Miriam Akoto's Teaching Portfolio

CLASSROOM OBSERVATION REPORT

Expert-Teacher

 

Course: FREN 302 - Grammar, Usage and Composition

 

 

No. of students in attendance: 11

 

 

Date: 11/10/2014

 

 

Time: 11.00-11.50am

 

 

During the course of the semester, I had the opportunity to observe a seasoned instructor from the department of French and Italian, University of Arizona. The course that I observed was French 302-Grammar, Usage and Composition. This course emphasizes on written communication. In addition, conversation and reading are targeted as means to inform writing. I felt very fortunate to have been able to observe this class.

 

The instructor stood behind the desk and occasionally walked around the class while the students sat in a circle and this made the lesson very participatory. Also, she created an environment that was conducive to learning in which all the students appeared to feel at ease due to her warm, friendly personality and also because she was approachable and appeared to possess a genuine interest in hearing her students' opinions. 

 

The instructor starts the lesson with a quick revision of the previous lesson on prepositions that required students as a group to orally fill in the blank sentences with the correct preposition. Next, students had to do a 10-minute written activity that also required that they complete sentences using the most appropriate preposition.  After this, a new topic “auxiliaires modaux” was introduced. Students were asked to form short random sentences with French modal verbs such as pouvoir, savoir, devoir and vouloir. After the instructor wrote these sentences on the board, students were asked to engage in a situated practice activity that required critical analysis and framing as they worked in pairs to come up with the construction and grammatical structure of each sentence as well as map out the pattern of certain peculiar verbs.  Towards the end of the lesson, students practiced with more activities from the textbook as the teacher led a discussion of what the right answer was.  The instructor walked around the room listening and eliciting more information. She also explained questions that students had. The students appeared to be interested and engaged on the topics they were discussing.

 

There are a couple of things that I learned from this instructor. One remarkable thing I noticed is that she incites her students to think and analyze for themselves; and also complements and motivates their responses.

Considering that this lesson is solely geared towards only one aspect of FL learning: the linguistic acquisition of grammar and vocabulary, it must be said that it does not integrate the principles of literacy (Kern 2003). According to Kern, literacy goes beyond academic skills, or the ability to read “decode” and write “inscribe”.  He proposes a reunion of oral communication and written communication to improve the coherence of language study. This can be done by not simply giving learners texts to study but also by engaging them in conversations that will help them establish connections between language and content as well as the differences between their culture and that of the language of study. The important elements of Kern’s definition of literacy are that literacy is a source of interpretations, collaboration, conventions, cultural knowledge, problem-solving; reflection and language use were sadly missing from this lesson.

 

Having said that however, considering the overall course goals, I think the lesson was effective and successful in the sense that the lesson’s objectives were achieved.  Still, my belief is that as long as such CLT oriented courses exist, the gap that exists between lower- and upper-level language learners will only get bigger. Literacy is a great way to bridge that gap and help students even at the lowest levels of foreign language learning gain an improved set of language skills across the four modalities: reading, writing, listening and speaking. If I could, I would change a couple of activities to reflect a more literacy-based approach. For example, the activity from the textbook on prepositions could have been taught more implicitly by asking students to look at a website, or watch a video in which prepositions are incorporated. Then, asking students what they see or notice about the form of the words and having them generate a pattern or rule themselves. Doing so not only stimulates their L1 background knowledge on the topic and enables them create meaning for themselves but it also helps them to internalize the forms better than simply memorizing them.

 

In conclusion, the thing that I learned most from this classroom observation experience was watching how the instructor elicits information from the students. She appeared to be extremely patient and waited for the students to come up with their responses.  I believe this instructor to be highly effective and someone to whom I can use as a model.

 

 

 

 

 

 

CLASSROOM OBSERVATION REPORT 2 

 

Course: FREN 310: Spoken French in Cultural Context

No. of students in attendance: 9

Date: 11/5/2014

Time: 3.30- 4.45pm

 

 

I also had the opportunity to observe another seasoned instructor from the department of French and Italian, University of Arizona. The course that I observed was French 310: Spoken French in Cultural Context. This course has for its primary objective to cultivate the student’s ability to speak French correctly (with few mistakes) and authentically (intelligible to a Francophone speaker).Through the use of media such as films and songs, the course engages students in various activities—debates, roundtable discussions, role play, dialogues, interviews and Q/A sessions. The overall goal of Spoken French in cultural context is that students should be able to understand the essence of each film or song and ideally a majority of what is said without the use of subtitles or lyrics by the end of the semester. Students are expected to discuss the films watched or songs listened to in French with increasing accuracy and fluency. Students are expected to read the indicated pages in the textbook Cinema For French Conversation. The emphasis in this course is on developing a student’s ability to speak French, rather than on the interpretation of films or songs. I really enjoyed and learnt a lot from observing this class.

 

The instructor stood behind the desk and occasionally walked around the class while the students sat at their desks or moved to join groups to work on tasks assigned. Student participation was active and lively. Also, the atmosphere in the classroom was open, warm and accepting.

 

The instructor started the lesson with a written activity of a song entitled “Ma France à moi” by Diam (which they had started listening to the day before). In groups of three, students were tasked to draw conclusions from the song’s lyrics (American stereotypes and comparisons between the France that belongs to the author). These tasks required critical thinking. After this activity, the instructor went around making corrections of grammar points. Next, students were made to watch a YouTube video of the song with the lyrics simultaneously. She then led students in a discussion of the themes found in the song. This situated practice activity helped students to tap into their personal experiences and reflect deeply on the message of the song. Students also put themselves in the songwriter’s shoes by imagining the situational and cultural context of the song. The instructor then asked linguistic questions about the grammatical forms and vocabulary such as “What kind of genre is this?”, “Why does the singer use the possessive article “Ma”?”, “How do you know this?” “What are some new words and expressions found”, etc.  The lesson concluded with a situated practice activity in which students filled in the blanks with the appropriate word or expression and grammatical structure in the song to enhance memorization. Students stayed on task from the beginning to the end of the lesson.

 

There are a couple of things that I learned from this instructor. First of all, she had a clear and discernible lesson plan which she gave to me at the beginning of the lesson so I could follow along. This was great and had all the goals and implementation of activities as well as the time allotted for them. Secondly, the instructor built on students’ prior knowledge and experiences by asking what was done the week before and building on that information to begin the day’s lesson. The instructor equally used technology well to advance instruction by means of the YouTube video of the song with lyrics. This lesson also incorporated some principles of literacy such as reflection and self- reflection in the task in which students were asked to put themselves in in the songwriter’s shoes by imagining the situational and cultural context of the song. It also integrated collaboration and problem-solving in that students were made to work in groups of three and draw critical conclusions from the song.

 

This lesson just like the previous one is also solely geared towards only one aspect of FL learning: the linguistic acquisition of grammar and vocabulary. The lesson could have achieved much richer results if the tasks and activities had included the cognitive and sociocultural dimensions too. For instance, in the final activity in which students were made to fill in the blanks, I suggest that that task be turned into a jig-saw puzzle of the lyrics of the song and be put in the beginning of the lesson instead of the end. Students will form different expert groups and try to put it in its original order. This will help them to have a wider context and more room to explore.  Another thing is I noticed was that the instructor interrupted students whiles they were talking to correct either pronunciations, or some grammatical mistake. This I thought was not very helpful to the students as they felt sort of put on the spot.

All in all, I think the lesson was successful and the lesson’s objectives were achieved.

 

 

 

 

 

CLASSROOM OBSERVATION REPORT 3

 

Course: FRENCH 102

No. of students in attendance: 9

Date: 11/13/2014

Time: 1.00-1.50pm

 

 

I also observed a peer instructor from the department of French and Italian, University of Arizona. The course that I observed was French 102, which I also currently teach. French 102 is a beginning language course organized around five general notions: communication, cultures, connections, comparisons, and communities. Students are introduced to traditional language skills interwoven with these five notions. They are also taught interpersonal communication skills and how to interpret written and oral texts with increasing accuracy and sophistication over the course of the semester. As a follow up course to French 101, the overall goal of the French 102 is to help students develop cultural and linguistic knowledge that allows them to feel comfortable in listening, reading, writing, and speaking in French. I really benefited from watching my colleague teach a lesson we had prepared together. It was like watching a movie and knowing exactly what is going to happen next! Not only was observing this lesson exciting, it also taught me a lot of teaching techniques and classroom culture.

 

The instructor stood behind the desk and occasionally walked around the class while the students sat at their desks to work on tasks assigned. Also, the atmosphere in the classroom was open, warm and accepting. Students stayed on task for most of the lesson.

The instructor started the lesson with a situated practice activity in which students looked at a set of pictures of food from different cultures and guessed where it was from based on how it looked. Students then looked at another set of pictures of dessert (cake, ice cream, etc) while the teacher led a discussion of deserts and cakes. This led to the question “what do we need to prepare a cake for example?” and students responded: “A recipe.” The instructor now asked: “What is a recipe?, What its use?, When is it used? and What goes into making a recipe?” Next, students were asked to look at a recipe website and explore the different kinds of cake recipes. These tasks required critical thinking. Students were asked to pay attention to the grammar and language used in the text. The lesson concluded with a transformed practice activity that asked them to write their cake recipe in pairs.

             

I learned a few things from observing this instructor. First of all, his tasks and activities were well-sequenced and had smooth transitions between them. This was great! Secondly, the instructor used different instructional materials like pictures of food and a websites as well to advance instruction and comprehension of subject matter. This lesson also incorporated some principles of literacy such as students’ use of cultural knowledge in the task in which they were asked to look at random pictures of food and guess what their origin was. This required that they tap in to their own experiences and background knowledge about particular systems of attitudes, beliefs, customs, ideals, and values. It also integrated collaboration and problem-solving in that students were made to work with their partners to create a new recipe.

 

This lesson was nicely done however I believe that there is still more room for improvement not on the lesson but on the classroom environment.  Halfway through the class, I noticed many students were distracted, some were yawning whilst others just didn’t want to participate in the class. I feel that as instructors, we are in constant battle for the attention of students not just get material that attracts their attention and sparks their interest but also holding this attention for as long as possible. This may seem like a lost battle. But we do not have to stop! I think one reason why students lose interest and/or attention for that matter is when they feel like a task is too cumbersome or they just do not see the point or objective of that task or activity.  To remedy this, I propose two things:

• Scaffold the tasks in such a way that it seems fun and almost effortless to students. So for instance, the activity that required them to explore the websites could have done a involved a mind map or semantic map of some kind asking students to predict what they could find in a site like this before going into onto the websites. This not only eases up the cognitive load on students, it more importantly stimulates their schemata and wets their appetite for what is in store.

• Clearly stating a lesson’s objectives and constantly repeating its significance on certain tasks is imperative to sustaining interest. I have noticed from my own classroom experiences that students are more incline to stay on task and participate more fully in a task if they actually know that it is important and relevant to their FL learning.

Having said that however, overall, I think the lesson was good!

 

 

 

 

 

CLASSROOM OBSERVATION REPORT 4

 

Course: FRENCH 101

No. of students in attendance: 19

Date: 12/09/2014

Time: 12.00-12.50pm

 

I observed another peer instructor from the department of French and Italian, University of Arizona. The course that I observed was French 101, which I also currently teach. French 101 is a beginning language course organized around five general notions: communication, cultures, connections, comparisons, and communities. Students are introduced to traditional language skills interwoven with these five notions. They are also taught interpersonal communication skills and how to interpret written and oral texts with increasing accuracy and sophistication over the course of the semester. The main goal of this course is to help students develop cultural and linguistic knowledge that allows them to feel comfortable in listening, reading, writing, and speaking in French.

The instructor stood behind the desk and occasionally walked around the class while the students sat at their desks to work on tasks assigned. Also, the atmosphere in the classroom was warm and friendly.

 

The lesson began with a situated practice activity in which students read aloud a text on a word document about the musician Stromae. During the reading of this text the instructor occasions made corrections with pronunciation of words and phrases. After this, students are made to silently re-read the text again individually and this time try to pick out cognates and words that they are familiar with already. Next, students pick out words they are unfamiliar with and the teacher helps them understand what they mean. Students then do a comprehension task and answer true or false questions about the biography of Stromae. The instructor next has students work in pairs and look at a list of vocabulary words on food and form at least 7 sentences with these words. The instructor walks round the classroom giving help and translating words and or phrases for students. For the last 10 minutes of the lesson students were made to watch a YouTube video about “What not to do in France”. The teacher then led students in a discussion of the main ideas in the video which was mainly the do’s and don’ts of the French culture as opposed to the American culture.  The lesson concluded with a transformed practice activity in which students were asked to suggest rules for tourists or visitors to France based on the video.

 

There are a few things I learned from this instructor. First of all, she listened very attentively to students responses and questions and answered them politely using voice inflection, smiling and gestures. This contributed to the overall classroom ambiance and a great atmosphere for student development. I have personally been in classes that are tense and uneasy and in a foreign language setting that could be very destructive to learning, so it was very refreshing to observe such a warm class. Secondly, the instructor used L1 for discussing main ideas and also for giving instructions and directions. This made the discussions richer and more participatory as students were more eager to express their thoughts and past experiences.

 

That said, there were a couple of things that I wish the lesson had included to make it more literacy based.  One thing is that it is also solely geared towards only one aspect of FL learning: the linguistic acquisition and memorization of vocabulary. The lesson could have achieved much richer results if the tasks and activities had included the cognitive and sociocultural dimensions too. For instance, in the activity in which students were made to form 7 sentences with random words on food, I propose that that task be turned into a puzzle of sentences with those words used in varied contexts. Then ask questions like: “What is the context of this statement?”, “Can you develop a background story and link it to these statements?” Next, I would have students make propositions for other ways to express the same thoughts. Under what context could this be used and juxtapose it with the original statement. This gives students a chance to make textual comparisons and also help them to have a wider context and more room to explore.  Another thing is I noticed was that the instructor used a lot of translation to give explanations to students. This makes students get lost trying to make a word for word translation instead of trying to understand the central idea of the text. Instead of using a quick English version of a word or phrase, use an easier more common synonym in French or worst case scenario use gestures and facial expressions to get their imagination working! Finally, the lesson seemed a little disjointed and it was hard to get the objective of the day.

This is one lesson that I'm afraid needs a little improvement and tailoring.