My first assessed observation was with four intermediate learners, and the aim was to improve their listening skills. The learners were expected to listen to a podcast about some changes in two friends’ lives. They received the podcast before the class and were expected to write down the summary. I used to follow the Common European Framework of reference syllabus, but since it was my first class with them, I decided to do something different to get to know them more. Although I failed to mention this aspect in the lesson plan, the class went well, and the learners appreciated it.
First, I opened up the class with some basic comprehension questions to check their understanding of the podcast (What is the podcast about? How many speakers do you have in the podcast? What were they talking about?). While involving them in this task, they confessed that they found the podcast a bit challenging at first, but they succeeded in understanding the full content with several attempts to listen to it. They felt excited about this class because they had much to say about the topic.
However, I had lots of challenges regarding how I will be teaching a listening class effectively online. At first, I did not really know how to engage my learners in the task, but the nature of the podcast (conversation between 2 people) helped me scaffold the different activities.
Learning Content
To reach the intended goal of the lesson, the learners had to perform three different activities. The first part of the class was devoted to the podcast’s content. The second part was the grammar section, where they learned the use of the present perfect tense, and the last part was about the practice section, where the learners talked about some changes in their own lives.
Tutor feedback and my reflection
After the feedback session with my tutor, I realized how bad my class was and how difficult it had been for her to understand my lesson plan. I failed in sending her the full recordings of my class. I sent her 40 min of the class I had with my learners, and she could not figure out which part of the lesson part it was. She made me realize that the lesson plan was not detailed enough, and some parts were even unclear to her understanding. She shared the first class I had on the teaching practice and lesson plan (TE719) plan and sent me some templates I can bank on to design a proper one. I should confess that I did not take this first lesson because I was still familiarizing myself with ‘’my studies’’ and I may have missed it.
Another area of weakness that I should work on is to effectively hit the target when I teach a particular aspect of the language. For instance, the second part of the lesson was devoted to using the present perfect tense, but I could not reach this learning goal because it was too broad and vague. My tutor advised me to break it down next time and choose the specific context in which my learners will be using this tense. By narrowing it down, I will help them avoid any confusion.
I realized that integrating three different activities in the same class was not as effective as I thought. Also, we could not cover some parts of the lesson because I failed to manage the time efficiently. The learners could not compare their work, which was essential to me because they better learn from each other. I decided from now on to set just one task and delve into it deeply to allow learners to engage in the learning process freely.
The only aspect of my lesson that seemed reasonable when I watched the video was the learners’ talking time. They were involved in the discussion and willing to share with me the reason why they have changed their jobs. My tutor also mentioned that the rationale for the class was also good. I used the flipped learning approach with my learners because I wanted them to carry on their training at a point and engage actively in the classroom. They received the learning content a day before the class, listened to it, summarized it, and extensively discussed it with their peers during the class.
To sum up, I could say that this was one of the most disastrous I have ever had in my teaching experiences, and I hope to be better next time.