Lesson: Discussion Questions and Vocabulary Review
Date: November 1st, 2022
This class consisted of a small group of level-5 (Upper Intermediate) students with a variety of cultures and languages. The objective of this lesson was for students to think more critically about the story regarding topics such as theme, title, characters, and setting. Students were also given a matching exercise to practice the vocabulary that will be on their quiz next class.
This lesson focused primarily on reading, writing, and speaking. Students had to read questions from the PowerPoint as well as read vocabulary and definitions. Students chose to write out the answers even though they did not have to. Students also discussed their answers with one another.
Students were shown a short clip from the movie “The Most Dangerous Game” and asked which literary device did that scene elicit, for context the scene played heavily into foreshadowing. After this, a number of questions were posted on the slide, and students were put in groups to answer and discuss. I through the first few questions with the class but due to time constraints for the last 3, I simply asked if anyone had. any questions about them, and Students felt comfortable asking a couple of questions.
The vocab matching worksheet was handed out and students were given 10 minutes to answer as many as they could. After they ran out of time I went through the list giving out the answers.
I gave out slips of paper to students to write teacher feedback on and reminded them of their homework. After the students returned the feedback paper they were free to go.
This lesson felt very natural and flowed quite nicely despite having to cut one of the tasks short. The small groups were easy to manage and students felt comfortable asking me questions when they needed help. I felt very comfortable talking to students and would often kneel next to them when answering their questions.
The more difficult part of this lesson was planning it so that I could fit everything I wanted to do into a 50-minute lesson. Initially, I planned a lesson and was advised that it didn’t take up enough time then after modifying it, it ended up taking up too much time. Finally, last minute with the help I was able to cut it down to roughly 50 minutes. Though I still went over time.
Reflecting on this lesson I would have liked to add some physical aspects to the tasks. Perhaps getting students to go up to the questions on the wall and answer them one at a time.
This lesson taught me that planning a lesson can be hard and that it is okay to seek help from others either colleagues or through internet sources.