My Observation on EGRC of Li-shan Junior High School

The focus of our school visit this time drew to Li-shan Junior High School. The class observed by group A was English Gifted Resources Class containing simply six students. As I stepped into the classroom and saw the teacher, Ms. Hsu, it was a bit surprised to me that she was the person Tiffany and I ran into in front of the school’s gate before, kept looking at us and I thought she was just someone’s parent.
To start with the class, Ms. Hsu asked the questions to remind students of the story on Cinderella by way of putting the pictures on the board about some certain plots. After reviewing, the teacher played the CD and the students listened as well as repeated what they heard. Ms. Hsu explained each sentences by paraphrasing during this activity. At times, something related to the material were introduced. It could be seen in the example of the word “garbage” that Ms. Hsu mentioned other synonyms and further indicated what words were usually used by American and English. Furthermore, the teacher compared different words with the nearly same meaning: “painting” and “picture,” and pointed out what was the formal usage. I reckoned that these were helpful for students to use right words. And I noticed that there was an active learning atmosphere among the students that Ms. Hsu kept asking some questions which required students to find the answers by themselves. For example, the students were asked, “what is the highest roof in the world?” and it turned out that nobody knew, so Ms. Hsu then said, “This is today’s homework.”
The activity further moved on to the speaking section that the students were asked to choose the roles according to the story, “Cinderella” and try to mimic the tone that CD played. All of them did a great job that they seemed to be innate actors. Later, Ms. Hsu played the CD about the rest parts of the story. Interestingly, the teacher paused a while to make “prediction” about the plot, which worked in a similar way of the technique of teaching reading. Ms. Hsu put the questions like “Cinderella is not allowed to the party, then what can she do?” “What kind of dress does she wear?” and “what are her stepmother and sisters’ action?” Predicting what was going to happen next in the story made students look forward to learning. After listening to the CD, here came the assignment again that students had to create the ending of the story. The activity now focused on the exercise in the textbook, involving “True/False” and “Listening and Check” which the students were required to write down what they heard.
At the end of the class, I found that there was lots of homework for the students. Not only did they have exercises in the textbook, but the outside reading and role play. I cannot help but wonder that did they really have time to “digest” these overwhelming tasks? Being an observer on EGRC, I assumed that Ms. Hsu led the whole class with fluency that there was always smooth activity transition. Additionally, she kept her eye contact with the students and always had a smile on her face. Ms. Hsu did create a positive learning environment for her students in some way. On the other hand, those six students were well-disciplined indeed and quite active in learning. As long as the teacher put forward the questions, they responded right away. (Well… maybe it is the ideal student that most teachers will be pleased.) Unfortunately, students that a novice teacher will meet probably are the ones that have to get along with more challenges. Being a teacher, s/he must be good at the teaching and the class management to face the authentic teaching situation. It’s just that EGRC I observed is too perfect to be true. ^^