School experience – task AJ2BP_OPx1 Find the school (preferably ZŠ or eight-year gymnázium, in case of difficulties language schools with children´s courses are allowed) 1. Make yourself familiar with the school before you go there (look at the school webpage, study their School educational programme or any other relevant materials, find out whether and how the school promotes foreign language teaching in the public) 2. Meet the head or deputy head of the school and ask them about teaching foreign languages (see suggested questions below) and compare the information from the interview with what you´ve learnt from the webpage. 3. Plan and do your observations (8-10 English classes), see the observation tasks and sheets below). Apart from the observations you can help teachers to prepare materials, you can teach a short part under the teacher´s supervision. 4. Ask teachers and pupils about their English classes. You should keep a record of everything you see and find out and summarise your findings in the essay-report. 5. Write your essay-report (approximately 1000 words not including the notes from your observations.) Format: A. School introduction – name, size, language policy of the school, teachers (without names) B. Classes you observed and what you have learnt about teaching English based on the observation tasks. C. Write about the pupils – what you have learnt about them and their work in English classes D. How would you evaluate the school experience? Was it useful? Why yes/not? What would you change about it? Submit your report to your PL teacher. Questions for the interviews: Teachers – What do you like about teaching English? What would you like to change? What are your beliefs about learning languages at school? What motivates you to develop your skills as a teacher? What do you do? Learners – Do you like English? Why yes/no? What would you like to change about your English classes? Head/ Deputy Head – How many languages are taught in the school? How many teachers are fully-qualified English teachers? Are there any teachers who have a language qualification only, which one? Are there any teachers who aren´t qualified but they teach English? Does the school have enough materials and resources for English teaching? Observations: An ideal observation set up: Observe one class in all their English lessons in the week (3 lessons) Observe 1 or 2 lessons at a primary level (grades 3 – 5) Observe one lesson in years 6 to 9 (3 lessons) Choose two observation focuses from the list below and one focus of your own (eg. dealing with pronunciation, grammar, language skills, materials used in the lessons, teacher-learners rapport etc.) Observation focus : Comparing lesson plans Objective: to notice what is included in a plan, how the plan helps the teacher and how flexible the teacher is in the lesson. Procedure: 1. Tell the teacher that you are going to observe a lesson and you will create a lesson plan during the lesson. 2. Show the teacher the format of the plan. 3. After the lesson compare your lesson plan to the one the teacher has. Discuss the similarities and differences. Lesson plan format Topic of the lesson (eg. Halloween, practising the past simple tense…) Context (class, grade, time…) Aims of the lesson ( what pupils will be able to do in English as a result of the lesson) Materials (coursebook, supplementary materials, IT…) Stages of the lesson (activities used, language used, what the teacher does and what pupils do) Homework Learner level Objective: to recognise the variety of levels in one class and to notice how the teacher deals with this. Procedure: 1. Ask the teacher to identify 3 learners with different levels (1 = very good, 2 = mediocre, 3 = weak) in the observed class. 2. Use the chart below to collect data about the individual learners. 3. Discuss your findings with the teacher after the lesson, ask additional questions. Student Level Signs of level Teacher´s strategies Petr 2 Doesn´t understand what T says Uses Czech Re-formulates directly to the learner Invites other learners to say that in English Teaching vocabulary Objective: to notice a variety of ways of introducing new vocabulary items to the learners Procedure: 1. Observe a lesson whose aim is to introduce new items of vocabulary. 2. Note down the new pieces of vocabulary and the way of presenting them. The new item How it was introduced (ie. form, meaning, other features) Use of English and Czech Objective: to notice how the teacher uses the target language and mother tongue (MT) Procedure: 1. Observe a lesson 2. Note down individual stages of the lesson and the language the teacher uses (ideally give examples of what the teacher says) 3. Analyse the data gathered and show in the graph or give percentage of mother tongue use. 4. Try to find the justification for the teacher´s use of MT. Activities in the lessons Objective: to note down activities that worked in the lessons and activities that didn´t work. Procedure: 1. In all the lessons that you observe note down one activity that works very well and one activity which doesn´t work. 2. Try to note down next to the successful activities what made them work and next to the problematic activities what caused the problems.