See the world through the language learning!

Here are some comments for Group 6.

1. Basically, you prepare many things for this writing class. But, I suggest the structure of presentation be revised. For example, you start with the introduction of writing via concepts from a list of writers and researchers. Then, the class moves to the main teaching parts and ends with summery. I just find this order is not that smooth and cohesive. Maybe the introduction part can be moved to the end of this presentation.

2. Though you combine many teachers’ styles and personalities into your presentation and this indeed brings many humorous effects, I have strong feeling that you are actors rather than teachers to me in this class.

3. Most of time it’s teacher-led teaching. Undoubtedly you all teachers are excellent in acting, as Alice suggests, it will be better for students being actors themselves in front of their peers. At the same time, not only students can practice speaking but their peers can train their listing skills.

4. I, as a student in this writing class, feel that teachers seldom give detailed guidance or rules for me to follow. What I mean is the language parts, such as which adjective words I can describe scenery, and food or even the transitional words. With some basic language skill training, I think students can produce better works with clear logic.

5. Teacher should give us more feedbacks on our pieces of wiring. Moreover, it is not that proper to share writing with peers via reading it out loud, only because I can’t catch all the detailed points whether my peer’s spelling or grammar is correct or not. Besides, it will be nicer if peers can give feedbacks to each other more frequently. In other words, peer comments should be adopted.

~Even though I felt a bit sleepy today, in general I still had a good time and learned a lot from this school visit~

In this article, there would be discussions in two parts, relating to observing teaching and observing teaching resources.

Observation of Teaching- Gifted English Class

Date: 4/25 Teacher: Xu Su Ai(ping-ying) Graders: 8 Unit:5

Feedback

1. Manage time well

Wow, it is incredibly amazing that Teacher Xu could invite students to do so many activities within 45 minutes. (See from the column above) I’d say every second is learning time for every student in class, and no time is wasted. Besides, all activities kept students busy and each activity wouldn’t last so long to bore students out. I do feel teacher Xu taught English effectively and efficiently.

2. Use teaching aids

It is quite impressive that teacher Xu showed students some colorful pictures while teaching vocabulary. Learning words via pictures could stimulate left brain learning which spurs students’ imagination. In addition, CD player was frequently utilized no matter teacher Xu was teaching reading, vocabulary or listening.

3. More English practice for students to do after class

Let alone endless exercises in class. Teacher Xu also assigned many outside readings for students to do. With wide exposure to English story books, it would be hard to believe that students wouldn’t make any progress in the end.

4. Many interaction between teacher and students

This was a small scale class, with only six students. As a result, teacher Xu could easily continue having interaction with each pupil.

5. Focus on oral and listening skills

Teacher Xu spoke the target language (English) only during 45 minutes. There was no doubt that students could practice a lot in listening and speaking all the time in such a natural way.

Observation of Teaching Resources and Documents-Feedback

1. Clear grading system/comment

When teachers graded students’ writing, they would give a grade according to content, grammar or words respectively. Furthermore, in the final report card, teachers gave a comment to each student suggestions related to each need, such as how to improve his/her English skills, and where he/she should work harder on.

2. Diverse writing topics

I found writings in students’ portfolios were all full of fun and creativity, such as

A. To write a story according to 3-square comic

B. To write a poem about themselves or their school teachers with the same structure and pattern

C. To keep a dairy

D. To write a recipe

I even found that students wrote a report on how to travel to U.K., which was included transportation, culture, food, money, and weather. How practical and fascinating it was for students to write something like this!

3. Professional research paper

Gifted students were so remarkable. They wrote such professional research papers with graphics in English. I really wouldn’t forget the works they had done!

4. Extensive teaching resources

I could find that teachers did so much homework and research before/during/after the process of teaching. For example, a teacher found out information about film rating in U.S.A. and Taiwan through website. The material was rather informative and attractive.

Thanks for the group five’s presentation. You did a generally good job.

I loved the beginning part a lot, the way to present some pictures relating to today’s lesson. Those pictures did catch my attention and arouse my interest about today’s lesson. Later when it came to introduction of new words, I found it hard to memorize all those advanced new words within a short period of time. It would be great if teachers gave us more time to guess the meaning of words or try to make a sentence for each new word. Then, it could relieve students’ anxiety and difficulty in the reading part later on.

During the main teaching part, reading a prayer from a General MacArthur, I felt a bit tired by the teacher-led strategy (around 15-20 minutes). I started to wonder how to make this lesson a bit lively if I taught this lesson. I might ask each group of students to analyze each paragraph and counted how many expectations the father wanted his son to be. I could also invite each group to write key words on the blackboard. After this, I could come to explain more about this article.

By the way, I’d say teaching this prayer was not so easy because it was not a story full of fun. But instead, this prayer was full of wisdom and expectation from a father who loved his son so deep. If at the end of this lesson students could get the power from this prayer and felt touched by a father’s expectation, then it could reach the goal of arousing students’ affection part of learning.(情意)

For the assignment part, I suggested teachers could ask student to create a short prayer by themselves by using some of new words taught today. Students could imagine themselves as grandparents, parents, siblings, lovers and then write to specific people they wanted. Additionally, teachers also could encourage students practice more about this prayer and recite it in class in the next class. For course, never forget to praise those who were willing to recite in class.

From my participation of speaking lesson, I felt group 4(Billy and Harry) provided students with a very cozy atmosphere-a nice music, dim light, and a restaurant photo as a background. So, I did feel quite stress-free and feel that I was sitting in a restaurant at that moment. An authentic environment helped me make a connection of learning with the real world.

It was also very impressive that Harry showed us the multimedia learning website made by TKU. With the animation and sound effect, I found learning itself full lots of joy and fun.

In the end, it was also good for students to practice English via role play, which stimulated students’ imagination. But calculating part included the service charge was truly a headache for me. That let me feel more that I was learning Math instead of English!

Thanks for the group three’s presentation. You did a generally great job.

1. Chose interesting and suitable learning material for students

I felt the extract from a film you chose for listening material was very lively and appealing. I liked it a lot. But if your learners were high school level, you might need to choose something a bit easy for them.

2. Repetition is needed

In general, students need to listen more than once to fill in the blanks. So, it was good that group 3 let students listen to the film for around 2-3 times.

3. Checking answer before students’ performance

I thought teachers should check answers of the blanks before assigning students to perform on the stage instead of after students’ performance.

4. Let the peers grade each other

I felt this was so wonderful because all students could feel that they actively got involved in learning. Somehow teachers did need to offer space for students to grade themselves.

* The grading sticks you designed were so cute and fantastic!

5. Practice new words from the listening material

I liked the way you put lists of words on the blackboard and encouraged students to pick up a word and to make a sentence by themselves. This could let students exercise (move) a bit instead of sitting on the chair for too long.

6. Remember to assign the homework

If teacher assigned some homework for students to do, they could practice a bit more outside the class and remember better about today’s lesson.

Observation (1)

From the observation of teacher Liu (class 207), I found that she had full prepared many questions related to the reading context for students to answer. This was no doubt a good way for teacher to know if students comprehended the reading material; meanwhile students were able to think and to look for answers by themselves. Besides, teacher Liu spent around 40 minutes by the means of teacher-led interaction. (Teacher asked questions and then students answered questions.) In the last 10 minutes, individual/pair work was conducted when it was time for students to make a sentence out of each new vocabulary from the reading context. Generally speaking, teacher Liu taught very smoothly and had good control of time management.

Observation (2)

From the observation of teacher Cindy (class 308), I found that the learning materials she prepared were very interesting. They were all about dialogue poems and even some handouts with blanks for students to develop and create. In Cindy’s class, most of the time was the individual or pair work. For students with higher motivation and achievement, they could learn well through this way. As for students with lower motivation and less achievement, they might need extra guide and help from their peers or teachers. I did find that it’s important for students to explore learning by themselves. Nonetheless, at the same time how could teacher guarantee that all students were learning instead of talking unrelated subjects? Therefore, I think teachers’ class management should be well conducted. In addition, during the time individual/pair shared his/their work, whether the other students paid the attention to it should be concerned and ensured.

Feedback
From the sharing of different teachers, I did lean a lot from every teacher’s experience, belief and advice. Here are some points that help me to have further thoughts.

1. Teaching design

No matter students are in the first or third grade in high school, there is still a need for students to have peer interaction in learning. It will be very dull if there is only individual practice and teacher-led learning. Besides, teachers have to plan the lesson much earlier when they really teach because many students’ activities can be prepared fully and practiced in advance. Both the teacher and students can enjoy a sense of security and a sense of achievement later.

2. Evaluation and award

Not only teachers but also peers can conduct the evaluation. This is a way to accept opinions from different perspectives. Meanwhile, students also feel much involved with the class and have more interaction with teachers and peers. Sometimes, teachers can give some award to students when they finish a big project. This is a way to show appreciation to students’ hard work and involvement.

3. Professional/ Individual development

Teachers should keep learning while they are teaching. Since teaching is lively, teachers need to explore diverse aspects of things in life according to their own interest. Then, teachers can apply what they have experienced and learned to their teaching, and at the same time students can have more fun in learning.

4. Time management

Many teachers no longer focus on teaching itself, but they have to get involved in the administration work. So, how much time teachers are going to prepare for a lesson should be taken into account when it comes to time management. Generally, teachers still need to prepare the schoolwork during their own free time. So, teachers have to strike the balance between work and play during their lifetime teaching career.

5. Be yourself

Every teacher has his/her own personality and ability; therefore, it is very important to find out what we are good at and who we are as teachers. The better we understand ourselves, the more we can get along with others, included students and other teachers.