Category: Observation Reflections

On May 26, I was able to observe Hilda’s ESAL 0320/0420 Advanced Grammar class. I appreciated being able to see this class as it was a continuation from the first adjective clause lesson from the week before where I had only been able to see the first half and wondered if the students had more practice during the half that I was not able to see. It was especially beneficial because I was able to witness how Hilda took the comments of the students from the previous class and adapted her lesson to ensure they got the extra information and practice that they were needing. The practice made a difference as the students were able to demonstrate a better understanding of the clauses.

As a leader of one of the breakout rooms, I was able to help the students to combine the sentences into one sentence joined by an adjective clause. I found I was a bit anxious completing this task. When I was able to think about where that feeling was coming from, I realized that it stems from an insecurity I have around my own grammar knowledge and having to explain things, especially something like grammar. Without having had the chance to review the grammar myself first, I was not feeling confident that I was giving the students the right information. When one of the students was not sure why one of the other “wh” words was not used instead, I explained the reason. The student said they understood, but I was left wondering if they said that to just make me think that was the case so we could move onto the next one. I sometimes worry that I am not clear when explaining something, and then in an effort to reexplain it a different way, feel that I have made things worse. After we joined back together, Hilda and the groups went over each sentence, and we were able to see how the sentences were to be combined. I had a moment of relief after each sentence was gone over as I realized I had not misguided the students in my group. I have some reassurance in knowing that when I am teaching, I am able to preview the material first; knowledge and practice will help me with my confidence and ability to explain clearly to the students.

I enjoyed the strategies that Hilda incorporated into her lesson plan as well with the creation of their own adjective clauses and picking out the adjective clauses from the movie trailer clip. As I was participating in these activities, I was thinking about how I could incorporate the same idea into my own lesson plans as a teacher. Being able to participate gave me the perspective of a student completing the task. I found that as a native English speaker, I was only able to complete part of the movie clip task of finding the three adjective clauses that were mentioned in it. I wondered the difficulty that this posed for the ESAL students, especially the ones in the 0300 level. If I were to use this activity in my own lesson, I would find a clip that had the subtitles written so that the students would be able to place more focus on finding the clauses than deciphering the language as they would also be written on the screen.

I really enjoyed being part of Hilda’s lesson today. I was able to participate in some fun activities that I look forward to using in my own lessons, and I was able to confront some of my own feelings and insecurities as a student and teacher.

On May 26, I was able to observe Hilda’s Conversation Club (CC). I had a couple of learning opportunities during this lesson and was able to reflect on my own teaching style. My first opportunity came when Hilda was having technical difficulties and asked me to take over leading the discussion. Maybe I did not have time to become alarmed or anxious, but I found that I was able to calmly begin the discussion and provide my own example as I felt Hilda might have done similarly. This was a good opportunity as adaptions sometimes have to be made in a lesson, and there is no time to become worried about it.

The second learning opportunity I had was in my choice to ask for volunteers to discuss their own friendships. No one did volunteer, and I found I had to call on students in order to begin a discussion. Whether or not students should be called on has been a topic of discussion in my other TESL classes and something that I still struggle with. As someone that does not always like to be called upon, I can easily understand the apprehension that others face as well when they know the possibility is looming. I like to give people the opportunity to make their own choice to speak, but I can also appreciate that waiting for a volunteer is not always feasible.

Once the lesson was over, I had the chance to have a brief conversation with Hilda about the lesson. I mentioned to her my choice to ask for student volunteers to speak and asked her if her choice to directly call on students is because that is her approach or due to the time constraint of having a shortened class. She explained that more often than not students, especially international students, will not volunteer, so it is easier to call on them. I would think that with time, students would begin to expect this from their teacher if calling on individual students became the norm for the class. Hilda also does it in a way that is smooth and does not draw additional attention to one student being singled out. She incorporates their name into the sentence, so it feels like the student being called on was part of the lesson all along.

Part of this struggle and learning for me may also come from my own cultural and societal norms where choice is so strongly valued. Just as allowing people the freedom and choice to voice their opinion or not may culturally be where I am coming from, it might be the case that the students are also coming from their own cultural and societal traditions and norms in which they do not speak unless someone directs them to. I think learning more about cultural norms in this area may help me to look past my own beliefs and find a way to engage the students in ways that are culturally appropriate for them. After reflecting about the dilemma of whether to call on students or not, I think I will continue to provide students with the choice to share independently. I will make sure that the moment is brief before I call on students by name to share. While some students may volunteer, I know I will also have to be aware that it is not the same students that are regularly speaking first. In many cases, calling on students may be inevitable, and I can only hope to be able to do so in a way like Hilda demonstrated during her lesson.

On May 26, I was able to observe Jason’s ESAL 0350/0450 Advanced Oral Communication class. This was a shorter class with the second half being contributed to the CC.

During this lesson, a big part of my focus was to change my approach in the breakout rooms and observe what happened. After the last lesson I saw during this class in which I took a leading role in the breakout rooms, I thought further about my frustrations during this time and wondered if my automatic takeover of the role of leader had anything to do with the students then taking a backseat role during the activities.

I knew the expectation I was going into the breakout rooms with this time, and I think this helped set the tone for myself. During the three breakout room activities, I never went in with the intent to lead, and one student in both of the first two breakout room activities each began leading the group right from the start. Whether or not these leading students were in the 0400 level, had leadership qualities or cultural norms to speak up, I had not confirmed, but it showed me either way that the students can and will participate and ensure the rest of the group is participating as well when given the opportunity.

During the third breakout room activity, I went in with the same plan as the first two to give the students the opportunity to initiate discussion first. I waited a bit of time, but in this case none of the students took a leadership role. I began to read the questions to be answered out loud when I realized that some of the photocopied words were a bit blurry. When I did this then the students were able to provide the answers to the questions.

While I have learned that I do not need to assume a leadership role and that it is important that the students be given the chance to do so, I am still not sure if the students in breakout rooms do not speak because they are unsure of something. In the case with the sentences in the third breakout room activity, none of the students had said they could not read the words in the sentence, and they were all able to provide the answers. This makes it difficult to determine the reasoning for the students to not have engaged in discussion before I initiated them to do so. It also makes me still wonder what would have happened had I not been there and the students were left on their own to answer the questions. Would they have eventually tried or waited for the time to be up?

Not only did this lesson still provide me with insight into the interactions of the ESAL students with each other in group work, but it also allowed me to test my approach about my own interactions with the students and see if the way that I come into the group affects the way that they also come into the group. I still have a lot to learn and, with the ever-changing dynamics of various personalities and cultures involved in the groups, will continue to learn and have to adapt my approach and teaching to understand how I can best work with the students to become a teacher that supports them so they can demonstrate their knowledge and abilities by participating and sharing in group work and discussions. At the very least, I have learned to give the students the chance to show that that they can lead and how to begin to support them to do so.

On May 19, I was able to observe Hilda’s hour-long Conversation Club (CC) class as part of the ESAL 0350/0450 Advanced Oral Communication class.

I really enjoyed the first activity that Hilda presented in which the students learned about an artist and were then able to apply a concept around that artist to their own lives. For example, the students learned about one artist that only painted scenes from their personal life. The students then got to share what scene they would have wanted painted from their own life. I thought this was an engaging way to not only present a learning component to the lesson but also use it as a prompt to encourage the students to share about themselves and contribute to the discussion. The atmosphere of the class was fun and light, and I look forward to incorporating a similar idea into my own teaching.

              Hilda also tried a Jeopardy game as an activity during the class. I was curious to see her approach to teaching this game as it was an activity that I had also tried in one of my lessons I taught to my classmates in a previous course. I had not been successful in this activity but learned of many different changes that I could implement to make it better in the future. I did not have the opportunity to talk to Hilda about the activity and am not sure if this is a game that she has played before with students. The students in this class struggled with the questions and having to work as a team. It was beneficial to see these struggles and how Hilda adapted the game to help the students. The first adaptation came when groups had to be remade because some did not remember the number of their breakout room. I think this made it more difficult because the students would have had a better memory of who was on their team if it had been made up of the students they had just worked with in the breakout rooms. Without having the familiarity of their group and the group names not being written down anywhere, it appeared to be difficult for the student to communicate with each other to answer the questions. Hilda chose a student to be the team leader and encourage their teammates to discuss the answer, but there was still silence. There was no time left in the class to create breakout rooms for discussion, but I thought this would have been a way for the students to take time to work together and find an answer.

Next, when the first question was too difficult, Hilda provided three possible answers. This change enabled the team to answer the question. The question was not written down anywhere, which I think would have helped the students, but I really liked how Hilda gave the students the choices for the answer. I thought this was helpful for the students and allowed the game to progress more smoothly. The questions had not been based on any prior teaching, so I thought that this was a good way to help the students answer the questions if they did not have any knowledge about what the answer could be.

This lesson observation helped me to learn about new teaching ideas that I can use in my own lessons. It also enabled me to see an activity that I had once struggled with carried out and how adaptations were made along the way to make the game more successful. Seeing this not only confirmed some of the changes I knew I would have to make if I used this game again, but it also showed me other adaptations I can make that I had not considered before, like the three choices. This lesson was beneficial as not all teaching plans will run as we hope they will, and it was good to see how another teacher embraces the challenges and makes them work.

On May 19, I was able to participate in and observe Jason’s hour long ESAL 0350/0450 Advanced Oral Communication class.

In the breakout rooms, I had a difficult time getting the students in my group to participate and contribute to answering the questions. One of the activities involved answering “always”, “sometimes” and “never” to statements about sleep, and the other activity involved identifying antonyms; students were required to determine the word that was different from the one provided in a sentence. Without remembering which of the students are in the 0300 and 0400, I was not sure if I had predominantly lower-level students in my group. During both activities, I had one student that was able to provide input but found that the rest of the students struggled with understanding the sentences.

Although my difficulties let to some frustrations, I was able to realize that seeing and being part of this lesson challenged me as a teacher. I recognized that many, or maybe even all, of my students will not be advanced in their language learning, and I will have to constantly work with students that need repetition, rephrasing and a multitude of other forms of teaching to help them learn and understand. I think what will help me is to always have the expectation of needing to help the students with their understanding no matter what level they are at. As an Education Assistant (EA), assisting students in their education and through struggles that accompany learning is my job. I have as much patience as I need to help the students to be successful. Looking at the situation with the students in Jason’s class, I think I was not appreciating the level of these students, and that although the class is for advanced students, it is a mixed level class with many students not at the same advanced level. My expectations may have been too high for the students, whereas in working with my students as an EA, I am more familiar with them and their level, and I adjust my expectations accordingly.

After some internal reflection, I also thought about the lack of participation and output for most of the group members I had and wondered how as a virtual teacher to ensure that the students are fulfilling a task when they are no longer visible. In breakout rooms through Big Blue Button, the teacher can join each of the rooms to hear and see what is happening, but I still wondered if there are times when no progress is made without the group having a clear leader or all of the students not understanding and not participating. Jason regularly asks the students if they have any questions, but his question to them is often met with silence. I have noticed in my observations of the various teachers that while there are some students that ask for clarity, most do not. I wondered how many proceed without fully understanding. If this is a case in a breakout room, how many students will quietly pass the time and not ask for clarity? When thinking about how I would combat this issue as a teacher, I think I would join the breakout rooms to check in with the groups and also include time afterward for the whole class to review and share the answer. Not only would this be a way to make sure that the students were completing the task, but it would also help the students that did not understand to hear the answers.

I realize that as a teacher, I have a responsibility to ensure that I am providing the best teaching I can, I am doing my part to engage the students and I am helping them understand, but the students also have a responsibility in their own learning to ask questions when they do not understand and to put in the effort to participate and learn. As mentioned, Jason asks numerous times throughout the class if anyone has any questions after thoroughly explaining a concept or activity. There is no question that Jason demonstrates his responsibility as a teacher, and with time and practice, I hope I too will find the balance of doing what I can to teach the students while also realizing and accepting their role and responsibility as students.

On May 18, I was able observe Evangelitsa’s ESAL 0380/0480 Advanced Writing class. This class took place virtually and was brief with E completing some review from the previous class and outlining homework for this week before dismissing the students.

I had a chance to speak to E at the end of the class and discuss some wonderings I had during her explanation of the writing assignments. She began by explaining that she was not teaching the full two-hour class because it was taking place in the late afternoon; with classes only being able to be taught virtually, not all students are in the same time zone. A late synchronous class can be difficult for students who would normally be sleeping depending on the time zone they are in.

Something that stood out to me, and I was able to ask E about after the class, was E’s reminder of the students to use their own work. I had wondered if students learning English often use technology, like Google translate, to improve their writing and how to avoid this as a teacher. E answered after class that it is difficult to monitor the student’s writing process while they are not in a classroom, so she reminds them frequently of academic honesty and the importance of doing their own work. In a regular classroom where face to face learning can take place, E said that she would provide assignments that require the students to hand write and complete in class. Still, with the technology and access to other student’s work available, E also clarified that it is fairly easy to have an idea of what is the student’s own work and what is not.

E also helped to make it clear that when teaching writing, writing is a process and takes time. Virtually, break out rooms are able to be used for the students to share their writing, and in a classroom, the students are able to pair up to create sentences together and peer edit each other’s work.

I was a bit disappointed that I was not able to see the process of writing being taught by E during this lesson but was still able to see part of a lesson and had a conversation about the class afterward that provided me with a lot of insight.

On May 17, I was able to observe the first hour of Hilda Freimuth’s two-hour ESAL 0320/0420 Advanced Grammar class. This class took place virtually, and Hilda began with a cloze activity, then introduced the topic of adjective clauses. I was able to see how Hilda gradually opened the lesson and had it progress from lesson to practice. Along the way, I was also able to see a hiccup in the practice and Hilda’s improvising as a result.

I really enjoyed watching the warmup cloze activity that led into the lesson for the day. I had the opportunity to do this activity as well when I was a student in my TESL 3010 class, but was not able to witness it from a teacher’s perspective. I like this activity as it maintains engagement because it is something to watch, and the students also have to pay attention to not miss the words to fill the blanks with. The students also have to ensure that the phrases are written down as they are said which helps with grammar practice and sentence structure. With so many different parts of sentences, this type of activity could be used in many instances where grammar and sentence structure are the focus.

The adjective clause grammar lesson appeared to provide a bit more of a challenge with the one student stating that it had gone to quickly and students having difficulty putting the sentences together. In the TESL 3020 Pedagogical Grammar class that I completed, I was able to challenge my preconceived ideas about the simplicity of grammar through the practice of doing it myself and teaching lessons to my classmates. With my classmates already understanding grammar and learning along with me, questions and a lack of understanding were never presented from my classmates about what I was teaching.

The need for clarity from the students in Hilda’s class was a great opportunity to see how a teacher would adapt on the spot to provide more instruction when it was not part of the planned slide presentation. The students appeared to have a better understanding of the steps to create the clause phrase after having a few more examples, but difficulty was present again when they had to take the completed complex sentence and dismantle them into the simple sentences. Because I was not able to observe the second half of the lesson, I am not sure if Hilda brought attention back to the adjective clauses and what that looked like in the learning environment.

Without having the knowledge of how Hilda proceeded for the second half of the lesson, this observation showed me that I need to have other ideas to implement should my own students have questions or present difficulty with a concept. Although the students are at an advanced level, there is still a discrepancy between the level of ability between them; plus, grammar is hard! In my own lessons, I will try to remember to maintain a slow enough pace that the students do not feel overwhelmed and scaffold the lesson so that there is enough explanation and examples at the beginning and enough practice to go along with it.

On May 17, I was able to observe Jason Brown’s two-hour ESAL 0350/0450 Advanced Oral Communication class. Although the class was longer in time, I thought that Jason paced the class well and kept it interesting so that the time seemed to pass quickly. I was also able to participate in some of the group breakout room activities, which provided me with a lot of interesting observations.

One thing I had not anticipated in my prior TESL classes about teaching a group of students from various cultures and backgrounds was having the students work together on a project. I had been more focused on how I would interact with these students and teach them that I had not taken into account that they would also be interacting with each other. The breakout room conversation when having to choose a topic for the group presentation allowed me to have some significant insight into the process of students working together and trying to communicate with each other using a shared language that is not the first language for any of them. English was their only connection, but that connection was sometimes weak depending on the advancement of the student’s language level and how assertive each was in communicating their thoughts.

It was interesting to see the influence cultural societal norms have in the role that students take, and I felt like this was true in the breakout room that I was able to be part of. Some students appeared more reserved or not as willing to share, and I wondered if the cultural norms from the Asian countries they were from, for example, China, played a role in the amount that they verbally contributed to the discussions.

This lesson was engaging and had the students working together. I appreciated being able to see how the conversations unfolded and the students worked together to complete their task. Becoming more aware of the dynamics in the group and seeing how the students interact with each other will help me to be more aware going forward and witnessing the challenges and successes that non native English speakers have in negotiating the English language together.

On May 12, I was able to participate in and observe Hilda’s hour-long Conversation Club (CC) class as part of the ESAL 0350/0450 Advanced Oral Communication class. It was a great opportunity to see a different style of teaching in an environment that I found to be quite laid back. There were even some things that came up that enabled me to notice and reflect on my reaction to those events, as well question what I would do in those situations.

Right from the start there was a problem with the internet at TRU and Hilda was having difficulty connecting to the group. I found myself to be getting anxious and wondering if there was somewhere else I was supposed to be or some information that I had missed getting about a time change. One of my fellow classmates was also in the Big Blue Button room with me waiting for it to begin. Soon after the class was scheduled to start, another teacher joined the group to explain what was happening and that some students would be joining from his class to participate in the group. I noticed that I instantly relaxed and was able to make note of the communication between the two teachers and how they were able to problem solve the issue of no internet connection to ensure that the class still ran as planned. I wondered how often this issue arises with the constant use of technology that we have now found ourselves in. I would like to find out more information if there is a backup plan for a problem where the teacher is not able to join the group and if the two teachers knew to contact each other to carry out the alternative plan of one teacher leading the group until the other could join.

My biggest learning experience in this group was when the other teacher asked my classmate and myself to lead the group, particularly in trying to get the students to turn on their mics and videos. I spoke first to tell the students it would be nice to see them and asked them to turn on their videos. No one obliged, but at that time Hilda joined the group. The other teacher turned on his video to tell the students to also turn on their videos. One by one the students began to do so. I realized that the teacher had been much firmer in his wording, and my wording and tone may have sounded like it was more of an option. I was able to reflect on this difference in our approach to the same request and realized that I may need to take a more assertive stance in a case like this where the students are not complying. Without really knowing the dynamics of a conversation club or the students involved, I was not sure how far to push the request or what the expectations were of myself as a facilitator. I wondered if the issue of noncompliance comes up in other situations and what the role of the instructor is in that, particularly when interacting with international students in a virtual setting. As an Education Assistant (EA), I find that I am more comfortable making a request of a student when face-to-face and when I am more familiar with the student. Without knowing a student or their background information, I find I am more hesitant to push something further. I still wondered what would have happened had a student refused to turn on their video and what would have happened if this situation was in a face-to-face classroom.

Another wondering I had was where the balance lays in allowing a natural conversation to flow and sticking with the learning plan outline. I found during one part of a conversation, one of the students was speaking about her traditions around the Lunar New Year. She had generally asked the rest of the students about their Lunar New Year, and, after everyone remained silent, Hilda said that no one celebrated it. The student went on to explain her traditions, and I wanted to ask the rest of the group what their own New Year’s traditions were and if they fall at different times of the year. I held back as I was unsure about taking up time and infringing on Hilda’s plan for the rest of the class. I was also unsure how much of my own curiosities as a teacher are able to influence the direction of a class.

Overall, I thought the CC was a great first class to observe. The energy that Hilda brought was fun and engaging. She was open and never held back when asking for her own clarity around what one of the students was speaking about. The students appeared to become more willing to share as the class progressed, and I really enjoyed seeing how the students had connections to something else someone was saying and were able to share their own thoughts. This was definitely a great class to share cultures and traditions and very quickly learn about other people around the world. I look forward to more of these classes and what else I can learn about as a teacher and as an individual with my own cultural identity.