Class Observations - Classroom Envirnoment (1-5)

Classroom Environment

Examples of seating arrangements in different classrooms:

Classroom arrangements:

After visiting my school for the first time, I decided that the first topic of my observations would focus on the classroom environment the layout of the rooms and how the students interact with it throughout their lessons.

First, I started with the seating arrangements which are generally similar from class to class, most often being laid out in rows facing the front of the classroom, with a space somewhere in the room for more active activities and group work. It appears that seating charts and arrangements are made by the homeroom teachers but are generally very flexible throughout the lessons.

During one of the older classes that I had observed, the tables and chairs were moved off to the side as the students worked on a competitive group activity based on idioms where the group members had to work together to memorise and recite the different sentences at the board before returning to the team and reciting and explaining them to the group members. This was under race-like conditions as two teams worked on these sentences simultaneously. It looked like a really effective way to learn the idioms as it wouldn't have been possible to memorise each sentence or word without any context, this was followed up by an understanding check of each sentence and idiom. The freedom to move the tables and engage in more open activities can be very beneficial and this lesson clearly portrayed that. 

Furthermore, I have observed that each classroom is large enough for both the tables and chairs but also a small sofa and a more leisure and activity space for the students. Especially with the younger classes, a section of the classroom is dedicated to a large carpet where some activities take place. An example of such an activity was performed by dividing the class into two groups, sitting at the carpet, they were given paper dice with words and images with which they would make the sentences on which they were working. It was easy to manage the groups of 7-8 as they took turns tossing the dice and forming their own sentences. The dice had words such as “I can” and “I can’t” from which they were to form a sentence of, for example, “I can’t fly” or “I can sing”. This not only took them away from their desks but also allowed them some creative freedom in deciding on their answers.

The general flexibility of the rooms, described above, makes it easy to work in both groups and pairs. Pair work is arrangeable due to the students sitting in rows where they always have at least one desk-mate, however, this isn't the only way that pair work is done as sometimes pairs are chosen at random and are asked to find a space to work on an activity together. I have already talked about an example of group work previously, it can very clearly be done and often is encouraged.

Course books:

Each grade, and in turn each class, uses a different coursebook depending on their level and age. I have also noticed that the type of coursebook also varies. Due to necessity, the classes follow these coursebooks, however, they are often supplemented with other tools and activities. The students are expected to do different activities from the books throughout the lessons as progress checks. Each theme or topic also shapes the themes of that class. 

After talking about them with one of the teachers, I found out that the current coursebook for that grade (grade 4) is a really good book due to its thematic layout as well as the inclusion of CLIL-based lesson topics and themes. While the teacher doesn't necessarily always follow it exactly, activity after activity, it acts as a great tool for teaching the lessons in context while also focusing on different English teaching topics such as grammar, reading, listening etc.

In the end, however, each class has a different kind of textbook, all of which have different content and information, with some being better than others. Nevertheless, the students are able to write in these textbooks and can keep them in their own personal drawers in their classrooms. These also allow for extra materials to be used besides their coursebooks and notebooks.

There are other materials which are also used during the classes, as activity handouts are common for more diverse use of activities as well as enabling pair and group work. The students also have notebooks outside of their Student Books and are often expected to do written activities in those, as well as glueing the handout activities into these notebooks. These are a lot more physical and personal for the practice of their writing activities, along with those, the board and computer are often used for group activities and presentations. Videos are often useful tools for new vocabulary or sentence structure formations as well as games. Different kinds of activities also rely on different types of materials and items to be used in class.

Overall, from what I have observed, the environment of learning in these classes is very good for learning and language development as it is flexible and can be personalised for each of the students.