Class 3

Class 3: We will observe the teacher’s stance in front of the class (if she moves around the classroom, stands behind the desk, if she addresses one side of the class more than the other). How are patterns of interaction among students arranged? (Pair-work, group-work or individually).

At the beginning of the class, the teacher stands in front of the classroom in order to greet the students and then explains the activity they will have to perform the rest of the class. Once the activity has been assigned, the teacher walks around the classroom answering to students’ doubts or asking the ones who are distracted how are they doing with the activity. She also monitors behavior and scolds the students who are throwing paper balls or quarreling with each other. I noted that misbehavior seems to increase greatly in the last ten minutes of the pos-hora class on Thursdays. Either when checking or monitoring, the teacher addresses all sides of the class equally, asking questions to the three rows of seats.

In this particular class students were not assigned to work in any particular pattern. I observed that most of them work on their own, asking questions to their seating partner or the one in front when they have doubts, and if the other student does not know the answer they ask the teacher from their seat. Individual work tends to be semi pair-work since the activities usually ask for their own opinion or likes.

 In a previous class, they were assigned a group-work in which they had to write an Argentinean teenager’s routine and present it to the class. Groups were of 2-3 persons and some worked individually since the teacher permitted it. Students did not have any major problem working in groups since there were no arguments or quarrels and they worked harmoniously in class.  Most of the students that worked on their own did the assigned work out of class.