Category: Teaching Reflections

On June 30, I taught Hilda’s hour-long Conversation Club. I chose the topic of food and built my presentation around that. I thought the lesson went well with many of the students participating and offering input into their thoughts on food. Some students were more reluctant to participate, so I found I had to begin calling on some about halfway through the lesson. While this is something I have struggled with wanting to do in my lessons, I noticed that I was more comfortable doing so this time and felt like it was part of the process and something I was doing for the students rather than to them. When speaking to my teacher observer after the lesson, she mentioned that she was concerned that not all students would be speaking but recognized that I noticed that as well about halfway through the lesson when I started calling on students individually.

The conversation with the students was very insightful, and I was able to broaden my own understanding and perspective about food in various cultures. It was interesting to hear students speak about how foods that are culturally traditional to their countries are made differently in other countries compared to somewhere else in the world. One student said she missed the sushi back home and described how it is made and eaten differently in Canada. Another student from Mexico then spoke up to talk about how sushi is made in her country. I had my own “aha” moment when I realized that traditionally cultural foods are introduced into different cultures in a way that makes them customary to those new places. At the very least, this lesson challenged my own individual view in that not only is sushi made in Canada not authentic sushi in Japan, but Mexico also has sushi!

I really enjoyed this lesson as not only was it more relaxed than an academic class, but it allowed the students to speak more freely about themselves and their own experiences. This sharing is great practice speaking English, but it also allows for more sharing of cultures. I love that I can learn about the students and where they are from. They seem to be open to sharing as well and making connections between cultures. I look forward to another Conversation Club lesson next week!

On June 21, I taught my final debate lesson for the second half of Jason’s two-hour long ESAL 0350/0450 Advanced Oral Communication class.

For this lesson I began with a short breakout room for the students to share with each other the information they had found that was their Northern Canada in January homework from the previous lesson. I did not check in on the breakout rooms nor ask the students to share their information when back in the room. When talking to my teacher observer after the class, I realized this choice was a mistake I made. I explained that the activity was meant to be brief and a way for the students to show that they had done their homework. I felt afterward that my thinking had been limited or nearsighted, especially in not allowing the students to share what they found out about Canada. I made my choice on my own presumption that the students would come back with the same information that summed up Canada as being cold. Some students may have found something different and might have wanted to share. What I could have done was offered the opportunity for sharing; this still could have kept the activity brief but allowed for the students to demonstrate their knowledge. My takeaway from this is to not let my own presumptions influence the student’s chance to share and to always at least open the floor to create the opportunity to do so.

The students during this class were quiet, and this made part of the lesson difficult, particularly the end when I asked the students to share some thoughts about something they liked, learned or hoped to have learned about during the three debate club lessons. None of the students volunteered feedback. I tried calling on students individually to share, but my request was met with silence, even from the students that normally are the first to take the opportunity to speak. I was left with no feedback from the students about the strengths or weaknesses of the lessons and had to accept that I would have to rely on my teacher observer’s notes and my own self-awareness.

My teacher observer was the same for this lesson as my first. I tried to remember what she said about slowing down my rate of speech while I was teaching and asked her after the lesson how I had done in this area. She said there were a couple times she noticed I started speaking quickly and then slowed down, but overall, the rest was better. I took her comments as a win!

On June 14, I was able to teach my second Debate Club lesson for the first half of Jason’s ESAL 0350/0450 Advanced Oral Communication class. For this lesson, I built up from the previous class and made sure to include more advanced language that I felt was more appropriate for the student’s level. The students surprised me again by demonstrating their knowledge of English adjectives and synonyms. This part of the lesson went by quickly, and I wished I had something else to extend the adjective section as I was not able to think on my feet to adapt the lesson and be able to focus more on the adjectives. Maybe the fact that the students did so well meant that they were ready to move on anyway?

The activities went well, but I found I struggled again with pacing as one of the end group work activities had to be done as a whole to save on the time it would have taken to do them both in breakout rooms as two separate events. The students were very talkative during the activities. I thought this was great as it meant I did not have to call on any students by name to share.

The lesson went as planned, other than not having time for both activities in small groups, but I felt disappointed after this time. I had some struggles with technology and felt that although the students were great participants in discussions, the lesson was more teacher fronted than I had wanted it to be. I thought I still spoke too much and will continue to work on this in my future lessons.

On June 7, I began my first teaching lesson for the second half of Jason’s two-hour long ESAL 0350/0450 Advanced Oral Communication class. Though I had previously done some very brief lessons in my other TESL classes, this was the first one that I taught for an extended period and for ESL students. I was nervous going into the lesson as I had not previously had any experience teaching ESL students and did not know what to expect.

After some discussion with Jason about topic ideas, I decided to incorporate debates into three lessons with each one building on the next; I called these lessons “Debate Club”. My first one focused mostly on practicing giving opinions and agreeing or disagreeing with other’s opinions. Having completed the practice and activity around this part of the lesson, I was able to reflect and realize that the students were more advanced in their language skills in this area than I had anticipated. There was also too much focus on practicing the phrases associated with opinions, agreements and disagreements which took away from the other part of the lesson where the students were able to compare two items and decide the one they preferred, then explain why they preferred it. After speaking to my teacher observer after my lesson, I realized that I had not paced my lesson as well as I could have and will have to plan for a more balanced lesson next time.

My teacher observer also shared with me that my rate of speech was too quick for the students. I do know that I speak faster when I am nervous and tend to speak more frequently as well. I remembered that some students did have to ask me to repeat some things I said, so I will try to be more conscious of this going forward in my next lessons. Smiling, or lack of, is also something I struggle with when I am nervous, so I asked my teacher observer if I had smiled enough. She said at the beginning I was not but began to more as she could see I became more comfortable with the group and the lesson. This will be something else for me to be more conscious of.

Overall, I felt that this was a good first lesson. I had some obstacles to overcome but felt that when I did, the lesson went more smoothly. I was able to take a lot away from this experience and will be sure to use the feedback to build into my next lesson.