June 3rd Teaching Reflection

I took an old lesson "Liar, Liar Pants on Fire" and tried to make it fit the PPiPP format.
I also attempted to reduce my teacher talk (TT), and to give better more direct verbal directions.

First off, I feel that the lesson did not have the "i" or isolation stage. There was no mechanical repetition of the vocabulary. I tried to get them to repeat the expressions of truth (swear it/take my word for it) and the expressions of lying (you made that up/don't stretch the truth/I think that's abunch of baloney) through CCQs but it was not very good and I cut it short. Next time it would be better to move away from having me as the center (teacher-centered) for the isolation. I think putting them into pairs and having them make up statements of truth or lies (one of each) and responding using the vocabulary might be better. It would get them communicating with each other and get the focus off of me.
I had a preview stage where I started off asking "What is a white lie?" It took a few tries as I had to repeat and reword the question but I got an answer. At this point I asked a few more questions about lying and the truth to activate their schema ("Do you lie?" "Are you a truthful person?"). Looking back it would have been much better to put the students into pairs and get them to ask questions to each other such as "Do you tell white lies? Why, why not?". This would still be activating their schema about the topic but the focus would move away from me.
I am working hard to reduce my TT commentary but I am also making sure I ask follow-up questions especially if the first answer is only "yes" or "no".
For this lesson there were six vocabulary items in total (the five above plus whopper).
As I did with this lesson before I got the students to give the definition of whopper through follow-up questions and scaffolding. I also got the students to read the vocabulary words instead of me. Looking back I could have asked the class to give an example sentence or two with the vocabulary expressions.
The preview, the presentation of the vocabulary and the attempted isolation took 9 minutes.
The first practice was with my four statements of truth or lies. When I introduced this activity I took very little time (under 20 seconds) as I rephrased the directions. A student would read one. I then put the students into pairs and I got them to discuss in one minute whether it was true or not. After one minute I asked each pair for their answers and I wrote T or F under their names on the whiteboard.
During the practice I just listened to them talking and I keep my TT to a minimum. My TT was focused on asking for their answers. This stage lasted about 14 minutes. The one thing I would change is that at times I have reduced my TT but occasionally I lapse back into too much. When we discussed the answers for the four statements of mine (true or false) I added information about each one (several sentences). It would have been better to say nothing and only talk if they asked some questions regarding each one.
For the final practice I had them work in groups. They were to write down two truths and two lies (in full sentences) first. After eight minutes of writing I put them into groups to read their statements to each other. My directions were under 30 seconds and done verbally with one ICQ.
Two things I would change about this phase of the lesson are: points and order of reading the statements. At first I talked about getting points for each person who incorrectly guessed whether the statement was truth or a lie. As there were no prizes to be given the points were not necessary. To be honest the students did not follow this part of the directions as they seemed to deem it not important. Secondly, after we started one group suggested that we get each person to read all four of their lies at one time. I had given directions for them to read one at a time as I wanted the talking to move around the groups. However, as the group members pointed out to me my directions made it easier for others in the group to guess whether statements 3 or 4 were true or a lie based on 1 and 2 statements. Therefore, next time I will take their suggestion and get every group member to take turns reading all four statements at one time. Then the other members will guess their veracity.
During the group stage of practice my monitoring mostly involved listening and asking questions or anwersing vocabulary questions from the students. I noticed one instance where I started to chat too much. The struggle to reduce my TT is an ongoing effort but I feel I can get it down to an even lower amount.

I did have a production activity for the lesson but the video stopped recording and the class ended.
I was going to ask the students in pairs to write a 2-3 paragraph WHOPPER. After writing I would get them to post their whoppers on the whiteboard. Then each pair would walk around and read all the other written whoppers. I was not sure whethere I was going to ask their a vote of hands or through stickers placed on each writing which one was considered the best by the class.

Next week I will this lesson again (different class) with the changes I am thinking of or that were suggested to me by the students.