TESL 0170 Practicum - Teaching Lesson 5 Reflection

              Today was the last lesson that I needed to teach for my TESL practicum. The lesson focussed on credit cards and debt, with a special focus on note-taking strategies; I planned my lesson around Chapter 3 Part 4 of the textbook. When I began the class, two students were missing; one had returned to her home country and another told me in advance that she would be attending only the last hour. We started with a class discussion on credit cards and differentiated them from debit cards, making use of a chart on the blackboard. I then divided them into groups of 4 and had them discuss some questions relating to credit and debt. After this, I introduced this chapter’s target vocabulary with a PowerPoint presentation and a crossword puzzle. The students did well on this, and I noticed that the higher-level students really went out of their way to help the lower level students with any difficult words. Once the students had a chance to familiarize themselves with the new vocabulary, I introduced several note-taking strategies and symbols that the students can use in the future when listening to lectures. The students quickly caught on and did a great job completing the writing and listening activities that followed. I tailored the listening section a bit because I felt that a couple of the questions might have been too difficult for my students. To wrap up, I put the students into groups once again and had them complete some discussion questions to reflect on the content they had just covered. I ended the class with the teacher evaluation and a quick game of hangman, which the students seemed to really enjoy! Overall, I had an incredible experience teaching this group of students and wish them all the best in the future. 

What Worked Well:

               Once again, I am happy that I was able to keep on time with the lesson and maintain good pacing throughout the two hours. I was also able to keep my speaking time to a minimum and instead focus on giving more time for the students.  I continued to work on varying my correction styles and worked to incorporate more comprehension checks throughout the lesson. Another area I feel I did well in was explaining the vocabulary and instructions to the students. Several of them later commented that they found my explanations easy to follow and understand.

What to tweak:

               In the future, I’d like to try and elicit more student input when giving explanations and instructions to the class. While I did this occasionally, I feel the students would benefit from participating more in the explanation process, as this would help in solidifying any new concepts. It also lets me the teacher see whether the students fully understand what I have just taught them. Another point I would like to work on is calling out students for speaking in their L1. While I believe that it can be beneficial being able to explain something in one’s L1, doing so too often takes away from the English learning experience.

Lesson Plan
Crossword Puzzle
Short-hand Symbols Guide
Teacher Evaluation Questionnaire