Class Observations - Teaching Materials (11-15)

Teaching Materials

In the next part of my observations, I focused on the teaching materials used during the classes and how effective they proved to be in the teaching and learning process. This was an interesting part of the observation because it allowed me to see the different variations of materials used during the lessons, whether the use of different tools relied on different class levels or if it was just a teacher's choice, and how receptive the students were to different materials. 

To start with, the main and most important material is the course book as that is where all of the general topics and the flow of the course comes from. It forms a base foundation and a timeline for teaching and it works as a guideline for both teachers and students. It is also often favoured by parents who want to see the physical progress in their children's work and the best way to do it is through visual production in these course books. For some parents, this is the only way that they can see the language progress that their child makes. Therefore course books may often be overused and relied on too heavily, which can sometimes be an issue because solely focusing on coursebook work can be draining and boring for the students. 

Furthermore, not all course books are a good tool and source of language due to different reasons. While there are many good course books, there are some which have undoubtedly bad organization, coordination and the content that is portrayed thus not being an effective guiding tool for both students and teachers. These course books can sometimes be more damaging to a student's language intake than necessary, therefore it is important, for teachers, to be able to identify and use effective and engaging books and use them as a supplement for their teaching rather than as the sole source of it.

At the school which I had been observing, I found out that teachers are able to decide on which course books they deem as useful for their classes and the progress of their students. After discussing with one of the teachers there, I found out that one of the previous coursebooks that the students were using was not very effective or useful and so was changed in the following semester. This new course book, called 'Smart Time', is a much more useful book as its content contains an organized structure with plenty of information, examples, reading passages, as well as activities. These aspects of the book are neatly organized into different themes and topics, an example of which can be seen in an attached photo, as this is a grade four textbook the information and topics are at a high level and also include very important CLIL subjects such as science and the environment among others. These CLIL pages are very useful not only as an English teaching tool but also are able to supplement the knowledge of different subjects and topics which is a very good way of teaching English in context. Another thing that I have noticed about this textbook is that there is a 'Grammar Bank' section at the end of the book which acts as a dictionary and thesaurus with examples and types of when and how different grammar is used. Overall the information explained in this book is very easy to understand and is placed in context for ease of access and use. Having discussed this with the teacher, she believes that this is a much more useful tool which even the students prefer in comparison to their previous one. 

While the course book is very important, many other tools and materials are also used within the lessons, such as worksheets and flashcards which are often used to supplement the production stage of a lesson with guides for the production of speaking or writing (which often happens in the student's notebooks). While these are the more common ones, there are many other materials which are necessary for keeping the students engaged, especially in the younger groups, and allow them to have fun in the process of learning a new language, as the younger classes require more stimulus and activities in order to keep them entertained and engaged. 

Examples of such materials would take a long time to describe and explain, therefore I will give an example of a full lesson and the materials that were used during that class. This example will follow a grade 1 class who were practicing sentences starting with "I can" and "I can't" as the main part of the lesson. 

To begin with, the lessons started with a phonics letter pronunciation of the letter "G". During this introduction a main flashcard of the letter and the board (which displayed different items beginning with the letter G) were used. As a starting activity, I believe that this was a good introduction as the students had to practice the pronunciation of the letter while at the same time gently easing them into the English lesson. 

Following this, the students were given an activity on a worksheet focusing on the letter G where they had to circle different objects, before moving on to a more personalized activity where they had to draw or colour something based on personal preference. This activity did not take very long as it was just an introduction and the main part of the lesson shortly started. 

I assume that the concept of "I can" or "I can't" had been introduced to them in a previous lesson as the students knew what was happening and understood the topic but it was reintroduced quickly by the teacher using examples of things that can and that can't be done. Giving these examples was a good way of making the students understand what was going to be asked of them in the activity. The next material used, which I believe was very useful and effective in this particular class, were 2 paper dies, one of which had the words "I can" or "I can't" written on it, while the other had images of different actions and activities on them such as singing or swimming. The students were divided into two groups, and each group got a different dice, the students were to take turns tossing the dice and making a sentence with what they saw on the dice face. After a short while the dice were swapped between the groups and everyone was able to practice different sentences and give input on what they “can” or “can't” do. 

The next activity also required physical materials and these were sentences such as "I can't make a snowman", or "he can sing". However, the sentences were all cut up into singular words and the students had to put them in the correct order to the sentence that the teacher read out and held up. The students had to work in pairs and could figure out between each other what the correct word order was. I think this was a great tool as it allowed the students to think about each word in a sentence and where it fits, but it also allowed them to see the physical objects and move them around with their hands while thinking and figuring out the answers. 

This was only one of the classes that I had witnessed which included different materials but all of the other lessons also included a variety of tools and materials used. 

In conclusion, it is very important to include a larger variety of different tools, materials and games to keep the classes engaged and fun for all of the students to learn effectively. While these don't necessarily have to be very varied or super imaginative, they should be engaging and helpful in the student's language learning which can, and often should, also include worksheets and course books.