UNIVERSIDAD DE PLAYA ANCHA

FACULTAD DE HUMANIDADES
EARLY ENGLISH TEACHING PRACTICE
2009

OBSERVATION STAGE

Name of student teacher: Nicol Smith Estay

Name of School: Colegio Parroquial Santa María Goretti de Concón

Number of students: around 750

Date: July the 5th, 2009 Class: 3º Medio B

Task Nº1: The school

The school is located in Concon in street 8 Nº 485 behind the Catholic Church
of Concon. The infrastructure is quite big even though the space is a little
limited by the fact that it is behind a church. The school has a big yard with a
court or field in which students can play basketball, football, etc. It also has an
assembly hall where they carry out acts, lectures and important meetings.
Being a Catholic school the person in charge is Sister Aurora Calderon, but the
academic rector is Bernardita Fuentes. For more information about the school
you can check http://www.colegiomariagoretti.cl

Every grade has two groups of students that are separated by letters, for
example 4th grade has groups a and b. Each class consists of around 30
students more or less, giving as a result the number of around 750 students.

The school is really interested in punctuality, order, discipline, etc. so they have
measures to punish students when they don’t obey the rules. Every month they
grant some objectives for each grade, which are to develop respect, obedience,
trust, discipline, giving the students tasks where they can grow those virtues.
The school has several rules for its Catholic legacy as well. They read the bible
and pray every day. The participation in liturgies and in the Eucharist is
obligatory.

Task Nº2: The classroom

The room isn’t quite spacious, a little old but is neither cold nor untidy. They
have their bulletin board full of notices of the next tests and messages for
classmates that were left behind. Even though there isn’t much space for 34
students the atmosphere is really nice, but it could be better with a bigger
room, because they look like they are quite cramped in the classroom. The
student’s seating is the usual, 4 rows of 6 students more or less. But it is a little
difficult to walk in the classroom due to the lack of space, thanks to the way
the class is organized and because they leave their bags on the floor. The
whiteboard is up front of the rows and is visible to all the students; I guess that
is one of the benefits of having a smaller room that a normal classroom for 34
pupils. The class has a radio and a big stereo in a shelf with a lock, where they
also have hygienic toilet paper and soap. The teacher and the class
representative are responsible of opening and closing the shelf.

Task Nº3: The teacher

The normal routine of the teacher is to check the contents of the last class in a
fast and comprehensible way so then he can continue with new contents. The
class starts at 8.00 and lasts until 9.10 afterwards the students have “silent
reading” that is obligatory till 9.30 and then they go out for recess.

To make the class a little bit more interesting and to motivate everyone, every
class the first 10 minutes, he did an activity in which the students were able to
pick a song that they liked a lot in advance, and explain it to their classmates
the next class. They gave the lyrics in a piece of paper and afterwards of
listening to the song, the student would translate the song for their classmates.
It was a really well-accepted activity and every student paid attention to the
one who had to present the song.

The teacher is always walking in the classroom, even though there isn’t much
space he still manages to attend to each and every doubt the students have.
He really likes participative classes, so in order to do that, he does activities on
the board and the student collaborate with him raising their hands.

The material resourced used that I had the chance to glance, was the Grammar
in Use by Murphy, but they weren’t using it as the class’ book, but only for
references and to carry out some of the exercises.

Task Nº4: The learners

In general terms, the class was really nice. They were a little bit talkative but
they paid attention when it was needed. Neither were they too noisy nor
naughty. It was a bit difficult to call their attention sometimes but there was no
need to scream or to scold anyone. They were really respectful towards the
teacher, me and their classmates.

Many of them weren’t geniuses in English, but everyone knew quite well each
and every weakness they had so they helped each other in order to learn.
They encouraged those that were afraid to ask something to do so and they
never laughed of anyone’s mistake.

They prefer working in groups, though it is a little risky because it enhances the
chat, they learn while talking and doing the exercises. Besides in groups the
ones that know a lot about English are able to help the ones that don’t.

They hate written activities, they prefer the oral ones. Although many of them
are scared of speaking in English they do prefer oral activities or activities on
the board, because it is more active and didactic, so they don’t get bored.