For my third observation, I decided to do a task-based lesson. The basis for the lesson was from Cutting Edge Advanced, but I decided to adapt the materials to make them more communicative and to encourage more student interaction.

Although I was happy with the overall plan and the materials adaptions I had made, it became apparent very early on in the lesson that instead of the changes I had made improving the lesson, they, came at the expense of the completeness of the task and therefore the timing of my lesson plan was almost immediately lost.

This leads me to my first action point – The need to be more aware of how long each activity will take. The first activity seemed was more difficult for the students than I had anticipated. I think that is something I have struggled with in the past and have often planned the timing of activities with too high, or unrealistic, expectations of the learners.

My second action point is related to my first – To think more about which activities could be extended and which ones shouldn’t. Looking back at my lesson plan, you can see that I have tried to extend almost every activity, and as such, the lesson was never going to stick to its timing.

I think I got a bit carried away in the planning stage and was maybe too eager to impress my observer by showing them that I could incorporate material adaption and creative ideas when what I should have been focusing on was the learners.

What I was happy with was that I was able to incorporate some of the action points from previous observations, focusing on student engagement and giving them opportunities to practice the language. Another area I was keen to improve was the transitions between activities, which, despite my slight panic at the planned timing being lost, I think I still managed to do.

One thing I did notice when watching the lesson back was that despite my feeling of panic over the activities taking far longer than I had expected, I remained calm and was able to adapt to the issues and still finish the lesson. I think that this ability to remain calm under pressure is something that I have developed through experience.

Overall, although the lesson wasn’t a complete disaster, I have learned some valuable lessons regarding how I plan activities within the lesson and how sometimes ‘less is more’.

Observed lesson 3 – Lesson plan