For my first two hours of in-class observation, I observed class 0480. The class was a level 4 writing course consisting of around twenty students from various countries around the world. The class ran for a total of two hours with a ten-minute break in the middle of class time. The class today consisted of four unique activities regarding the chosen topic of the day. The chosen topic for the day was Descriptive essays with a focus on how to identify key components found throughout the introduction and body paragraphs of descriptive essays.

As I observed one two-hour long class, I am writing two reflections on the same class per hour of class I observed. Upon reconvening from the break, the teacher showed the class how to access the online version of the essay and a set of questions to go with it. Together the class answered the review questions, and the teacher explained that throughout the course, they would be provided with different essays and be expected to answer similar questions based on those as instructed.

The physical setting of the classroom comprised of small groups of desks ranging from 3-4 set around the room. I believe that this setting is conducive to learning as it easily enables group collaboration and work, something that featured heavily in the teacher’s lesson.

The teacher introduced the final topic of the day by showing students how to access their online textbook and the review questions attached to the day’s essay.

The teacher asked the class if they wished to work through the fifty review questions together or on their individual devices. The students did not answer the teacher and instead chatted amongst themselves. The teacher then tasked the students with voting on whether or not they wanted to do it together or individually. After they voted, it was decided to do it together.

The teacher engaged the students by asking them to attempt to answer the questions first out loud before selecting an answer on the computer.

This activity seemed to focus mostly on oral and reading comprehension however, if the students had chosen to do the work individually, they would have needed to write many of the answers out.

By the end of the two-hour class period, students had begun to lose interest in the activities. The teacher regained their attention by having them vote and answer questions aloud.

I mostly took away a similar lesson to those I learned in the first hour of observation in this one as well.