Mount Erie, Indiana TESOL Online & Teaching English Jobs

This lesson is basically a demonstration of earlier discussed and learned concepts. It demonstrates both an ineffective and effective English lesson. Some of the point that make the first lesson ineffective and the second effective: - The attitude of the teacher towards to students and vice versa: Just the fact that the teacher smiles and seems much more open and friendly in the second lesson, makes a world of difference to the students. He establishes rapport by introducing himself, asking the students to put out their names and actually using their names throughout the lesson. He praises students for giving the right answer. He makes some small jokes as well. The students respond positively to all of this. In the first ineffective lesson, he seems uninterested in his students, indifferent, doesn’t show the slightest passion for teaching (he looks like it is a waste of time to be teaching the students) and it somewhat denigrating. He makes the students feel insecure, confused and uncomfortable and in turn they do not want to participate. - The teacher’s voice and gestures: The teacher does not know the students’ names and doesn’t make any effort to learn them in the first lesson. He does the opposite in the next lesson. He also calls on all the students equally, not just several, in the second lesson, each time in a different order as to make sure all students keep paying attention as they don’t know who will be called next. - The teacher’s instructions and explanations: The explanations in the first lesson are too difficult for the students´ English level. Instead of using the right English level for the instructions, paraphrasing, prompts and/or using body language to explain the grammar and instructions, he uses vocabulary the students clearly do not understand. He does not explain clearly and does not answer student’s questions. He furthermore makes the student’s feel like it is their fault for not understanding. He does not explain the worksheets at all and does not give any examples, as a result the students do not know what is expected of them. In the second lesson, the teacher uses prompts such as flashcards, descriptions, mimes and a drawing to explain. He does not explain the grammar with difficult terms but elicits the grammar structure first and them shows them how to use it with simple examples. He also explained can’t and cannot and when we use which. He furthermore explains the worksheets clearly in front of the class and elicits the first answer of the worksheet from the students to see they understand how the worksheet should be finished. - Monitoring of students: During the ineffective lesson the teacher does into monitor at all and does not make himself available to the students if they have any questions. He actually starts to read a book, to the surprise and indignation of the students. During the effective lesson he is available if the students have questions and walks around to monitor. - Student participation: In the first lesson the students barely participate as they do not understand what the teacher wants from them and they are afraid to make mistakes as the teacher keeps saying that it is all very simple, and anyone can do it. In the second lesson the students participate and seem much more comfortable to do so. - Teacher Talking Time (TTT) versus Student Talking Time (STT): In the ineffective lesson the teacher does most of the talking. He does not elicit a lot of information from the students and provides the information to questions himself when he does not get an immediate response from the students (which is most of the time as they are afraid to make mistakes and participate because of the poor attitude of the teacher). When the teacher isn’t talking they are using worksheet or doing the activate activity. However, the students do not work in pairs or groups for any of these, so their time to practice their oral English is even further limited. During the effective lesson the students work in pairs for the engage stage, both of the worksheets and the activate activity. As a result, they talk much more and seem more comfortable to do so. The teacher also elicits much more information during the rest of the lesson. - Stages of the lesson (engage, study and activate): It seemed the teacher did not prepare well. Of course, teachers can refer to our lesson plan, but he does so too much during the ineffective lesson. During the effective lesson he starts by introducing himself and asking the students for their names. He starts the engage stage by eliciting the different animals the students already know to make them think in English and get them warmed up. As they are allowed to work in pairs they already have the opportunity to speak in English. Once they finish the teacher writes down all the animals they know and so every student has the opportunity to contribute and participate. He then elicits the new vocabulary: more animal names (that are also on the worksheets). He elicits this vocabulary from the students by using mime, descriptions and flashcards, only providing the answer if the students really do not know. Next, he elicits action verbs that are also used on the worksheets such as fly, climb, etc. He also elicits the grammatical structure from the students without using complicated grammatical terms. Once they made a few sentences with the structure and they know when to use can’t and cannot they drill the sentences as a group and individually. The teacher corrects the pronunciation when necessary. He calls the students’ names in no particular order to make sure they all pay attention. Each student gets a turn. To practice the grammar structure and new vocabulary they use two worksheets. The teacher explains both the worksheets in front of the class giving an example. They students can complete the worksheets in pairs, increasing their talking time. During the worksheets the teacher observes the students and makes sure he is available if they have any questions. After each worksheet they check the answers as a group. If a student gave the wrong answer, the teacher repeats the sentence in a questioning tone, giving the student to correct himself. If they cannot other student can correct the answer. (Unlike the ineffective class where the teacher provides all the answers and doesn’t give the students an opportunity to self-correct.) During the activate stage the students have to draw an imaginary super animal in pairs and once they are done describe what it can and cannot do. The teacher explains the exercise by showing an example drawing of his own and asking the students their opinion about it and asking some questions about what they think it can and cannot do. Each student pair gets an opportunity to talk about their imagery animal.