The purpose of the first observation is to focus on how the teacher gives instructions to learners. I completed a table (please see appendix 1) in order to make my observation more focused and systematic.
The classroom size I observed was quite small and was set up in a round table setting which allowed the teacher and the students to interact much more naturally (Scrivener, 1994). There was a sense of family and a good rapport in Matt’s classroom with highly engaged students. Matt was very enthusiastic and had a great sense of humour. The course was a pre sessional Programme “for students who want to start an undergraduate or postgraduate course at university, but first need to improve their level of English” (ELTU [no date])
Matt used himself as the main learning resource and wrote on the board a few times. He used his own materials rather than the text book in this lesson. Matt began the lesson with a recap on the previous session and then went through the homework answers. He set the first activity where students had to guess if the statements in the hand outs were true or false. He did not give any instructions which resulted in the confusion of some students and therefore had to correct one learner after another.
For the second activity, students had to check if their guesses above were correct. The teacher first created some silence by standing in the middle of the class and gave some instructions. His instructions were unclear and given at once without pauses however he modelled the first example with a student. The teacher did not check if the students understood the instructions. As a result, a few of the students misunderstood what is required including myself and consequently, the teacher had to repeat the instructions...
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This task should be fun and interesting for the students. It is my hope that this activity proves to be successful for my students and helps them to understand the necessary learning objectives set forth.
Children were taught to speak in a proper manner and because they were taught to speak correctly they wrote in a proper way as well. As technology evolved and texting came more profound grammar was becoming a lost art. In Dana Goldstein’s article ,‘Why Kids Can’t Write’, she talks about what teachers are doing about grammar. The teachers are not doing much about the grammar issue in schools.
In Downs and Wardle’s article, they argue and identify the flaws in teaching writing in college. Demonstrating the misconceptions that academic writing is universal, but rather specialized in each case. Citing studies and opinions from esteemed professionals, Downs & Wardle state their points and illuminate the problem in today’s many colleges.
The first essay given in this course was about our whole composing process. This essay was hard to write about and I remember having several grammar mistakes. Sitting down and writing my process on paper,
I visited Mrs. Cable’s kindergarten classroom at Conewago elementary school one afternoon and observed a math lesson. Mrs. Cable had an attention-grabbing lesson and did many great things in the thirty minutes I observed her. I have my own personal preferences, just like every teacher, and I do have a few things I would do differently. There are also many ways this observation can be related to the material discussed in First Year Seminar.
Marzano, R. J., & Brown, J. L. (2009). A handbook for the art and science of teaching. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.
A third-grade teacher has been conducting a series of ongoing assessments of a student's oral reading. Shown below is a sentence from a text, followed by a transcription of a typical example of the student's oral reading performance.
Before coming into English 1101, I was pretty confident in my grammar abilities. However, during the beginning of the semester, I failed to spot some simple grammar mistakes due to my carelessness which significantly hurt the essay’s legitimacy. I learned to spend more time editing my papers with more cautiousness of these errors. Peer editing other classmates’ paper helped me learn about my own mistakes, because I learned to spend more time on it, providing more insightful feedback. The peer review exhibit demonstrates my growth on finding these errors. After identifying the errors, I gave the author suggestions to how she could improve her
Petty, G (2009). Teaching Today - A Practical Guide. 4th ed. Cheltenham: Nelson Thornes Ltd. p1-2
Teachers observe how the peer leaders grab the attention of the students and how they connect, so they can do a better job on enhancing the learning of the students. As the author, Fiske, says,“‘First, teachers should be encouraged to move beyond describing what they see and experience and to analyzing what is happening in their classrooms. Second, teachers should be encouraged to think about problems from an alternative perspective, particularly their student’.” For example, Mrs. James has students in her classroom that struggle with her Grammar assignments. Mrs. James continues to try and find different and unique ways for her students to actually get her lessons. She encourages her highest grade student to re-teach her lesson on Grammar. As the student, Marissa is re teaching the class this information, Mrs. James goes around the class with the role and her notebook. She’s taking notes of how each student is taking their own notes over the lesson, and she puts them all into categories. The categories are based on what kind of learner the students are: Auditory, Kinesthetic, or Visual learners. Mrs. James creates a whole new plan on how she can get reach her students on a different level for their understanding. Teachers have to learn how to deal with specific students in their classroom. Reading a curriculum and instructions aren’t going to
The purpose of this chapter is to provide an extensive review of literature on theory of writing, paragraph, grammar, errors, grammatical errors, causes of grammatical errors and error correction.
Breaking down tasks into smaller, easier steps can be an effective way to teach a classroom of students with a variety of skills and needs. In breaking down the learning process, it allows students to learn at equal pace. This technique can also act as a helpful method for the teacher to analyze and understand the varying needs of the students in the classroom. When teaching or introducing a new math lesson, a teacher might first use the most basic aspects of the lesson to begin the teaching process (i.e. teach stu...
Fotos, S. (1998). Shifting the focus from forms to form in the EFL Classroom. ELT Journal, 52(4), 301-307.
In the process of completing this coursework, I have realised that every teacher should be all-rounded and equipped with adequate skills of educating others as well as self-learning. As a future educator, we need make sure that our knowledge is always up-to-date and applicable in the process of teaching and learning from time to time. With these skills, we will be able to improvise and improve the lesson and therefore boost the competency of pupils in the process of learning. In the process of planning a lesson, I have changed my perception on lesson planning from the student’s desk to the teacher’s desk. I have taken the responsibility as a teacher to plan a whole 60-minutes lesson with my group members. This coursework has given me an opportunity
The second step in developing an engaging lesson is to focus on the instructional strategies used to help the students understand the material. It is at this point, the teacher decides what activities they will use to help address the “big ideas” or the “essential questions”.