UNIVERSIDADE DO ESTADO DA BAHIA UNEB

DEPARTAMENTO DE CINCIAS HUMANAS CAMPUS I

LETRAS LNGUA INGLESA E LITERATURAS

EVA CRISTINA DA SILVA ALVES

REPORT ON CLASS OBSERVATION

Salvador
2012

EVA CRISTINA DA SILVA ALVES

REPORT ON CLASS OBSERVATION

Relatrio de observao de aulas

apresentado
como
requisito
parcial para aquisio de nota no
componente curricular Estgio I,
sob orientao do professor
Roblio Caria

Salvador
2012

SUMMARY

Introduction

________________________

Lesson Observations

________________________

Personal Reflection

________________________

13

Final Considerations

________________________

14

Appendix

________________________

15

INTRODUCTION
This report aims to relate the observations of classes which took place in three different
educational institutions of Salvador. The institutions, which contributed to the observations,
were formed by a public school, Escola Municipal Joir Brasileiro, a private school, Colgio
Antnio Vieira, and a free private course, Acbeu, so it was possible to access different
arrangements of organization in order to consider how these differences would be affecting
the teaching approach. Four classes were observed in each institution, regarding aspects such
as lesson planning, teacher performance and applied methodology, classroom management,
content and language, teaching materials. The report includes information about each
observed lessons, personal reflection upon the observations, final considerations and an
appendix featuring the observation formularies and the frequency list for the observations.
Observation sessions justify themselves for the construction of a professional identity, due to
the crucial need of confrontation between the theory (academia) and the practice (real school
teaching and learning practice).

LESSON OBSERVATIONS
Escola Municipal Joir Brasileiro
Observation date: June 13, 2012
Class: 8 ano A Fundamental
18 students
teenagers: 12 to 15 years old
Teacher: Conceio Rodrigues
Specialist
School building lacking appropriate design in order to provide an adequate
environment so that learning takes place. Too much noise from the outside enter the
rooms, some incidents of vandalism corrupted school patrimony, info laboratory is off
for quite long time. Classes occur among such circumstances.
Teaching materials: white board, marker, pictures, cards with the vocabulary
Content: Vocabulary of adjectives to describe Salvador; Antonyms; Writing Practice
Teacher begins class using a guessing game as warmer, and then reviews last class
content showing pictures of places of Salvador city and asking sts to tell positive and
negative points of the city. Teacher then explains about antonyms placing blue and
yellow cards, which contain adjectives on each one, on the board. T asks sts to
complete the chart on the board with the opposites to the adjectives. Then, she begins
oral reproduction of the words to practice stss pronunciation. Teacher distributes postal
cards of different places around the world, and asks sts to describe them, in pairs, using
the adjectives from last activity. T writes a brief poem about Salvador on the board,
explains her poem to them and tells they are going to prepare a poem about Salvador
themselves, using the vocabulary of adjectives in their textbook. T corrects their poems
just looking in each desk, and for feedback, checking the learning, she changes some of
the cards on the board from their opposites and asks sts if the cards are corrects, so sts
tell the right opposites. As a post activity, Teacher explains the whole class will write
one single letter to the councilman of their neighborhood telling points to improve. Sts
came out with subjects such as sanitation, health, lighting and paving.
Methodological preferences demonstrated by the teacher: Teacher comments she
whises sts to give some rhythm to their poems in the next classes, so sts will have some
learning on musical language. Teacher is very calm with undisciplined sts and calls
their attention very politely. She never changes the tone of her voice to talk to them. It
is a uniform, soft tone with which she preserves her voice and that helps maintain a
friendly and trustful environment with students.
Escola Municipal Joir Brasileiro
Observation date: June 13, 2012
Class: 5 ano Fundamental
15 students
teenagers: 11 to 14 years old
This class is formed by students that experience learning difficulties related to social
and cognitive issues, so they are older than the normal age for this grade.
Teacher: Conceio Rodrigues
Specialist
5

School building lacking appropriate design in order to provide an adequate

environment so that learning takes place. Too much noise from the outside enter the
rooms, some incidents of vandalism corrupted school patrimony, info laboratory is off
for quite long time. Classes occur among such circumstances.
Teaching materials: white board, marker, picture cards with the vocabulary (Pictionary)
Content: Clothing vocabulary
Teacher begins class showing the pictures to sts and speaking the names of the
garments, and then engages them in a repetition drill. Teacher then asks sts to organize
the pictures in alphabetical order. Teacher explains the evaluation activity, and tells sts
they are going to draw an arrai junino, wearing people with the garments they have
studied and indicating them in their drawing.
Methodological preferences demonstrated by the teacher: Teacher comments these
students suffer the consequences of their parents neglecting. Teacher is very calm with
undisciplined sts and calls their attention very politely. She never changes the tone of
her voice to talk to them. It is a uniform, soft tone with which she preserves her voice
and that helps maintain a friendly and trustful environment with students.

Escola Municipal Joir Brasileiro

Observation date: June 13, 2012
Class: 6 ano A Fundamental
20 students
teenagers: 11 to 13 years old
Teacher: Conceio Rodrigues
Specialist
School building lacking appropriate design in order to provide an adequate
environment so that learning takes place. Too much noise from the outside enter the
rooms, some incidents of vandalism corrupted school patrimony, info laboratory is off
for quite long time. Classes occur among such circumstances.
6

Teaching materials: white board, marker, picture cards with the vocabulary (Pictionary)
Content: Clothing vocabulary
As a review, teacher begins class distributing the pictures to sts. She begins to say
names of the garments and asks sts to raise-up their cards as soon as they listen to her
saying the names of the clothes they have in hands. As a warmer she engaged sts in a
guessing game, where sts would mimic their garments and the others would guess the
name. She writes three activities on the board and asks sts to copy and answer them.
The activities were a unscramble the words activity, where sts should unscramble
names of clothing vocabulary, and two complete the sentence activity, where sts
should complete a sentence using the learned vocabulary. For feedback and to check
pronunciation, teacher tells each sts will have to speak at least two names of garments
before living class.
Methodological preferences demonstrated by the teacher: Teacher is very calm with
undisciplined sts and calls their attention very politely. She never changes the tone of
her voice to talk to them. It is a uniform, soft tone with which she preserves her voice
and that helps maintain a friendly and trustful environment with students.

Escola Municipal Joir Brasileiro

Class: 6 ano B Fundamental

Observation date: July 26, 2012

16 students
teenagers: 13 to 17 years old

This class is formed by students that experience learning difficulties related to social
and cognitive issues, so they are older than the normal age for this grade.
Teacher: Conceio Rodrigues
Specialist
School building lacking appropriate design in order to provide an adequate
environment so that learning takes place. Too much noise from the outside enter the
rooms, some incidents of vandalism corrupted school patrimony, info laboratory is off
for quite long time. Classes occur among such circumstances.
Teaching materials: white board, marker
7

Content: Review and Feedback class

Teacher begins class handing in to sts their evaluation
activities,
they can
observe
Acbeu
Observation
date:so
August
15, 2012
Class: Elementary 1
7 students
young adults
their tests. Teacher corrects the test with them, giving tips about the subject. She
Teacher: Conceio Rodrigues
Specialist
engages building
in a review
activity breaking
the class
intointwoorder
groups,
group
School
presenting
appropriate
design
to explaining
provide aneach
adequate
is
going to write
in a learning
piece of takes
paper place.
one word
learned and
in the
last unit. Then
group
environment
so that
Equipment
installations
welleach
preserved.
will
pass through
the paper,
writing
names
words, and the group with more
Technological
equipment
present
and more
at hand
to theofteacher.
Teaching
materials:
white
Top is
Notch
Elementary,
words wins
the game.
T board,
beginsmarker,
anothere-board,
review Textbook
game which
a Chinese
whispers
audio
video
projector
game. record,
Then, she
begins
a third review activity to review colors in English, in which sts
Content: Classroom Expressions, Greeting Expressions, Occupations Vocabulary, Verb
pass around them an object, and the student with it in hands has to speak in English the
to be, Writing Practice,
name
the color
thatpresenting
was told the
to him
in Portuguese.
After
thisareactivity
Teacherof begins
class
classroom
expressions
they
going teacher
to use
congrats
sts,the
telling
theyThen,
have achieved
the objective
of the
class.
throughout
course.
she presents
expressions
which
were already written on
Methodological preferences demonstrated by the teacher: Teacher is very calm with
the board, models them and distributes cards in which are the sts names. She asks them
undisciplined sts and calls their attention very politely. She never changes the tone of
to stand up and find the person which name is on the card. Once they found the person,
her voice to talk to them. It is a uniform, soft tone with which she preserves her voice
they begin using the expressions. Using e-board, teacher engage sts in a review activity
and that helps maintain a friendly and trustful environment with students. This class
about occupations, where sts have to match the names to the pictures. Then, teacher
was interrupted due to indiscipline issues occurred outside class. This evidenced the
another expression with which sts can tell their favorites to each other, and then asks
structure of the school building which doesnt favor learning. After the incident,
them to do this. She models the expression and corrects errors as they occur. Teacher
Teacher rose up sts and explained about the importance of concentration and
presents the verb to be form, affirmative and negative forms, models pronunciation,
disciplined behavior during classes. Teacher reports she believes a lot on the individual
using text book and video projector she goes through a series of three activities about
approach, and that it really functions very well. She values individual conversation
the verb to be form, solving them together with the sts. Teacher then, engage sts in a
because she can use it as an argument later.
listening activity where they listen to name of occupations and repeat them. BREAK.
Teacher give sts a sheet of paper and explain this is going to be their writing journal.
which they are going to begin writing their texts. Teacher tells them to begin writing
about their occupation and their favorites. She models using herself and give time to sts
do it. She monitors and corrects errors as they occur. Teacher collects the journals and
redistributes them. She asks sts to read their classmates texts and tell what they learned
about them, speaking in English. T asks sts to organize themselves in alphabetical
order, and then present through textbook and audio, more names of occupations.
Teacher begins explaining interrogative form of verb to be and engage sts in a activity
of grammar practice. Teacher decides to change plans because sts had difficulty on this
activity. Then she plays a song to students identify words as they listen to it, assigns
homework, and finishes class.
Methodological preferences demonstrated by the teacher: Teacher has to deal with lastminute demands from the coordination. In this class, she had to deal with the fact that
coordination split the class because it was too large, and also improvising refreshing
8

activities because some students begin to feel tired ad were not following the content
satisfactorily. For error correction, teacher corrects them extensively, at the moment
they appear.

Colgio Antnio Vieira

Observation date: July 06, 2012
Class: 3 ano A EJA
40 students
adults
Teacher: Francisnanda dos Santos
School building presenting appropriate design in order to provide an adequate
environment so that learning takes place. Equipment and installations well preserved.
Technological equipment present and at hand to the teacher.
Teaching materials: white board, marker, exercise binder
Content: Simple Past Tense. Exercise correction class.
Teacher begins class correcting exercise about simple past from last class. She reviews
the rules of simple past, explaining about the grammar form. At the end, she collects
exercises, because they are for evaluation.
Methodological preferences demonstrated by the teacher: as this is a large class,
teacher helps students individually as they come to her for doubts

Colgio Antnio Vieira

Observation date: July 06, 2012
Class: 1 ano A EJA
11 students
adults
Teacher: Francisnanda dos Santos
School building presenting appropriate design in order to provide an adequate
environment so that learning takes place. Equipment and installations well preserved.
Technological equipment present and at hand to the teacher.
Teaching materials: internet, video projector
Content: Listening practice, Vocabulary about hours, days of week
Teacher begins class presenting the video about the vocabulary they are studying. St
some points, she stops the video and asks sts if they understood what has been said, and
also asks that they speak. .
Methodological preferences demonstrated by the teacher: as this is a large class,
teacher helps students individually as they come to her for doubts

Colgio Antnio Vieira

Observation date: August 10, 2012
Class: 3 ano A EJA
40 students
adults
Teacher: Francisnanda dos Santos
School building presenting appropriate design in order to provide an adequate
environment so that learning takes place. Equipment and installations well preserved.
Technological equipment present and at hand to the teacher.
Teaching materials: evaluation sheet
Content: Evaluation class
Evaluation class. It was observed that, as this is a large class, sts talked too much
during the application of the exam, and that many of them were consulting their
material, even though it was not permited.
Methodological preferences demonstrated by the teacher: as this is a large class,
teacher helps students individually as they come to her for doubts

10

Colgio Antnio Vieira

Observation date: August 10, 2012
Class: 1 ano A EJA
10 students
adults
Teacher: Francisnanda dos Santos
School building presenting appropriate design in order to provide an adequate
environment so that learning takes place. Equipment and installations well preserved.
Technological equipment present and at hand to the teacher.
Teaching materials: Dialogue activity
Content: Oral Presentations
Oral presentations class. Sts presented the dialogue activity in pairs, and teacher
models to them, if they have any difficulty.
Methodological preferences demonstrated by the teacher: as this is a large class,
teacher helps students individually as they come to her for doubts

PERSONAL REFLECTIONS
Through these observations Ive learned that it is not easy at all be a teacher in nowadays, in
this country, in this city. The occupation is not valued, and if the teacher didnt have an
internal calling for the role, as I saw so strongly in Conceio, it becomes even harder. To the
reality of our public schools, is really impossible to teach English without using Portuguese in
class, because students have so limited skills, to them everything lacks, and this is really sad
to see it happening. Most of all, to become a teacher here, you need to learn how to sustain
yourself strong, because the most you going to see is the suffering of the kids. And you need
to stand still in order to be able to help them somehow, as soon as you get the chance. The
teacher here needs to learn how to live the daily professional life in the most obscure
environment. In the opposite, there are the private schools, embracing a very well prepared
structure, tuned on the most modern technology; at least this was the part to which I had
access. At Antnio Vieira School, even though the good structure, teacher cant push much
because the students are those adults who came from public school, so they lack learning. At
Acbeu, I saw Conceio playing hard with the students, teaching content over content, and the
11

students were still responding, I suppose only one or two didnt kept the rhythm. But they
were college students whom came from private school, so they got the knowledge needed to
sustain learning at that pace. Unfortunately, appropriate public education is something absent
in Salvador. Teaching is such a devoted occupation, to really become a good one you need to
sincerely dedicate yourself to your teaching practice and to the learning processes of your
students. It makes one feels really scary upon this brutal reality prevailing in our society
nowadays, such an impotence feeling. But we have always to look for those who dont give
up, and keep on going, like Conceio. For next semester I wish to work directing my
learning to the needs of public schools student. I think it is what a teacher has to do, trying to
be a good professional where our work is more needed.

FINAL CONSIDERATIONS

Class observation gives you an introduction to the teaching practice, which is about to
become real next semester. It is expected to face the challenges of this professions so special
and at the same time so undervalued for a entire society.

12

APPENDIX

13