Action Research of Microteaching

Action Research of Microteaching

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Reflection of Visiting Lishan Junior High School

*Class Observation– Actually when we got the class, they’d already started the class for a while. So we missed the opening part; however, we still had a great time in this class. Here are some records of the class procedures:

I                      Watch some pictures & ask some questions: The interaction between Teacher Hsu and students is great. Students were willing to answer the questions, and I was amazed by their good pronunciation.

II                   Play & read after the CD: Teacher Hsu played the CD and asked students to read the paragraph after it. Then she would repeat it and correct some mistakes.

III                 Enforce the usage of phrases & vocabulary: Teacher wrote down some phrases and vocabulary on the blackboard and enforce the usage of those words. She spent some time to explain the synonyms such as “in addition= besides”, “nothing= not anything”. Besides, she asked students use those phrases to answer the questions. Ex: She has nothing to wear. = She doesn’t have anything to wear.

IV                  Answer the “Practice Part” on the textbook: Teacher Hsu led students to answer the routine questions on the textbook. However she also corrected and added some useful information to the students. Ex: “Garbage & Trash Can” are American English. “Rubbish & Dustin” are British English. When talking about some special words, she would explain the syntactical functions, usage, and sentences. Ex: Paint v.     

                                 n. painting(s), much more like pictures.     

Teacher Hsu also mentioned the word “roof” and its plurality; besides, she asked students to find out the English name of 青康藏高原(Qinghai-Xizang Plateau). Because 青康藏高原also called “the Roof of the World”. Then Teacher Hsu explain the phrase like “nothing…but…” and make some sentences for students. In this part, she added a sentence function such as “have/be nothing(something) with sb./sth.”

V                    Play the CD & Answer the Question: Teacher Hsu prepared some other pictures, and she asked some questions first before showing them to the students. Then she started to play the CD and wanted students to answer the questions from the textbook, and this part she led students finish two sections on the textbook. (Ask Questions→Show Pictures→Answer Questions→Read after the CD) After that, Teacher Hsu asked students to write an interesting ending for the “Cinderella” on the textbook as a homework. Then she played the CD again in order to train students reading and listening skills. During the process, she would emphasize on certain phrases and sentence structures such as “Would you like…?” Then she asked students to play different characters on the textbook and practice the conversation with their classmates. After that Teacher Hsu led students accomplish the “True or False” & “Listen Check” part.

VI                  Review the whole class & make a closure: Teacher Hsu asked students to take out their attention book, and write down the process today & assignments for next class. She also checked their progress of another reading assignment and wanted them to choose the role from it to do the role play activity.

*Students’ English Achievement– After observing the class, we had about an hour to inspect and learn from the students English learning work. I was touched by their effort and passion. Almost all of them had thick records of English learning; I enjoyed their compositions, reading notes, journals, experimental projects, and those cute drawing. I was learnt a lot after reading one student’s record. She moved to America when she was about seven years old, and she faced a lot of difficulties in first two years. However, she worked very hard to fit in such a different environment and want to improve her English. When she moved back to Taiwan; she knew she became better. She has a stunning achievement in English learning now; I believed that all efforts were rewarded.

*My Reflection– First of all, I have to say that I was amazed by the students’ English ability. I realized that those students sure need more intensive English learning environment to develop those talents. Teacher Hsu also had a great interaction with each student in the class, because there are only six students in the class. She could look after all of them and still have enough time to continue the procedures. I especially appreciated that Teacher Hsu had planned a very fulfilling class, and she knew how to gathered and presented useful information in an appropriate moment. Her pace and pronunciation are also great, she delivered all the information clearly and fluently. Besides, Teacher Hsu combined all kinds of subjects in this class; students could practice their reading, listening, speaking, and writing ability in this class. Teacher Hsu also enforced some important grammar patterns and sentence structures in a spontaneous way, and I was amazed by that. There is almost nothing to criticize except the CD part. I think Teacher Hsu could read some of paragraphs by herself, because she has great pronunciation and enunciation. She could make good use of this advantage instead of playing CD so many times. If I were a student, I would like to hear teacher’s voice better than the CD player in class.

My Microteaching– Indirect Question

    Here are the materials of my microteaching as follows: 

Lesson Plan:  Lesso Plan of Microteaching

PowerPoint:  PowerPoint–Indirect Question

Handout:  Handouts for indirect question

Flash Card:  Scrambled Sentence

Peer Evaluation Form:  Peer Evaluation Form

    Please feel free to browse and leave your comments.

Feedback to Group Four

    I must say that Harry and Billy did present us a very well-designed speaking class. Firstly, they used music to create certain conditioned speaking environment. Secondly, they provided a specific goal for us to achieve—order our meal in the restaurant. Thirdly, they have a smooth procedure. They make good use of the material from the Internet and give us an example to follow, and then we can accord to the handouts they gave to create our own conversation. Besides, I absolutely admire Harry’s pronunciation and enunciation. This is a speaking class, and he is a great model for students to imitate his speaking skill. I also like the cooperation between Harry and Billy and their interaction with students. Frankly speaking, I enjoy this class very much and I think it’s because they create a pleasant atmosphere in this speaking class. I think they are both potential teachers and I think their creativity can bring a lot of fun to their students.

Teacher Interview Report

Teacher Interview Report

Presentation Files of Group 3

Here is the PowerPoint file of Group 3. It also contains the grading cards file; please feel free to browse it.  

Grading Cards 

Group 3

Reflection of visiting Lishan High School(2)

Class: 308 Teacher: 袁正玉

Lesson objective: Grammar (Sentence Pattern) [Main] & Vocabulary (Synonym) & Writing & Reading (Dialogue Poem)  

Teaching materials: English Textbook, 2 worksheets, 1 assignment

Opening

In the beginning of the class, Ms. Yuan led students review the vocabulary they have learnt in last class. Then she made a clear statement on the lesson procedures and the activity they would do in this class. According to her statement, they would have two activities in this class. Before starting this class, she showed students something below on the blackboard.

Handling Stress                            Regard A as B

            Tension                            Take

            Pressure                          See

            Strain                               View

          (synonym)                                 Think of

                                                  Look upon

She has written the topic of this class and some useful grammatical patterns on the blackboard, and then asked students to follow these patterns to do the first activity.

Body

1. Consulting activity—In this part, teacher wanted them to take turns in playing the role of the consultant and the patient. During this process, they could be more familiar with those grammatical terms and find a way to handle their stress.

At first, she asked each student to find one or two members to form a group and gave them the first worksheet. Students have to write down their issues then exchange their worksheet and give some useful advice to each other.  The interesting part is that two students ask if we can give them some advice, and we did. During this activity, Ms. Yuan walk around to observe each group’s presentation. When students had some problems about this activity, she would explain the rules again in English. However, if they still couldn’t get it, she would explain certain difficult phrases or vocabulary to them in Chinese.

2. Dialogue Poem activity—In this part, Ms. Yuan gave them the handout with a lot of dialogue poems on it. She asked some of them to read it aloud in pairs first and want them to share their own opinions.

On this handout, there are a lot of creative poems which were created by different pairs. The most special part is that the poem was created by two people, but somehow the poem was quite a harmonious combination of different tones. After reading those poems, Ms. Yuan left some time for them to create their own work in pairs. She still walked around to see if there are any questions.

Closure

 In fact, there was not enough time left for Ms. Yuan to do any summary of this lesson. Most of students even didn’t finish their “Dialogue Poem,” in that case, Ms. Yuan asked them to take it home and finish it. She also asked them to hand it to her later and she would do give them some feedback then print those poems to share with the whole class.

Feedback

First of all, I have to say that I adore Ms. Yuan’s teaching style and I also appreciate those two activities she designed. I believe that she must put a lot of effort to do the preparation of this class, because those activities bring her students so much fun and sense of achievement. Let alone the students can learn this topic well through these activities spontaneously, that is the goal which is hard to achieve. However, there is still some space for us to improve and considerate; such as how to manage our time more efficiently? How to create a great atmosphere but still keep students under control at the same time? As I said, I really enjoy this class and learn a lot from Ms. Yuan, but I also think it is a pity that there is not enough time to do a brief summary. In my opinion, the most time-consuming part is the grouping part; maybe there will be a good way to solve this problem. I also noticed that Ms. Yuan did pay her full attention to each student’s demonstration and answer each question carefully, and I am deeply fascinated by her caring action.  

Reflection of visiting Lishan High School(1)

Class:207  Teacher:劉日蓮

Lesson objective: Listening & Vocabulary

Teaching materials: English textbook

Opening

In the beginning of the class, Ms. Liu asked some questions about what have taught last class in order to refresh and recall students’ memory. She also can tell which part students might feel confused from their response and facial expression. By doing this can make students feel more relaxed and be prepared to what they are going to learn next. However, Ms. Liu seems didn’t explain the lesson procedures and activities in the beginning. She just moved from one to another fluently, and students didn’t show many anxiety and uneasy. Maybe they are used to this pattern of teaching.

 Body

1. Listening activity (1) —In this part, she tried to make students answer the questions on the textbook.

After asking the warm-up questions, she played the CD. Before getting started, she asks students to listen carefully and explain what she’s going to do after listening to the CD. Then during the whole listening part, Ms. Liu walked around in the classroom. When starting asked the questions, Ms. Liu repeated the same question for many times to make students understand the questions or seek for volunteers to answer it. During this process, here are something she did to help students:a.        Ms. Liu would correct students’ grammatical mistakes and want them to use their own words instead of looking for answers from textbook.b.        When mentioned vocabulary, she would stop to explain its meaning.Ask students to use their imagination to answer those questions and do not be afraid of doing wrong.

2. Listening activity (2) —In this part, she brought students to listen a section from textbook but without any text to read for.    

Because here are not a certain text foe them to read, in order to make students won’t feel too much pressure on listening. Ms. Liu provided some information about the context to make students have a concept about the story. So during their break before this class, she wrote down the vocabulary below and its simple meaning on the black board:

* Tantalus→ tantalize v.

* ambrosia→ the sacred food for gods

* Tartarus→ the underworld zone of punishment    

After those pre-listening activity, she start the listening part. Then she asked students to answer the questions, of course they would not do very good without any visual aid in the first around. So Ms. Liu would put emphasize on those difficult parts for students.  At last, Ms. Liu gave them a typed-text and listen to the CD with it for the last time. This can make sure that students really understand the content of the listening text.

3.Vocabulary—In this part, teacher select certain difficult vocabulary from textbook then want students to do some sentence-making practice.    

First of all, teacher led students to read the sentence below the vocabulary and highlight some phrases on the textbook. After that, she asked students come to board to translate the Chinese sentence she said into English. If there are any difficult words for them, Ms. Liu would tell the students first.

Closure

     In my observation, here is not a so-called closure in the end of the class. However, Ms. Liu did make a brief summary to impress students after each section of activity and that is definitely quite good enough for me. There were not any formal evaluation of the lesson, but I think Ms. Liu paid her full attention to students’ presentation and she tried to content every student’s need. When she walked around during these activities, I think that could be a kind of evaluation.

Feedback     I think the way Ms. Liu taught listening class could be a great model for me, because it is really a hard part to teach in class. However, she made this class become interesting and informative at the same time. She also gave students enough repetition to memorize the information; she played CD for three times on each listening part .However, the repetition on question part is too much, that might help teacher to attract students’ attention and help students understand the question better. That is true, but it also could be very disturbing and boring at the same time. Besides, I really like the listening activity (2), because Ms. Liu did a great job on the pre-listening. She gave students enough information of the content of the text and also generated students’ interest to go on the story. The typed-text idea is also brilliant; I really appreciate the procedures she took in this listening class. Maybe she didn’t state it clearly in the beginning of the class, but I think students were already used to the pattern so it is not necessary to mention it again and again. At last, I want to thank Ms. Liu being so generous to open your class for us to join and observe. I did have a great time and learnt a lot, thank you once again!

Questions of grammar teaching

1. As the article “teaching a grammar lesson” remarks, “Fortunately, nowadays with the emphasis on a communicative approach and a wealth of stimulating resources, teaching grammar does not necessarily mean endless conjugation of verbs or grammar translation.” In reality, grammar translation is needed in teaching. Then, how can we make a compromise between the two extremes of a structured based curriculum and a purely communicative classroom when teaching grammar?

      Nowdays we do have more resources for teaching, but we also have to face a dilemma. There are too many so-called efficient approaches. As a teacher, we have responsibility to decide which one is better for our students, but are there any principle for us to follow?

      We have to know that there are absoultely no certain panacea for grammar teaching, in this case the variety of teaching approach become very important. As the “planning a grammar lesson”remarks “…deductive and inductive approaches are both have their advantages and disadvantage.” Take grammar translation and communicative approaches for example, the former one is not only time saving and make students spend more time to practice the language items but definitely with less fun. The latter one, on the other hand, is more stimulating than the former one. Furthermore, it does not only focus on the memorizing part but also focus on the comprehension and activate. Then, how can we make good use of both approaches in our grammar teaching?

      In my opinion, communicative appraoch canbe used in designing the opening of the class and activities. We can generate students’motivation and observe students’learning achievement. Then while entering the body of the class, we can stress on grammar translation approach. After all, this approach can not be totally removed in grammar teaching because it do have its efficiency. At last, we can arrange pair-work activities for them instead of a lot of homeworks. In this way, we offer them opportunities to do oral practice and comprehend the rules at the same time. That would be more fun than the traditional ways and could be useful in other subjects teaching.   2.                  In what way can we help transfer the rules/patterns learned from the classroom context to the outside world?

     I was turtoring two high school students since six month ago, and during this period of time I found that there is a pattern in their learning. They can easily memorize some complicated phrases and grammatical rules, but somehow they always have difficulties to make their own sentences with those items. They can get good grades on multiple choices, but they just can’t do good on sentence making part. It seems hard for them to according to the hint of the question and make a proper sentence. I belive that is just because that they are used to some kind of questions, once they encounter some “new” questions, they will feel intimitdated. However, if we can develop their ability of organizing meaningful sentences would be help on their learning. Take our English teaching for example, Alice showed an interesting PPT she made for her students to us. There are a lot of pictures of her families with thought bubble, and students can practice a certain grammatical pattern with different materials slide by slide. It is absolutely interesting than doing a lot of exercises from textbook or some copies of “grammatical bible”, and it also can help students to practice the rules they just learnt. 

     Furthermore, they can try to create a possibility of using everything in their dailylife to do the practice. Then when they are familiar with this learning pattern, they will try to find out different resources by themselves and create more possibilities. Their learning won’t be limited in classroom anymore ,and it can help them to overcome their weakness of disablity on answering various questions. I always believe that grammar learning is not only about memorizing but also about comprehending and praticing, however , if it can connect with our dailylife would be better.