Reflection Task
Did I hear all my students talk today? Why/why not?
I can say yes. However, I didn’t hear all of them talking equally. For
example, most of them interacted well when we had an open discussion
about time and used the clock; they even corrected each other during the
peer-check and the practice activity by the end. On the other hand, there
were almost two or three learners who didn’t react efficiently. They were
either shy to interact with their colleagues due to gender differences, or
they were weaker and needed to be matched with another partner. This
would decrease their feeling of a language barrier and make them more
relaxed, so it might be better to change their places next time.
How involved/interested/motivated were my students today? How
was this demonstrated in the lesson?
Mostly, they were satisfactorily involved in the lesson, and they were
highly motivated by the topic and the material, as it was a practical,
everyday language. This was demonstrated in the lesson through the
lead-in and the first activity, when I divided them into two groups to
order time words before moving to our target language. It also appeared
in their interaction during the elicitation stage. They were also
motivated, however shy, when we played time-chain as a whole class
activity. They laughed, corrected each other, and had a short
conversation and a game by the end of the time. However, I may need to
plan more speaking activities in my future lessons to raise their level of
involvement and their autonomy.
How much student participation and interaction was there in my
lesson? Was this enough? How could I increase it?
There were different patterns of interaction during the lesson. It started
with (teacher-students) and (students-teacher) interaction patterns. Then,
there was a lot of (student-student) interaction when they peer-checked,
and when they practised the short conversation of time and did the
drawn clocks activity together. In addition, there was a (student – all)
interaction when they started moving the hands of the clock and asked
each other about time. However, using these different interaction
patterns could lead to better participation. I think they needed more time
to participate freely without my interference. So, it could be increased by
using less controlled practices and more freer ones later.
How challenging/easy were the activities? Did students have
enough time to complete activities? Did students have opportunities
to talk to each other?
Some activities were more challenging than others. For example, it was
fun, despite being a challenge for shy learners, when they lined up in a
circle and started asking each other about time; they moved the clock
arms and distributed it to the next speaker. Some of them were a bit shy
to interact in public; therefore, it took more time than expected.
On the other hand, practising the conversation from the book and
drawing the clock were much easier for them. It was also smoother and
more relaxing when they asked their partner about the time and drew
their clocks.
Yet, they needed more time to complete the activity and to talk more
freely. Yes, they had the opportunity to participate together, but they
should get more time.
How did I help students today? What progress did they make?
Could I have helped them more in any way?
I satisfactorily helped the students today to gain more linguistic
knowledge and enrich their acquisition. They could use the time
language, and they read the clock successfully. Nevertheless, I could
have helped them more if I had provided more sufficient monitoring, as I
needed to intervene and provide guidance to the weaker learners at exact
points.
Questions for my tutor.
How can I be less nervous next time? Although I had prepared
well, I felt distracted by other issues, which affected my
performance.
