Video Observation of Teaching at BRAC School (Teaching Practicum)

We observed the video of the primary classes (Class – 5) of the BRAC School of Barabangram, Shahmakhdum, Arban, Rajshahi, a school which is under the BRAC Education Program. There was one teacher and were a total of 29 students who sat in 5 groups in 3 rows in a circular seating arrangement. The class was an English class, the duration of which was 45 minutes. The teacher focused more on picture elicitation, pair work, group work, oral drills, reading, and vocabulary and error correction involving students in different activities. The teacher always asked questions or instructed students in English in the class and the students replied in Bengali, but in case of word meaning, question – answer, oral drill or True/False exercises, the students replied in English.

The classroom environment in the video looked very lovely with language posters of vocabulary and grammatical sentences, vocabulary charts, numerical charts, group names, sentence charts and week charts etc. The teacher called our students by names such as Lima, Jostna, Shakil, Romeo, Nasreen, Tazbiha, Joya etc. and the teacher’s instructions were very clear as the students replied each time she asked a question. The groups of students were rote learners which mean that they needed input to response, without input they cannot respond spontaneously. The main purposes of this English class were focused on the skills of Reading and Vocabulary.

The teacher started the English class by saying, “Now I start our English class”, checking the previous class’ lesson of word meanings from the previous chapter on the English for Today book. Students were divided into different groups and were named in different flowers’ names – Joba, Golap, Shiuli, Rajanigondha etc. The teacher asked the students, “What is our previous lesson?” The students replied her that they were working on word meanings.

Vocabulary:

The teacher started checking the word meanings from the previous lesson. So, she asked word meanings to students such as – heard, throw, believe, imitate, basket, village, villager, ground, summer, lasers, farmer, wearing etc. which were mainly from the previous class. Since, the purpose of the class was reading lesson and learning vocabulary, the teacher asked word meanings in English and students replied in Bengali. She used the Total Physical Response and called students on the blackboard to make sentences with these words and write them on the board.

After they were done with this task, the teacher started the current day’s lesson by asking, “Who can say today’s story name?” The students replied, “The Cap – seller and the Monkeys”, the teacher praised them, “Excellent!” Then the teacher asked them again, “Who can tell the story name?” and called students by name to stand up and answer, Romeo and Tazbiha answered her question. Then the teacher instructed, “Look at the blackboard everybody” and she started to write the name of the lesson and told the name of the story aloud to the students once more, “The Cap – seller and the Monkeys”. Then the teacher asked them, “Do you know who is a Cap – seller?” The students could not answer, so the teacher answered, “A cap – seller, who sells many caps to villagers”.

Picture Elicitation:

Subsequently, the teacher moved on to the next part of the lesson and pointed to the picture on Lesson 23 and asked, “What can you see in the first picture? What is the man doing?” The students answered, “He is sitting under a big tree to take rest.” Then the teacher asked to another student, “What are the monkeys doing? Who can say, Joya?” The student replied to her answer with details.

Pair Work:

Next, the teacher gave students pair work to discuss the pictures with their partners. So, she told the students, “Discuss the picture with your partner”, so the students worked in pairs and discussed the picture. After they were done, the teacher asked, “Nasreen, stand up! What is the title?” As Nasreen replies to her question, the teacher again wrote the name of the lesson herself in the blackboard.

Reading Activity:

The teacher moved on to the Reading activity and instructed the students, “I will read, you will listen and follow the lines with your fingers, understood?” The students replied, “Yes, Maam”. The teacher read out the story of the Cap – seller and the Monkeys from the book aloud and students followed. Once this was done, the teacher then read the story again and this time the students underline the difficult words like worried, passing etc. The teacher noted down these difficult words from the students wrote them on the blackboard and later gave the students Bengali word meaning for these words.

Oral Drill:

The teacher made the students present in Oral Drills by asking the students to read the paragraph with her in English (T – Ss interaction). Later, the teacher and the students read the story together again and this time they read the story in Bengali, “সে তার পাশে টুপির ঝুড়িটি রাখল, সে দেখল তার ঝুড়িতে টুপি নেই।" In this way, the students continued reading the story in Oral Drills following the teacher.

Group Work with Chain Drill:

After students were done reading the story, the teacher asked, “Have you understood the story? Students replied, “Yes, Maam”. So, the teacher asked the students, “Please make 5 groups. Look at the blackboard and see the questions. Your group leader will read the story again and you will follow the lines with your fingers.” Then the teacher asked the students, “Who is your group leader?” The students answered from their groups – “Lima, Jostna, Shakil, and Romeo.” Now, the teacher gave the group a purpose for the next task, “Read questions from the blackboard and answer them by reading in groups.” Mainly, the teacher formed 5 groups with students and asked them to check the Focus questions she wrote on the blackboard. She asked the group leaders to read the story and asked the group members to follow the lines with their group leader.

After the students read the questions, the story and prepared the answers with their group leaders, the teacher asked them the focus questions which she wrote on the blackboard. The three focus questions which the teacher wrote on the blackboard were – Where do the monkey live? Who likes to imitate? Who sat under a big tree? Students answered these three questions from their groups in Chain Drills as they were sitting in 3 rows and in 5 groups, one student asked one question and the next student answered.  After all the groups were done, the teacher praised the students – “Very fine, please give a big hand”. Now teacher told the students, “Copy these three questions in your khata now, write answers and don’t look with each other.”

Error Correction:

After students were done writing the answers to the three Focus questions, the teacher checked each of their scripts and praised them for completing the task. This error correction strategy was very good since students were happy with the way she praised them.

Pair Work, Chain Drill with True/False:

Then the teacher asked the students, “Look at the book, page 76, Session A1. Who can read the instruction A1?” Two students read out the instructions from A1, so the teacher said, “Discuss with your partner about Session A1.” Thus, students worked in pairs with the True/False exercises. Then the whole class practiced the True/False exercises again in Chain Drills – one person asking question, another person answering the question, in this way the Chain Drill continued. Then the teacher checked the True/False exercises with the students again with correct answers “Are you done? Do you agree?” After they were done with the task, the teacher said to the students, “Take your khata and write down the True/False exercises.” Before they started to write, the teacher asked them to go back to making 3 rows again to rearrange the classroom seating before ending the class. As they completed this task, the teacher checked each of their scripts, praised them and informed them that there will be no homework for the next class. 

Conclusion:

These children are mainly rote learners; they need input to respond to the teacher in class. This is why the teachers always assign them with tasks to promote their learning in English Language. As the teacher’s instructions were very clear throughout the class, students had no difficulty in understanding and interacting with the teacher.

The teachers are also only trained for the purpose of the class, they are not fluent in English as most of them have only a secondary or a higher secondary level degree or qualification. This is why, it is hard to develop these teachers sociolinguistically to use English fluently, and they are only trained to use English that is needed solely for the classroom teaching.