Peer observation by student

Peer Observation 01:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/15xRrif4oXuGwpeXRzGkov2v12eOqeYEd/view?usp=share_link

Observation write up for Peer observation 01: 

The name of the course held was ELA 3000 level class in the second semester for the third year students. The observation was done on the 24^th February 2023 from 8.00 a.m. to 10.00 a.m. at the geography building Room 01, Faculty of Arts University of Peradeniya.

Students majoring in Geography were the main participants of this group. Of a total number of 25 students who had registered for the course only 15 students were present for the lecture on this day. There was only a Muslim student in the class, all the other students were Sinhala medium students. These students have been grouped based on the subject they are majoring in. All the students have scored more than a ‘c’ pass in their first and second semesters in the second year as a ‘c’ pass is compulsory to get registered for this course. The medium for instruction for all these students is English. The main skills focused on this day were speaking and listening. Though the medium of instruction of these students is English, many students do not respond to the questions asked in class. They only reply when the teacher randomly points out their names.

Technology based material was used for teaching these students. As a pre activity the students had to watch a video and answer the questions. Most of the classrooms in the Faculty are not technologically equipped. Luckily, this classroom was occupied with a smart board and the instructor played the video and the students responded to it.

The class was engaging and interesting. The instructor was moving in the class and the rapport that she maintained with the students was appreciable. Questions were asked from the students based on the video that they watched. This gave them a good chance to speak in class. I also suggest that questions should be asked from all the students though it is time consuming because some students may feel that they have been left out. Some tips that I can gather through this observation is the use of mini activities to grab the attention of the students. For example: showing picture cards to the students, asking the students to present the issues that they have in their context etc… The instructor also used the first language to introduce the difficult words in the text, in case of the Tamil medium student she had a list of Tamil words ready with her. This I discovered to be a good technique that I can use in my class too. 

Peer Observation 02: https://drive.google.com/file/d/11pUJV9BtondhThWIEhh2EROwxQGRegEB/view?usp=share_link

Observation write up for peer observation 02: 

The second observation was also done in a ELA 3000 level class in the second semester for the third year students. The observation was done on the 23^th February 2023 from 8.00 a.m. to 10.00 a.m. at the Main Arts building Room 19, Faculty of Arts, University of Peradeniya.

Students majoring in Tamil language were the main participants of this lecture. Twenty-nine students have registered for this course. However, of the 29 students only 20 students were present for the lecture. All the students were Tamil and Muslim students. The ethnicity of the instructor in charge of this class was also Tamil. So, there were less issues related to the comprehension of the lesson because the Instructor was able to use the mother tongue when necessary. As mentioned above, these students have also been grouped based on the subject they are majoring in. All the students have scored more than a ‘c’ pass in their first and second semesters in the second year as a ‘c’ pass is compulsory to get registered for this course. The medium for instruction for all these students is Tamil. The main skills focused on this day were speaking and listening. The Instructor had to put a lot of effort to make the students speak. Some of the students did not respond to the questions asked in the class. So in that case the instructor herself had to provide the answers to the questions.

The venue used for this class did not have any technological apparatus. As mentioned above not all classes in the faculty are equipped with proper technological facilities. Also, as there is no fixed time for the 3000 level classes there is no fixed classroom allocated for these classes as well. Thus, as the room was not equipped with technological resources, the instructor had to use her smart phone to show the video to the students. I noticed that some students did not properly hear the words in the video to respond to the questions. The instructor identified the issue and asked the students to use their personal smart phones to watch the video. Of the 20 students, only about 10 students actively participated in the discussion. The others were taking down notes when the discussion was happening.    

            Though some of the students did not actively respond in the class, I noticed that the instructor did not lose hope till the end. She made a huge effort to make them talk and participate in the discussion. She used the mother tongue when necessary to communicate and make the students understand the content, themes of the lesson. The effort that she employed is appreciable and influencing. Another important thing is that, she was preplanned for the class because I noticed that when she had a challenging situation she had a solution to adapt to it. I suggest that if more group work and pair work is given to the students we can expect more outcomes from them.