Teach English in Weinan Zhen - Tianshui Shi

ITTT Unit 10: Summary For Video Lesson 1 & 2 The Unit 10 Lesson was a very interesting comparison of two classroom settings. The Video Lessons 1 and 2 were very instructional for the reason that one showed how the ESA Lesson ought to be taught and the other one showed exactly the opposite. The videos showing the contrast between the correct way to teach and the incorrect method was done using the same teacher and group of students. The incorrect method was shown in the first and the right way was shown in the second video. For the Unit Task Sheet we were asked the following questions. I think that these questions and answers sum up the Unit 10 quite nicely. ?Task 1 ? Imagine you are the student in the class in the videos. How would you have felt during:? ?Lesson 1?? If I would have been the student in Lesson 1 I would have felt confused, dismayed; as well as, isolated from my classmates and my instructor.? ?Lesson 2?? I would have been the student in Lesson 2 I would have felt encouraged that I was already starting to learn some new information in the first language learning class that I had attended at that level. Moreover, I would have felt connected with the rest of the class and my teacher.? ?Task 2 ? Which lesson was the more effective? Why?? Of course, Lesson 2 was the more effective lesson as ?real learning? was taking place from the very start of the class time?all the way to the end. Along with that, it was easy to notice that there was a sense of ?community? which was beginning to be built even though it was their first class together. The teacher made it fun for the students to explore and to learn the new language points and vocabulary; and, in addition to making the learning enjoyable, he observably tried to make sure that he encouraged each and every individual while at the same time doing his utmost to do get the class as a whole to participate in the lesson. ?Task 3 ? What main differences did you note between lesson one and two in the following areas?? a. ?The teacher?s attitude toward the students:? In lesson one the teacher acted like he really didn?t want to be there. In fact, sometimes he even gave the appearance of being outright annoyed and more or less disgusted with the students. In lesson one he didn?t seem to want to be bothered with trying to become acquainted with his students. He started right into the Study phase of the lesson (rather than the Engage phase) without even so much as introducing himself to the class or finding out the student?s names. At the end of the class he made it very obvious that he was ready to get out of there. In lesson two the teacher made it a point to learn the student?s names right away and then to repeat them often throughout the course of the lesson. He looked and acted like he was truly enjoying teaching and interacting with the class. He worked at making it fun for the students. He was energetic and expressive throughout each phase of the lesson and he looked for ways to compliment the students when they gave the correct answer. When he corrected them he did it in such a way that the student?s do not seem to feel embarrassed about their mistakes. b. ?The student?s attitude toward the teacher:? In lesson one some of the students had a look of consternation on their faces and others looked outright bored or discouraged. They looked like they were quite ready to exit once the class was over. c. ?Student participation:? In lesson one it looked as if the student?s only minimally participated because they knew that this is what was expected of them if they were going to get a passing grade for that class. They obviously struggled with finding a way to join in. The students worked on their assignments individually; rather than in pairs (as they did in Lesson two). Furthermore, they all appeared to be detached from the rest of their classmates and from the teacher. In contrast, in Lesson two the students connected with the teacher (and the teacher with them) from the very get-go; consequently they were eager to participate in each phase of the lesson as much as they could. Additionally, they seemed to be happy to cooperate and to help each other as they worked together in pairs; as well as corporately. d. ?The teacher?s voice (clarity, complexity, speed etc.):? In Lesson one the teacher sometimes mumbles and fumbles around?he gave the impression of being very unsure of himself. He looks fairly nervous for most all of the class time and some things he says don?t even make sense. On the other hand, in Lesson two it is obvious that he knows his subject matter, his voice is vibrant, and he expresses himself in a concise manner and self-confident manner. He enunciates his words very clearly; providing an example for how the students should pronounce the words. He uses a great deal of hand gestures and body language to leave hints for the students to pick up on as they were searching for the correct answers. e. ?The teacher?s instructions and explanations:? In lesson one the teacher himself seems unsure of the direction of the lesson and that lack of certainty is transferred to the students as they don?t seem to know what the assignment entails. In Lesson two the students are anxious to show that they can give the correct answers because they clearly understand the teacher?s instructions, they like him, and therefore they want to make him proud that they had paid attention and learnt the lesson. f. ?Monitoring of the students:? In lesson one the teacher hands out the assignments to the students and then sits down in the corner. Part of the time he is just looking around and part of the time he is reading a book. He does not at all seem interested in the student?s progress?it?s more like he is just interested in getting through the class time as soon as possible. In Lesson two the teacher hands out the assignments and then walks around the room and gazes at the students as they work in pairs to complete the gap fill assignment. He appears to be very interested in their progress and desires to see what areas that he might need to explain more thoroughly in order for them to be able to more fully digest the lesson. g. ?Engage stage:? After introducing himself and getting their names the teacher tells them they are going to play a game and he hands them paper and gives them 2 minutes to think of as many animals as they could think of. Next he asks each of the pair of students to tell how many names of animals that they had been able to come up with and then writes the names on the board. He also gives hints by using body language and describes lesser known animals in order to elicit a few more names that the students hadn?t initially thought of on their own. After this he elicits additional names by showing the students picture of some animals that might not be as commonly known or easily recognized. h. ?Study stage:? The teacher begins to incorporate teaching about the modal verbs (can/can?t) by writing gap fill sentences on the board using those words. Then he drills the students both corporately and individually with the same sentences. After this he hands out worksheets for the students to fill in blanks in the sentences on their own. When they have had time to complete the worksheet the whole class goes over their answers together and then quizzes them verbally by asking them to tell them which movements each of the animals named can/can?t make. Lastly he asks them to write ten sentences on their own of which movements each of the animals can/can?t make. ?Activate stage:? In the Activate stage the teacher builds on what information they have already covered by asking the students (in pairs) to create and name their own animal (from their imagination) and then to inform the rest of the class what movements their animal ?can? or ?can?t? make. The pairs of students then introduced their animal to the class giving said information. The whole time the teacher was very careful to enunciate his words clearly so that the students would be able to hear him and learn the correct pronunciation. At the close of the lesson the students clapped their hands because they enjoyed the session. ?Task 4 ? How would you change lesson two to make it more effective still?? At this point I can?t think of anything in particular that needs to be changed in the Lesson two as I am still new to the ESA methodology and am just getting a good grasp on how the lesson should be done. However, I will say that the filming and production of the video could definitely be improved upon. Most of the ITTT lesson videos that I have viewed up until now have been fairly clear and easy to hear; but on these two ESA lesson videos I had great difficulty hearing what the teacher and students were saying. Along with that?despite the fact that the teacher was obviously a great teacher? he had a fairly strong accent and the volume on the video was too low so sometimes the words were distorted or undistinguishable; for this reason I couldn?t catch all of the comments being made by the students; neither could I hear the entirety of the teacher?s instructions to the class. It took several times of listening for me to be able to hear the bulk of what was being said. ?Task 5 ? What language point do you think the students are? Was the language point appropriate for this level?? At first it seemed like several of the student?s vocabulary might have been ?low/pre-intermediate? level; but the ?language point? more like a ?beginner level.? And so, when I first listened to videos I thought that the language point might have been a bit elementary for those particular students. However, after listening to the video again and then reviewing ?Unit 1: Teachers and Learners? (which shows how to determine which language level the student is at) it did appear that I might have been mistaken about that group of student?s language level. What?s more, it was very obvious that in the student?s estimation they were learning something new?rather than simply reviewing old material?so I guess the language point must have been appropriate after all.