This lesson was intended as a lesson focusing on used to and would to talk about past habits and states with a context of childhood.
The intended structure of the lesson was to use an authentic listening (Bang Bang by Nancy Sinatra, 1966, written by Sonny Bono) to set context. Analysis of the lyrics of this song with targeted questions would focus the students on the Target Language. They would then be lead in to guided-discovery tasks to first learn the differences of the two structures with adverbs of frequency, dynamic and stative verbs, negatives and questions. Along the way, they would be introduced to the differences when using the Past Simple and how it is often used to contrast to the present. The final task of the lesson was to have a speaking mingle activity where the students quizzed each other using the structures.
The lesson was set at a high B1 Intermediate level for General English mixed nationality students aged 22-34.
It would be an understatement to say there were some problems.
First, the speakers failed to work for the listening. This was particularly crucial as the whole lesson was built on this listening – it was the foundation of everything I was intending to teach.
Due to the nature of the listening (a song), it doesn’t really work as a written text or if I spoke it (or attempted to sing it – my singing voice is not something that should be inflicted on anyone). So I was left in the position of having a goal but having no way to reach it. It felt like just before I set foot on a bridge to cross a chasm, the bridge fell away into the ether – leaving me with my destination in sight, but unable to reach it.
I had a photo of myself as a child that I was going to use just as a complementary image to the first task. After abandoning any hope of getting the listening to work, I decided to use this to instead create a context. The students found this photo particularly engaging and interest in the lesson peaked when they saw it. It generated discussion pretty quickly – however, I was unable to get the language I wanted out of the students (as the listening would have led them directly to the TL), but considering this part of the lesson was assembled on-the-fly, it could have been a lot worse.
I then took some students through a guided-discovery section of the lesson with various tasks. This didn’t work so well, as although I was able to introduce “used to” with the picture section of the lesson, “would” came out quite randomly from this task. Again, this is something that was supposed to have been introduced in the listening.
By this point, I was rather stressed and flustered so my direction of the students, my feedback, monitoring and teaching in general was rather unfocused. The students did really well themselves, but as the captain of this ship, my hand was not steady on the wheel.
When it came to the end of the lesson speaking mingle, I had another problem. Target language, questions, and cues how to answer were all on the Interactive Whiteboard. Just as I was setting up that page, the projector bulb blew and took all the language with it. I hastily got a few questions on the board and directed the students to ask each other in pairs whilst I tried to calm my palpitating heart.
I felt pretty demoralised at the end of the lesson. The tech had let me down and I felt I had let myself down in allowing the stress of the situation to get the better of me and degrade my focus on the lesson.
After watching the video, I felt a little more positive about it. The key thing I saw in the video that I didn’t really see in the actual teaching of the lesson was how engaged the students were in the lesson. Equally, some of the classroom management techniques I employed were well-executed (though others not so much – see the reflection document for further information).
Also, although I felt that the lesson went pretty off the rails, I did remain fairly calm on the exterior and did get things moving once again. It’s very easy for me to focus on the negatives of this lesson, but this showed quite a strength of mine, I think: That even in the face of the total collapse of the lesson, I can still move forward and remain calm – although, it should be stressed, only externally. Internally, I felt pretty shaken and I think this came out indirectly later in the lesson during some of my classroom management style.
One thing I noticed when watching the video that I did in this lesson was that during monitoring, I prioritised some students – and spent more time with them than with others. I did this subconciously and analysing it, I think I’ve discovered something about how I monitor.
When I was teaching from the back of the room, I heavily monitored the students at the front of the room.
However, I set a task or two up from the front of the room – and then heavily monitored the students at the back.
As I said, I think I am doing this subconciously, but it seems like the students I am closest to during Feedback or instructions, I presume will be ok with the task, and the students that are further away when I instruct, I go straight over to assist them. I didn’t go into this during the actual reflection as I think there were more important things for me to focus on, but it was a strange thing to notice when viewing the video. In future, I feel I need to make a concious effort to monitor everyone equally.
Anyway, the full reflection form is attached below along with the lesson plan and Immediate Feedback audio file.
Immediate Feedback:
lesson-plan (+ materials)
peter-mason-obs-lesson-1-reflection
Peter, I have annotated your reflections. My comments have put in square brackets.
Name of assessor: Gary Hicks
Level of class Intermediate (B1)
Lesson location St. Giles International, 1-3 Marlborough Place, Brighton, Room 2.
Date of lesson 29.11.16
Start and finish time 09.40-10.40
No. of students 11
Age range of students 22-34
Teacher reflections:
You need to identify 3 aspects of your teaching for reflection and comment. These can be areas which you feel you would like to develop in future teaching or comments on certain points in the lesson that may warrant comment (positive as well as negative!)
Overview: I said in my immediate feedback “that was the most disastrous lesson I’ve done…” and I think, to some extent that still stands. However, having taken a few days and watched the video, I’m not feeling quite as negative now as I did then. I am definitely someone who is guilty of focusing very much on the negative rather than the positive in general – but I can see some positive elements in the lesson I did.
To use a metaphor: in general, I feel like the lesson was supposed to be a house I was building – but the materials for the foundation never arrived (technological failure – the listening not working). So, I made a foundation out of whatever was lying around, but it wasn’t so stable and I needed a bit of support to get the first and second floors up. Finally, when it came to putting the roof on the house, that material didn’t arrive either (technological failure #2 – the bulb in the projector blowing taking all the prompts for the speaking task with it), so I covered the top of the house with a tarpaulin.
At the end, I still had a house. But it was a lot more makeshift than I had hoped. [Interesting use of metaphore!]
Point 1 – Classroom Management: Feedback.
The first point that I would like to focus on is how I manage the class during feedback. I think my management of the class had a lot of positive elements, but also some elements that could do with focusing on and improvement. Firstly, I’ll focus on the positive elements.
During Feedback, all the students seemed engaged (as they did during the whole lesson, to their credit) [I agree] and I never felt while teaching nor when watching the video that students were not focusing during the feedback sessions.
Also, I think the technique of getting the students to self-nominate was at times an effective one, as I think it encouraged focus on the student that was supplying the answer and in general, I think the students did try to listen and engage with each other [Yes, I agree]
I positioned myself towards the back of the classroom as opposed to the front. I think this worked well in some situations, as during feedback, the class were focused on each other, and when we wanted to focus on the board I could direct them in that direction – not where I was. So rather than the teacher and the board being located together, there was a separation of looking at the board and doing group feedback.[ I thought this worked very well indeed]
At times, I think I occasionally used physical responses well to interact with students and encourage self-correction. For example:
Teacher: When we look at a photo… and we use… “look”… or we use “look like” … what’s the difference?
Deniz (cautiously): Looks… after, noun… looks like, adjective.
Teacher: (hand-gesture)
Deniz: Oh!
Class: (laughter)
Deniz (smiling, confidently): Looks, adjective, and look like, noun!
[Very ‘in-depth’. You have clearly spent some time on this! You are resourceful and committed]
I also used other gestures and facial expressions to interact with the students to show when students got things correct, or if they needed to self-correct and rephrase. I think this can be more effective, more engaging and more time-efficient than me actually speaking – and it cuts down on my talking time and is perhaps more supportive than saying “No” or “Try again” or something to that effect.
I think in general, I managed the class the well and kept them on track, focused and engaged. However, there are some points I would like to focus on. [I agree with you here. You communicate with the class very well. You have a very positive presence]
Compare these interactions during feed back:
1.
Teacher: What are you saying, Ayii?
Ayii: Your weight… the weight…
Isabel: What about the weight?
Ayii: Little bit fat?
Andrea: No… not fat…
2.
Andrea: The eyebrows….
Isabel: The eyebrows?
Andrea: Because now you have eyebrows.
3.
Wen-Yu: “I never got on that well with my sisters…”
Teacher: The first one?
Wen-Yu: Yeah.
Teacher: Yeah.
4.
Teacher: And what is the first one?
Most of Class: Past simple?
Teacher: Yeah, so we can use past simple for one time, but also for many times. But used to, only for many times.
I think the first two reactions show when feedback is working well. In the first one, Ayii supplies an answer to the class and two students voice their opinion on it. I, the teacher, remains silent through that. The second one also shows interaction during group feedback amongst the students.
I think it’s a positive aspect to have the students interact with each other rather than focusing just on the teacher [absolutely!!!!]. In taking a backseat in this interaction, I think it allows for more learner-centred interaction [yes]. However, reviewing all of the feedback sessions, only the more dominant and boisterous students interact with each other – quieter students just sit and listen. I feel I should do more to involve them in those kind of interactions. [I noticed how the students operated as a group. They were open and talkative, tolerant and resourceful, but, yes, it is so often the case that certain students tend to dominate. Herein lies your challenge].
I think interactions 2 and 3 show much less effective feedback. I always try not to repeat a student’s answer (echoing) when they tell the class as this can lead to an environment where during feedback students ignore the answer their peers give and just wait for what the teacher says [I agree { not everyone does, it seems!}]. In 3 I take that even one step further – I don’t simply repeat the answer Wen-Yu gives me, I make it even worse by clarifying which option that was – so the group don’t even need to hear the sentence – they just have to hear that the first option is correct [ I think this could have been due to your discomfort because of the IT crisis?].
In 3 I use a question to elicit the grammar but then just give a direct explanation of it rather than working with the students so that they all figure out the use together.
Why did this happen? Well, due to the technological failure at the key beginning stage of the lesson, I felt quite stressed. And as the lesson went on and I became more concerned about time (as the lesson was overrunning), my focus on feedback slipped and I stopped managing the students effectively. [So you were not aware of what you were doing as you were doing it?]
I’ve highlighted these particular cases, but I think throughout the lesson feedback could have been more focused and more inclusive of all the students. When a student gave an answer, I feel I was often too quick to move on to the next question, instead of checking all the students understood and were on board. [I get your point. This was my first observation of you, so I have nothing to compare your behaviour to. I have to rely on your self-knowledge here. However, this is very insightful for me {and you, I hope!}]
I use self-nomination of the students as a way to help them focus on each other and each other’s answers. I often make this redundant myself by echoing. Also, another flaw of this self-nomination technique is that some students tend to pick each other more often. In all classes there are some characters who are more flamboyant or boisterous than others – this is reflected when students nominate each other – those characters are frequently picked upon to give answers. Whilst I think self-nomination does have its value, I should have perhaps exerted more control over it to ensure all the students were picked equally [Perhaps]. Perhaps I could do this by asking the students to nominate another student who hasn’t contributed in a while [fair point].
Another element of my teaching which, after viewing the video, I felt could do with more forethought, was my use of the keyboard to put sentences on the board during feedback.
I use the keyboard as I can type faster than I can write, and with text on a whiteboard it is clearer than handwriting (I’ve noticed this as a keen advantage when teaching Arabic students) and I never have to “rub it off” – if we need to go back to a board, we can easily do that. However, in the following interaction I think this wasn’t used as well as it could have been:
Teacher: I wouldn’t never study?
Daisuke: I would never study.
Class: (various sounds of agreement)
Teacher: (whilst typing sentences on board) Ok, so we can say I would never study or I wouldn’t study… but remember… English… double negative…
Isabel: It’s positive.
Wen-Yu: Oh, ok.
Teacher: These two are correct, can we use “used to”?
Andrea: I didn’t…
Deniz: I didn’t use to study…
Teacher: (whilst typing on the board) I didn’t use to study… or…
Class: (talking over one another)
Teacher: Minhee… let’s listen to Minhee.
Class: (Quietening down to silence)
Minhee: I never used to study.
Teacher: (whilst typing sentence on the board) Very good.
In this interaction I think there are some positive elements and negatives. On the positive side, I allowed a less outgoing student to contribute and got the whole class to listen to her answer [I think I recall this]. Negatively, I am perhaps doing something even worse than echoing – as I am writing the sentences on the board as I hear them – this means the students don’t need to listen to each other or even to me – they can just look at the board and read them. Again, this happened as I was quite flustered at this point of the lesson, but still, it definitely shouldn’t have happened. What I should have done, was kept it spoken, checked all students understood, and then put it on the board (if it needed to be). [I am not so sure about your concern here Peter. This was at a point when you were ‘clarifying’ and highlighting a grammar point. Do you think the teacher can have a different rule for this? I got quite excited watching you do this. It came across as clear and powerful!!]
The reason I was putting the sentences on the board in the first place, by the way, was to give some focus to the written form at the same time – in particular the change from “used to” to “use to” in negatives – something you can’t express orally due to the pronunciation [YES – a good way to go about it. Arguably, I could have focused on that element in speaking too – but how? I would either have had to ask the students to spell it each time or to ask if it was with ‘d’ or not. The first technique would take too much time, the second would perhaps be too explicit – and as it is solely a written concern, giving them a quick written example to check can be useful, I think. I can get sentences or words on the board through typing relatively quickly, so that was my reasoning – however, due to my fluster, I didn’t do it effectively [I disagree. Your context/situation dictated otherwise. Perhaps when you have more time available you could do it a different way, and it seems you are aware of this].
So, what I want to focus on in future is:
• Involve all students in feedback and don’t just allow the more boisterous students to dominate [ fair point]
• Make sure everyone gets nominated equally in self-nomination [fair point]
• Check that all students are following the feedback [fair point]
• Stop echoing [ fair point]
• Stop “written echoing” [ perhaps]
Point 2 – Task Design/Materials
Again, with my task design and materials, I feel there were some positive elements and some areas to improve.
An initial positive is that all the materials and tasks were completely designed by me (with the exception of the listening – but I was unable to do that section of the lesson anyway). [They looked well-designed and appropriate]
Also, one thing I brought into the class helped me get the lesson back on track quite significantly: The photo of me and my sisters. I initially added it to the lesson just as a complimentary aide to the first grammar task of the lesson, however it helped me generate context pretty effectively after I had to abandon the listening element. However, it would have benefitted from another photo to compare with now – which is what I would have done had I known the listening wasn’t going to work. The photo did bring real engagement to the class and really picked things up after the first tech failure [I agree. The students engaged with this part of the lesson as well as could be expected].
However, I think the written tasks could have done with some more textual enhancement to make things clearer for the students. For example, in the first task focusing on adverbs of frequency, perhaps making the adverbs bold or underlined would have directed the students attention to that more effectively [OK]. Equally, in the dynamic/stative verbs noticing task, textual enhancement to differentiate the stative and dynamic verbs could also have benefitted [fair point]. When watching the video, I noticed that had the students had a bit more direction, they may have achieved these “noticing” activities more effectively [ I didn’t pick this up, but I can see where you are coming from].
Finally, the end of the lesson also suffered from some technical issues: the prompt language for speaking was solely to be presented on the interactive whiteboard – which died. Had I had that language on a prompt sheet for the students, I could have continued that section of that lesson in the way I had originally envisaged [Yes, I agree].
In general, my materials were perhaps a bit too reliant on technology. I use the tech of the classroom all the time and have very rarely had any problems (and certainly not as serious as the problems I experienced in this lesson), but perhaps I need to ensure in future I have a definitive back-up plan and can teach whatever I need with no technological assistance. [This is the only significant point that ran against you on the day. You had no obvious, declared back up, but you had the experience, imagination and obvious ability to deal with it very well indeed. It has been a long time since I saw a teacher react with such calm; maybe you did not feel calm, but you showed no signs of panic or distress whatsoever – very cool under pressure!!]
So, what I want to focus on in future is:
• Clearer task design with better textual enhancements
• An alternative path to my end goal for the lesson should the tech fail [indeed! But only to prove a point, I think]
Point 3 – Planning: Lesson Aims/Learner Outcomes
Firstly, I should say that planning things out meticulously in the way it needs to be done for a lesson observation doesn’t come naturally to me [it doesn’t show!]. I live in my head and I plan my lessons in terms of days rather than minutes. I try to draw context out of the students and explore avenues that naturally arise in class [as any experienced teacher would tend to do]. A planned warmer or lead-in may change seconds before I employ it if someone says something in class that allows me to put a new personalised slant on the lesson. In short, I have trouble putting together a written plan and getting what is in my head on to the paper [interesting problem – a nice one for you to confront, I think! I’d like to know where you take this one]. But one thing I particularly struggle with when it comes to plans is the aims and outcomes.
Honestly, I don’t feel I know how to write lesson aims or learner outcomes. With lessons that I do, I know what I want to achieve, what I want the students to achieve and how I want to the class get there – but I don’t know how to get that out of my head and on to paper. Every time I look at a lesson aim I have written, it doesn’t seem quite right to me. The same with learner outcomes. [I did not have a problem with yours! I knew exactly what you wanted to do, and the plan and materials looked as if they would support it well]
I know I have gone on a bit in the other points [ negative attitude Peter. You are not ‘going on’. You are reflecting, and reflection can be a drawn out, developmental process], but I don’t have that much to say when it comes to this point – and this is because it’s something I’m not comfortable with and don’t really feel like I know how to do. It’s something that needs to be addressed urgently as it’s so key to a lesson observation to explain clearly and concisely what your aim is, what you want the students to have achieved and how you will show that. I need to find a way to explain that to myself as well as others. I need to step out of my head and get my ideas more focused and down on paper.
So, what I’m going to do to achieve this is:
• Do some reading. I will ask my tutor if he can point me in the right direction of what to read regarding lesson planning with a specific focus on aims and outcomes [ perhaps we can talk about this soonish?]
• Ask my peers, colleagues and friends if I can see previous lesson plans of theirs to see examples of how they write their aims and outcomes.
• Have a lesson-planning session with a previous TESOL Dip graduate to see how they would write different kinds of aims and outcomes.
Tutor’s comments on reflection
This is a wholesome and heartfelt piece of writing Peter. It was a pleasure to read, and I am confident that you have invested a great deal of time and thought into this, which leads me to believe that you will gain a great deal from it if you engage, follow up your thoughts and continue to investigate your teaching in such a manner.
Very well done
Gary Hicks