Example+of+Peer+Observation+Assignment

* THIS ASSIGNMENT IS REQUIRED FOR PARTICIPANTS GETTING GRADUATE CREDIT*
Example 1: Peer Observation


 * Summary of the Lesson**

My colleague and I went to observe L.A, who is the ESL teacher at H School. For the lesson we observed, LA was working one on one with a second grade girl named Paula who had just moved to the U.S. from Germany. Some objectives that LA was working on with Paula were letter recognition and corresponding sounds, pronunciation of the sounds w, r, th, learning verb vocabulary, and noun verb agreement. LA started using a page of children playing on a playground from “The Oxford Picture Dictionary for Kids” by Joan Ross Keyes. She started by asking Paula what verbs she knew. She knew swing and kick. LA pointed out throw and catch which were new terms to Paula. She used a kinesthetic approach to demonstrate the difference between throw and catch. Other terms that they went over were fall, ball and bounce. They reviewed the words and practiced pronunciation. While setting up for the next activity, a matching game, they practiced pronunciation of some w, r, and th words, which were written on the board. LA gave Paula direct instruction on tongue and mouth placement for pronouncing these words. Then using the terms from the picture they played a matching memory game. Each time they flipped over a card they would say the corresponding verb that went with the picture. The picture dictionary page was open for Paula to refer to throughout the activity. The next activity was reading a short booklet that used the verbs from the previous activities. LA read aloud and had Paula follow along and then repeat. The next activity was completing a crossword puzzle using the pictures and words from the previous activities. From a previous lesson, Paula had started to observe and make a list of behaviors throughout the school. LAreviewed the difference between she is, they are, he is, and they are. They used the picture dictionary page to practice pronoun verb agreement such as “she is swinging” or “they are fighting”. At this point LA made reference to Paula’s own family and asked, “Do you fight with your sister Nina?” Paula then went out of the room to observe and record some more behaviors in the school.

Overall the lesson incorporated reading, writing, listening, and speaking activities. The student was engaged and enthusiastic throughout the whole lesson. Something that worked particularly well was that the teacher had a picture dictionary page open. The student could refer back to this picture for all parts of the lesson. Since the teacher was working with the student one on one she was able to assess student learning of the academic language and content as the lesson progressed. An example of this was when the teacher realized that the student did not know “catch” and “throw”. The teacher was able to immediately demonstrate and practice these terms kinesthetically with Paula. One suggestion would be was that during the reading of the booklet text, LA should make sure that Paula is following along with the words. The pages of the text were copied in a way that when they were folded they would create a booklet so some of the pages were upside down on the page. Paula was confused about which parts LA was reading aloud. Therefore, Paula was not actually reading the text along with LA, but was merely repeating what she heard LA saying. Perhaps LA could take the time to premake the booklet or have Paula make the booklet, as it should be before starting to read it. In addition, it might be beneficial for LA to state, display, and/or clarify the objectives for the student. From this experience I learned what a luxury it is to be able to work one on one with a student for an extended amount of time. The teacher is able to assess understanding and respond immediately to the student’s individual needs. I also learned about some new resources like the picture dictionary to use with ELL students. The lesson increased comprehensibility, interaction, cognitive thinking and related to the student’s life and culture. Using the picture dictionary was key to increasing comprehensibility of the verbs for Paula. The nature of working one on one with a student and incorporating games demanded that Paula interact and speak with LA. LA also tried to also incorporate some academic math language such as rows and number combinations that are doubles while playing the matching game. The content of this lesson related to Paula’s life as a second grader because the content had to do with what kids would be doing on the playground. I was impressed with how much reading, listening, speaking, and writing LA and Paula were able to accomplish in a half an hour.
 * Enhancing Lesson Plan Reflections and Checklist**