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.