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I learned the main differences between lesson one and two in the following areas
The teacher’s attitude to the students:
In lesson one, the teacher seemed frustrated with the students for not coming up with the answers he wanted. He didn’t look like he was enjoying the class. He appeared unfriendly because he rarely smiled. He wasn’t very encouraging and he reacted negatively when the students gave incorrect answers. He just assumed that the students understood what he was saying. He didn’t really care about the learning of the students.
In lesson two, the teacher clearly looked like he was happy to be teaching the class. He smiled a lot thereby encouraging student participation. He seemed genuinely interested with the students’ learning. He wrote his name on the board and made an effort to learn the names of the students. He used positive reinforcement. He praised students for giving correct answers but did not shut them off when they made mistakes.
The students’ attitude towards the teacher:
In the first lesson, the students appeared uncomfortable in the class. They looked as if they were afraid to speak up. They were not very participative because the teacher wasn’t very encouraging. They seemed discouraged and unmotivated.
In the second lesson, it was clear that the students were happy with the teacher because he was enthusiastic about his teaching. They reacted positively towards him. They were more open and unafraid to say something in class.
Student participation:
In lesson one, student participation was very minimal. It was more of a teacher-centered lesson. The teacher asked questions but did not really care about the students’ answers. The students looked confused but didn’t ask any questions or clarifications. When they did, he answered with “I don’t understand” or “I will tell you later.” He supplied most of the language input on the board instead of asking the students for their input. The students’ role was at best mere listeners.
In lesson two, student talking time was high. They had a lot of input in class, from the engage stage to the activate stage. All the students had the chance to speak up because the teacher tried to involve all the students.
The teacher’s voice (clarity, complexity, speed etc):
In the first lesson, the teacher did not vary his voice throughout the lesson. At times, he sounded unclear to the students as evidenced by their facial expressions and at one point, he was just mumbling or muttering to himself. He also went about with the class quickly.
In the second lesson, he spoke clearly and slowly. He used words to suit the level of the students. The speed was also appropriate for a beginner class. There were variations in his voice which kept the class engaged all throughout the lesson.
The teacher’s instructions and explanations:
The teacher’s instructions in lesson one were very limited or lacking even for some activities. In the first activity, he just handed out the worksheets without telling them what to do. The teacher did not offer any explanation even if the students were obviously confused on what to do. When some of the students asked questions, he didn’t answer adequately or just said he didn’t understand or he’ll tell her later. He didn’t rephrase his questions and sentences even if the students clearly didn’t understand what he was saying.
In lesson two, the instructions and explanations were very clear. Time limits were also set. The teacher used language that was appropriate to the level of the students. He told them what to do before letting them work on the worksheets. He also made sure that the students understood further by offering examples or answering the first question for the class. The teacher also used body language and visual aids to further reinforce instruction and understanding.
Monitoring of the students:
There was no monitoring of students in lesson one. After he handed out the worksheets, he settled down in a corner and just waited for the students to finish the activity. He even tried to read a book at one point. He didn’t move around the class to check on their work even if the students were just looking at each other’s papers helplessly, an indication that they didn’t know what to do.
In the second lesson, the teacher monitored at the start of the activity to check that they had understood the activity. He also set a time limit so at a later point, he checked on the students’ progress then started his countdown. He made sure that everyone understood before moving on to the next activity.
Engage stage:
In lesson one, there was no engage stage. The teacher just mentioned what they were going to learn that day and then he started by eliciting examples of modal auxiliary verbs.
In lesson two, the teacher started the class by asking them to name as many animals as they can in two minutes. This kept the students on their toes because they were given a time limit. The activity was a pair work so it helped relieve the pressure from the students, despite the urgency of completion.
Study stage:
In the first lesson, the input came mostly from the teacher. He didn’t give the students enough time to figure out things on their own. Rather, he supplied most of the information on the board. He gave them worksheets but since there were no explanations provided, there was no actual learning done.
In the second lesson, he elicited the answers from the students first by writing sentence prompts on the board. He also used body language to elicit action words. He drilled pronunciation by using the 3x3 formula. He dealt with mistakes by asking students to self-correct and also asked the other students to correct their classmates’ mistakes.
Activate stage:
The activate stage in the first lesson didn’t work because the teacher’s instructions were unclear. He also kept talking when the students were supposed to be doing the activity, thereby creating disturbance. There wasn’t enough time allotted for the activate phase so he just dismissed the class without proper feedback on the activity.
In lesson 2, the teacher showed his own drawing first to reinforce instruction and understanding. Once the activity started, he just monitored from a far so as not to disturb the students. Reporting was also done prior to the dismissal of the class.
