Yeahenglish’s Blog

my peers’ microteaching(part II)

• Karen

In the warm-up activity, Karen let us to discuss the stereotype in our experience or point of view and invited us to write them down on the black board. In fact, she didn’t limit our direction, so when I saw other’s opinions on the black board, I realized that the advantage is that students can review the adjectives, nouns and even phrases to show their stereotype. And through this discussion, we can have some rough idea about the reading part because some key points were mentioned in the activity. And, we formed a small group to finish the worksheet put the correct order of the paragraph summary. It also offered an opportunity for students to train their listening and speaking ability.

• Peggy

Peggy divided us into dour different groups that each member of each group will get different kinds of worksheets. The firs step is that group A and group B get together, and so do group C and group D. our task is try to get the missing words in our worksheet by listening to complete stanza from the other group’s reading. Likewise, we also need to read aloud for the other group to let them finish the blanks. I think this is a good way to train students’ listening. However, I suggest that this activity could be a whole class listening practice in the same grouping and method. That is each group read aloud one complete stanza in turns, while the rest stanzas are incomplete and needed to be read by other groups. In this way, students can listen to more than one missing stanza. To be honest, the second part is interesting and creative, and we can share our opinion with everybody.

• Seamore

Using the pictures to have students put them the number in orders are a kind of strategy to introduce the story line. Seamore explained more the details in the reading part, and students can imagine the situation though the teacher’s detailed description. However, I just want to suggest Seamore about the questions in opening. If students have no idea about the Trojan War, how can she change or ask some method to make them speak in class? Sometimes students might have some opinions, but they are unable to speak out in class, and the teacher needs to support or help students to answer the questions.

• Apple

I think Apple’s lesson plan is more suitable for high level students. There are two main reasons. One is that the activity requires the four basic skills at the same time. Students not only have to read and summarize but listen to the track and take notes. I consider not every student is able to complete these tasks in a short activity. The other is that the reading exercise is so various that it must take time to finish, especially the part 2. Apple’s microteaching is challenging, but I like it because students can do something different during the class.

• Patty

In the warm-up, we had fin in guessing our favorite characters. We were divided into two big groups in the contest. Since that Patty count the points on the black board, we were more positive toward the activity. And then, Patty chose the method which was being recommended by Alice before to demonstrate to review vocabulary. At first, I think it was useful for students to review, but after several rounds I started to feel bored. The atmosphere is too dull, but Patty just kept going on with the same pace. I think this would turn out only well-prepared students competed in the game, but the rest was frustrated.

• Carol

That’s too bad that Carol encountered the technical problem, so she couldn’t play the film to present the warm-up activity. But, the main body still went smoothly without the PPT. Carol chose the reading part for the main body. And she’d like to have students to divide into six groups, but there were not so many students for this grouping arrangement. I guess that Carol have decided to assign her students to read each paragraph to get the answer group by group. However, I think it would be one weakness that each group can only read one paragraph rather than the whole article. Thus, I would suggest Carol that she should have every students to read all through the article, and discuss all the questions. Then, she can also invite any group to answer the relative questions in each paragraph so that students would get the whole ideas about the Trojan War not just only certain paragraph.

• Sharon

People always are curious about gender issue, let alone teenagers. And Sharon provided an opportunity to students to speak out. As for the “what I know map” students could write down the stereotype or some opinions about male and female through discussion. If necessary, the teacher can invite students to illustrate more about the comment or give some examples. In this way, students are more positive to express themselves because of this topic. I think the most interesting part of the activity was the Q&A; we did enjoy this part because we can practice more speaking and try to answer the questions. Most of all, we can finally know something we want to know. Only one suggestion is that the assignment can be an extensive reading or writing about this topic.

• Requal

Raqual demonstrated a kind of traditional way of teaching grammar but with a more stimulating exercise. She reviewed the reading part to bring out the sentences on the black board and let students to find out the rule among the three sentences. Then, she explained the structure of the sentences; next, she had students to answer her questions. I think it is efficient for students to learn the sentence pattern because the teacher can know whether her students understand the concept or not. And the practice emphasizes the rules a lot, so students can keep apply the rules to fill in the blanks. Also, the handout is clear and well-organized, and students can find the answer to the questions on the black board if they don’t really the reason.

• Zoe

Zoe’s warm-up activity is very interesting. At the same time, this activity made students to ask questions and listen to the description. Although the characters were not hard to guess, we still described the characters with different point of view so that we can learn more about the characters. Really, we did enjoy this game, and have a lot of fun in it. Zoe also acted very confidently and looked very friendly in her teaching. She always speaks very clearly and organized so that we can understand what she was talking about. To sum up, I have to say that she enabled us to take a positive attitude toward learning.

my peers’ microteaching(part I)

• Vivian

When it comes to teaching grammar, traditional English teachers might choose the boring way to explain the rule in Chinese. However, Vivian showed her creativity to teach grammar by listening to the famous song “no matter what.” I think this song is exactly suitable for the sentence pattern about adverbial clause + the main clause. Besides, Vivian gave us a very clear instruction so that we understand what we are going to do next. And she also arranged the time very well, we didn’t waste any time or rush in discussion. In other words, Vivian did a good job in each part of teaching.

• Beatrice

In the warm-up activity, we can see that Beatrice gave many pictures to let student make association. I think it is for students to start a new topic. Even though not every student can figure out what is going to happen, the activity would give students some hint to guess. The worksheet for group discussion is clear that students can write down what they discuss or what they think. And it also points out the main ideas in the article. But, maybe students need more time to speak in class when the teacher showed the PPT.

• Patricia

Starting an activity by playing the film is interesting but a little bit long. In fact, I don’t think that students can totally understand what the drawer said. So, if the teacher wants to play this film to promote students’ listening comprehension, the speed and length must be taken into consideration in spite of the fact that students can guess or just watch the step one by one. In addition, the time for discussion part is not enough because it took too much time to draw the Mickey Mouse. Thus, I suggest Patricia should pay attention to which part is more important in an activity and design a activity more relevant to the lesson.

• Daniel

I think Daniel design a series of worksheet for the lesson which was combined the main idea with each other. In the activity, we practiced our listening, reading and speaking even a little writing. Since we were divided into several groups and we had to pay attention to what the group is reading, and find the correct answer, it helped the teacher to walk around the class and made the activity more competitive. But, if I were Daniel, I would choose the pair work in this activity. Because students can have more opportunities to practice, and they won’t wait too long to finish listening each group’s reading part.

• Jill

I guess Jill designed a lesson for an interesting activity for a short survey. Although I didn’t know clearly about the grouping purpose, when I saw the other worksheet different from mine, I suddenly got it. But it seems that we don’t have sufficient time to do a survey in a professional way. Instead, we just followed the survey questions and read them, and the agent chose the best answer to the questions. If the teacher wants to promote students speaking ability, what would the teacher do to prevent from such situation? As a whole, I would like to say that assignment is very creative and practical which will be a real present for our mothers.

• Allen

When Allen played the track of the poem, I realize that it is a very interesting poem. At the same time, we can enjoy how the speaker interprets the poem but also train our listening comprehension. Because of the speaker’s vivid tone and emotion, students no sooner were attracted. However, I think that Allen might spend a little more time playing the track for three times, so that we didn’t have enough time to work on the more important part on the worksheet 3. Since the listening part is easier than the discussion part, I think Allen should let students to have more time to corporate with each other to finish the analyzing part. The warm-up is OK, but Allen should give a more clear instruction to explain because I didn’t know why worksheet turned into our assignment.

• May

At first, May showed the PPT making a brief introduction of the Frankenstein. But, I think that the PPT seems not interesting enough to attract students’ attention, and most of time May explained a lot details of the science fiction. Students only could have few chances to speak while the teacher invited them to give some adjectives to describe the picture. As for the reading part, May played the CD to have students to find out the answers to the seven questions. In fact, I think the questions were put in order according to the reading part, so students can listen to the CD carefully to catch the key words one by one. It is more suitable for students who don’t preview the reading and prepare well for the vocabulary. Besides, the assignment is creative and stimulating. If the teacher could set up a situation for students to develop, it would be more interesting when students share with each other.

• Phil

I think that Phil was so nervous that he wrote down the questions on the paper in his hands to prevent from missing something. However, this way would result in the consequence that he can’t have a good interaction with his students. Since the subject was about the memory, he should prepare some question to ask his students in series rather than just one for each student. To be honest, after I answered the question about “what book do you read recently?” I was still waiting to answer some further questions but Phil turned to other students then. On the other hand, watching the film to promote listening comprehension is a very common method. But if the dialogue or conversations are too difficult or fast, maybe Phil can try to design a blank for students to fill in instead of answering the questions. Some brainstorming questions are good at the end of exercise to let students get some bonus.

My microteaching experience

Lesson / Project Plan

Topic:  The Trojan War    Category: __vocabulary___

It’s the first time that I have to teach English in English. In fact, the most challenging thing for me is that explaining the rule of the activity always spends much time. Even though the game is not difficult at all, I can’t let students or others understand what I mean. It always takes me two or more times to make it clear. Thus, some classmates also suggest me that I should improve my instructions.

Before my microteaching, I spent much time on the lesson plan, including the worksheet and some materials. In order to present the activity in class, I divided the class into four groups and try to put the plan into practice. However, the activity cost much more time than I expected. In the activity, the interaction among my classmates was OK, but maybe I should consider more about students’ level and give more guidance. Some classmates appreciate the activity, and they think this activity really can help students learn vocabulary in terms of listening and speaking.

As a whole, every one gave me positive responses on my teaching. But, I think there is still room for me to improve, such as the oral expression and time management. I really care about that I didn’t have enough time to give an assignment. Besides, there is one worksheet being left behind which I spent a lot of time designing. Thus, if I want to prevent from this situation, preparation of research and practice is necessary and significant before the demonstration.

Learning how to teach writing from Lillian

It’s great that Lillian brought us her strategy in teaching writing by using the website. The advantage of teaching online is that the teacher and students can share their suggestions and composition on the website, so that every student can learn from each other freely by linking different blogs. Especially, Lillian had her students go to three blogs at least to see their classmates’ composition, and then leave some comments or message. I think it could not only train students writing ability but also promote their reading skills.

What I have learned from Lillian is that she sticks to manage the blog teaching regardless of the barrier she might encounter. If I were her, I might give up or hesitate whether I should continue trying hard or not. Now, I have taught in junior high school for some low-motivation students, maybe it’s the reason I take this teaching strategy is impracticable in junior high. However, if I got the chance to teach high level students, I guess I would change my mind. I think the most fatal factor is students’ ability and the teacher’s attitude. Even though at the beginning it is difficult, there is some way out to solve technical problem and form students’ habit to write online.

Lillian really shared her successful teaching experience and that is good for me to follow. I am impressed deeply because she was so proud of her students’ final achievement. Undoubtedly, she is worthy to make efforts in teaching writing because she absolutely is a terrific teacher.

How to plan a lesson

Because I have the experience about designing simple lesson plans for 7^th grade students in Jheng De Junior High School, it is not very difficult for me to do this. I can roughly grasp the tips to plan a lesson with several practices. However, I find a Chinese version lesson plan is quite different from the English one. Especially, after I read the chapter talking about planning a lesson, I realized that there are many parts which I never think of greatly being emphasized.

First, I may easily express the idea clearly in Chinese, but in English, I would make some mistakes in instructions. I think it is easy to comprehend in Chinese, but when it translates into English, it might be complicated. Second, the lesson plan is not only for the teacher, but for the observer. Thus, I have to be more careful about how to explain the steps and every task I want the class to achieve. Sometimes, I would write much more details in an activity, while some steps are not being understood. Third, it is very important to predict the situations might happen during the class. The level of students, the variety of activities and time management are somehow influencing the procedures progressing. Even though the plan might look so perfect and interesting, it might lead to confusion or chaos due to the incoherence and difficulty.

When I designed my lesson plan in the class, the most challenging thing is that I hardly thought of any interesting activity to attract students’ attention. So, after I returned home and did some research, I would get some useful ideas. Maybe I should be more creative, and stimulate more inspiration so that I won’t always feel my plans are so boring at all.

reading experience

Actually, as a student, reading sometimes needs to take time to make notes and organize the structure. What teachers need to do at the pre-reading is to make a brief introduction, by showing pictures or asking some questions, so that the topic would attract student’s attention. In the past, when my teacher teaches reading, they didn’t do a very good demonstration at warm-up. So, I am unwilling to spend my time to read articles or passages which I was not interested.

     In fact, I don’t like to read a long paragraph or essay, that’s because I forget easily what I have already read in couple minutes. Due to this reason, I must spend more time reading again and again. So, I think learning the reading skills would lead to good reading habit. Drawing the mind map during the reading reduces some time, and it is helpful and convenient when reviewing. But for high school students, they might need teachers’ help to do this step. In the class, if we could use this method to let student fill in the blanks on the mind map, they can see more clearly and well-organized.

     I always consider that reading is the most direct way that students could learn further by themselves. By reading, they can learn new words, grammar, and sentence pattern and so on. However, it also depends on the students’ patience and the topic of the materials. To be concrete, if I could combine the textbook and student’s life experience together, I think student might take a more positive attitude toward reading.