QCE52A
Language Teaching
Practice
Semester 2
Tutor: Dr Poh Soon Koh
In QCE52A Language Teaching Practice, I (with my teaching partner, Shi Han) designed two lessons and implemented them. We were able to
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Apply the language teaching approaches and assessment principles learned earlier
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Reflect on our teaching practices based on the feedback given.
We chose to teach a Sec 3 G2 / NA class to select and use appropriate language features in order to address the purpose, audience, context and culture of the task and to adopt an appropriate (formal) register. (Writing & Representing LO4)
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This was useful as it enabled us to make our understanding of formal register explicit and so facilitate our future teaching of it. For students in the given class profile, who are "less accustomed to having to ... scrutinize vocabulary words that are intentionally used by writers for impact and effect", this lesson aims to make their word choice more deliberate.
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In our initial run of the lesson, we included too many language features to focus on, including the use of modals. This was an area of improvement for our subsequent lesson preparation. Hence, for the final microteaching assessment, we selected the following language features:
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Demonstrative pronouns
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Collective nouns and
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Passivisation
Which Shi Han memorably represented as 'DCP' - Digital Colour Printer.
Our unit task was:
By the end of the unit, students will write in the role of the Peer Support Board chairperson. Students will produce a proposal for the Secondary One orientation and address it to the Head of Department for Student Development.
I will be happy to provide a copy of our lesson plan and materials on request. I have attached a copy of my personal reflections to this post.
I was proficient in checking for understanding and providing feedback by providing immediate feedback to each group with both oral and written comments.
I was able to use some teacher moves successfully which I will employ again in future.
For instance, having noticed that group 4 had made a similar error to group 1, I invited group 1 to identify the error and group 4 to correct it. I used this move to give students from group 1 the opportunity to apply what they have learnt via in-class activities. This also allowed me to affirm group 1’s progress and to evaluate whether my feedback was successful, or whether re-teaching was necessary.
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I was also able to use a table for immediate feedback on each group's successes in demonstrating the lesson objectives. It was also useful for me to consolidate the strategies that the class uses most successfully and areas for future work.
In future, I would use teaching aids more effectively by comparing all student attempts on the same screen to help students see the similarities and differences in their attempts. This would also cut down on potential repetition when giving feedback to each group.
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In terms of creating a positive classroom culture, I could also better empower learners. My peers noticed that I tend to adopt a teacher persona with an expert knowledge base. However, I need to encourage pupils to take risks (e.g. by questioning others’ ideas) and to allow them to be involved in decision making.
In future, rather than provide all the feedback, I would first have a round of peer critique (in a constructive spirit), where students can affirm and suggest improvements to each other’s work.
Please find below a copy of my final reflection for the module: