Class One, Lesson 2 (14.02.2011)

The second class was planned with the focus on preparing criteria for assessing a writing activity. Students were given the task to prepare the criteria through mutual discussion. They were also given the task of composing a paragraph and assessing each other before the end of the class. In order to manage the activities well, I planned to improve classroom management and to control the noise and the mess in the class by making sure that I gave clear instructions and by engaging group leaders to facilitate learning. In the following section, I present the events of the lesson followed by the participants’ reaction to it through interview and observation.

Descriptive analysis of the lesson from video recording

I present a descriptive analysis of the class by writing the commentary of the lesson as I saw it through video recording and interpreting what happened. I have numbered the events as they occurred in the class.

Flow of the events of the second lesson taught on 14.02.2011

1. I arranged the class into groups of five.

2. Instructed the students not to talk while forming groups, and while I explained the assignment.

3. I returned the previous papers/assignments to the students after checking.

4. Students were coming late but I did nothing to involve them in the class activities. 5. After five minutes, when papers were returned, I introduced the activity, which was

based on a writing task.

6. After explaining, I asked the students to repeat the instructions. The students did not understand, therefore, I explained the activity again.

7. There was too much noise in the class. I was trying to get their attention but the students did not respond.

8. I asked them to be silent. I answered a question by the student regarding the activity while others were still talking to each other.

9. I realized that the students were not clear about the activity therefore I repeated the task again.

10. Then, I wrote the topic of the writing-activity on the board, ‘A trip to an ideal place’. Meanwhile the students were still talking and not paying attention to me.

11. I wrote five sub-topics of the activity on the board i.e. official, entertainment, cooking, place, and trip to home.

12. The activity was taken from a unit in the textbook, London roads. 13. I asked the students to start doing their activity.

14. I was moving in the class to help and answer the queries of the students. 15. The students were discussing the topics within their respective groups.

16. I distributed the blank sheets among the students so that they could write the drafts on those sheets.

17. Most of the students asked for my assistance. I approached almost every group in the class.

18. The students did not understand the activity, therefore, many of them asked to explain the activity in individual groups. I went to the groups that asked for my help and explained the exercise.

19. Few of the students were joking instead of doing their task, whereas, others were busy in doing their task.

20. I was continuously moving in the class and approaching students to help them. 21. The first step of the activity was discussion. Most of the students had finished the

first step and started the second step of writing a paragraph on any one of the given sub-topics.

22. I instructed the students to complete the paragraph in class and asked the group leaders to meet me when they were free.

24. I again started approaching the students to help them while they were doing writing task.

25. I asked the group leader to submit their drafts after getting it checked by any other group leader and also submit the draft of their group members after checking them and bring them in the next class.

26. The next teacher walked in the class as I was leaving the class.

Analysis of Class One, Lesson 2

It was difficult to give clear instructions for the writing task due to noise in the class and students’ lack of complete attention. However, after the instructions became clear, and when the students explained the instructions to each other, they were actively involved in concentrating on doing the task. I managed the activities by walking around the groups in order to monitor their work and to clarify any confusion regarding the task. I kept on repeating the instructions for the activities to make them clearer. My role was very active throughout the class in managing and facilitating students.

Students’ participation became very active and engaging when they understood the instructions clearly. The class started with ‘teacher-student’ interaction for warm-up activities and making the students aware of the focus of the class. ‘Student-student’ interaction during the activity was very common as well. During the activities, students asked questions related to the activity, and I answered by going around the individual groups. It helped me to monitor their work and to encourage participation on the task. The ‘student-student’ interaction was vigorous during both the tasks. Students were helping each other while discussing the topic.

My standing position was not limited to any one part of the class but extended to the entire class. My mobility was meaningful. I approached almost every group of the class and answered their queries. Those who were not performing their task actively became serious on the task after my interaction with their individual groups.

Time management was still not so good. I could not finish the second activity in time, which was to check the paragraphs in the class. Therefore, I gave them this as homework. Much of the time was spent on clarifying the instructions. Forming of groups was time consuming and noisy also. The students were still not aware how to arrange the chairs in order to form groups. The students did not pay attention to my instructions while they were forming groups, which took around ten minutes. However, they were attentive when the groups were formed. They also asked each other about the task, which showed they were concerned to complete the task as instructed. Their interest in completing task was growing by interacting with each other.

Students’ feedback on Class One, Lesson 2 through Group Discussion Number Three.

Despite my difficulty at managing the class, the students considered this kind of teaching more helpful in improving their writing skills and speaking skills than traditional teaching. While talking about the new teaching with the students, the discussion often generated a comparison between the new way of teaching and traditional teaching. They also believe it required more hard work from a teacher therefore other teachers might not teach in this way and that other teachers do not have that much time to conduct classes like this, as they are time consuming and the syllabus cannot be covered through this way of teaching. They thought I was teaching in a different way by paying attention to individual students because it was part of my research. Students were more interested in this way of teaching because they were getting a chance to participate in the activities. In response to my question whether they prefer this way of teaching or the old one, one student replied (Group Interview No. 4):

• As far as completing syllabus is concerned, that way is better; otherwise this is

better for learning.

I present more excerpts of their responses to the interview questions to show students’ perception about the impact of the new teaching method.

How do you feel about these classes?

• They are helpful for building confidence. We get chance to participate. • Writing power improves, and speaking power improves as well.

What is it that you don’t like about these classes?

• They are time consuming. Other teachers might not do it because they don’t have

that much time to conduct classes like this. You are doing it because it is part of your research. Other teachers can’t do it but others should do it. And teachers lack interest too.

How do you find teacher’s role in these classes? • Teacher’s involvement is high.

• Teachers talk more in those classes. In these classes teacher is just a guide.

Students do realize the right way is this one.

Do you think other students like this way of teaching? • Students may be more interested in this way.

• Students are cooperative with each other in doing activities.

• Back benchers, need more time to adopt the changing methods. They are used to

listening to a teacher.

You prefer being taught this way or the old was is better?

• As far as completing syllabus is concerned, that way is better; otherwise this is

better for learning.

• Marks issue is not clear but learning is definitely more in this method. For students

marks are more important.

Interview responses show that the students consider taking active participation in the class activities better for their learning. Although they find that the syllabus cannot be adequately covered through giving more participation to students, they prefer the new way of teaching over the traditional teaching for their learning.

Observation of Class One, Lesson 2

The focus of the observation for the second class was classroom management, and the teacher’s position and mobility in the class and their impact on learning. The observation notes and interview analyses show the following aspects of the teaching.

2. Seating arrangements consumes lots of time. 3. Late comers were ignored.

4. Classroom was echoing.

5. Teacher had to struggle to get attention from students.

6. Teacher was involved in monitoring students when students were doing writing activity.

7. Students were very serious and involved in writing task.

Improvements needed for the next class

On the basis of the data analysis of the second lesson, I planned the following improvements for the next one.

1. Making seating arrangements quicker with the help of group leaders 2. Involving late comers in the class activities through the group leaders 3. Giving instructions carefully

4. Monitoring students when they do any task