Category: Reflections

Lesson 1

In the first lesson plan, I shared the first half of the class with my fellow student teacher and the second half with my sponsor teacher. It was a great idea on our sponsor teacher’s part to accompany us as it was our first ever lesson in an ESL setting.

For the first half of the class, we introduced ourselves and tried to know a bit more about the students, for examples for the first 5-7 minutes, Roberta and I shared our backgrounds and the reason why we were in their classroom. I believe that helped students to have a better sense of our presence and intentions. After, we had introduced us, our sponsor teacher started to instruct students about the activity we were going to do. She then asked us to take over and conduct the activity with students. It went smoothly as everything was pre-planned and as it was our first class, we strictly stuck with the lesson plan and timeline.

Highlight/learning from the lesson: For the first half, we introduced the topic through an interactive activity, we drew the map of Canada on board and students had to answer some questions in order to move ahead. For me that was a great amalgamation of geographical knowledge with learning in the classroom. Because when you are coming to a new country, you might not know these basic things and it was thrilling for me as a teacher to see how well the students responded to that activity.

In the second half, the sponsor teacher asked if the students would like to be in a more comfortable set-up and finish the rest of the class there to which the students reacted positively. It turned out to be productive action as the students seemed to be much more calm but attentive when they were in this casual bean-bag chairs set-up. I learnt that it is not mandatory to stick with the traditional classroom set-ups in order to achieve learning objectives. This lesson served as an example of that for me.

Lesson 2

This was my pilot lesson plan with the students on my own. I introduced the topic by sharing some simple information on First Nations people and some of their traditions with oral story telling and others. Students were excited to learn something fresh, their questions regarding the native people informed this observation for me. I had provided them with few pictures to visualize the animal characters from the story. Most of the students did not know the English names of those animals and those visual aids helped them to start positively and less intimidated.

I also used the random group generator to divide them in groups for the upcoming activity (Questionnaire-Attached). This became a good learning for me. I had 8 students in my class and 4 were Chinese when I used the group generator, 3 of the Chinese students were in the same group and I did not realize that until the activity had commenced and I noticed that one group is talking in a language that is not English for sure. The incident made me realize that how mindful I have to be especially in an ESL classroom where cultures and languages heavily influence the classroom and hence the learning.

Highlight of the Lesson: This was a reading class but I wanted the students to also share out loud what they have understood from their reading. Not just to assess if learning has taken place or not but also to promote students to talk and share their learning with their classmates. Students were provided with small white boards to draw an outline of the story they had just read, both groups read different stories. They were instructed to share their drawing and understanding with the other group, students were shy and hesitated to share. Initially, I thought that they just lacked confidence but later on I realized that it could also be something that they have not done so far and it could feel a bit overwhelming to present in front of the whole class.

Note to self: Build on to what you want the students to do. Practice that yourself in front of them, make them feel comfortable with making mistakes. If they still do not feel like doing it, give them some more and try again may be in next class.

Lesson 3

Students were introduced to the grand topic of King Tut with a warm-up activity. I tried to introduce the topic in a deductive manner where the students were asked to talk about nay warrior, king or queen from their home country. A student talked about a famous Chinese warrior and the other talked about the first female ruler of their country. This activity worked out better than the previous one, students were more comfortable, they wanted to share their knowledge and wanted everyone to listen to them. I believe the reason for this ease in their demeanor could be that they were sharing something that came from their heart and did not have to use any academic text or language to refer to. I learnt that if I want students to present more in class, initially it is better to just have them talk and slowly direct them towards the academic presentation.

I followed the ‘Think…Pair…Share’ strategy for the exercises and integrated questions at the back of the chapter. I think by now students have realized that I have lots of sharing activities in my plans and they seem to feel better about it now.

Learning from the lesson: This was my 3^rd class with the students and I noticed a huge gap between students’ vocabulary that is hindering them from making a clear understanding of the texts. I want to add activities in my next lesson plan that also help them with this problem. Exercises that can motivate them to look for new words, find their meanings and use those.

Lesson 4

For this Lesson I tried to do something new. Usually, I give them the passages for reading after the warm-up activity and introduction to the topic. However, I wanted the students to dive deep into the reading this time by looking for the new words before the actual reading. For the warm-up activity I came up with the idea of scanning and introduced it to the class. Students were handed out the passages and were asked to scan it, and not look for new words and underline those. They did this activity in group so that when they are done with finding their meanings, they can share it with their partner to maximize learning and sharing of it.

Students actually liked it as they told me afterwards that they now feel more comfortable with reading and makes way more sense to them knowing the meanings to some of the new words already.

Highlight from the lesson: As students did the first activity of the class in pairs and groups, I wanted to give them some personal space to their exercises individually. I believe that idea really worked because students were also eager to go back to their seats, read by themselves and look for the answers to the integrated questions in peace in their personal space. Therefore, I learnt that a lesson place should be a good balance of both pair/group and individual work to optimize learning.

Lesson 5

This was my 5^th lesson and was also observed by our practicum supervisor. I tired two new things in this lesson plan.

In the last class, students had enjoyed scanning and finding the meanings to those new words. I wanted to build on that exercise, and create something more interactive and engaging. I created a worksheet by myself guided by my instructor on how to make the most use of the new words found by the students (attached in the materials). This time students were not just supposed to find the new words but also to find their synonyms, antonyms, meanings ad showcase how they would use it in a sentence. Students did this activity in groups and shared their findings with the whole class. Their acceptance towards the activity made me feel really accomplished.

Secondly, I also realized in the last lecture that it is best to provide the instructions in more than way. It should be both verbal and written so that the students can understand it clearly. I realized that my accent and speed of speech can be a hindrance for some of the students. In order to achieve clarity and smoother conduct of the activity, I mentioned all the instructions on the white board as well. I think that did work because when I was explaining the activity, some of the students were only looking at me but a few referred to the board behind me eagerly.

After the activities and integrated questions, I wanted some formative feedback from the students. I performed an exit-ticket activity where students were to mention one thing they like about my teaching (so that I can continue with that and keep on adding something new to it); and one thing that they do not like (so that I can be aware of things I might want to cut out or accommodate differently in my plans). Students responded quite well to that activity.

Lesson 6

In the lesson, I was doing story time with the students which was my first time conducting it as solo teacher. I wanted the students not to feel bored with just me reading the story once to them so I curated this theme where they were to listen to the story once from me and share three words/ideas that they remembered. Students found it out fun as I was not asking them for any academic ideas or information. Students did this activity in a relaxed atmosphere as it was already 3:30 PM when I started my class.

After this, students read the story themselves and tried to find new words, annotated it and discussed in pairs. I believe that the group of 3 works the best because when I put them in groups of two, they just divide the work or either keep on doing it by themselves and do not share much. Next time, I try to keep this in mind that I divide them in groups of at least 3 people.

Highlight of the lecture: When I finished my class and went to my sponsor teacher for their feedback, they mentioned how they really like my idea of asking students for just “3 words they remember” rather than asking them any heavy-duty question like “what was the big idea?”. They mentioned that its great to always start with simple questions and then build onto the knowledge gained from those to achieve bigger learning objectives.

Lesson 7

For this lecture, we did the story time again. Students were provided with the print outs of the story that is curated by our sponsor teacher according to the level of reading for these students. After I read the story to them, I divide them in pairs to annotate and discuss their findings within their groups. Students were instructed to find at least 5 new words and their meanings to share with their partners.

Learning from the lesson: This chapter was not one of my bests. I could have added activities that could have engaged them better. I went on with the same pattern again for this lesson and I wish I had changed or molded it a bit better in hindsight. For next time when I do story time, Maybe I would ask one of the students to come take my place and read it to the class if they want to. For activities I think, I can shift the concentration from new vocabulary for some time now to different aspects of reading, like pronunciation or intonation. The activities can be more communicative and instead of doing the same kind of questions again and again, I can ask stduents to formulate thier own questions for one-another.

However, I did meet the learning objectives of the lesson I had curated. But, I wish to try new things for the next plan surely.

Lesson 8

For my 8^th lesson plan, I am really happy with the execution of the activity that I had curated for my students. It met the objectives; students did something new and enjoyed it while interacting with their peers successfully. I felt a bit stagnant with my last lesson plan and felt the same kind of reception to that lesson plan from my students. Hence, I wanted to start this one with a stimulating warm-up activity. I tried the “Match It…” (attached in material) activity to introduce the topic. The chits had some fun facts mentioned on the about the tow volcanoes that we were going to read about in the class. Also it had some difficult words form the article with their meanings all jumbled up and students had to match them accordingly, they were only allowed to talk to their peers to match the chits correctly and not use their cellphones strictly. Successfully, I did ntoice some great group works and collaboration on stduents’ part.

Instructions were provided in both oral and written form. Students did have some doubts at first on how to do the activity but once they started it, they conquered. My main objective as an instructor was for them to interact and by helping one-another reach the conclusions which they did amazingly.

As the activity was quite detailed, I spent good time on it. But, that helped us later in the reading time as students were able to notice many similar points and that helped their understanding of the passages way better.

My sponsor teacher appreciated he activity as well. She mentioned how my time management was spot on and it is nice to keep on reminding the students about timelines when they are totally engrossed in the activities and lose sense of time some times. Her feedback has really been useful and motivating so far, to have somebody with this great experience and knowledge surely helps a lot when you are experimenting with new themes in the class.

Lesson 9

For my 9^th lesson plan, I had to teach a new group of students due to some reasons. I was surely nervous and a little but anxious thinking if I am not able to connect with these students it will be waste of time for them and I will lose my confidence. Thankfully, I could talk to my sponsor teacher for these 2 lessons beforehand and he advised me on how to plan my lesson and gave me some idea about the students as well.

I was not only dealing with new students here but also with new content and language skill. It all became a little overwhelming at first but when I started to plan my lesson, I could feel better and more confident. When I entered the class, for the first 5-7 minutes I tried to make a connection with students, introducing myself and trying to know a little about them. This kind of ice-breaker is important and healthy for the classroom atmosphere.

This was a speaking class; I consciously chose the topic of culture as I thought that is some thing most relevant and common amongst all of us in the classroom. I am happy to mention that it was accepted amiably by the students. Ss had lots of opinions and ideas to share with their peers. Ss enjoyed learning about the concept of Cultural Iceberg, there excitement with the following activity informed this for me. We did the ‘Build your Questionnaire’ activity in class, students had to interview their partners and ask them about their deep cultural norms. This activity was both informative and enjoyable for the students.

For the exit-ticket, I wanted to know from the students if they liked the way I taught them today, so that I can accommodate accordingly in my next lesson. They all gave me their feedback and we ended the class on time.

Lesson 10

This was my last lesson in my TESOL practicum journey. I had bittersweet feeling about this one. I enjoyed my teaching journey to the utmost, learnt something new about teaching pedagogy and my students almost every day. I collaborated with my peers and sponsor teachers; I loved every bit of this practicum.

My sponsor teacher advised me about doing something grand and taking a risk in this last one and I was all in for that. We chose the topic of ‘Personalities’ and decided on doing the conversational circles activity. At first students were a little confused about the activity but I could have them all on board once it started. After that it just kept on getting better. Students were engaged, responsive and communicative. Although, after 15 minutes of this exercise we all needed some silence as all of them had talked continuously for so long. WE enjoyed a few minutes in silence and then got back to our sharing process.

My underlying objective for this lesson was to make students understand the deep concept of personalities. E.g., personalities can be deceiving, they are hard to understand, they are dynamic, culture influence our personalities. I am amazed on how the students made these connections so vividly. I shared handouts of different personality traits and students loved learning about those, they were constantly engaged with that.

The only thing, I would like to change if I teach this lesson again will be to provide my students with some physical learning aids, some thing that they can hold, annotate and go home with. However, I must say that I learnt immensely in these 10 lessons and I am really excited for what the future holds for me.

Hour 1 and 2

I had my first classroom observation was for Course ESAL 0220/0320 (Pre-intermediate/intermediate grammar). The classroom setting was casual with students seated in manner that they could all see the teacher clearly and the teacher could roam around in the classroom assessing students’ progress with ease. Although, because of the seating arrangement I felt students’ interaction was limited and restricted as they were not facing one-another. I could also sense some groups being formed based on students’ common ethnicities.

The class started at the regular time and the teacher was casually dressed. He introduced the new visitors in the room to his students and later went ahead with a warm-up activity to refresh students’ memory about previously covered material. There was no discussion on any objectives or agenda for the class. The activity did not involve all the students, some of them were only listening and were passive participants. The teacher noticed that later on introduced a group activity where he made efforts to make sure that everyone has a partner and participate actively. He also tried to incorporate humor into his teaching methods whenever he felt the students were getting a little tired as the lecture went on almost 2 hours. The break was at the right timings and for a decent duration as well.

My learning from the class: When the teacher saw that his first activity was not able to garner as much response as he thought, he was quick enough to mold his strategy and introduce an activity that would motivate students to be proactive. While wrapping up his lecture for the day, he asked how his students felt about today’s class and their thoughts on homework, he then carved the homework according to the response he had gathered and was considerate towards his students’ interests.

Hour 3 and 4

My second classroom was observation was in Course ESAL 0270/0370 (Pre-intermediate/intermediate Reading skills). As the lecture started the teacher greeted everyone in the room and provided students with their name tags to be kept on their table for the duration of the class. Students were seating in the same arrangement as last class and there no changes made thorough out as well. As it was a reading skill enhancement class, the teacher started to read a paragraph out of a book. There was no discussion on any objectives or agenda for the class.

While he was readding out of the book, the teacher was extremely aware of whose paying attention and not. He asked students to start reading where he had left to keep them on the track with him. He also explained a lot of words using simple and basic language. When the teacher allotted some activity to the class, he was prudent about the students’ progress, constantly interacted with them, asked lots of questions on how they reached their answers. He also provided them sufficient time to read and answer the questions, there was no rush and the students seemed to be at ease and enjoying the lecture. Teacher finished with an efficient round-up to the class.

My learning from the class: While sharing the news of test in the next class with students, he provided students with lots of tips on how to cover the material and study for the specific test. He shared information on what to expect in the test and how to prepare for it for maximum success. He ended up by checking on students and advised them not feel overwhelmed.

Hour 5 and 6

My 3rd class observation was in ESAL 0580 which was a writing class. The intstructor started the class on a very calm mood, there was light music playing in the background while the stduents were still settling in. The instructor also mentioned the short attendance due to an aggignment that was due the same in class. When everyone arrived she asked them about the homework, if it was too much or manageable. the intsructor also had ‘the plan’ mentioned on the white biard for stduents to see what were they going to do in the class. She pointed out the two visitors in class and explained our purpose of being there in her class. Students were excited to see us there.

The first half of the class started with a review activity, students were asked to sit in a semi-circle, all of them talked for baout 15 minutes regarding the topic shared in the last class. Everyone was encouraged to talk by the instructor. stduents were at ease. Everyone was motivated to listen to one-another whole-heartedly, the instructor practiced that herself in front of the stduents. The instructor was quite mindful of the timeline and kept on reminding the stduents about the time they have to talk. Teacher was animated and lively.

After the break, students came back to the class, teacher greeted them again and welcomed the students who were not present in the first half with a smile. she started to introduce the second activity to stduents, She gave them the choice to choose their own writing topic. This was a group activity but the instructor was extremely active with what the stduents are doing, it was a well controlled activity. As soon as she would see any stduent withering away from the activity or topic, she would help them get back on the track.

My learning: The instructir was extremely mindful of her students’ needs and kept the consideration towards her stduents rather than just on the lesson plan. she was lively and stduents seemed to enjoy that positive energy in the classroom.

Hour 7 and 8

I attended another wonderful session with ESAL 0220/0320 Grammar course. The teacher seemed to be in a cheerful mood with his students and greeted all of them whole-heartedly. He started the class with explaining the course outline to the students in detail. Some of those details were about classroom attendance, prerequisite for the course, required textbooks and he paid detailed attention in explaining students about course activities, assessment and final evaluation. Students were paying attention to him and were taking some notes as well.

Light humor seems to be a constant part of teacher’s demeanor. Before asking them about the homework completion, the teacher tried to alleviate the mood of the class with some light jokes and anecdotes. Students seem to enjoy this. While explaining the answers to the students, the teacher was quite animated and lively and that generated active student participation. Later, he did a group activity with the students, in which he made efforts to make sure that everyone was part of the group and nobody is left behind. Even when the students were doing the activity in the groups, he was around them all the time, helping them with some hints or explanations to reach the goal. When some students gave the wrong answers, he politely corrected them and showed generosity by not belittling them in any way.

After the ten minutes break, students came back to class looking refreshed. The teacher greeted them again and started with another exercise, this time students only had to listen to him and write down the answers. For this activity his voice modulation and clarity were immaculate. He motivated student participation by constantly asking them direct and indirect questions. Some time later, he started to wrap up the class with the mention of test.

Learning from the class: There was some time left (almost 10 minutes) when the current chapter finished. Rather than jumping onto the next chapter, the teacher had a considerate approach, he gave his students few minutes to look back and check for any doubts or questions. Also, informed them about the test specifications, material to read and prepare. I think that was my highlight of the class, where the teacher is flexible and caring towards his students and gives more value to quality learning rather than just finishing off the curriculum.

Hour 9 and 10

I had the chance to observe a Reading class for course ESAL 0470. The Teacher welcomed everyone to the classroom and asked them to sit in a semi-circle preparing them for the quiz. She checked whether everyone was present or not. Then she introduced the visitors (student-observers) to the class and we talked for a minute about ourselves and why were there.

The teacher instructed the students about the quiz guidelines and they were presented in a very clear and simple language for the students to grasp it quickly. Students were provided with a good reading time of 15 minutes prior to the test. The teacher gave the checked answer sheets back to the students just after the 10 minutes break, the students were quite impressed with their teacher’s efficiency and appreciated it. She also explained the common mistakes that she found in the paper and gave students some useful tips on how to remove such mistakes next time.

After the break, all the students came back to the class and the instructor explained them the objective and plan for the next activity. Students seemed to be engaged and excited about this activity, it was visible from their active body language and gestures towards one-another when they were asked to change seats according to the groups they were assigned to. The instructor made sure again and again that all the students are participating and contributing to their respective groups. By the end of the exercise, she went to each table and tried to assess their progress in learning. She asked students on how they are feeling about the activity and if they are confident about their answers. Lastly, she concluded her lesson with providing students instructions about the test for the next class. The instructions were quite simple and clearly delivered.

Learning from the lesson: I really like the ease with which the teacher proceeded with the lesson, she knew what would be the next step and seemed to be quite organized in her lesson planning. I really liked the way she handed out the answer sheets just after the break, as they were just some MCQs, I could see that the students were pleasantly surprised by this and that also acted as a nice ice-breaker for the next activity as it had them excited for the next half of the lesson.  

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