Teaching practice (1) - Instructions

source: https://courses.lumenlearning.com/educationx92x1/chapter/direct-instruction/

To start with my teaching practice observations, I would like to write about instructions. I observed the class on 20.01.2022 (during the first two lessons). First, I will introduce the class and the lessons observed, as well as answer the questions from the observation sheet. Then, I will share my reflections about the topic and the way in which instructions affect the pace of the lesson.

Information about the class

I observed the 2nd grade (students are 7-8 years old). There are 26 students in the class. They have English lessons 2 hours each day of the week. Observed lessons pertained to grammar, especially prepositions of place, sentences with there’s/there are, as well as where questions with the verb be. 

 

Their aims were: 

1. determining if pictures are correct
2. completing sentences
3. using prepositions of place (in, on, under, next to)
4. writing questions and answers with there’s/there areplaying the game

Information about the lessons

The teacher doesn’t take the register. She checks the attendance without asking the students. The teacher asks students to open the book on a given page and names the number of the activity that they’re going to be doing. She explains which tools will be used (which book, page number) and if it’s going to be completed individually or in pairs. Then, she either chooses a student to start completing it or asks pupils to complete it in a given time.

To stop the activity, the teacher either raises her voice and asks pupils to focus and she starts checking it orally, or she proceeds to move on to the next activity. She points at the book and shows the place where the tasks starts. In case of activities outside of the book, she writes the instructions on the board or gives an oral example.

The instructions:

• are clear and simple
• the language is comprehensible, but not oversimplified
• the teacher uses full short sentences
• majority of the students understand what they have to do
• those who don’t - raise their hands to or come to the teacher’s desk to ask questions. 
• to check the understanding, the student who was asked to read the instructions is asked to paraphrase it
• after getting the instruction most pupils immediately get to work, some of them ask teacher questions

My reflection

Comments and instructions used by this teacher are not oversimplified, but most of the students have no problems with understanding them. As second graders, those pupils had almost two years of getting used to the teacher speaking English. Sometimes, the teacher translates a sentence into Polish. It happens a few times during the lesson and usually when the majority of the students are confused and don’t understand the instruction.

One of the methods to check if the instruction is clear is asking yes/no questions (e.g. Do you have to draw it?, Can you choose one of the words from your Student’s Book?) Another way to make sure students understand what is expected from them is asking one of them to paraphrase it (e.x. Can you tell me what you are supposed to do now?). Teacher may also choose one of the students to explain it to the rest (after making sure he/she understood it correctly).

Often used method of asking if everyone understands the instruction is rather ineffective. Firstly, those who don’t understand may be focused on other things or not listening. The teacher would get a false impression that everything is clear. Secondly, not many (if any) pupils will admit it in front of other students.

Instructions definitely affect the pace of the lesson. For example, when they aren’t clear enough, the teacher needs to spend more time either repeating them or paraphrasing. When they’re too long, pupils will only focus on the part they remembered and understood. Effective instructions allow the teacher to move on with the topic and to make the lesson more logically linked.