1-Class commands' drills & classroom agreements

2-Students are shown pictures of their classmates with their english names. They have to build sentences "His/Her name is..."

3-Sightwords practice: students have to read separted words as fast as possible.

4-Phonics practice: "short A". Eoin has the kids make random sentences with short A words such as "Frank the rat"

5-Kids have to describe pictures using the short A words practiced previously "Frank the rat is in the bag"

Takeaways:

-Even when he is sick, Eoin manages to display a lot of energy and humor while teaching

-Kids were very engaged, very few disruptions which is rare for a grade 1 class

-Nice classroom management despite the fact that students are new to primary school's environment

-Great cooperation with co-teacher Esko, to help regulate classroom managemet

Students very well behaved from the outset.

Eoin begins by reviewing subject-verb-object while adding other concepts such as adjectives, adverbs and adverbs of frequency. Students are active and engaged.

The class continues in this format with an additional group work activity which helps students assess what they have learned.

Students were engaged by the real world examples, and the grammar mistakes were explained simply and elicited from the students.

New information was clearly presented and the initial engagement worked in his favour.

This lesson reviewed classroom rules with don’t… and practiced sentence-making in groups using high-frequency words such as got and six. The teacher used a fun comic-based word game to spark students’ interest, and students actively participated in a relaxed atmosphere, further consolidating their use of key words and sentence patterns.

🐧 Reflections & Suggestions:

The lesson effectively combined rule review with language practice and emphasized group management to ensure participation and cooperation. It is suggested to include more contextual tasks in future review activities, such as “classroom role-play” or “rule poster creation,” to help students deepen their understanding of rules and high-frequency words through creative expression.

-Eric hands the students a worksheet to practice the grammar content learned in previous lessons: kids have to fill in blanks choosing between "either" and "to.

Students are doing the activity very seriously, Eric walks amongst them to help and correct mistakes, reinforcing the grammar rules

-After the time allotted to the activity is up, Eric has a different student volunteer to answer each question. He tries to have as many students actively participating to the class' activity as possible

-Reading Activity from the textbook "how to use your time wisely"

-The lesson's time was considerably reduced due to the sports' challenge but Eric still managed to complete two activities during this time

-Very effective classroom management. Good cooperation with his co-teacher Lulu

-Eric's relationship with his students is obviously excellent. Mutual respect and appreciation between themselves [ThumbsUp]

Group activity to finish the lesson to have the students practice the structures together and get more opportunities to speak

My Personal Takeaway: I will be creating a wheel with my students' names to increase motivation and involvement in my own lessons. Thank you for the excellent idea!

Eoin then reviewed sight words in a fun, interactive way that kept students fully engaged. He introduced the letter “K” through an interesting video and designed enjoyable CVC phonics games to reinforce learning. The whole lesson was filled with positive energy, clear structure, and genuine care for students’ progress.

Gab also prepared a detailed worksheet to help students consolidate their learning. During the activity, he carefully monitored their progress, provided helpful strategies on how to complete the tasks, and offered individual support when needed. He even used stars on the whiteboard to encourage students — a simple yet powerful way to motivate them!

I was also amazed by how well the students demonstrated good learning habits, which clearly reflects Gab’s consistent guidance and classroom management.

In addition, Gab paid close attention to details. Before reading, he reminded students to pause at full stops and even used hand gestures to guide them while they were reading. His attention to detail and care for student learning really stood out.

Overall, it was a very efficient and well-structured lesson, full of engagement, support, and meaningful learning.

Eoin's class is about jobs and occupations and he starts the class off with a very cool video about interesting jobs you wouldn't expect to exist like "crisps inspector" or "water slide tester" with surprising salaries that get the kids stimulated.

He distinguishes the difference between a jobs and an occupations. Afterwards he tells the main job of several different occupations. Throughout the class the kids are well behaved and respond well in the class. Eoin is very funny in class and likes to incorporate students into the lesson

2. Strengths & Highlights

• Exceptional Classroom Management: Slate maintains a calm and positive classroom atmosphere. His authority is established through clear expectations and respectful rapport, never through raised voices. The use of a non-verbal signal (e.g., the clapping routine) is an efficient and effective tool for refocusing students, which they responded to immediately.

• Effective Co-Teaching & Collaboration: Slate worked in seamless partnership with the co-teacher in the room. Their roles were clearly defined and complementary, ensuring that all students received support and the lesson flow was uninterrupted.

• Structured and Explicit Phonics Instruction: The focused practice on the "sk" blend (e.g., scale, school, skunk) was well-executed. Selecting clear, familiar words helped students isolate and master the sound. This direct instruction provides a crucial foundation for reading and spelling fluency.

• Scaffolded and Engaging Lesson Design: The lesson's progression was logically sound and highly effective, moving from decoding sounds to applying language in context:

  • Phonics ("sk" sound): Provided a solid literacy foundation.

  • Role-Play: Activated prior knowledge of "rules" in a low-stakes, practical way.

  • Wordwall Activity: This was an excellent use of technology to ensure individual accountability. By requiring each student to build a full sentence about a place (park, library, etc.), Slate effectively moved them beyond simple vocabulary recall to structured sentence production.

  • "Must vs. Mustn't" with TPR: This was the standout segment of the lesson. Connecting the new grammar to the previously learned vocabulary was a brilliant way to create context. The use of Total Physical Response (TPR), where one student acted out the rule, was a powerful and memorable way to reinforce meaning and check for understanding.

• Student-Centered Learning: Throughout the observation, students were the primary agents of their learning. They were decoding sounds, speaking, building sentences, moving, and participating actively, which is a testament to the engaging activities Slate designed.

3. Opportunities for Growth & Discussion

• Connecting Phonics to Context: To deepen the phonics practice, you could ask students to create a simple, spoken sentence using one of the "sk" words. For example, after learning "school," a student could say, "We mustn't run in the school." This creates a natural link between the different segments of the lesson.

• Extending the Challenge: For students who grasped the "must/mustn't" structure quickly, consider introducing a "challenge corner" or an extension task. This could involve creating a rule for a new, unusual place (e.g., a spaceship, a zoo) or incorporating a second modal verb like "should/shouldn't" for more nuanced rules, as seen in the excellent student-generated example, "We shouldn't run around the coffee shops."

4. Summary
Slate is a reflective and skilled educator whose classroom is a model of positive management and student engagement. The lesson successfully integrated fundamental literacy skills with practical language use, demonstrating a holistic approach to teaching English. The strategies observed are highly effective and worthy of sharing with colleagues. It was a genuine pleasure to observe his teaching.

Gab distributes an adverb crossword worksheet for review. Students undertake the activity diligently while Gab monitors and answers any student questions. Gab corrects any mistakes while prompting students for explanation and meaning.

Eric worked closely with the TA to model dialogues for the students, creating a clear example for them to follow. Eric also used a “wheel” activity to make the dialogues more interactive and fun. After each exchange, he checked the listener’s understanding by asking them to retell what they heard. The dialogues gradually increased in difficulty — starting with teacher-led questions and then moving to student-to-student interactions. This provided excellent scaffolding for the upcoming reading task.

For the reading section, Eric used a text based on his own childhood memories, which immediately captured the students’ interest and made the lesson feel more personal and relatable. After reading part of the text together, he provided printed materials for group work, encouraging collaboration and deeper comprehension.

Overall, this was a well-sequenced and thoughtfully designed reading lesson — engaging, meaningful, and full of opportunities for authentic language use.

Lesson's main topic: Describe a brochure about an exhibition

-Instant feedback system: after describing the brochure in english to the students she asks students to raise their hands if they have understood the three components, then ask individually some students which aspect they haven't fully understood.

-Guided reading activity: Lavinder walks the students through the brochure, helping them understanding all key information and highlighting difficult words, asking the students to find synonyms or antonyms.

She also uses example students are familiar with to explain difficult concepts. For example she uses Siri to explain the students what "voice recognition technology" means.

Lavinder manages to maintain an high level of focus and engagement throughout the whole lesson. She sometimes highlights the students who are particularly trying hard or voluntarily taking notes.

To my mind, she is an outstanding educator and language teacher from whom we can learn a great deal!

-Eoin walks around the classroom, helps students refine their answers and provide answers to their questions regarding specific vocabulary.

-The class looks very engaged in the activity, lots of discussion amongst group members

2- Each team has to explain the whole class how their team is going to make money

3-Eoin asks each team questions to have them explain their plans into more detail

Overall a very interesting and creative activity.

Students work in teams by completing the worksheet, then give feedback in their respective teams once time is up.

Every student from the presenting teams is given a chance to speak by explaining their role in their chosen idea concept. This is great as more students are afforded speaking time rather than just relying on a sole presenter.

Target language: (old/new, hard/soft, thin/thick, expensive/cheap, small/big, light/heavy, empty/full)

Eric prompts a picture of an object and has the students come up with the adjective(s) that can be used to describe it. For example: an old wooden chair: old/hard/uncomfortable/

-Students have a lot of leeway to make sentences. Lots of interactions and brainstorming.

-Eric tries to have the students guess as much as possible instead of "feeding" them the new vocabulary outright

-Eric insists on pronunciation details such as "chip' VS "cheap"

-Lots of drills to reinforce and help with memorization and accurate pronunciation (I found the "pick a card" game very effctive)

-Eric gives a frequent feedback to the class on their behavior if he believes some students are starting to get overexcited or too silent

-Most students had a chance to participate throughout the class

A very active class, Eric obviously has been teaching them for a long time and there's a great connexion between the students and their teacher