Field note 8
This is the second class I observed at Garces Foundation. The teacher mainly focused on doing
the exercise on the textbook with the students. The teacher ended the class early after finishing
two pages in the textbook, since the two students coming to class today need to leave early.
The exercise mainly focuses on the practice of subject and verb agreement. The students are
having problems changing the verb singular and plural forms when making the sentences. The
teacher helps them by typing their answers in the chat box. Then, the teacher will guide the
students to check the sentences together. The teacher asks prompt questions for the students
and guide them to deduct the expected correct sentence structure. For instance, the teacher
asks the student if they will use “is” or “are” in the sentence. The students don’t get the
meaning of teacher and hesitate to respond to the teacher’s question. Therefore, the teacher
elaborates on the question saying, “if there is more than one thing, you should use are.” The
student replies with a “c” with a rising intonation. It is clear that the student has mistaken the
word “thing” as “c”. The teacher then teaches the students the pronunciation by asking them to
stick out their tongue and put them between their teeth. The students are then asked to draw
back their tongue quickly to make frictions to pronounce the word “thing”. The teacher uses
much inductive instruction to get the students to reach the learning goal. Her way to teach the
pronunciation really engages the students. The students all show their interest by sticking their
tongues out of their mouths. One of them even makes a grimace. The classroom meeting is full
of laughter and the teacher succeeds in maintaining learner motivation.