Australia International Language School

Nha Trang Branch

CLASSROOM OBSERVATION REPORT

This following observations were taken of Ms Thuy Sangs class on February 20 th,
2014. The New Interchange: Intro was used as a main coursebook for introductory
level.

It has been a great pleasure to observe Ms Sangs class. She gave the initial
impression of being pleasant and humorous. However, it was a little bit pity that she
started the day with having a student answered some questions just like a mini-test,
especially that was the first day after a whole long vacation. She could have asked her
students what they have done or where they have been these days, etc. Fortunately, Ms
Sang didnt even forget to bring her students monetary gifts in red envelopes as New
Year present (I just wondered why only me that she didnt give to).
The atmosphere was then quickly charged with excitement not only because of
Ms Sangs surprising gifts, but also the unexpected appearance of a complete stranger,
it was none other than me! While I was slightly awkward and thinking what to say, Ms
Sang proved herself to be a hospitable and generous host. Humorously, she revealed
that she had a serious new student with his face full of ice to take care that day, and
they would need a lot of questions to help break the ice. Although she exaggerated a
bit, I was perfectly willing to answer all questions. Obviously, those questions turned
out to be useful to help students warm up and get motivated. On second thought, my
attendance was eventually worth their while.
The new lesson was likely to start with some questions from prior units, easy
ones went first and then hard ones. The objective, after all, was to remind students
about vocabularies they had learned but might have been neglected after a long time.
There was no doubt that Ms Sang was very patient with her students. Our day was
suddenly interrupted by a latecomer, then he was asked to come to board and write the
date. That reminded me of English class in elementary school.
Ms Sang also had some good ways to teach a conversation. Firstly, she asked
students to close their books and just listen to one or two first sentences of the whole
track, then let them try to answer the easiest question. After that, the long track was
cut into sentences to explain its meaning and to ask about relative information as well.
Due to the fact that she stopped the track at every single sentence, the progress tended
to slow down a bit, but that would fit introductory level perfectly.
The big subject of that day was all about First Date. It has always been the
most interesting subject ever. Everyone seemed excited and talkative when were asked
about their first date, although some have never really been in a relationship. Ms Sang
then suggested some ideas for a first date, they were actually all from the book, some
were explained to students. After making sure that all students understood new words,
Ms Sang provided some pieces of paper and had boys and girls written down their
own ideas for a first day. Meanwhile, she told us some jokes as if she had been expert
at dating. Such kind of banter could help stimulate creative ideas a lot, of course it
could.

After students had finished writing and folded their paper, teacher collected all
the sheets, then we all knew that it was time for a non-stop comedy series called 101
crazy ideas ever to mess up your first day when Ms Sang exposed our writing. No
sooner had our jokes finished than teacher cut to the chase with getting the whole
conversation played again, but that time she just emphasized and defined the
intonation. The class then worked in pairs to practice imitating intonation patterns of
characters.
Ms Sang had a fun game which she called back to back. In that game, two
students were picked to sit back in two chairs with their backs facing each other. They
were supposed to be characters in the conversation, practiced speaking and tried to
express their feelings as exactly as heard from the track, by using intonation patterns.
Meanwhile, the others would find out their mistakes and wrong feelings. Actually, this
game was kind of boring because other students really didnt get involved in the
activity.
Grammar point for that day was invitation structure, it turned out to be the best
part to go with subject First Date. After defining all the necessary sentences for
invitation, Ms Sang gave first date crazy ideas back to students and let them practice
in pairs, asked and answered using known invitation structures, combined sentences
with intonation. A couple of minutes passed quickly, then it was time to complete
some exercises from coursebook, it seemed way easy so our class finished soon that
day.
It is always a delight to see a teacher so in tune with her students and get them
involved throughout the period. Ms Sang was very good at encouraging and
establishing a cooperative atmosphere. She is totally a great teacher.

Observer,
__________________
DANG DUC BINH