Observation: Al Sumow

Date: 15th March

Teacher: Maryam Mohamed

Class: 1G

Mentor: Rose

Time: 8.00am

 

INTRODUCTION

 

You bring the children in and tell them to sit at the table and read the books. You take the attendance – do you need to get their attention to show you are doing this, so they answer? It would make it quicker. After a short time, they are more attentive – but you are having to repeat yourself.

 

You move children to the floor – group by group. You praise the children but I think you can do better by starting the class with a signal. For example, you could say ‘Right, let’s see which group is sitting nicely and ready to move to the carpet. Oh, group one are sitting nicely, can you move to the carpet quietly please.’

 

You begin with a words of the body and ask what the words mean (body, leg, feet, teeth, bigger, longer) and the children tell you in Arabic. Can you think a more interesting way to do this? For example, why not use pictures and ask the children to label the picture, or show pictures and ask the children to decide the names in Arabic and English. I want you to think of other ways to present the content that does not involve YOU TELLING the students or ASKING them questions.

 

There is a lot of shouting out – you need to give clear instructions to tell them about this. You show a video and ask them to think about the difference between the children and the baby – you need to manage the talk here, so hands up to talk, not just calling out. [why is one boy walking around the class?] You stop the video (a good idea) to talk about what they can see and the differences but YOU MUST MANAGE THE CLASS TALK. Did you plan the questions you want to ask here?

 

You have made no effort to manage the class and we have some standing shouting, some are not listening or participating. Class Dojo works but you need to use other class management strategies too. Finally, I hear you say ‘look at me’ but it is too late. You need to start managing the class right from the start of the lesson not from half way through.

 

You show a page and the task that they should do - OK, good you elicit the differences onto the board but it still needs to be managed effectively– and you should plan the language that you want children to use (and which you model here = the same language) because you make grammatical errors (don’t have teeth). If you leave the language on the board, this activity will only be a copying activity.

 

Transition to book task – you take a long time – can you do this any quicker? How? What are the children doing here? How are they learning? Find a more efficient way to do this – because you need to maximize learner time on activity – this approach minimizes it.

 

ACTIVITIES

 

Once the transition is done you need to get children to be engaged on task and you should be monitoring and engaging with the class – too few of the children and working sufficiently and you are still handing out books. You have to be BIGGER, more decisive and proactively manage the class. This is a major problem that you must address. Currently, you are letting the children decide how to manage the class and you are not working as a teacher who manages, controls and decides who does what.

 

CONCLUSION

 

For the transition to the carpet, again it is slow and you do not give clear instructions or make it urgent, try not to use class dojo unless you use other strategies. For the conclusion, you ask one child to task but the others are not listening or focused. Try sitting down too. This would be a good time to emphasise good work, and behaviour so you choose those who talk for a reason.

 

 

SUMMARY & MAIN POINTS