Student Practice - INSTRUCTIONS

 INSTRUCTIONS

Observation date: 14/02/2022

Today was quite special because it was the first day after two week's winter break. The children behaved unexpectedly. They were energetic and distracted. Probably they needed to revise classroom rules as well since they perhaps forgot about them in class, and they were not that disciplined the whole day. This made me think about another point that children may behave differently every day. We, teachers, should probably try to consider it. During the first day of the new semester, I would give them some active games for fun instead of a lot of content to enable them to get accustomed to the school environment once again if I were the teachers who taught on the day.

In most of the classes, T did not take the register but T observed the whole class at the commence of the class. T also observed each student carefully when they came into the classroom. By doing so the time was saved. Previously, I had the chance to see how the teacher take the register. Usually, T asked their names, and Ss responded with words such as "present", "Jestem", etc. And when they had online classes, the register was taken accordingly. About giving instructions it was clear to notice the delivery of instructions but Ss were too exuberate to keep focused and pay attention to listening to T carefully. Thus, some students had questions and interrupted T immediately when T was giving instructions on activities. T normally grabbed their attention by telling Ss directly that it would be an activity next. When there were activities on a sheet of paper, T used the paper to explain to Ss what the activity looks like. T told Ss how much time was left when the activity was about to finish, which, I think, made Ss more concentrated and feel the urgency of time, so they could finish on time without extension of their break time. The instructions were clear and simple, even they could read the instructions by themselves when they did not understand when they had the paper with tasks. However, they first figured out what they were supposed to do when T was giving instructions. Sometimes they were not patient enough to wait for their T to finish giving instructions. Then, T reminded them of being patient. While T finished talking about instructions, Ss had the chance to ask questions. After there were no more questions, T asked them to start by using "now, you can start" or something like that. They asked questions directly if they did not understand the instructions. Some Ss also chose to start on their own if they did not have problems in understanding those instructions. And most of them were engaged. Occasionally, one or two Ss got lost in the activities because of different reasons. For instance, they got distracted by their classmate's toys. Or today it is Valentine’s Day. Children gave and received cards from their classmates. Some Ss would like to give back their holiday wishes, so they did not concentrate on the class. In these situations, T asked their names and wanted them to be focused, but it did not work well from time to time. 

In conclusion, in terms of giving instructions, T should keep them clear and easy to understand by using different technics. Ss may see the tasks while listening to the instructions, which would be easier for them to follow, even TPR can be involved if possible. And making sure Ss comprehend the instructions by answering Ss' questions and asking questions to check their understanding can ensure that the activities go smoothly.