For my 3rd teaching observation, I had planned a class for March 19th but this was cancelled due to the Corona crisis. I had done all the planning so decided to adapt this class for online using Zoom.

Two days previously I delivered my first ever online class. We focused on the upheaval caused by Corona and discussed what has changed in terms of restrictions. They wrote a personal piece of writing about the crisis and their own perspectives.

In the observed Thursday class, the focus was on healthy living, vocabulary and reading, which are areas in which they need more practice. Motivation and concentration have been issues in this class, so I have been putting more effort into activating the class, which I have documented in some of my peer observations in the past month.

The section on vocabulary in context is in response to the students’ underdeveloped ability to make educated guesses. They too often pick up the cellphone to consult the dictionary. I packed quite a lot of discussion and vocabulary into the first hour before they spent a solid half an hour doing reading comprehension.

This was only my second day teaching online so there were teething problems. In particular organising breakout groups can be complicated. Some students were using Zoom on a cellphone which makes delivery harder so I asked them to use their laptops.

Overall, the class was partially successful. Within the context of being my third ever online course, it went quite well but in an overall context I would regard it as problematic. Overall, I am still getting to grips with the technology with a lot of troubleshooting, and a particular problem was students not having the book.

The opening discussion about long life was quite good and I decided for simplicity to write directly onto the Powerpoint instead of switching to a whiteboard. This worked okay. I decided initially not to mute all the class or use the hands up tool. This caused a bit of disorder and I learnt quickly to target questions to specific students to mitigate this. The quiz went quite well and achieved my objective of activating them.

Watching the recording back, I need to be more aware that if I move my head away from the computer and talk while looking at the book to the side, then I can become inaudible so that is something to work on.

I tried to deal with the issue of students not having the book by getting them to screenshot pages, which was successful for the vocabulary exercise because it was short. It was harder for such a long reading though. I’m not sure what the alternative is because we are not allowed to send them the PDFs due to copyright.

I then introduced the topic of guessing vocabulary from context. Initially this discussion went quite well but students struggled with the short exercise on immortal and immature from the short reading on the jellyfish. I am trying to improve my teaching of vocabulary (as documented in my last peer observation) with only partial success.

I then set them a vocab exercise. Feedback was okay, although I noticed many students found the exercise difficult. I have persisted with giving students this type of vocab exercise because they usually struggle but finding ways of improving their performance is difficult.

I usually use a lot more short discussions with partners in class to discuss ideas or to compare answers but I find it is not practical to split students into breakout groups for very short tasks. I need more guidance and experience on use of breakout groups.

I set up the groups to discuss some quotes that I had added about long life. This was only partially successful. One group discussed quite well while the other didn’t but this may be a question of their motivation rather than a deficiency of the task.

We discussed the quotes and reflections on life in detail and I felt this was partially successful. The aim of this was to prep them further for the reading but on reflection it would have been more logical to have got them practising the vocabulary they had acquired. Instead the vocabulary exercise was mainly to assist with the reading.

I then set them a reading comprehension from the book. I had to continue troubleshooting and allowing screenshots of the reading – problematic but it just about worked. For homework I set further vocab practice and questions about longevity from the book.

In conclusion, it was a problematic but partially successful class. Some good discussion, a good activation and some success at teaching vocabulary and giving reading practice. On the downside, I still feel I could improve my teaching of vocabulary and my use of the online platform, particularly in terms of managing discussions and breakout groups.

One final point, I have failed to persuade students to turn on their cameras for classes. We discussed it last time and they feel quite self conscious. It definitely affects dynamics that they can’t see each other and I can’t see them but I cannot keep pressing the point if they are reluctant.

Further reflections following my tutorial:

My tutor agreed that the session was partially successful. There were a number of issues that I have reflected further on:

Firstly, it’s important to consider the goal of activation activities. I have made it a goal, particularly with this class, to improve the activation at the beginning to try to improve their motivation. In this class the quiz I added in about life spans of different creatures seemed to ignite their interest and got the class off to an enthusiastic start. However, my tutor questioned whether it really contributed to the core aims of the class: improving vocabulary and reading skills. I think it’s a valid point and I reflected further on this. On one hand, I don’t think every single part of a class has to contribute to the main aims, but on the other hand, it’s important not to digress. The students acquired general knowledge in terms of content and that in itself can help their motivation. It is true that the activation didn’t contribute much in terms of language though, beyond the names some of the creatures mentioned (clam, dragonfly etc). I accept that in some ways the quiz was a little ‘off-piste’. Yes, it helped to get them interested, but without really building towards the lesson’s key aims. I think the ideal activation has to do both of these, so I will look to make activation both eye-catching and more relevant to the lesson’s core aims in future.

Secondly, I need to do some of the basics better with online teaching – taking the register by getting each student to answer their name would enable me to check which students can hear and talk. I am doing this as a matter of course now. Also, checking the online chat more frequently as some students were trying to communicate with me in that way and I didn’t notice at first. This has come with practice.

Thirdly, and this is the most complex issue, my tutor questioned whether the evidence shows that  guessing vocabulary from context is actually any more effective and efficient than using a dictionary in many cases. This is an interesting point and one I need to investigate further. By my own admission, I struggle with teaching vocabulary ‘techniques’ on a deeper level beyond eliciting, explaining and checking understanding. My instinct is to prepare university students better for their studies by trying to get them to make educated guesses more often than using the dictionary, but in many cases, a dictionary is probably needed. Sometimes, it doesn’t matter how skilled a tutor is at explaining or how skilled a student is at guessing, the easiest way to find the corresponding word in their own language.

I recall from our lectures on lexis last semester that about 5000 word families are needed for upper intermediate level but 9000 word families for fluent reading at near native speaker level. I suspect that for many of my students, they are well below this fluent level and despite my regular requests that they write down new words and learn them, experience shows me that only the best students tend to do so.

I also recall from our lectures that it takes an average of 7 times of repeated exposures to a new word for it to really be ‘learnt’. That is a frightening number to confront if I introduce half a dozen or a dozen new words in one lesson, but Rome wasn’t built in a day! I think my conclusion on teaching vocabulary is that I can teach a few key techniques to guess meaning from context but all in all, there’s no substitute for repeated exposure and students getting down to the arduous process outside class of learning and practising new words, a process they often avoid. If using a dictionary assists this process, then so be it.

For lesson plan and materials, click on the following link:

https://1drv.ms/u/s!Aisjk8RnnzgChh3ZLUTa0iP4w_jP?e=oCBze1