TESOL Observation Field Notes

Class Observation #__eng 107 __

Teacher

__Sarah_Hynes___________

Class

____ENG107_______________

Date/Time__2.12.2016_3:00-4:00________ Location______Coor L1-34____________

Effective Principles of Observation:

Wipe away preconceived notions before starting your observations.

Collect observations under different circumstances and from varied perspectives.

Take thorough notes, including quotes and details about the setting and atmosphere, and collect
important class documents.

Engage in active listening using a detached observer approach.

Keep systematic track of observations that surprise you or contradict your prior beliefs.

Pre-Class Notes (e.g., what are the teachers goals for the lesson? what are the demographics [e.g., student population,
class size, proficiency level] of the class?)

Figure it out how to write the commons

Told student before class if they finished the commons they can get extra 5 points.

Description/Observation of the class

(i.e., what is happening?)

Reflection on/Interpretation of
the class
(i.e., what does it mean?)

Start to show the example (comments 1):

Comments 1
To answer this question, I have found a personal story named How I
survived nearly 2 years of unemployment according to this story
because this unemployment have a wealth life before, so its not hard as
other poor unemployment, but its still not easy to keep their life habits
same as before. The unemployment have never imagine he gonna lose
his job before, and he thinks his job is totally safe, but when it happened,
at the beginning of his unemployment life he and his family just reduced
cable package and sell one of his car, but with time goes by, they have to
change their lifestyle, their food just similar spaghetti. Luckily, there are
not always disadvantages for unemployment, "You learn that it could all
disappear tomorrow, we've made a lot of changes. That's the best thing
to come out of this; we know we can't be spending money we don't have,
like we have been in the past." So from this unemployment, they have
learn a new thing that they have to save things they already have and
treasure todays life.
-

Teacher asked: what commons they will put in the research?

Students: where did the writer get the resource?

The writer needs more resources?

What the resources telling us? (experience, situation)

Specific to analysis and figure out the paragraph talking about(using

pie and write specific things in there to compare the specific

The way she asked the questions are

really good questions to lead the
students to figure out the answers.

She always using pie and brain storm

tree draw on the white board. Its
really clearly to show students and
compare all the information from the
pie and brainstorm.

She always give students to exercise

and examples before she leave
homework for the students.

Every discussion time she will go to

help students with the exercises.
After practicing she show students and
example the group students are doing
in the class.

information).
-----Is this common?
1. Research
2. Or Use your own reasonings logic use your imagination use your
personal knowledge.
Ask students to use their own personal knowledge to think about first,
guess first. Then conform those research (find the answers from
data/articles/other resources)

Working as a group to working on the common 1:20 minutes ( rearrange,

add, delete) the paragraph (common 1)
Show one example (one group students in the class) their rearrange
paragraph.

Post-Class Notes (e.g., are there follow-up questions for the teacher? does anything need to be clarified?)
2.12.2016 ENG 107 Class notes:
Comments 1
To answer this question, I have found a personal story named How I survived nearly 2 years of unemployment
according to this story because this unemployment have a wealth life before, so its not hard as other poor
unemployment, but its still not easy to keep their life habits same as before. The unemployment have never
imagine he gonna lose his job before, and he thinks his job is totally safe, but when it happened, at the beginning of
his unemployment life he and his family just reduced cable package and sell one of his car, but with time goes by,
they have to change their lifestyle, their food just similar spaghetti. Luckily, there are not always disadvantages for
unemployment, "You learn that it could all disappear tomorrow, we've made a lot of changes. That's the best thing
to come out of this; we know we can't be spending money we don't have, like we have been in the past." So from
this unemployment, they have learn a new thing that they have to save things they already have and treasure
todays life.

Comment:In my opinion, i think your source is a just a story from a person, it is not reliable. Also this person's story
may not be a common situation in American. Thus i think you should change to another source.

Task: Add some sentences that will generalize this personal story. You need to decide where you will add these
sentences and what you can say. If you were going to split the revised paragraph into two paragraphs, where would
you separate them? What additional information would you add about this source?

Comment 2
Corruption among doctors has been discovered to be associated with medical care issues. Doctors prefer treating patients from the
upper class, mainly because they have better insurance and they are able to pay more out of their pocket. However, this is not only
happening in the United States of America but also happening in other parts of the world such as in my home country Zimbabwe. l
4

vividly remember gossip going viral about people not getting proper medical care. To worsen the situation, newspapers reported that
doctors at Parirenyatwa hospital in my hometown, have been found refusing to give medical care to people from poor backgrounds
unless if they provide money. Moreover,reports from The National Bureau of Economic Research, a world known website that publish
reports based on studies done by several universities, have also found out that, richer, better-educated people live longer than
poorer, less-educated people. ( Dalton, 2003). Thus therefore proving that accessibility of medical care is based upon the social or
economic status which is not supposed to be the case.

Comment
Somewhat this research holds value and makes someone think about it however, it's not 100% true only richer people live longer. I mean you
should not assert based on only their research.People not only die of diseases but also from other things like accidents, poisoning regardless of
whether they are rich or poor. This research does not give us enough info why rich people live longer. I suggest clarifying your inference.

Task: This commenter has asked a great why question. Why do rich, well-educated people live longer than
poorer, less-educated people? Is it because of differences in access to medical care or is it because of other factors?
You need to create an answer to this question and then insert your answer into this paragraph.

Comment 3
Paragraph: As we know, the number of requirement is based on how many people need it which is could called supply and demand. That
could be understand by how much it worth and how many people need therefore, companies would produce about same amount items to
satisfy people. In my personal perspective, that the reason people would lose their job and become unemployed. Because, if economy of a
country is unstable than the market of this country would run off their customer. People who work in the market lose their income and have
to reduce outcome the normal situation becomes company fire their workers and sell their product by lower price which caused a negative
adjustment to this market circulation. Those are ways to a keep balance between Supply and Demand. In the same time, these are also
relating to unemployment.

Comment: I am finding it a little confusing when you use this word. The question will be, requirements of what? I would suggest changing this

word or add more words around it to help readers understand what you're trying to say.

Task: It is your job to rewrite some of these sentences to make it really clear how supply and demand is related to
unemployment. You need to provide definitions for any words or ideas that you think are confusing. You need to
add a concrete example that will clearly demonstrate how supply and demand is related to unemployment.

Comment 4
"So what the separatists really is. That is a big question and the situation is complex. I think every country in the world also has some
people they are separatists and they from different country has different opinion because of different reason. In China, about this
Kunming Railway Station terrorist attack, they are Uighurs separatists who want to split Xinjiang of China. Xinjiang is the largest of
China's administrative regions and borders eight countries. Its population was mostly Uighur, and Most Uighurs are Muslim. So Islam
is a very important part for their life. And they think their culture is more close to Central Asian nations. They also think Chinese
government to control the development of Islam. So some of Uighurs was fueled resentment to Chinese government. I find a report
in BBC news the title is Why is there tension between China and the Uighurs? said that the ethnic tensions also caused by
economic. Because Chinese government was vigorously developing the economy in Xinjiang. Lots of Han Chinese from eastern
provinces went to Xinjiang to find a job. This also makes the Uighurs dissatisfied. About the religious issues I do not really
understand what they really care about, because I am not religious beliefs. But I also cannot understand about the economy issues
them angry about. I think the economy has developing in Xinjiang, this is great. So in my opinion, this is because they are selfish.
And they not only killed Han Chinese, they also killed more Uighurs. Until now, there are about a dozen times different degrees of
6

terrorist attacks happened in Xinjiang and nearly a thousand people deaths, the most of them are Uighurs. So I do not think they
have any reasons let others sympathetic. These things happened in Xinjiang is that most people do not know because the Chinese
government control the news media. Many people feel dissatisfied about this, but I think this is a kind of way that the government
protect us. Because it does not caused peoples panic. So what the Chinese government also did about the anti-terror."

comments:
1."What are the differences between these two groups?" (Han and Uighur)
2."I would like to know more about a reasons that made them to do all of these stuffs.
I think you need to be more specific in the opinion that you are writing."

Task: Answer the question in the first comment. Insert your answer into the current paragraph.
Then reorganize the paragraph and then split it into two or more smaller paragraphs so that it becomes clear what the various
motivations are for the Uighur separatists.

Comment 5
All one impacts others in their relationship, homeless people doing so. When homeless people taking drugs and alcohol, the others
will effective too, how does those things impact their life? To find the answer for this question from the homelessness living in the
shelter is much easier than people living on the street, due to homelessness in the shelter are living as groups. What people are
believing that the shelter is much comfortable and less drugs and alcohol, whereas, it definitely a wrong idea. According to the
research source from NY Times, Drug Addicts Among the Homeless: Case Studies of Some Lost Dreams, the author Gina Kolata
7

said that Mr. Parmenter said the shelter where he lived was infested with rodents and pests and there were drugs all over the
place. Mr. Parmenters personal experiences told us the shelter does not change the rate of drugs abuse of homelessness. Why
are there drugs all over the place? It is sort of chain reaction among homelessness, they are actually influencing others as well as
themselves. Mr. Parmenter also recalled, I saw one man stabbed to death and another man beaten to death. Eighty percent of the
shelter population and 50 percent of the staff were doing drugs.

COMMENT FOR: "Why are there drugs all over the place?
Good question! But I can't see any logic answer to that. "Why are there drugs all over the place?" You should research more to find an answer to
that question.

Task: You need to use your imagination and logic to make a few guesses to the answer to this question. You might
also be able to guess an answer by looking at the second quote. Then I want you to insert your answers into an
appropriate place into this paragraph.
Finally, I want you to reorganize this paragraph and split it into two smaller paragraphs, one with the They Say
(what most people think about homeless shelters) and an I Say paragraph (what is actually true about the
shelters).

Comment 1 revised:
To answer this question, I have found a personal story in (name of newspaper/magazine) titled How I survived nearly 2
years of unemployment. according to this story because this (name of interviewee) have a wealth life before, so its not hard as
other poor unemployment, but its still not easy to keep their life habits same as before. (name) have never imagine he gonna
lose his job before, and he thinks his job is totally safe, but when it happened, at the beginning of his unemployment life he and
his family just reduced cable package and sell one of his car, but with time goes by, they have to change their lifestyle, their

food just similar spaghetti. (Name)s experience may be similar to the experience of other wealthy people when they lose their
jobs: unemployment may require them to change their lifestyle and live a little more simply. However, for average people,
unemployment might cause even more dramatic changes to their lives. For example, they might have to borrow money from
friends, family, or the bank. They might have to liquidate their savings or their retirement account. They might have to take a
second mortgage on their house or even sell it. In the worst-case scenario, they might have to declare bankruptcy.
Luckily, there are not always disadvantages for unemployment, According to (name), "You learn that it could all
disappear tomorrow, we've made a lot of changes. That's the best thing to come out of this; we know we can't be spending
money we don't have, like we have been in the past." So from this unemployment, they have learn a new thing that they have
to save things they already have and treasure todays life. This is a lesson that could be learned by anyone experiencing
unemployment. However, for people who dont start with much savings or wealth to begin with, the learning of the lesson may
involve much more hardship.

Comment:In my opinion, i think your source is a just a story from a person, it is not reliable.
Also this person's story may not be a common situation in American. Thus i think you
should change to another source.

Task: Add some sentences that will generalize this personal story. You need to decide
where you will add these sentences and what you can say. If you were going to split the
revised paragraph into two paragraphs, where would you separate them? What additional
information would you add about this source?

Some of students they still dont know how to use blackboard how to find the commons, should teacher show them
how to find the resources?

10