Class Observation on Pre – University Learners (Teaching Practicum)

I observed the class of the Pre – University learners where there were a total of 16 students and the class was a 1 hour 20 minutes class focused on the skills of Speaking and Writing. The teacher started the class with ice – breaking by recapping on the idea of paragraph from the previous class and asked for the submission of assignments from students. Students requested to cancel and submit the assignment later, so teacher agreed and set up a later submission date.

As this discussion was over, the teacher started the discussion by asking students the topic of the current class and informed them that at the end of the class they will have to make a presentation. The teacher then wrote the name of the topic “Quotation” on the whiteboard and started to describe the characteristics of quotation. The teacher explained that quotation is a direct speech by someone important that is written within inverted commas. She further explained that it is an original piece of writing. Then teacher asked the students, “What is quotation? In one sentence, define it.” She asked students to try and answer, so one student gave an example and the teacher clarified that, “A quotation has to be from someone wise.”

Extending on what the student had said about Steve Jobs’ quote, the teacher wrote on the whiteboard a few characteristics of quotation – acceptable, a truth, universal. Then teacher asked the students if proverbs are universally true and as students could not answer, she said the sources of the proverbs are usually unknown. After this, the teacher discussed about Gandhi’s quote – “An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.”

As students participated with the teacher, she then gave them new task about quotation explaining that they will be given a quotation individually and they have to – 1) Mention the source 2) Paraphrase the quote 3) Interpret the quote or explain with reasons (As teacher asked about the meaning of this point, students could not answer, so the teacher explained) 4) Give real life examples in relation to the quotation they have received.

The class had an interactive discussion on quotation after this and there were good allocation of the teacher talking time and student talking time respectively. Their discussion moved from quotation to the issue of the USA vs. Iraq and Israel vs. Palestine war as students responded to quotations with real life examples.

Now, the teacher provided each student a quotation page individually where there was a quotation given for them to work with. She asked students to open the booklet which had the rubric and asked them to follow the rubric in responding to the quotations.

To help the students, the teacher illustrated how they can link real life examples with quotations to write their answers. She also asked if anyone has any confusion regarding the rubric and further explained the rubric. She asked students to avoid plagiarism.

In the first 5 minutes of this individual task, the teacher provided quotation pages to the students from her own hands and students started interpreting the quotation they have received using the 4 stages of interpretation of quotation that the teacher discussed earlier. As instructed by the teacher, the students opened their booklets and took help from it on writing the source of the quotation following the format.

In the last 10 minutes of this task, the teacher asked students to think about expanding their individual quotes and informed them that this is because they will have to make a demo presentation later based on their quotations.

As the students worked, the teacher checked on them individually and provided suggestions as needed. After students were done, the teacher asked a student to come in front of the class and present on his given quotation for 1 minute.

As the student presented, he could not provide proper example, so the teacher helped the student to illustrate his examples. As he was done giving presentation, the teacher thanked him, the peers clapped and the teacher called the next presenter. The next student explained her quotation very briefly with wonderful examples, so the teacher and the peers clapped for appreciation. The next presenter came and he was hesitating in presenting, so the teacher assured him and provided help to explain his quotation and as he was done, the peers clapped.

Finally, the teacher provided marks to these three presenters in collaboration with the other students and concluded the class. As I was leaving from the class observation, the teacher informed me that, the rest of the students will present in the next class and finally, they will work on the quotations in groups following this class’ discussion.