As I have gone through the course I have learned that I need to self-reflect more on what I have just taught. What did I do well? What could be done differently? Was the lesson too teacher-centered (focused on me)? Should I eliminate any of the activities? Can I think of a different way to do the preview, presentation. isolation, or practice phases of the lesson?
In addition, I need to edit and revise my lessons for my Speaking Skills course.
This week I was able to revise and teach my lesson on animal collocations.
In the past the lesson had nine collocations or idioms. I decided this time to eliminate several of them such as "a tame animal" and "behave like an animal" as I felt they were not useful. I also took out "there isn't enough room to swing a cat" as nobody uses that phrase anymore. I got it down to four at the start that I felt were still used by native speakers and/or interesting. They were "fish around for information/fish around for compliments", "there are plenty more fish in the sea", "curiosity killed the cat" and "when the cat's away the mice will play". For each I provide a sentence using the collocation/idiom such as "Whenever my husband/wife busy new clothing I know he/she will be fishing around for compliments from me." I was going to introduce "fish out of water" later in the lesson but in both classes we did not have enough time to discuss and use it.
For activating schema I asked the students if they have had a pet or if they have a pet now. In the first class of eight students everyone answered yes. So I used follow-up questions such as "Was your pet a dog or a cat? (Is your pet a cat or dog?)", "What is/was your pet's name?", "Is your pet still alive?". In the first class of eight students the discussion was quite vibrant and the students even asked each other a few questions. After ten minutes I decided it was time to move onto the presentation of the vocabulary. I got the students to read the expressions and the example sentences. I also gave quick examples to illustrate the expressions. In the second class, with ten students, I needed to move away from class discussion for the schema phase. I should have put them into pairs to discuss with each the questions related to pets. I also needed to add another question, "Would you like to have a pet? Why, why not?", because three students had never had a pet. Therefore, they probably felt left out of the discussion. The class discussion was less energetic with the bigger class though it was still OK.
After the collocations/idioms I also talked about carnivore, herbivore, omnivore, vegetarian, vegan and pescatarian with the classes. Now, this put me at 10 vocab items (7-9 is optimal) but several of these words were recycled as I got the students to give me the definitions. In both classes at least one person knew the word and definition. Because the famous singer Lee Hyo Ri is pescatarian some Koreans know this word. Everyone already knew vegetarian as they know I am a vegetarian (as well as monks). Next time I will change this a little as I will put them into pairs and get them write down their own definitions. Then we will share our answers as a class. This will put the focus onto the students and away from me.
Next was partner discussion. I gave them five questions to discuss with a partner. One thing I need to be better aware of is pairing students up with classmates they do not often chat with and getting them away from their dorm roommates. The questions used the collocations/idioms. Some of the questions were: "Do you agree that there are plenty more fish in the sea? Why, why not?", "Have you ever fished around for compliments from another person (especially husband/wife or boyfriend/girlfriend)? Why, why not?" and "Is it true that when the cat's away the mice will play? If you agree give an example. If you disagree, are you a model worker?". One change I could have made was to replace "model worker" with "good/diligent worker" as many students asked me what a model worker is. The good thing about partner discussion with the current English teachers is that they can keep talking for a long time. This activity took 30 minutes.
I went around the room and mostly listened to their discussion while sitting in a chair. I think it is more comfortable for them as I am very tall. I asked several students in their pairs to tell me what their partner said in response to one of the questions. This is something new I am trying. I learn what they are talking about and it shows whether they are actually listening to each other. Happily, each time I asked the student was able to give a detailed answer about their partner. I also asked a few questions inquiring about more information and asking for clarification. But mostly I just listened.
For this lesson I did not have an isolation phase. I guess I could have added one whereby they just filled in the blanks on a handout regarding which is the correct collocation/idiom to use in the blank. Or they could have matched the expression with the definition.
We did not have time, in either class, to complete the production activity.
I was going to put them into groups and get the groups to complete two tasks.
First, write down four things that men or women commonly fish around for compliments for. I was hoping they would put appearance, clothing, sports, etc.
Second, write down four sentences you would use to fish around for information, or fish around for compliments with your husband/wife. Maybe they would write things such as "Honey, what do you think of my new dress?", or "Where did you go after work?", etc.
Previously this lesson only introduced the vocabulary and had the partner discussion. I am trying to add the schema, and production phases I often left out before.
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