For my second observed teaching practice, I had a new class of students for EAP. The students took their four language exams in early January and those that failed to pass all the skills were reassigned classes for the rest of term before a second exam sitting in April.
The two-hour class was focused on preparation for essay writing in the first observed hour with the second hour spent writing the essay.
I decided to use the exact essay topic of their recent writing exam as an example. The topic was on the subject of whether we should eat less meat to help health, animal welfare and the environment. I thought this example was particularly relevant to teach and review some key essay writing techniques – in particular supporting details, counter arguments and refutations. These are often areas in which students are weak and particularly Arabic students. This links in to my recent essay for the methodology module in which I focused on Arabic students’ difficulties in writing for EAP classes. As a culture that eats a relatively large amount of meat, this topic may be especially difficult for the students to see other points of view.
I did quite a lot of eliciting of ideas on the topic and then put students in discussion groups to brainstorm support and arguments before presenting key information on the areas on the board as well as examples of paragraphs. I supplemented this with a handout on paragraph structure and key language for counter arguments and refutations. I tried to keep the pace of the class quite steady. Overall I feel it was a successful class with consolidation of several key areas of weakness.
However, there are still some areas to work on. As they are a new class, it is quite hard work to get them talking and working with each other. I noticed immediately that there were half a dozen students who were engaged and eager to contribute while the rest of the class of 15 were less engaged (or at least quiet). This is the first area that I feel I could improve on. I already use techniques of calling upon students by name to answer questions rather than deferring to those who put their hands up but I feel engagement could have been better.
Secondly, there were issues of classroom management that I find difficult to deal with effectively. Firstly, students are all Arabic and too often revert to L1 when in group discussions. I regularly point this out but am sometimes at a loss at how to address continual use of L1 after warnings have already been given. Another classroom management point is students’ use of the bathroom. I have noticed that students often tend to ask to go to the toilet during the class and frequently come back after more time than would be considered normal – they are probably wasting time outside, on their phones etc. It’s a challenging issue that often interferes with the classroom dynamic and one I have discussed in my Critical Incidents section.
Lastly, I am mindful of teaching too closely to the test in this class. I prepared them to write a 300-word five-paragraph format essay in controlled conditions. It could be argued that it is of limited use for university study. I was mindful of this but it does seem necessary with many of these students to reinforce basics such as paragraph structure and quality of supporting detail. In particular, it’s important to reinforce that they need to consider opposing points of view in counter arguments as this will prepare them well for university education.
However, too often I feel I am teaching essay writing at equivalent high school level and it is a challenge to give them more useful research skills that equip them better for their degrees. It’s important to note that students also do a dedicated study skills module where they are required to research and reference, but in that module, many struggle to do this well, so it’s clearly an area in which they need all the practice they can get.
Further reflections following feedback
We had a very productive meeting to chat through our reflections on the lesson. My tutor gave me some interesting suggestions on how to improve classroom management.
We discussed having a class contract or at least setting some very clear ground rules to cut down on L1 use and students leaving the class. I have previously used the technique of asking students to leave their phones in the room if they leave and I intend to use this again, as it is quite effective.
We also discussed techniques for getting the students moving around the classroom, interacting with topics, using post-it notes. This is something I have done in the past but not recently with writing preparation and I think it could work well, so I will reflect on that.
We also discussed using not only model paragraphs but examples of poor and mediocre paragraphs for students to identify common errors. This would definitely be useful in future.
A key conclusion of the class was that, even though it was quite successful, a key issue was that I was working very hard, while many students were not engaged. My challenge is to create activities that prompt them to work and learn as they are doing so. Of course, it’s necessary for me to present and teach key points at times, but I need to improve at balancing this Teacher Talking Time with the entire group of students being actively involved rather than a select few.
Lesson plan, presentation and handout from the class can be found on the following link: