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

Here are some of the comments from my sponsor teacher.

Hi Jenny,

Congratulations on another well done class! 

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

Observation: July 16 (2 hrs)

Level: Intermediate 1 (A2/B1) - Listening

Done well:

• You made a detailed lesson plan
• You put an agenda on the board
• You elicited a lot of meanings and ideas from students
• You gave support for difficult vocabulary (clue, community, barn)
• You had a variety of activities to keep students interested
• You made the new class comfortable and they took the risk to share about their gardens and offer answers
• You adjusted your speaking speed for the lower level
• You got students to get up and use the board
• You used both boards to support your lesson

 Areas to grow:

• Lower level students need more board support. Write 'clue' on the board, so they can see how it is spelled. Write  "What is the topic?" so they understand the guessing task better.
• When reading the dictation, say more words before pausing (they have to learn to hold a string of words in their memory) and make sure the pause is at a natural break (you paused inside of thought groups). Here is where you paused:

Community gardens | are places | where people | come together | to grow | vegetables,| herbs,|fruits,| and flowers. | These gardens | are a great idea | for anyone | who is looking | to start | a hobby. | People | who take | part in | community gardens | feel more positive, | healthier, | and happier. | There are a lot | of community gardens | in the city of Winnipeg. | You can be | part of them too.

• Try to give them all the answers, and written is better at this level. For one activity, you wrote answers 1 and 2 on the board, but not 3-5.
• For the activity where they put the parts of the dialogue in order, doing the whole dialogue at once instead of two parts would have been appropriate and a fun challenge
• Include objectives on your lesson plan

You appeared comfortable in your teacher role, and students engaged in the lesson.