On August 05, 2020, I taught, with my teaching partner, my tenth and final one-hour lesson with a group of three students enrolled in an Advanced Oral Communication class. The objective of this lesson was that students would be able to recall, refresh, and reflect on learning objectives of lessons from the semester. This was to be accomplished through diagnosing their own pronunciation difficulties and generating a spoken text to improve upon these difficulties; competing in a conversation challenge to improve on their communicative fluency; and reflecting on their learning experience to appreciate their improvement as well as develop personal learning strategies for future courses. This lesson was largely successful.
Category: Teaching Reflections Page 1 of 2
On July 29, 2020, I taught, with my teaching partner, my ninth one-hour lesson with a group of four students enrolled in an Advanced Oral Communication class. The objective of this lesson was that students would be able to use functional language to request service, assistance, or accommodations, particularly in the context of university life. This was to be accomplished through brainstorming requests they might make in their experience at university; identifying definitions for vocabulary terms used in student requests; practicing given requests with increasing demands to generate language; and, finally, presenting self-created role-play requests for campus services, assistance, and accommodations. This lesson was highly successful.
On July 22, 2020, I taught, with my teaching partner, my eighth one-hour lesson with a group of four students enrolled in an Advanced Oral Communication class. The objective of this lesson was that students would be able to persuasively express opinions on topics of workplace culture using target vocabulary and discussion language. This was to be accomplished through a game to review workplace vocabulary terms introduced in the previous lesson. Production of a provided dialogue would then have students make communicative use of the vocabulary as assessed through comprehension questions. Finally, students would competitively debate topics about workplace culture judged on use of target vocabulary terms and discussion language as well as persuasiveness. This lesson successfully (re)applied what we had learned about focused objectives and spending adequate time on fewer activities. In doing so, it offered an opportunity to build new skills in facilitating students engaged in active communication.
On July 15, 2020, I taught, with my teaching partner, my seventh one-hour lesson with a group of four students enrolled in an Advanced Oral Communication class. The objective of this lesson was that students would be able to engage in workplace communication and discuss topics of workplace culture using target vocabulary and discussion language. This was to be accomplished through role-playing workplace telephone conversation scenarios. Further work vocabulary would be introduced or reviewed through a game. Students would then engage with the vocabulary by producing a provided dialogue. Finally, students would competitively debate topics about workplace culture using target vocabulary terms as well as discussion language. This lesson was something of a step backwards on the issue of scaffolding and appropriate content as well as time management. However, we did maintain reasonable engagement and drawbacks were part of exploring a focus on teaching functional language, which offered lessons going forward.
On July 08, 2020, I taught, with my teaching partner, my sixth one-hour lesson with a group of three students enrolled in an Advanced Oral Communication class. The objective of this lesson was that students would be able to differentiate between ‘L’ and ‘R’ sounds when listening and then produce them accurately when speaking. This was to be accomplished first through practicing ‘L’ and ‘R’ production in isolation with instruction and modelling. Then a game would have students identify ‘L’ and ‘R’ in words and sentences modelled by the teacher and produce ‘L’ and ‘R’ in provided words and sentences to earn points. The game would reveal a story, and students would then practice speaking ‘L’ and ‘R’ words in context from a provided text of the story. Finally, students would debate a topic related to the story using ‘L’ and ‘R’ vocabulary terms. This was the first lesson we prepared with a focus on accuracy over fluency and communicative meaning, which was good learning experience, and it was yet another reinforcement of the lesson of simplification and clarity of objectives.
On June 29, 2020, I taught, with my teaching partner, my fifth one-hour lesson with a group of three students enrolled in an Advanced Oral Communication class. The objective of this lesson was that students would discuss the role of sports in culture and cultural relations as well as cultural differences in food to improve their discussion and debate skills. This was to be accomplished through students thinking critically about hockey as a part of Canadian culture, debating the effect of sports on cultural pride and tolerance, describing their preferences in food, and discussing how food relates to culture and impacts opinions on cultural difference.
On June 24, 2020, I taught, with my teaching partner, my fourth one-hour lesson with a group of four students enrolled in an Advanced Oral Communication class. The objective of this lesson was that students would discuss what constitutes culture, cultural appreciation, and cultural difference. This was to be accomplished through students brainstorming, defining, and explaining vocabulary related to culture; engaging with that vocabulary; thinking critically about hockey as part of Canadian culture; and identifying and discussing differences between Canadian culture and their own. Additionally, students were to be asked to complete a survey to provide feedback on teacher performance and lesson activities over the previous three weeks.
On June 17, 2020, I taught, with my teaching partner, my third one-hour lesson with a group of four students enrolled in an Advanced Oral Communication class. The objective of this lesson was that students would orally present unfamiliar content to others both verbatim and in summary to effectively communicate meaning. This was to be accomplished through students reading aloud from a text, discussing key points and meaning of the text in small groups, and presenting a summary of the text to the rest of the class.
On June 10, 2020, I taught, with my teaching partner, my second one-hour lesson with a group of four students enrolled in an Advanced Oral Communication class. The objective of this lesson was that students would speak about both familiar and unfamiliar folktales and understand their role in society. This was to be accomplished through students learning about local Indigenous folktales related to Coyote the trickster, students becoming familiar with vocabulary related to folktales, students presenting folktales from their own cultures, and students discussing the role of folktales in soceity.
On June 03, 2020, I taught, with my teaching partner, my first one-hour lesson with a group of six students enrolled in an Advanced Oral Communication class. The objective of this lesson was that students would feel comfortable and familiar with the student-teachers and the classroom. This was to be accomplished through students learning about the student-teachers through introductions and activities, students sharing about themselves, and students understanding the classroom expectations.