Monitoring

Monitoring is the teacher's practice of observing and listening to learners while they work on tasks. It's what happens between setting up an activity and running feedback, and it's where much of a teacher's real skill shows. Poor monitoring means missing errors, misjudging readiness, and flying blind into feedback. Good monitoring gives the teacher live data to adjust pacing, provide targeted help, and collect language for delayed correction.

Types of Monitoring

Discreet monitoring

The teacher circulates but doesn't intervene. Used when you want students to work independently in problem-solving tasks, free writing, and fluency activities. The goal is to observe without disrupting flow. Stand at a comfortable distance; don't hover over shoulders.

Active monitoring

The teacher circulates and interacts by answering questions, providing scaffolding, and giving on-the-spot correction. Appropriate for controlled practice, guided tasks, and activities where students are likely to get stuck. The key is to help without taking over the task.

Note-taking monitoring

The teacher listens and writes down interesting language, including errors, good usage, and unexpected formulations, for delayed feedback after the activity. This is the gold standard for fluency activities: it respects the communicative flow while still capturing teachable moments.

Practical Guidelines

• Move: don't monitor from the front desk; physically circulate so every pair/group gets attention
• Listen before speaking: arrive at a group, listen for 20-30 seconds before deciding whether to intervene
• Distribute attention: it's easy to gravitate toward weaker or louder students; consciously visit every group
• Note patterns, not just individual errors: if three groups make the same mistake, that's a whole-class teaching point
• Don't over-correct during fluency: in communicative tasks, note errors for later; interrupting kills the conversation
• Use what you hear: monitoring data should directly feed into the feedback stage; otherwise it's wasted

Monitoring and Pacing

Monitoring is the teacher's main tool for Pacing decisions during an activity. If most groups finish early, you know to transition. If several groups are struggling, you may need to pause and re-explain. If one group is far ahead, you can give them an extension task. Without monitoring, pacing becomes guesswork.

Common Mistakes

• Standing at the front and waiting: this isn't monitoring; it's supervising
• Spending too long with one group while others drift
• Only checking answers, not process: monitoring should reveal how students arrive at answers, not just whether they're correct
• Correcting every error during a fluency activity, turning free practice into controlled practice
• Not having a system for noting language: scrambling to remember errors during feedback is unreliable

See Also

Monitoring feeds directly into Corrective Feedback: what you hear during monitoring determines what you address afterward. It functions as informal Formative Assessment, giving the teacher moment-by-moment data on student performance. Effective monitoring also informs Pacing decisions, telling the teacher when to extend, cut, or move to the next stage.