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Classroom video in pre-service teacher training

Kathy Harris Casey Keck

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Overview of our presentation

Why use classroom video in teacher training? Multimedia Adult English Learner Corpus Teacher training applications

Classroom observation Lesson plan design Understanding student participation in classroom tasks

Conclusion and next steps

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Why classroom video?

To provide pre-service teachers with opportunities to view “live” ESL classroom interaction.

To allow discussions of TESOL theory, research, and methodology to be situated within actual teaching and learning contexts.

To help pre-service teachers see students in classrooms, rather than just teachers.

To help students develop the ability to describe and interpret, rather than simply evaluate, what they see in the classroom.

The Lab School:A National Labsite for Adult ESOL

Grant R309B6002 from the Institute for Education Science, U.S. Dept. of Education, to the National Center for the Study of Adult Learning and Literacy

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Multimedia Adult English Learner Corpus (MAELC)Adult ESOL Lab School at Portland

State University large corpus of video-recorded

classroom interaction recorded 2001-2005 (4000 hours)

adult learners of English, local community college integrated-skills classes

collaboration between local university and local community college satellite site for ESL classes

at the university setting almost 700 students participated

in the lab school during those 4 years

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Our experience with video

PSU & SFSU MA TESL Programs Pre-service & In-service teachers Variety of professional goals and experiences

Collaborative design of teacher-training activities that involve repeated, shared viewing of ESL classroom video data.

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Three areas of focus:

Classroom observation

Lesson plan design

Understanding student participation in classroom tasks

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Classroom Observation: Learning how to “see” classrooms

Purpose To provide an opportunity for pre-service teachers to

watch ESOL students through repeated, shared viewing

To help pre-service teachers identify when they are being evaluative and help them move toward description

To help pre-service ESOL teachers identify the strategies that the students are using to make meaning

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Classroom observation assignmentProcedures, Session 1 Watch the clip once with the focal question

“What did I see?” Individual free-write, 5 minutes Whole class discussion

View clip again “What new things did I see?” Pair discussion Whole group discussion of description,

reframe all evaluation into description Homework: assign each student a topic to

focus on for individual media viewing

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Classroom observation assignmentTopics

Topic 1: Engagement

Topic 2: Teacher

Topic 3: Students

Topic 4: Problems/strategies

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Classroom observation assignmentProcedures, Session 2Jigsaw Activity15 minutes—get into groups that all have the SAME topic

questionsShare your descriptions (what you saw)

15 minutes—get into groups of 1 person per topic question (groups of 4 people)Each share your description, based on your topic questions

15 minutes—whole classEach group share one or two of the things that you discussedOpportunity to ask questions

Homework: A two-page synthesis of your insights gained from repeated observations, individual reflections, and classroom discussions

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Lesson plan designPurpose To help students to identify the major

components of a lesson as it unfolds. To help students understand how lesson

components work together to accomplish lesson goals & objectives.

To raise students’ awareness of considering student needs, experiences, and engagement when making lesson plan design choices.

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Lesson plan designProcedures Brief discussion of course reading on lesson

plan design - What questions do you have? Introduction to the teaching context of the

classroom video Video viewing - one component at a time

Warm-up First activity (whole class) Second activity (pair work)

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Lesson plan designProcedures Students watch one component and take notes on

the procedures. As a class, we discuss what we saw and write

procedures on the board, including: Use of the board, overhead, handouts Techniques for giving instructions Use of repetition Time devoted to the activity

We then discuss what we think is the purpose behind the activity.

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Lesson plan designProcedures

Lesson Plan Template

Overall goal(s) of lesson:

Terminal lesson objectives:

Enabling objectives:

Materials and Equipment:

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Lesson plan designProcedures

Lesson Plan Template

Warm-up Activity: (start & end time)

Purpose:

Procedures:

Activity 1: (start & end time)

Purpose:

Procedures:

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Lesson plan designProceduresContext for the video clips

Beginner/High Beginner Community College ESL One month into the semester Lesson focus: How often do you _________?

Questions and responses

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Lesson plan designProcedures

Example notes

Activity 1: Textbook activity, whole class (15 min)

Procedures:n Show the “How often do you” activity on the overhead.

Make sure Ss have their books open to this activity.n Show Ss that they will start each question with “How often

do you” and then will finish the question by saying what is shown in the picture. For example, if the picture shows people dancing, they will say “How often do you go dancing?”

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Lesson plan designProcedures

Example notes

Activity 1: Textbook activity, whole class (15 min) Purpose:

To model how to do the “How often do you” activity, so that students can eventually work together in pairs

To give Ss more opportunities to both ask and respond to “how often” questions

To give students my feedback on their use of “how often” questions and responses

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Lesson plan designProcedures

Example notes

Overall Goal: To review and provide extensive practice with“How often do you” questions and responses

Terminal lesson objective: Students will be able to both ask and respond to a variety of “how often do you” questions.

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Lesson plan designProcedures

Example notes

Enabling objectives: Students will hear, and have opportunities to produce,

several examples of “How often do you” questions Students will hear, and have opportunities to produce, a

common set of “how often” responses. Students will receive feedback from the teacher on their

use of “how often” questions and responses. Students will receive feedback from their classmates on

their use of “how often” questions and responses.

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Understanding student participation in classroom tasksPurpose To focus on students in a way that is difficult in

classrooms To view video repeatedly, which allows for analysis of

student language To connect classroom language to potential second

language acquisition To see that student pairs enact the same activity

somewhat differently To identify students as agents in their own learning

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Understanding student participation in classroom tasksProcedures Introduce the value of pair activities and student

interaction Watch video clip on Chyou and Domingo-excited Watch again, but with transcript in hand Teacher model the activity by describing what she

saw, answer these questions:What kind of interactions did the students have?What was the focus of their negotiation?What strategies did they use?What learning may have taken place?

Discuss as a class

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Understanding student participation in classroom tasks

Procedures Watch the second clip on Jin and Zoya-

excited Watch again, transcript in hand In small groups the students describe what

they saw, answering the same questions Discuss in the large group

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Understanding student participation in classroom tasksProcedures Last, show two more clips of two student pairs doing

the same activity Chyou and Domingo-nervous Jin and Zoya-nervous

The students go through the same process this time focus on the ways in which

the two pairs enact the pair activity in similar ways different ways

Large group discussion Homework: write up the answers to the questions,

may view video at home

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Why use classroom video?

Using classroom video has helped our teacher trainees to see language students, not just teachers. In the classroom When designing lessons and curricula

Using classroom video has also helped us to see teacher training in a new way. When explaining concepts, theories, methodologies When carrying out teacher-training activities

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Thank you for your time today

Kathy Harris

Harriska@pdx.edu

Casey Keck

ckeck@sfsu.edu

For links to our teaching materials, links to video clips, and our references, go to:

http://classroomvideoharriskeck.pbworks.com

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References

Garland, J. N. (2002). Co-Construction of language and activity in low-level ESL Pair interactions. Unpublished MA Thesis, Portland State University, Portland, Oregon.

Harris, K. A. (2005). Same activity, different focus. Focus On Basics: Connecting Research and Practice, 8(A). http://www.labschool.pdx.edu/Viewer/viewer.php?pair_interaction

Kumaravadivelu, B. (2003). Chapter 5: Facilitation negotiated interaction. In Beyond Methods: Macrostrategies for Language Teaching. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.

Reder, S., Harris, K., & Setzler, K. (2003). The Multimedia Adult ESL Learner Corpus. TESOL Quarterly, 37(3), 546-557. www.labschool.pdx.edu