a younger class and started with the second part of the lesson. When our team went in the class was in the process of the lesson, practicing “Look at + pronoun” pattern (Unit 5b: Yes, doctor!)
Both observations lasted for 60 minutes (while the whole lesson usually takes about 1.5 – 2 hours) during which I saw a mixture of various activities. Students were engaged in working with both their books (Student’s book and Workbook) and the smart board; they were listening, writing, reading, speaking and discussing, answering questions and making sentences true for themselves.
All the activities were meaningful and logically connected to each other. The book and the soft which the teacher used in addition, together made a good system of learning a language. Students got an opportunity to learn new material and put hands on practice; it was easy for them to remember the majority of new words by the end of the lesson because every exercise used these words constantly and consistently.