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Problem Formation
For the most part, I feel great about what goes on in my class on a
daily basis. My students are actively involved in the lessons that I plan, and
through various activities and formative or summative assessments they
demonstrate their comprehension of what I teach them. There is a positive
atmosphere in my classes, and the learning environment is an organized,
productive, and respectful zone. I do my best to integrate a diverse range of
exercise types which are engaging and integrate the use of technology when
applicable. It seems to me that my class is running smoothly, and that the
students and I are on the same page.
I walked into class one day, with the aforementioned perspective in
mind. I was proud of the previous days work, and eager to build on what we
had already learned. After everyone was settled in I addressed the class and
asked them, so, what did we do yesterday? The sound which followed was
a shock to my system, and a much needed awakening. That deafening
sound which followed, was utter and complete silence.
I reflected back on the previous days class and remembered how the
class participated in all my planned activities. I had introduced a new
grammar point, comparative adjectives, and the beginning was a little rough.
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Towards the beginning of the lesson, they left out the than which is an
essential part of using comparative adjectives. Some students kept
forgetting the er ending, another essential component. However, after
various identification, fill-in-the-blank, and multiple choice activities, my
students were able to demonstrate correct application of the rules for
utilizing comparative. After so much work on comparative adjectives the
previous day, how was it possible, that when questioned one day later about
what they did, the students were unable to answer. I realized that there was
definitely an issue here, and something I was doing, or not doing, was the
cause of this.
II.
Question Formation
Despite working hard and completing the tasks I assign to them, the
students demonstrated to me that they were unaware of the class objectives
of the lesson. I thought about what I do in my role as the stage director and
chief actor as Cazden puts it, to direct the attention of the students to the
main purpose of each lesson. Just as actors need direction in knowing what
emotions they are trying to convey and elicit, students need to know what
objectives they are trying to meet and demonstrate competency in. Even if
they understand directions and goals of an isolated task which is a piece of
the whole, are they aware of the overall goal they are trying to accomplish?
It is nearly impossible to build a puzzle without having the visual of the final
product one is trying to create, so how can students be expected to
consolidate and apply various tasks if they dont know what their overall aim
is?
Upon reflection and analysis of video footage of my classes, I realized that
the only consistent thing I do to emphasize the days objectives is to simply
write them on the left hand side of the board at the start of the class. More
often than not, I do not even read or say the objectives aloud; I just go
straight into the lesson and the sub-components of the overarching
objective. I thought about the impact this lack of direction could be having
on the overall educational experience of my students. Without having a clear
and stressed direction, it could be deduced that students would not only
under appreciate the value or purpose in each individual task, but be blind to
the connection between previous and future lessons. While as the designer
of a sequence of activities which lead to a function and purposeful aim I am
aware of the direction of each class, I could see how the lack of emphasizing
this path could result in students interpreting this path differently. Perhaps
they would interpret each task as a part of random series, and not even be
aware of the intention behind each one.
If as the director of the class, I do a better job of highlighting the purpose
of each lesson for my students, I can aid in giving shape and purpose to the
learning experience [] which would raise learners awareness about [] the
secret of the lesson by showing them clearly where they are, what they are
doing and where they are going (Scrivener, 2012). Not only does this
practice orient the students, but also gives them a benchmark to refer to,
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III.
and Time-bound (so that the learners achieve them within our lessons time
limits to prevent them from leaving the classroom with gaps or questions).
Additionally, I will provide the students with verbal reminders throughout the
class what the focus of the lesson is. Lastly, I will obtain feedback from the
students at the closing of lessons via a questionnaire about the lessons
objectives. Through my personal reflections and the student feedback both
oral and written on the questionnaire, I will be able to determine if the
aforementioned strategies aid in heightening student awareness of learning
objectives.
IV.
Data Gathering
In this section I will provide the details for each of the seven strategies,
including: lesson objectives, what I trialed, the learners response, and my
evaluation of overall efficacy. Reflective notes, questionnaires and teaching
materials are located in Appendix A, B, and C.
saying today, we will practice speech fillers to use in the speaking part of
your IELTS exam in order to gain some thinking time to come up with a good
answer . This is something that had not previously done in my lesson.
How the learners responded: The students all immediately focused their
eyes and attention on me. The lesson flowed well, the students participated
actively in the activities, learned a few time fillers and used them
appropriately in the questions they needed time to answer. Ten minutes
before the end of the lesson, I asked if the students found that days lesson
helpful, especially for their speaking exam. The answer I got came
completely out of the blue, because the more vocal students said: This is
easy. We need more vocabulary. I felt a little disappointed not only because
of the fact that the students did not find my lesson as helpful and easily
applicable as I would have liked them to, but also because they completely
ignored what the activities and materials for that particular lesson were
leading to. Instead, the students indirectly suggested a very vague aim
regarding vocabulary, which I am not sure if they could narrow down to a
more particular learning objective, for example, useful travel vocabulary,
adjectives to describe human appearances etc.
Evaluation: Upon receiving this feedback, I realized that there could be a
link between helping the students firstly in understanding the logic behind
what we learn in class and secondly, being able to evaluate their own
performance in class and relate it to their performance in an out-of-class
task, such as the IELTS exam.
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they did not have to answer the questions on the cards in full as the focus of
the activity was to only identify the tense of the question and think of short
example answers using the same tenses. At the end of the task and after
the students reported their answers in an open class, I asked the students to
tell me how they could use this strategy in their life.
How the learners responded: They all responded that in their daily life it
is very important to be able to identify quickly what tenses the verbs used
must be, especially when responding to other peoples questions, for
example the questions in the IELTS Speaking interview.
Evaluation: I think that setting SMART goals in class was definitely
extremely helpful not only towards the students performance in the
activities through which my learning aim was achieved, but also towards the
learners understanding of the real-life extent of the learning that they
achieved within a lessons limited amount time.
end of the lesson, the students were asked to tell me what we had done on
the day and the reason why.
How the learners responded: Everybody stared at me surprised, as I
dont usually do this. It is often a challenge for me to get everything done
within the allotted time, and there is less of a conclusion or closing to class.
On this day, when I asked the students what they learned, only a few brave
students repeated in detail what they had been asked to do in each activity
of the lesson.
Evaluation: By that time, I realized that I should look into adopting
alternative methods to remind the students of how each activity is linked to
an overall learning aim to be achieved by the end of each session. I think I
should have considered writing the aims on the board while also announcing
them orally. I think it would also be a good idea to keep mentioning the
objectives throughout the lesson so that the students do not lose track of the
learning focus.
and 3 of the IELTS speaking exam. For this purpose, I gave the students a set
of photos of people in their daily life and asked them to think of a few
adjectives to describe them. After working in pairs and reporting their
adjectives in an open class, I asked the students to tell me the reason why
this activity was selected for them.
How the learners responded: The students said that this would help them
in all parts of the IELTS speaking exam and therefore I wrote on the board,
practice adjectives to describe peoples personalities for IELTS Speaking
part 1-3. Next, I gave the students a set of questions of some past IELTS
speaking tests to use the adjectives they mentioned earlier and after they
finished doing the task in pairs, I asked the class to tell me what they did and
how many of the adjectives they used. The students listed the adjectives
they used one by one. Ten minutes before the end, I asked what the lesson
was about and the students replied that they learned, reviewed and
practiced adjectives to describe personalities to be used in the IELTS
speaking test.
Evaluation: My attempt to help the students understand the rationale
behind the lesson was successful. Perhaps, I could also try to gather the
students reactions to what I trialed on paper so that they get a few extra
moments to reflect on how well they did in class and how useful what they
learned in the lesson was.
Strategy 5: Questionnaire
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aim of the questionnaire I had given them. Despite the fact that I thought it
would be very difficult to get the students be more aware of well they
achieved the aims of our lessons, they proved me wrong as they all agreed
that I was interested to see how well they built their own learning. This was
quite unexpected coming from a group of learners who were used to simply
attend teachers and lessons which did not require a lot of their feedback.
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least once after I had given them the learning objectives, to remind me of
them. They started confirming the aims themselves before I even asked, by
asking questions like so miss, these [adverbs of degree when expressing a
like or dislike] are going to give me a higher mark in the IELTS speaking
exam, right?.
Evaluation: I think it might have taken some effort to get the students used
to the idea of the learning objectives being repeated in class, but it slowly
became a habit the students liked adopting.
V.
requesting the opportunity to have the time to reflect at the end of the
lessons, as a time to self-assess their achievement for the day, and as a
tool to retain the information they had learned throughout the lesson.
The benefits of focusing time and energy to emphasizing the lesson
objectives were shared for both the students and for the facilitator of the
instruction. Participating in the project has given me access to important
practices which I plan to incorporate from now one, as I have seen that
they are not time consuming, and are very effective in contributing to an
organized, aware, analytical, and efficient learning environment.
VI.
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References
Cazden, Courtney B. Classroom Discourse: The Language of Teaching and
Learning. Heinemman: Portsmouth, NH, 2001.
Conzemius, Anne, and Jan O'Neill. The power of SMART goals: Using goals to
improve student learning. Solution Tree Press, 2011.
Davies, Alun. "What do learners really want from their EFL course?." ELT
journal 60.1 (2006): 3-12.
Krishnasamy, Pramela Krish N., and Bee Eng Wong. "Malaysian learners and
their perceptions towards online English language courses." Turkish Online
Journal of Distance Education 10.2 (2009): 203-224.
Maolida, Elis Homsini. "The Influence of Teahers Instructional Objectives on
Variaions of Exchange Patterns in an EFL Classroom." Indonesian Journal of
Applied Linguistics 3.1 (2013): 68-80.
Scrivener, Jim. Classroom management techniques. Cambridge university
press, 2012.
Tudor, Ian. Learner-centredness as language education. Vol. 279. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 1996.
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Appendix A:
Student
Questionnaire
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Name:________________________________________________
1 What did you learn in the previous lesson?
2 What activities did you use it in? (i.e. general
writing, IELTS reading etc).
3: good
4: very good
5: excellent
4 What do you think you would do differently
next time?
5 Was what you learned today useful? Why?
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Appendix B:
The Teaching
Materials
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You use fillers even in your language without noticing them. Native
speakers always use them in speaking when they are thinking about
some complex issues. This allows them to carry on speaking without
pausing much.
Today, Im just giving you few fillers that can mostly use at the
beginning of a sentence and they will allow you some time to think
about a topic. If used properly, they will be very helpful in making your
speech sound natural. So, lets take a look at few and their usage in
IELTS questions.
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1. Well
Now, it may look very short and simple filler. However, when used
naturally, it will create a huge impression. Many students however fail
to understand the tone of this word and they speak as if they are using
it forcefully. Listen to its natural use and then use it in your speaking.
What are your main job responsibilities?
Well, As I said, I am an electrician. So, I try to maintain all the
electrical panels and note down electrical power consumption
throughout the day. I also manage most of the emergency switch overs
to emergency battery supply in case of power failure.
2. Hmmm, Thats a tough one.
You can use it mostly in the part 3 questions because there youll find
some very complex questions and they may be hard to respond to
immediately.
Would you say that in the future, there will be less job
opportunities due to technological advancements?
Hmmm mmm, Thats a tough one. I guess there will be less jobs as
far as manual work is concerned because we tend to use machines for
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Now, as a part of your study, you can collect such expressions and
phrases for your English speaking and note them in your notebook.
Review them and use them in your speech with your speaking partner.
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Look at your list with your friends, review them and make a
commitment to use them for a week while you practise speaking. That
way you will start using them naturally. Can you find any other filler?
Which are they?
Materials adapted from: IELTS Resource a blog for IELTS study, last day
accessed: 11th November 2015
2. Worksheet used in Lesson 2
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Appendix C:
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My Informal
Reflective Notes
Reflection 1, Lesson 1
In my attempt to help my students get a clearer idea about the reasons why I
choose particular materials and activities for my lessons with them, I went in the
classroom the first day, started a lesson by verbally announcing the objective, i.e.
today, we will practice speech fillers to use in the speaking part of your IELTS exam
in order to gain some thinking time to come up with a good answer . The lesson
flowed well, the students participated actively in the activities, learned a few time
fillers and used them appropriately in the questions they needed time to answer.
However, ten minutes before the end of the lesson, I asked if the students found
that days lesson helpful, especially for their speaking exam. The answer I got came
completely out of the blue, because the more vocal students said: This is easy. We
need more vocabulary. I felt a little disappointed not only because of the fact that
27
the students did not find my lesson as helpful and easily applicable as I would have
liked them to, but also because they completely ignored what the activities and
materials for that particular lesson were leading to. Instead, the students indirectly
suggested a very vague aim regarding vocabulary, which I am not sure if they could
narrow down to a more particular learning objective, for example, useful travel
vocabulary, adjectives to describe human appearances etc. At this point, I realized
that there could be a link between helping the students first understanding the logic
behind what we learn in class and secondly, being able to evaluate their own
performance in class and relate it to their performance in an out-of-class task, such
as the IELTS exam.
Reflection 2, Lesson 2
This time round, I thought of focusing on how clearly the aims of my lessons are
portrayed towards the students. I made this decision to ensure that when I give the
aims the students are not confused about what they were going to learn. Perhaps, I
was unclear regarding the learning aims in the first lesson when the students did
not relate the language practice in class to their IELTS speaking exam or even real
life communication. I tried to make this lessons aims as Specific, Measureable,
Achievable, Realistic and time-bound as possible. For this purpose, I announced that
we would focus on identifying which tenses to use in a number of IELTS Speaking,
part 2 cards in the exam. The questions on the cards included phrases like where
would you like to.., what is the best present you have ever got.., who used to be
your favorite relative and why.., etc. I purposely highlighted the fact that in the
lesson the students had to only identify what kind of tenses they could use for each
of those questions and perhaps think of one or two example answers to show me
how well they use the tenses they had identified. I also clarified that in case the
students did not know the name of the tense, I wanted them to just give me a
suitable example answer to the question. I gave the students twenty minutes to
view and discuss the cards while monitoring to ensure they were clear about our
task. While monitoring, I kept reminding the students that they did not have to
answer the questions on the cards in full as the focus of the activity was to only
identify the tense of the question and think of short example answers using the
same tenses. At the end of the task and after the students reported their answers
in an open class, I asked the students to tell me how they could use this strategy in
their life. They all responded that in their daily life it is very important to be able to
identify quickly what tenses the verbs used must be, especially when responding to
other peoples questions. As a result, I think that I personally present the lesson
aims quite clearly, so this is not getting in the way of the students clear
understanding of what is happening in class.
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Reflection 3
As vocal and confident in speaking as the Arabic students can be, I saw that when I
verbally announced the lessons objectives, the students were unable to remember
them by the end of the lesson. During my first sessions with this particular class,
before warming up I would just say today, we will study X because of Y. A few
minutes before the end of the lesson, the students were asked to tell me what we
had done on the day and the reason why. Everybody stared at me surprised and
only a few brave students repeated in detail what they had been asked to do in
each activity of the lesson. By that time, I realized that I should look into adopting
alternative methods to remind the students of how each activity is linked to an
overall learning aim to be achieved by the end of each session. I think I should
have considered writing the aims on the board while also announcing them orally. I
think it would also be a good idea to keep mentioning the objectives throughout the
lesson so that the students do not lose track of the learning focus.
Reflection 4
This time I only focused on the first objective of my project. I thought it would be a
good idea to observe if the students get me when I choose and ask them to do
activities that I think could contribute to their learning needs as a group. The aim is
to review, practice and use adjectives to describe peoples personalities to be used
in part 1, 2 and 3 of the IELTS speaking exam. For this purpose, I gave the students
a set of photos of people in their daily life and asked them to think of a few
adjectives to describe them. After working in pairs and reporting their adjectives in
an open class, I asked the students to tell me the reason why this activity was
selected for them. The students then told me that this would help them in all parts
of the IELTS speaking exam and therefore I wrote on the board practice adjectives
to describe peoples personalities for IELTS Speaking part 1-3. Next, I gave the
students a set of questions of some past IELTS speaking tests to use the adjectives
they mentioned earlier and after they finished doing the task in pairs, I asked the
class to tell me what they did and how many of the adjectives they used. The
students listed the adjectives they used one by one. Ten minutes before the end, I
asked what the lesson was about and the students replied that they learned,
reviewed and practiced adjectives to describe personalities to be used in the IELTS
speaking test. My first attempt to make my students understand the purpose of my
lesson was successful.
Reflection 5
Immediately after the previous lesson, I tried to focus on the second objective of
this project. For this reason, I asked the students to complete a questionnaire (see
appendix) in order to evaluate how well they think they performed in the previous
tasks and whether they found them helpful and relevant to their individual learning
needs. I tried to allow as much time as the students needed to complete the
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Reflection 6
I had a few surprises in the lesson today. After the usual announcing or writing my
learning objectives on the board, and keeping encouraging the students to remind
me what we were learning and why, a few students asked to complete another
questionnaire and hand it back in to me. I smiled and I asked why they wanted to do
it and the response I got was because last time they noted down what they learned,
it helped them still remember it. So I rushed quickly back in the teachers room, got
a few more copies of my questionnaire and gave it to the students. They very
happily completed it again and gave it back to me. I think the students are indirectly
urging for some sort of a learning journal that perhaps I should not keep in my
records. It would be a great idea, if they were given these questionnaires back to
keep and review at their own time. I will make more copies and hand them out as
journals in the next lesson.
Reflection 7
The students response during the previous lesson, made me realize that students
reflect better on how well they achieve a learning aim, if they are given time and
guidelines to note it down. I think this is drawn by the fact that in the Arabic
societies and schools, students take writing thinks down more seriously than just
reflecting on them. Which is why in this lesson, I distributed little booklets I made by
copying and binding the questionnaire I gave out a few days ago. The students
appeared happy to have them and in the lessons that followed they kept reminding
me at the end of each lesson that they also had to write their journal before
leaving my class. After they completed each page, they wanted me to look at their
answers and correct their mistakes but I replied that this is not a form of homework
and I did not need to correct anything. But as the time went by, I thought that there
was no harm me seeing what the students thought of their own learning. On the
contrary, when they felt that they did not perform well, I could help by motivating
and support them with extra help in case they wanted me to. In addition, the
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students started getting used to my drilling at least once after I had given them the
learning objectives, to remind me of them. They started confirming the aims
themselves before I even asked, by asking questions like so miss, these [adverbs of
degree when expressing a like or dislike] are going to give me a higher mark in the
IELTS speaking exam, right?. I think it might have taken some effort to get the
students used to the idea of the learning objectives being repeated in class, but it
slowly became a habit the students liked adopting.
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