Category: Reflections

Date: September 22nd, 2022

ESAL 0370 is a level 3 class focused on intermediate English reading.

Observation:

• The teacher greets the class and reviews what they had due for homework. (~10mins)
  • The teacher reinforces that some material will be on their test later in the week.
• The students are put into pairs to check their homework.
  • The teacher walks around the class and helps students who have questions. (~5mins)
• The teacher checks the next homework but asks students directly for the answers. (~5mins)
• Activity 1 (~20mins)
  • The students participate in a gap-fill exercise.
  • Two groups answer different questions then meet and discuss.
• Activity 2 (~15mins)
  • Students are given the meaning and must find the word.
• Break (~10mins)
• The teacher recaps the first half. (~5mins)
• Activity 2 (~35mins)
  • 4 groups participate in a gallery walk activity.
• The teacher does a final recap and gives students a paper to fill out what they wrote during the gallery walk. (~5mins)
• The teacher explains the test format. (~5mins)

Reflection:

The classroom was very conducive to learning. Desks were already organized for students to work in groups of at least four. The teacher had also set up posterboards on the wall for later use to save time and gives students a chance to review if needed. Groups were set up so that there was no common language between them so they were forced to speak English.

The teacher constantly referred back to why they were doing certain activities in relation to the objectives of the lesson. From using synonyms and antonyms to new definitions and introducing phrasal verbs. At the start of class, after the break, and finally, at the end of class the activities were recapped and students were refocused on the tasks.

The teacher gauged what the students had known previously by assigning homework and asking students if they had any questions about the material. Assigning homework prior to the lesson allows students to either review known material or familiarize themselves with it before class. This is also important because it allows the teacher to gauge how students are doing in preparation for the test later in the week.

Due to the mid-high level of the class, the teacher felt comfortable using more challenging question techniques like wh- questions, and leading questions in order to elicit specific information.

This class focused primarily on speaking skills though all of their homework involves reading passages of text. Students were encouraged to discuss what they had read and the homework that was associated with it.

Students were very enthusiastic about the activities throughout the lesson, especially the final major activity. I believe this activity resonated with students since it involved the total physical response of walking around the classroom with their group and answering questions/ filling in the blanks on the poster boards. Getting students up and about not only provides another level of engagement for them but also wakes them up after an hour of lessons. Some students had difficulties understanding the full directions of the task and had to have them re-explained to them after the teacher noticed a mistake.

The atmosphere was very positive and light-hearted. Students were very comfortable asking their group mates questions as well as the teacher as they walked around the room. There was also competitive banter between the groups while they were moving around the room and writing on the boards since some groups stayed a few extra seconds to get their last point down.

Students were fully engaged in the lesson. Students showed competitive behavior as well as eagerness to ask questions when they were unsure about something. This was not limited to just asking the teachers but between classmates as well. Students were interested in the material and continued to discuss the reading even when they were allowed to go on break.

What I learned from this observation is that pre-planning student seating as well as setting up the activities before the lesson begins can save you a lot of time and allows the lesson to be more seamless. It was also the first time that I saw the total physical response strategy and was surprised by how well it works!

Since students had some issues understanding a part of the homework I would remind myself to clarify that part of the homework the next time I gave it to students or to provide a handout of clearer instructions. This lesson was very well made and one I would like to borrow from in my future teachings!

Date: September 28th, 2022

ESAL 0120/0220 is a level 1 and 2 split class focusing on English grammar.

Observations:

• The teacher reminds students of their homework.
• The teacher tells students they will be revising past/past progressive tenses.
• The students are organized into 4 groups.
  • Students practice speaking. (~15mins)
• The teacher hands out the verb tense worksheet to students. (~30mins)
  • Students are put into pairs.
• Break (~10 mins)
• The teacher reviews the worksheet with students. (~10mins)
• The students were given a very busy picture that they must describe in the past progressive tense. (~20mins total)
  • Students were given 5 minutes to practice their sentences.
  • Students must recount what they saw from memory.
• The teacher moves the class to the next activity.
• Students are tasked with walking around the class and discussing their homework with two other classmates. (~10mins)
  • Students are allowed to hand in their homework if they feel confident. Or they can drop it off at the teacher’s office.
• The teacher gives out new homework.

Reflection:

This class was in a fairly open room with good natural lighting. At the front of the class were the teacher’s desk, two whiteboards, and the projector screen. The students were seated in chairs with their desks attached. These chairs were able to be wheeled around very easily. The one downside to this room is that it was a little small for the class size, so when one of the student activities required students to move around the space became quite chaotic. It was very convenient for the chairs to be moved around when they weren’t needed by students.

The teacher instructed that class that due to many questions and concerns they didn’t feel comfortable moving forward with the class. Instead, he would be using this class time to review the material (simple past/past progressive). The teacher provided new material for students to work on in groups or pairs throughout the lesson.

Since this was a review class the teacher knew what the students had and had not covered prior to this lesson. This can be a benefit to the instructor since by this point the teacher should know what the general strengths and weaknesses of the class are. There were some issues involving some of the worksheet sentences which used gerunds and many irregular verbs, as well as modals.

The teacher mostly used yes/no questions in order to elicit information. This is important to know that since this is a lower-level class students may not be familiar with or confident enough to respond to wh- questions.

This class used most language skills. From speaking and listening when practicing speaking the verb tenses in their groups. Groups also used reading and writing skills while working on the worksheet. Speaking was used throughout the lesson as well when creating sentences from the image given. Every student was called upon to participate in activities or produce answers from their group work. This increases overall participation and stops 1 member of the group from doing all the speaking.

Students responded positively to the activities. However, at the start of class students were resistant to moving to their group and some of them forgot which group they were supposed to join. One of the activities was working on the homework so some students which had done their homework finished very quickly. The teacher noticed this and provided them with some optional work if they were bored.

The atmosphere of the class varied a lot throughout the lesson. In the beginning, the class seemed a bit awkward and confused about the instructions given by the teacher. Though a bit confused students were comfortable enough to ask the teacher and observers questions regarding some of the questions. There were many questions due to the fact that one of the activities used intermediate-level sentence structure.

Students were engaged with the content. Since all of the activities involved pair and group work students became very comfortable with each other and therefore more engaged. Some students finished faster than other students and once students had finished they either engaged in casual conversations or went on their phones. Since students had nothing else to do, this was allowed.

What I learned from this observation is to make sure that the material you are providing is not too difficult for the level you are teaching at. I also learned that allowing students to check their homework with one another is a great way for students to give themselves an informal evaluation before submitting it to their teacher.

For this lesson, I would change some of the material used to be more relevant to their skill level. Some of the images used by the students were photocopied, so much of the image quality was lost, and hard to tell what is going on. I would also provide clear explanations to students about which group they were part of. Perhaps either through card handouts or writing them on the board.

Date: September 20th, 2022

ESAL 0180/0280 is a level 1 and 2 split class focusing on beginner English writing.

Observations:

• The teacher takes attendance.
• The teacher collects the homework but allows some students to finish the homework during the break.
• The teacher reviews the parts of speech and simple sentence structure.
• The teacher plays a video further reviewing sentence structure (~10 minutes).
• Activity 1 (~20 minutes).
• Break (~10 minutes).
• After the break, the teacher explains capitalization.
• Activity 2 (~40 minutes).
• The teacher reviews previous homework and assigns new homework.

Reflection:

The way the class was organized seemed more conducive to a teacher-focused lesson. The teacher would stand at the front of the class and the desks were all placed around the outside of the room with the students facing toward the center of the class. This may not be ideal for most teaching strategies since it does not allow the students to move freely and working in groups can be a bit awkward. However, for this class at such a low level focused on writing there isn’t as much of a need for group work.

The teacher informed the students of the objectives by introducing the patterns and rules of parts of speech as well as capitalization later on. The teacher also gave multiple examples so students could see how they were used. Giving real-life examples is not only a great way to show how English can be used but also shows students why what they are learning is important and applicable to their life.

The teacher asked students about the parts of speech in which they were reviewing in order to see if students remembered them or not. While this may have seemed like a straightforward approach it showed that there were some students who had seen it before while for others it was their first time learning about them. Being in a split class it may be important to understand that some students may be much further ahead than others.

The teacher used mostly yes/no questions due to the class being a low level but they did use leading questions when asking about the homework that was due. T- “did anyone have any problems with the homework?”. This is a good way for students to step forward about any issues they may have had, though some students may have had difficulty but feel uneasy speaking up in front of the class.

This class mostly focused on listening comprehension from the teacher talk aspect. Students also did some writing by answering questions based on the topic of writing paragraphs. The homework returned during class as well as the homework assigned were both major writing projects for the students. At low levels, it is important for students to not only use English but to also gain experience listening and reading it.

During activities, students helped each other complete the tasks and understand new vocabulary. Due to the split class, some students had little to no issue with the task while others struggled. Some of the more experienced students helped out their classmates throughout the class. Which is something that should be encouraged but not to the point of students doing the work for others.

The class atmosphere was fairly reserved as most of the students sat patiently listening to the teacher while also taking notes. The teacher was very light-hearted and encouraged the students to answer some of his questions.

Most of the students were engaged during the class, though some students were caught on their phones which the teacher used as a great example of possessives. During the activities, some students were done early and either resorted to talking with their neighbours or going on their phones.

From this observation, I learned that having a split class can have some pros and cons. Some of the pros are that students are able to rely on each other for information rather than just on the teacher. It can also open up some activities which require some gap fill or group work exercises. Some cons would be that finding material that is relevant to both levels may be challenging and that while one task some may find too easy another task some may find too difficult.

During this lesson, I was given the opportunity to teach one of the tasks. The task was to review a paragraph and correct any missing capitalization. Students were tasked to work in pairs to correct and afterward, I guided the class allowing one student to read one sentence and correct the capitalization and then move to a new student for the next sentence. While it worked out in the end it took longer than expected. The next time I teach something similar to that task I would most likely read it myself and ask students which words I should capitalize.

For this class, I would like to add something similar to the capitalization correction but try to use a peer evaluation method where one paper is passed from student to student and they must find any missed capitalizations or mark it as complete.

Date: September 20th, 2022

ESAL 0450 is a level 4 Communications class with a focus on enabling students to participate in meaningful conversations.

Observations:

• Teacher hands out the class textbook to students.
• A student is chosen to recount their weekend.
• Attendance is taken
• The teacher reminds students of the homework and where they can hand it in.
• First Activity (~40mins)
• Students take a break (~10mins)
• After the break, some students are directed to a conversation club to practice speaking.
• Second Activity (~30mins)
• The teacher assigns homework and reminds students there will be a quiz next class.

Reflection:

The class is in an open room and students are seated in chairs on wheels with their tables attached. This was very conducive to learning as it allowed students to easily move around the classroom without much difficulty. After the break, some students were chosen to leave class and attend the Conversation Club. The room the club is located in is very open and there are many resources students can use to facilitate their learning.

The objective of this class was to get students to use modals for making requests. The teacher informed students verbally and then provided examples to repeat after them. As a teacher, I found this a great way to introduce students to a topic while also providing meaningful uses of modals and showing proper pronunciation.

During attendance and throughout the class the teacher uses open-ended wh- questions as well as yes/no questions to elicit whether students understood the tasks or if they needed help with clarification. The teacher circulated the class regularly which allowed students to ask for help while he was next to them while also showing presence and command of the room.

Students were encouraged to work in small groups and for every student to have a turn speaking. At the start of class, a student was chosen to recount her weekend in detail. This allows students a chance to practice speaking publicly and at length about a single topic without interruption. Students would also have much practice listening to the teacher as well as their fellow classmates. Some new vocabulary was also introduced based on the topic of Sociology.

Students responded very well to the activities. Though in the first activity there was some confusion as some provided images were unclear about what they were, the teacher was readily available to answer any questions.

Students were very calm and talkative throughout the class. I believe that this is because by working mostly in pairs students are able to become more comfortable with each and are able to open up and speak their minds.

Students were engaged and stayed on task throughout the class. It was easy to tell students were engaged since they were always asking for clarification or to know if there were other uses. Students were rarely on their phones and most of the class readily volunteered to ask questions.

From this observation, I learned that it is important to build a safe space for your students as it allows them to open up and be more willing to ask questions when they do not understand. Also, using activities that are similar to popular games makes giving instructions to students a lot easier.

If there was a way to change some of the images used during a task to ones that are a little clearer or self-explanatory they might help students complete the task more efficiently.

8th, September. 2022

Prior to the lesson, I noted that while the classroom was of standard size and shape the front of the classroom was very conducive to learning. The front of the classroom contained a large television that was able to display the activities and show videos that the teachers had prepared. The students were also organized into predetermined groups and were well acquainted with moving their tables and chairs to form the groups. On either side of the television were whiteboards, one side was used to keep scores of the groups throughout the class, and the other contained some common translations from Korean to English.

When the lesson began the teacher verbally informed the students of the objectives and content of this lesson, and added that it was a continuation of the previous lesson. The teacher also directed students to open their books to a specific page in order to start the first task. 

The teacher met the lesson objectives by leading the students through a variety of activities throughout the class. First, the students watched and listened to a discussion between 2 students on the video, then students were taught and sung along to a song. Finally, students participated in a large group activity. 

There were little to no questions used to gauge prior knowledge. I believe this is due to the class being more of a review class rather than an introduction to new material.

The teachers used open ended questions to draw out further information on the topic. In this case, teachers asked students what they did last weekend (Past tense focused lesson).

The lesson focused mostly on listening and speaking skills. Reading skills were necessary for some of the activities. Very little writing was used except for writing keywords for the last activity.

 Student responses varied depending on the activity. Students showed little interest in the sing-along but were highly motivated during the last word activity. Students’ interest in the last word activity may be due to its competitive nature. In comparison, the students may have had a negative response to the song choice and not solely from the sing-along activity.

The atmosphere was generally positive, it started off a little quiet but by the end, most students were laughing and having a fun time in class.

 Student engagement was measured by tickets handed out to students who answered questions as well as participated in volunteer speaking. The group who won during the last activity was also handed tickets.

The engagement was determined by tallying tickets by the end of the class. The peak engagement was during the final activity where groups competed against one another in order to earn points. 

I learned that having a partner teaching relieves a lot of stress from teaching alone but may lead to some dependence if it’s all you know. I also reinforced my learning that competitive games are generally well received and improve overall class motivation. 

If I was the instructor I would have liked to change the song choice for that activity to something more mainstream or catchy. 

8th, September. 2022

Prior to the lesson, I noticed that the classroom was very old and dated and that there was only one chalkboard. There was no computer or projector to facilitate learning which made the classroom very stale and bland. While being very free from distractions the classroom did not seem very conducive to learning.

In order to establish the objective of the class, which was to provide students with information that could help improve their English studies, the teacher presented them with copies of his book.

The teacher met his objectives by encouraging students to pursue English learning after high school. This was done by engaging the student with supplied questions on the importance of English and its uses. 

The teacher did not use many techniques to gauge engagement. The only engagement from the class was from a handful of volunteers throughout the class.

The lesson consisted mostly of listening and reading skills. Some speaking skills were used but only by a select few participants.

Student response was hard to gauge due to the fact that most of the work was reading and the group work that was done was done very quietly. The class did respond to some of the guest teacher’s jokes but throughout the tasks, very little student-to-student communication could be heard.

The atmosphere seemed awkward and boring. While students completed the required tasks, only a few students would volunteer to answer the guest instructor’s questions while most of the class waited quietly for the class to end.

Student engagement was fairly low as only a few students volunteered or participated in the discussion while most of the class sat in silence.

While some material may be enjoyable for students there may be some lectures that may not grab many students’ attention and to not take it to heart but it is important to learn from it and use that to improve it for next time. This lesson included some more challenging material for high school students as the guest was from a university and students may have other concerns rather than an info dump that won’t be on their exams.

I believe that a couple of tasks that include a competitive aspect could help improve student motivation to participate. Since there is a lot of reading, instead of students reading by themselves I would ask students to read out loud. When answering the questions in groups I would ask students what they wrote and if others had thought of the same thing. This may be a simple enough task for this level but may also give a chance for further discussion.