TESL 170 - Integrated Lesson Plan

Integrated Skills 
1.5 hour
Intermediate 2A
Students:   15 

Today was my first day of teaching. The classroom assigned to me was an Advanced 2A in the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR). This is an integrated class, and they meet every morning from 9:00 am to 12:00 pm. In agreement with the teacher, I decided to do only half of the lesson to start my teaching hours. The students' topic for this week is Canadian Words. They normally begin the class with the word and phrasal verb of the day.
My lesson was covering the word toque for the word of the day, and the phrasal verbs go back and come back. I think I prepared myself well enough for this lesson, but I was feeling very nervous that I even forgot to follow my written lesson plan. My writing on the whiteboard was terrible. I didn't have a sense of space on how to organize the information for the students so they could have a better understanding.
Another thing that I was not aware of is how important it is the of use different colour markers when writing on the whiteboard. The students like that, and they asked me to do it for them. I found this to be valuable for me to know in the future. I cannot believe how many things were going in my mind when I was teaching during this short length of time. I kept looking at my written lesson so I wouldn't mess up on the transition from one activity to the other. My number one goal for this lesson was to deliver it clearly and concisely.
In my opinion, it was a great start. I received compliments from the sponsor teacher as well as some areas that I need to develop more like watching the time I spend in explaining things and keeping the context to a minimum and not explaining one word and all the different meanings that it might have.
One last thing I would like to mention and comment on is the way these students interact with each other in this class. This is because they are together since they began their program. As for the classes in the afternoons, which are the classes I'll be teaching, the students are different all the time. The groups very as the school is consistently doing new intakes for these classes. That will be something different for me, but I am looking forward to it.

Please click  HERE for the lesson plan. 

TESL 170 - Skill-Based Lesson Plan

Reading  

2 hours
Level: Advanced 2A (B2-C1)  
Students: 14

My second day of teaching went pretty well. I felt a bit more confident than last time. For this class, I had to create a skill-based lesson on reading. The positive side of this lesson was that the classroom teacher provided me with the materials I needed to cover in this class.
The lessons consisted of creating a worksheet (template provided by the classroom teacher), and the reading of an article which was part of the students' workbook already.
When I began to create the worksheet, I knew that I had to follow the same format as the classroom teacher. A list of new vocabulary words, idioms, and phrasal verbs had to be listed on this activity sheet along with their classifications (noun, adj, adv, verb, etc), and their meanings. In addition to this, there were two other sections, the fill in the blank and a set of sentences that were used for their conversation activity. I spent hours creating this activity sheet. I didn't think it was going to be that hard, but I guess my problem was in trying to find a simple way for the definitions. Although I got the definitions from the dictionary, sometimes you get more than one meaning, and that's when you get confused.
That was one of the observations of the classroom teacher for me. I was getting out of context when explaining an idiom. She suggested that it was better to stick to the context because you can easily confuse the students if you don't.
Another point that I have to keep in mind is that I have to allow the students to figure out things on their own. I cannot give everything to them because otherwise, they'll have no questions for me.

In overall, I think my lesson went well. I know that time will give the experience that I need so I can improve in those areas where I'm weak. I know I'll get there eventually.

Click here for this Lesson Plan, worksheet, and article used for this lesson.

TESL 170 - Skilled-Based Lesson Plan

Listening
2 hours
Level: Intermediate 1 (A2/B1) 
Students: 12

Today, I taught my first listening lesson in an Intermediate 1 (A2/B1) level classroom. Because this was a much lower-level class compared to the other two that I had already taught, I knew that my speaking rate needed to be adjusted a little bit. 

I had prepared a lesson about gardening for this class, and the first activity that I needed to do was the dictation of a small paragraph about gardening.

When I began with my dictation, I didn't read the sentences in a way the students could hear and retain a reasonable length of the sentence for them to write it. My pauses were too close to each other, and this confused the students with the fluency of the sentence. They were not able to retain the string of words in the sentence because I was not reading a proper length of the sentence. I feel that  I should've practiced the dictation at home before giving it to the class. Now I know that I cannot take for granted any activity that I plan for my students. Every little thing is an important part of the whole entire lesson, and it makes a difference in the performance of the students.

Another important point that I would like to highlight is the fact that students at lower levels benefit not only from having the teacher to give short instructions but to have the teacher write those instructions on the whiteboard as well. This is something I didn't know until the classroom teacher mentioned it to me. I will keep this one in mind in the future for sure.

Please, see the full lesson with worksheets below.

Listening Lesson

TESL 170 - Skill-Based Lesson Plan

Writing

2 hours
Level: Intermediate 2 (B1)  
Students: 10

Well, things didn't go the way I had planned.

I'm going to tell you how something so small can actually affect the rest of your day. In my case, it was the photocopy machine. Yep, that's it. Since I started my practicum, I have been trying to get to school earlier, so I can connect with the classroom teacher and do the photocopying for my lessons. But today, things went from bad to worse! 

I waited for about 20 to finally do my copies for the lesson that I was about to give. My lesson starts at 1:00 pm and It was 1:00 o'clock already and I was still waiting for the machine to stop photocopying jobs that were coming in from other teachers. I was so frustrated and so worried that I was not ready for my lesson and I kept saying to myself, "I should've done the photocopying yesterday"! I was so mad at myself for that.

I guess the classroom teacher somehow saw me in the photocopy room and offered some help - thank God she did. So, as she could clearly see that I was so behind on my task, she told me that she was going to go upstairs and entertain the students until I got there. Finally, I arrived in the classroom 12 minutes past 1:00. From here, everything went downhill. My timing for all my activities was terrible. I rushed the students at some of them, and I found myself really behind when I had to correct the students' writing. My mind was really thinking about what caused my reason for falling behind. I should've stopped and adjusted my lesson to the time that I had left; by the time the class was over, I put my head down into disappointment and told the classroom teacher that I felt like if I didn't accomplish anything. I felt so awful for the rest of the day. I couldn't stop thinking about it, especially when I knew that I could've done something about it, but I let the frustration take over me, and that's what didn't let me reassess the situation.

Oh well, I guess this happens to everyone who's in the teaching field or any field for that matter. We are not 100 % perfect, and it is okay to experience this kind of situations. It's part of our learning.

Click here for the full Writing Lesson Plan

TESL 170 - Skill-Based Lesson Plan

Speaking    

2 hours
Level: Advanced 1 (B2)  
Students: 14

My speaking class went so well today!

I was really happy with how everything went. Of course, there were a few things that I had to find alternatives for, but I can't complain. I felt satisfied at the end of the lesson, which wasn't the case the day before.

This class had about 19 students. The largest class so far.

When I was creating the lesson for this class, I had to keep in mind the amount of time I needed to give the students for their conversation activity. Another point that the classroom teacher made me aware of was to think about those students enrolled in the Pathway Program. These students are required to have a score at the end of every class. So, I had to reassess the timing of my lesson. If I had 13 students in the Pathway Program (P), how much time did I need to spend with each student, and what areas should I come up with to assess them on?

In collaboration with the classroom teacher, we decided to assess all P students in four different areas. Each of us asked each P student 2 questions related to the questions given as part of their conversation activity. The classroom teacher did all the odd questions, and I did all even questions. Each of us gave the students a score of up to 100% on each section and then divided the total score by five. This gave us the final score for each student at the end of the class.

Please see the chart below for better understanding.

Speaking Class

Pathway Program Students	Partici- pation	Jenny Q1	Jenny Q2	T Q1	T Q2	Final score
1.    A	not	present
2.    B	100	98	98	90	100	97.2
3.  C	100	93	93	90	95	94.2
4.  D	100	88	88	90	90	91.2
5.   E	100	87	87	100	100	94.8
6.   F	100	98	98	100	100	99.2
7.  G	100	97	97	100	100	98.8
8.   H	100	99	99	100	95	98.6
9.  I	100	96	96	95	93	96
10.K	100	100	100	100	100	100
11.L	100	98	99	100	100	99.5
12. M	100	88	88	100	87	92.6
13. N	100	89	87	90	88	90.8

To end my lesson, I had the students play "He said, She said". In this game, the students had to pass on a message to the person next to them and use the phrase "he/she said that...". The students had so much fun doing this, especially those students who had to go through over 10 people with "he/she said that"!  It was so much fun! We all left the classroom with a happy smile on our faces.

Please see the links below regarding this lesson.

Speaking lesson plan here

Idioms used for this lesson here

Notes from the classroom teacher

Hi Jenny,

Great job. You managed a big group of students well and covered a lot of material!

Attached is the observation form and below are some additional comments.

Observation: July 18 (2 hrs)

Level: Advanced 1 (B2) - Speaking
Done well:

• You made a list of the students in the class
• You gave them an overview of the lesson
• You wrote the target vocabulary on the board
• You got all the students involved in reading the dialogue
• You practiced pronunciation and reminded students about linking (snap up), different -ed sounds (marked), and the flap sound /ɾ/ (hitting).
• Good job getting students to guess the meaning from context
• Great timing! You got through a lot of material in a short time.
• They were all taking notes. They valued what you were teaching.
• Well done with assessing the Pathway Program students and giving them speaking scores 

 Areas to grow:

• Make sure the writing on the board is a good size for the students farthest away to see
• Make sure to write the meanings for all the idioms. The students always want to see the meaning.
• When asking students to guess meaning from context, make another example out loud to help them guess
• Put the idioms in the same order in the conversation questions as in the story so students can check the meanings faster

This was a well-managed lesson, and the students sure enjoyed your game at the end of class! 

TESL 170 - Reading Lesson 2

Reading   

1 hour
Level: Advanced 2A (B2-C1)  
Students: 18

It feels so good to finish with my practicum hours! ... and I think things went pretty good, except for a listening activity that I had planned as part of this lesson which I'll tell you about it as I go along with my reflection.

This was the second time I taught this class, and because of that, I already had a pretty good idea of the routine and expectations of the students. Last week my supervisor teacher came to observe the first hour of this class. I didn't want to start the class the same way I did then, so I decided to make a change in the routine. I had the students start the lesson backwards. Read first and then learn the vocabulary. I have to admit, making this change made me a bit nervous because I was afraid to confuse the students by having them read first without prior knowledge of the new vocabulary. I'm glad this part went well, though. I was able to quickly explain the new vocabulary as we read along with the article.

For the listening activity, the students were to fill in the blanks from a report given about the environment. As I was not able to access the link for this recording, I decided to use the CD that came with the students' workbook instead. Note, I had not heard the recording on the CD either, and still, I decided to play it for the students. So, when I played the recording, the students were not able to follow what they were listening to what they were reading. The recording was quite different. It had a lot of paraphrasing in it. I played the recording multiple times for the students and for me too. It was hard to understand. I knew right there that I had chosen wrong. I should've gone with my filler activity instead. I think that would've gone better.

At the end of the activity, we as a class ended up resolving the answers for this activity. I thank the students for being great about the whole thing. I don't think I'll ever present a material that I do not know to my students. Either you are 100 % sure about your lesson or not.


Please click here to see the full lesson plan.

Click on the Article used for this lesson.

TESL 160 Transitioning to the Classroom

Assignment # 3: Share a 500-word report about a situation when a cultural misunderstanding or disconnect created an obstacle to learning in the classroom.

The following report is based on a true incident that happened in an ESL classroom.

Jenny Carmona

TESL 160 – Transitioning to The Classroom

Assignment # 3: Community Task

Context and Challenge Multi-level classroom with CLB levels ranging between 1- 4 in a government-funded program in an elementary School – Community Based EAL classes with childcare. The classroom consisted of 18 students from various cultural backgrounds. Most of the students were CLB 4. The Challenge: An incident happened between two cultural groups; Iraqi and Indian female students. The teacher tells that all her female students got along really well in the classroom, but the unfortunate incident was due to a cultural and custom belief. During the break, on a regular class day, two Iraqi women "accosted" an Indian lady without being hostile or anything. The two Iraqi women grabbed the Indian woman’s belly area and proceeded to tell her, "You are SOOO.... fat!"   The Indian woman began to cry, which sent the Iraqi women into confusion, and the whole class was in an uproar. *According to the Indian female student, in the Indian culture, grabbing parts of a woman’s belly or saying such remark, is taken “very offensively.”   When the teacher realized there was a problem and moved towards the situation, the two Iraqi women tried to explain that they did not mean to offend the Indian lady and that in the Iraqi culture that gesture and remark is a good thing. Suggestion and Rationale In my opinion, the incident is significantly important to be addressed right away.  My suggestion would be to stop the lesson for a moment and talk about the differences in cultures and the real intentions behind the Iraqi women, which was what the ESL teacher did. Brown and Lee in Teaching by Principles, pp 295 -296, list two principles: Unplanned Teaching and Teaching Under Adverse Circumstances. Both of these principles call for the teachers’ judgment and decision to make changes in their lessons. I truly believe that this situation calls for a teachable moment in the classroom, and also the incident could be used as a platform to teach further about the differences between cultures and practices in Canada - what’s considered appropriate and inappropriate? Another essential factor to consider in a situation like this is that the role of the teacher is to keep her opinions and points of view to him/herself and be as neutral as possible. The teacher is there to serve as a mediator and transmit fairness and make his/her students feel valuable and respected.

References:

-       D. P., EAL Instructor, Newcomer Reception Facilitator, RETSD.

-       Brown, D. & Lee, H. (2015). Teaching by Principles: An Interactive Approach to Language Pedagogy (4th ed). 

-       Susan Verner, Busy Teacher, Classroom Conflicts, How to Smooth Over a Cultural Clash, Retrieved from https://busyteacher.org/5972-classroom-conflicts-how-to-smooth-over-cultural.html

-        Blurred Lines: Cross-Cultural Communication Tips For The ESL Classroom https://www.fluentu.com/blog/educator-english/communication-in-the-language-classroom/

-       6 Ways Teachers Can Foster Cultural Awareness In The Classroom https://www.huffpost.com/entry/6-ways-teachers-can-foste_b_6294328