Promoting Students Engagement

May 11th 15th 2014

Activities
Checking homework

Procedure

Asking students to recall the

jaz chant for the previous

lesson (whole class).

Repeating the jaz chant to
make sure students know it

well (whole class).

Dividing the class into two
groups A and B and group A
had to reply to group B
using the jaz chant.

What can you see in the

picture?

Discussing the instructions

of the activity with the

students.
Displaying a picture of a
little girl putting

headphones.
Explaining how to describe
the girl and offering possible

answers.
Asking students to describe

the girl.
Giving them the useful
language used to describe a

picture.
Giving a more authentic
example by describing the

classroom.
Paying their attention to
using there is/there and the
appropriate tense while

HCT/FWC

describing pictures.
Writing about the picture

Displaying another picture

to describe.
Discussing the picture in

groups.
Asking students to write
about the picture
individually.

Breaking down sessions, into components raised my awareness

towards the importance of activities used, learners engagement level
and emotional and intellectual states. To be more precise, the goal of
the lesson I observed was to stimulate learners to speak and write
about pictures through describing them. The teacher used different
activities to scaffold students learning. For instance, checking
homework was used as the brainstorming stage. I really found that
fundamental since learners feel more responsible about their learning.
Adding to that, to build students knowledge about describing pictures,
the teacher gave them the opportunity to practice it well through
speaking and writing.
Activities, assessments and discussions were included to support the
different portions of the lesson. The teacher was very clear while giving
the instructions as she asked students to repeat the instructions.
Before starting any activity, the teacher made sure that learners were
aware of what expected regarding the task and their behavior. What I
really liked more about her way of teaching was that she had clear
rules and none could break the rules with her positive attitude and
funny personality. In fact, learners engagement level was different
according to the different activities. For example, students were not

Rasha Alzaabi

2014/2015

HCT/FWC

engaged at the beginning of checking homework activity, therefore the

teacher changed the type of interaction pattern from whole class to
two groups which raised the level of engagement. However, the
following activities were more attractive for learners as they showed
more engagement in describing pictures.
Additionally, the tools used by the teacher fit the academic level as I
noticed. For example, she provided them with different activities to
scaffold their understanding about describing pictures. Also, they were
suitable for the goal of how to describe pictures. As the teacher had
clear rules, it was easy for her to draw students attention and interest.
Furthermore, transitions between the different activities were done in a
very smooth way in addition to the clear instructions. Learning English
in fact was part of the process. When the teacher provided learners,
she focused on using the appropriate tense and appropriate terms and
this helped learners to build their understanding of how to describe
pictures. Sometimes, however they found it difficult to express what
they want to say as they did some mistakes but it is not bad to learn
from mistakes.
Asking questions and calling for clarifications showed that learners
were engaged. Whats more, when the teacher asked questions, the
learners were motivated to answer. Students had fun as they were
actively participating in the different activities. Overall, I have found it
beneficial and interesting to attend that lesson because learners were
able to share and suggest different descriptions as well as the teacher
was able to scaffold students learning through various activities and
instructions.

Rasha Alzaabi

2014/2015