CRITICAL REFLECTION

According to Milkova (2013), a lesson plan is the instructors road map of what
students need to learn and how it will be done effectively during teaching and learning
process. She said that the teachers should identify the learning objectives for the class
meeting before planning the lesson in order to design appropriate learning activities and
develop strategies to obtain feedback on student learning. In her research, she addressed
main three key components which are objectives for student learning, teaching and learning
activities and strategies to check student understanding. These three were mainly integrated
to prepare effective lesson plan for pupils. In addition, according to Houston (2009), he
stated that lesson planning provides time for the teacher to think through resources that

will best capture the attention of students and choose learning activities that will clearly
convey content required for students to meet the lesson objectives and the lesson plan
designed is a reflective opportunity to make decisions on what activities will best meet
the needs of students.
As a requirement of TSL 3103 coursework, we were instructed to design effective
lesson plans with complete teaching and learning materials. So, I would like to thank
everyone who helped me directly and indirectly in completing these assignment tasks within
the time given. At the same time, I would not forget to thank to our respected lecturer
Madam Elizabeth Koh who helped us a lot by marking the lesson plan for few times without
any hesitations. As a whole, from the microteaching session that we did to present the group
work helped me to gain lots of wonderful experiences and lessons which would be essential
for us in completing the given tasks.

Overall, through the microteaching session that we did in groups it helped me to gain
confidence level and assurance about my teaching an ESL classroom. Once after finished
our group microteaching, I felt relieved and believed that our group lesson was simple and
very detailed with complete teaching and learning materials. The lesson plan was very
detailed where the teacher will be able to know what teacher supposed to teach and what
pupils need to do with the teaching materials prepared. Our lecturer praised our effort in
preparing the good teaching materials for the lesson plan. Moreover, we did the lesson plan
by concerning time which we have to carry out the activity planned within the time stated in
order to achieve the learning objectives. For microteaching, we presented Language Arts
lesson plan where the teacher will give input on how to recite the poem in the presentation.

During this stage, pupils enjoyed reciting it with excitement. We chose a jazz chants and
adapted according to our lesson so that pupils will understand the content of the lesson
better and it helps to trigger pupils mind to keep focus during the lesson.
Then, during practice stage the teaching was took over by another group member.
She taught pupils on how to recite the poem using Old MacDonalds tune with actions which
promotes fun learning in the classroom. Using songs tune to teach poem will help pupils to
enjoy the lesson to the maximum and at the same time it helps pupils to pay attention
throughout the lesson. Not only that, after the teacher taught the poem with tune and
actions, she assigned pupils into few groups in which pupils need to prepare actions for the
poem they learnt in presentation stage. Besides that, using tune and body movements to
teach poem help pupils to develop their musical and kinaesthetic intelligence too where he
learning of English greatly affected.
Moreover, our lesson we had also prepared group activities which tends to promote
cooperation among pupils and develop interpersonal relationship too. So the main reason
why do we encourage group activities is to promote cooperation and to enable them to live
as a community. In production stage, I taught them how to create paper flower using papers
creatively. During this stage, as first I showed the instructions on how to make the paper
flower creatively via video so that pupils can understand better rather than using the
traditional methods. Pupils were also enjoyed themselves a lot by doing the paper flowers
creatively by their own.
Based on our teaching, we were evaluated by our lecturer and course mates by
focusing on the element of a good lesson plan such in content, variety of teaching and
learning materials and so on. They evaluated us using feedback forms provided and I
received valuable feedback from my peers and the lecturer for the effort that I have done
throughout the process of preparation of T&L materials and it has been a tremendous
experience for me in learning on how should a lesson plan should be aligned. For the
feedbacks that I received constructive feedback in the form of feedback forms helped me to
identify strength and weaknesses during my teaching. Some strengths that people helped
me to find out is about voice projection. Most of them commented that I have good voice
projection where the pupils can hear instructions clearly. Moreover, I had also found that I
can control the classroom very well where the pupils totally engaged in the lesson. At the
same time, I received feedback forms them who said that the activity prepared was an
interesting one which can cultivate pupils interest towards the lesson. But, there were also
few weaknesses in my teaching. In feedback forms, my course mate commented that the
paper flower created can be related to the topic where the pupils can plant the flowers in the

model of a garden i which the lecturer suggested to change a bit in closure in which stage
the pupils will plant the paper flowers. In addition, my course mates also helped me to
improvise the activity by commenting in feedback forms where they said that I shoul walk
around the classroom to ensure that everyone is engaged in the lesson.
As a conclusion, through the process of preparing, teaching, receiving feedback and
reflecting on my own and others teaching, I learned that it is very important that an ESL
teacher should give proper guidance for students so that they can learn specific skills and
their learning process. At last, I would like to thank again all the parties who lend me their
hands in order to complete few tasks of this assignment wither directly or indirectly.

REFERENCES

Milkova, S (2013). Strategies for Effective Lesson Planning. Retrieved on 20th March 2016
from http://www.crlt.umich.edu/gsis/p2_5.com

Houston (2009). Develop Effective Lesson Plans. Retrieved on 20th March 2016 from
http://houstonisdpsd.org/site_content/17-effective-practice-pages/283-developeffective-lesson-plans?view=item.