<p class="p2">25.11. – 27.11. 2015</p>
<p class="p3"><span class="s1"><strong>Observers</strong>: Assoc. Prof. Ivanka Kamburova-Milanova, PhD,</span></p>
<p class="p4"><span class="s1"> Irina Ivanova, PhD, University of Shumen, Bulgaria</span></p>
<p class="p6"><span class="s1">The visits to the two schools in Romania were conducted with the aim of monitoring the process of implementing the project programme. The process involved observation of lessons, which were planned in advance, following the CLIL/ STEM observation checklist produced under the project. The checklist is organized into 4 groups of indicators: 1. Lesson structure, design and outcomes; 2. Teaching and learning strategies; 3. Content, language and communication; and 4. Classroom and Learning process management/ Mobile Labs. </span></p>
<p class="p6"><span class="s1">The report follows the structure of the observation checklist. </span></p>
<p class="p6"><span class="s1"><b>Colegiul National Ion Maiorescu, Giurgiu</b></span></p>
<p class="p6"><span class="s1"><b>General information</b></span></p>
<p class="p6"><span class="s1">The observed lesson took place in the morning of 26</span><span class="s2"><sup>th</sup></span><span class="s1"> November from 10.00 to 10.50 am. The topic of the lesson was <i>Messen</i>. The physics teacher Adriana Cornea taught the lesson on her own due to the absence of the German teacher Monika Mittea who was on sick leave. The class consisted of 33 fifth grade students for whom German is a second foreign language (Their first foreign language is English). By the time of the observed lesson the students had been studying German for 2 months, which means that they are absolute beginners (A1). For the whole school year they have 36 teaching hours. The lesson was attended by the English teacher who works with the class. She assisted the observers’ team with translation. </span></p>
<p class="p6"><span class="s1">Our first impressions were that the lesson was taught according to plan, with active and even students’ participation. The rapport was good and was conducive to students’ learning. The students were enthusiastic and interested in the material which shows that the project’s idea is well received and suitable their needs. </span></p>
<p class="p6"><span class="s1"><b>Discussion of indicators</b></span></p>
<p class="p6"><span class="s1">We were provided with a lesson plan in Romanian. The planned objectives were clear and recognizable. The students knew what they were doing at any stage of the lesson. The materials and the tasks corresponded to the topic and were suited to students’ current cognitive level and learning styles. The students used labels with the key vocabulary, worksheets, and an experiment kit (a pendulum, a ruler, threads, scissors, and a stop-watch). The language used by the teacher was appropriate for the students. The teacher switched from Romanian to German to introduce and consolidate the key terms. The learning outcomes became clear when the students presented the results of the experiment in a language which was appropriate for their language and cognitive level. The fact that the students took active part in the summary of the experiment and the conclusions drawn from it, shows that most of the students successfully managed to pass through the stages of the STEM inquiry approach (trigger – hypothesis – experimentation – verification/ conclusion – generalization/ transfer). </span></p>
<p class="p6"><span class="s1">The teacher used a variety of teaching strategies to link new to old information and to ensure continuity between old and new material. At the trigger phase she elicited the key words from the students, and then told them to link them to the corresponding objects. The teacher made the input comprehensible by using graphic organizers and visualization, and by monitoring and helping individual students during the experiment. </span></p>
<p class="p6"><span class="s1">The language activities were mainly focus-on-form (vocabulary and structures), without a separate focus on skills development. Perhaps that was due to students’ low proficiency level. To compensate for this lack and to ensure free communication flow the teacher encouraged constant code- switch.<span class="Apple-converted-space">  </span>In terms of CALP, students can perform a lot of functions – they can observe and recognize the interrelations and dependencies in the physical world, such as numbers and measurements; they know the German terms for the objects, they can differentiate among different notions and summarise results of experiments. As for BICS, they can talk and exchange ideas about the experiment, they can report their findings, and draw simple conclusions. Students are aware of the application of these phenomena in real life. The experiment and the use of the mobile labs gave students hands-on experience which facilitated their understanding and learning. </span></p>
<p class="p6"><span class="s1">One positive aspect of the lesson was the variety of interaction formats, such as, lock-step (plenary), pair work, group work and individual work which corresponded to nature of different tasks. There was a variety of activities, such as revision, tasks integrating language and content, and tasks focusing on the application of the studied phenomena in other contexts. </span></p>
<p class="p6"><span class="s1">The fact that the teacher managed to control and motivate a big mixed-proficiency class to explore the world of science and, at the same time, study a foreign language can be used a successful strategy for attracting more students to the school. </span></p>
<p class="p6"><span class="s1">The post-lesson discussion was very fruitful, as it provided opportunities for exchange of experience and good practices between the observers, physics and foreign language teachers and the physics trainer. </span></p>
<p class="p7"><span class="s1"><span class="Apple-converted-space">    <img class="aligncenter wp-image-2631 size-full" src="http://www.sflabs.eu/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/screen-shot-2016-01-14-at-14.33.47.png" alt="Screen Shot 2016-01-14 at 14.33.47" width="538" height="316" /></span></span></p>
<p class="p7"><span class="s1"><span class="Apple-converted-space">    </span></span></p>
<p class="p6"><span class="s1"><b>Liceul Miguel de Cervantes, Bucarest</b></span></p>
<p class="p6"><span class="s1"><b>General information</b></span></p>
<p class="p6"><span class="s1">The observed lesson took place in the afternoon of 26</span><span class="s2"><sup>th</sup></span><span class="s1"> November from 14.30 to 15.20 pm. The topic of the lesson was <i>Optical phenomena - eclipse</i>. The lesson was taught by the physics teacher Violeta Govoreanu and the Spanish teacher Camelia Radulescu who worked as a team. The class consisted of 30 fifth grade students for whom Spanish is the first foreign language studied from the 1</span><span class="s2"><sup>st</sup></span><span class="s1"> grade with 4 hours a week. By the time of the observed lesson the students had been studying Spanish for more than 4 years, which means that their level was A1-A2. The lessons are optional and are held once a week as a physics class. The lesson was attended by Vicente Fernandez from the Spanish Embassy and the Spanish teacher-trainer Pilar Veiga. They assisted the observers’ team with translation. </span></p>
<p class="p6"><span class="s1">The lesson was taught according to plan, with active and even students’ participation. The rapport was good and was conducive to students’ learning. The students were enthusiastic and interested in the material which shows that the project’s idea is implemented successfully. </span></p>
<p class="p6"><span class="s1"><b>Discussion of indicators</b></span></p>
<p class="p6"><span class="s1">We were provided with a lesson plan in English for 350 min (7 teaching hours). The planned objectives were clear, recognizable and detailed. The students were in control at all times and understood the purpose of each task. The materials and the tasks were suitable for the topic and the current cognitive level, life experience and learning styles of the students. The Spanish teacher spoke the target language throughout the lesson. The language was appropriate for the students’ level. The learning outcomes became clear when the students presented the results of the experiment in a very good Spanish. The lesson was well structured and reflected the 5 stages of the STEM inquiry approach. The teacher first elicited students’ opinions on the importance of light (trigger). She reviewed the content of the previous lesson and drew their attention to visuals in order to present the key words. The definitions were colour-coded – black in Romanian and red in Spanish. On the basis of physics teacher input the students hypothesized about the nature of light phenomena and later tests their hypothesis in the experiment (hypotheisis and experimentation). In the experiment both teachers worked in a team assisting groups of students. Through interactive tasks (question – answer exchanges) students verified the results and made conclusions about the existence of different light phenomena (rainbow, Northern lights, rays of light, shadows, etc.). </span></p>
<p class="p6"><span class="s1">The teachers used a variety of teaching strategies to link new to old information and to ensure continuity between old and new material. The input was made comprehensible by using graphic organizers and visualization (interactive white board and a short film), and by monitoring and helping groups of students during the experiment. </span></p>
<p class="p6"><span class="s1">There was a good balance between focus-on-form and skills development. The code switching was done by students when conducting the experiment and when addressing both teachers. </span></p>
<p class="p6"><span class="s1">In terms of CALP, students can perform a lot of functions – they can observe, recognize and nominate the interrelations and dependencies in the physical world, such as light phenomena; they know the Spanish terms for the objects, they can differentiate among different notions and summarise results of experiments. As for BICS, they can talk and exchange ideas about the experiment, they can report their findings, and draw simple conclusions in Spanish. Students are aware of the application of these phenomena in real life. The experiment gave students hands-on experience which facilitated their understanding and learning. </span></p>
<p class="p6"><span class="s1">One positive aspect of the lesson was the variety of interaction formats, such as, lock-step (plenary), group work and individual work which corresponded to nature of different tasks. There was a variety of activities, such as revision, tasks integrating language and content, and tasks focusing on the application of the studied phenomena in other contexts.</span></p>
<p class="p6"><span class="s1">Both teachers controlled and motivated a big class to explore the world of science by using a foreign language.</span></p>
<p class="p6"><span class="s1">The post-lesson discussion was very fruitful, as it provided opportunities for exchange of experience and good practices between the observers, physics and foreign language teachers and the Spanish trainer. </span></p>
<p class="p6"><span class="s1">Although there were no mobile labs the teachers provided very good equipment for the experiment from the facilities available at the school. </span></p>
<p class="p7"><span class="s1"><b><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></b></span></p>
<p class="p6"><span class="s1"><b>Issues and recommendations</b></span></p>

<ol class="ol1">
	<li class="li6"><span class="s1">It is difficult to follow the lesson plan when observing as it covers several (7) lessons. Lesson plans (following the agreed detailed template) should be done for each separate lesson.</span></li>
	<li class="li6"><span class="s1">Although the stages are clearly outlined, the activities for these stages are not specified. The procedures and tasks should be described in detail. </span></li>
	<li class="li6"><span class="s1">In the template it is not specified what the actions and responsibilities of each teacher in the team are. These should be differentiated in order to avoid confusion and overlapping. </span></li>
	<li class="li6"><span class="s1">In one of the lessons there was no balance between the participation of the two teachers. There were no clear transitions between their activities. Code switching should be motivated and balanced.</span></li>
	<li class="li6"><span class="s1">There were some issues with the timing of the activities. It is not necessary to do everything that is planned (and put on the worksheets) – it is better to be flexible and adapt to students’ needs, especially at the generalization stage. A good example of this was the short film about the studied <i>Optical phenomena - eclipse</i> which summarized the teaching content and showed its relevance to real life. In the plan this film was placed at the presentation stage, but in the lesson it was shown at the end, where it was more useful for the students.</span></li>
</ol>