Observation Stage

Task 1: The School and Learning Environment
Name of student: Sandra Vidal
Name of School: Colegio Gabriela Mistral
Number of students: 42
Date: September 8th Class: 6th grade

1. The school:
The school is located in Santa Lucía 544 in San Antonio. The school is semi-public; it is composed by a holder, an administrator, a director, technical teachers, teachers and students. There are 480 students from 1st grade in primary school until 4th grade in high school. The most important values that are established in this school are: solidarity, responsibility, creativity. All the members of the school must feel responsible for the right operation and the accomplishment of the values.

2.The classroom:
The room’s atmosphere is very good; I feel that the students are very motivated because I could see that they are paying attention in every part of the class, they are disposed to answer to all the questions that the teacher does. The distributions of the seats are in three rows, in the first row there is a pair of seats, in the middle there are three seats, and finally two more seats. The classroom is not too big; they have a shelf in which they save some English dictionaries and also material for other subjects. They also have kinds of lockers in the back of the room in which the students leave their books. The classroom has windows on each side, so there is good ventilation and also lighting, but sometimes it is necessary to turn on the lights. The room has a big whiteboard, and two bulletin boards. In terms of equipment they only have a radio, but if the teachers need something else, like a projector or computer, they can ask for it in the library.

3.The activities and resources
3.1 The students use a special book for English classes, so all the activities are based on the book. They are constantly participating in every activity, for example the have to read the dialogues, guess some information, what I really like is that most of the students want to participate, when the teacher asks something they all want to answer and participate. After the explanation of the teacher the students have to work, first of all, they answer in the student book, they share answers at loud or writing them on the whiteboard, and finally, they answer similar exercises on the activity book, the students in the class have the most important role.
3.2 As I wrote before, the students use a book called Flashlights, that is divided into two, the first part is the student book and the other part is the activity book, so the students can reinforce the new knowledge. I haven’t seen the use of other resources in the classroom, just they use a book.

Task 2: Student´s learning

1.I feel that the students are motivated; I always see that they want to participate, they want to be part of the class, and they are active inside of the room. That is why they are taking part in their own learning, they are doing things, they are not just observing, at least most of the students have this disposition to work. Definitely they are not expecting the teacher to do the work for them, I was looking at some of them while they were working, and they try to do the activities even if there is something a little bit difficult, and they are also disposed to receive some help if it is needed.

2.The students most of the time answer the questions voluntarily, but in some cases, when there is a student that haven’t participated in the class the teacher call her/his name.
The particular way that the teacher encouraged their students is through the activities that they have to answer in the book, some classes she calls 8 or 10 students and they must have answered all the activities in the book, and she gives them a tenth that can be used in a test. The teacher says that it is a saving and they can improve their grades in the test if they did all the things that the teacher asked to do. I haven’t seen another strategy.

3.
a) Observations clear & well informed: MEDIUM
b) Demonstrates understanding of social and educational factors: LOW
c) Objective & factual information:LOW
d) Evidence of active search of information: LOW
e)Use of English expression clear: HIGH