Running head: Teaching Report 1

Teaching Report Template PAGE 1: OVERVIEW

Note: You complete pages 1-4. Your mentor uses page five to provide you feedback. Your Name Tyson Vieira Date 9/30/13 City Mokpo, South Korea School Mokpo National University Class Title First Year English Freshman Mentor teacher Prof. Jocelyn Wright Time (from/to) 4:00 – 4:50 # of Ss #M & #F Total Ss: 21 #M 8 #F 13 Ss Age s 20-24 Ss Countries Korea Ss Eng. Level Beginner Materials used Richards, J. C. (2013). Interchange: Student’s Book 1. D. Bohlke (Ed.). New York,

NY: Cambridge University Press. Lesson Objective Basic conversational practice focusing on “What kind of…?” and “Do/Does…?”

through the lens of Entertainment (music, movies, TV shows, etc.) Other Objectives were shown on 2nd slide of ppt.:

1. ‘Word Power’ categorizing entertainment vocabulary. (pg. 22) 2. “Who’s your favorite singer?” listening exercise and follow-up activity 3. ‘Grammar Focus’ exercise and review (p. 23) 4. “Interview your partner” activity – putting target language to practice

COMPUTER SKETCH Provide a sketch of the classroom with a seating chart labeling the elements such as windows, T’s desk, etc.

The class is a well, ventilated, basic university classroom on the second floor of the language center building at Mokpo National University in Jeollanam-do, South Korea. There is one large white board with a large flat rolling screen, where a monitor attached to the ceiling provides the picture. The students sat in groups of 4, each having an individual desk but grouped together for activity convenience. All of the students can look to their left or right towards the board and teacher with ease. No assigned seating, but Korean students tend to always sit with the same friends their age (socio-cultural context). The room is fairly small so maneuvering between the group desks is fairly difficult. The far corner of the room had an empty desk where I set up the video camera and observed the class.

Teaching Report 2

Windows (2nd Floor)

T. Desk Ss Desks (4 each)

Wall & Observer Desk Screen (blue) 1

2 3 4 5

Wall (Red)

Door

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Teaching Report Template PAGE 2 & 3: THICK DESCRIPTION AND RICH REFLECTION

Note: Do not include a lesson plan. Instead, soon after the class session, complete two pages of the “thick description and rich reflection” similar to what you did in the observation report for the teacher who you observed. This way you become a participant observer and can compare your notes with your mentor’s. Time

In this section provide a specific, detailed description (“thick” accounts), of what actually took place. Avoid commentary, judgment, evaluation or general unsupported remarks. Include quotes from T and Ss.

Complete this side soon after your observation. Include and label the following: (I) interpretations of events, (R) connections to reading, (A) applications to your own teaching, and (Q) questions to explore more later.

3:55 4:00 4:07 4:09

Students (Ss) came into the classroom, randomly and mostly in pairs. Teacher (T) is starting up computer, organizing ppt. and worksheets. Starting at 3:55, Professor Jocelyn Wright (PJW) [mentor] walked to each student (S) to mark the attendance sheet. PJW sat down in the far corner of the room, and gave the signal that she is finished with attendance and that class can begin. T welcomed the class and uses a couple minutes to introduce himself. After the quick introduction, T asked the Ss if there are any questions about him. The Ss asked a couple of questions. T answered and transitioned the questions to a basic conversation of ‘How are you today?’ The Ss answered and asked the T as well. T answered, “I’m having a wonderful day. I can’t believe it’s raining this hard!” Ss responded in agreement. “On rainy days, What do you like to do?” Ss provided many answers, “Video games, reading, watching TV.” T continues, “Yes, I love doing those things to, but what I love the most is watching movies. This is my ‘rainy day’ entertainment.” T then started the PowerPoint (ppt.) with the slide of the lesson objectives. T asked the Ss “What is entertainment?” Ss gave a few answers in response: “Books, Movies, TV.” The T then wrote the Ss answers on the board, while giving praise. T continued using the ppt. showing various categories and pictures under each category. (Category ex. Music, movies, etc.) Each picture expressed a genre (soap opera, rap, sit-com, etc.). The ppt. slides will soon relate to the first activity of the lesson, which focused on vocabulary and categorization. After the category section of the ppt., the T asked the class to open the text to pg. 22, which shows the first activity. T explained

I & R: As soon as most of the Ss entered the classroom, their behavior changed a little to quietness and curiosity. Before this class, I was only attending with a nonparticipant perspective; in the past classes I didn’t actively participate in any roles other than observing from the far corner (Gebhard & Oprandy, 1999). There was no announcement that I was teaching on that day either, because PJW and I weren’t aware of our schedules until the last minute. Since this was the first day that I was officially introduced to the class, I wanted to give a small introduction. The fact that the Ss had questions about me following the introduction was a great sign of Ss comfort, especially in Korean classroom culture where shyness is abundant and extreme. While giving the introduction, I kept in mind that the closer we are in the classroom to who we are outside of it, the more genuine we can be in the presence of our Ss (Gebhard & Oprandy, 1999). I’m a very friendly and open person, and that isn’t too far from who I am in the classroom. I felt like this was obviously shown, which explains why the Ss were more open than expected. Q: If I was more involved with his previous observation classes, maybe in a participant perspective, the class could be even more open. What are the best ways or methods for observers, who will be teaching in the future, to be more of a participant perspective? I & A: My class was the start of a new chapter that didn’t really relate to the previous lesson; therefore there was no similar material or question relating to the last class. My introduction was much like a conversation, especially when I transitioned it into the day’s lesson, which the class really seemed to enjoy. This is how I try to start all of my classes because I feel like it’s a great warm-up while also providing a friendly atmosphere. In my observations of this class, I noticed how personal and friendly PJW does attendance and since I wasn’t able to do such, I really wanted to perform

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4:14 4:17 4:20 4:24 4:30 4:32 4:38

the directions of the group activity while providing a worksheet to write on (instead of writing in text). The activity is a list of genres, in which the Ss needed to categorize as TV programs, music or movies. T also explained the added exercises in the activity of adding two more words to each category and number the items on the list from most liked to least liked. T then allowed the class to start the activity. When Ss were working together, T went from group to group listening, helping and asking various questions. T reviewed with the Ss some of the difficult words in the activity. These are the words that the Ss needed help on the most. T didn’t give answers immediately but asked the class, “What is reggae?” in order to see if any Ss know. The T usually provided follow up questions if Ss were silent, like for example, “Do you know who Bob Marley is?” T asked Ss to close their books and then explained about the ‘entertainment listening exercise.’ T explained that he will play the dialogue two times, but will also have a little activity in between. After the first listen, T explained the short activity ‘Two Truths and a Lie’ in which there were 3 sentences about the dialogue; one that was false. T showed the slide containing the 3 sentences and asked the class, “Which one is the lie?” Ss read and answered aloud. Activity was only 3 slides. T explained that he will play a dialogue one more time, and reminded the Ss that in their mid-terms and finals, they will only have 2 chances to hear dialogue. T related the dialogue to his own personal taste of music, then transitioned it to the ‘Grammar Focus’ exercise in the textbook. “I love rock. In fact, one of my favorite bands is on page 23.” T told the class to open books to p. 23 and to do the grammar exercise with a partner. T explained the exercise and allowed the class to start. T helped the S with no partner, and eventually became the S’s partner during the beginning of the activity. T gave a one minute warning to finish up for class review. T then wrote the numbers and

this during my introduction to the lesson. Q: Should a guest teacher try and relate to previous lessons that he/she didn’t teach? Would it be best to ask the class, “What did you learn before/last week/last class?” A & R: When asking the class some of the more difficult vocabulary questions, I tried to give as much emphasis on praising and/or encouraging Ss on their answers as I could. From my previous classes, my mentors have been commenting on how repetitive and often times dull, my praising has been. Brown (1988) states that feedback shouldn’t be an “empty and automatic encouragement, which is often pointless” (p. 16). I: During the vocabulary exercise, many of the Ss were confused about what to do. I felt that perhaps my instructions weren’t clear. Also, I gave the worksheet out during talking, in which many Ss were looking at the paper and passing it instead of focusing on my instructions. I & R: Even in the vocabulary exercise, I tried to make the follow up questions and S responses as personal as I can. Classroom example, “What is a musical?” Ss responded “Movie with song, dance and music.” I then responded, “Excellent! Music, song and dance. Do you know Les Miserables? Ss – “Yes.” Me – “I saw it in Korea too. Did you like it?” Giving them this opportunity for open conversation with a personal touch, is something that I’m really trying to enforce in the classroom. Gebhard and Oprandy (1999) provides a case example that relates to this. Akiko’s exploration of her teaching raises the same question, specifically by using class openers. She found her student’s interests and asked questions in relating how they spent their weekend. She discovered that life-personal content can become part of the interaction in the language classroom. Q: Akiko’s story shows a useful aspect, but I feel that it falls short in the sense that it’s ultimately up to the Ss, and the teacher can only do so much. How can we further this issue in showing students that English is a communicative tool and not just a school subject? I & A: Although this is a beginner/first-year English course, the Ss have most likely studied this same material since elementary school, due to the Korean educational gov’t and national testing within the last couple decades. So therefore the timing is much shorter on explanations and

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4:40 4:50

blanks of the exercise on the board for preparation. T asked the class to read aloud question 1. The class responded while the T wrote the answers on the board. T helped with pronunciation and asked follow up questions to the answers. T continued this process for all 8 sentences. T transitioned to the class, “Now it’s your turn to talk.” And then explained the interview partner activity. T showed a worksheet with a series of interview questions about entertainment, relating to grammar focus. While explaining and reading the questions, the T taught the class how to pronounce the lesson’s questions and answers; encouraging Ss to use emotion and expression. T’s explanation focused on rising and falling intonations with ‘Wh’ and ‘Do/Does.’ T handed out the worksheets and tells the class to start. During activity, the T went around the room helping Ss with pronunciation, and asked additional questions and clarifying any confusion. T asked the Ss if they are finished. T concluded the lesson while showing the objective slide in the ppt. that was shown previously. PJW walkd to the front of the class and gave the week’s announcements and homework reminders.

exercises compared to my elementary classes. This is one of my few experiences of not having a Korean co-teacher translate if there is any confusion. I felt the directions and explanations were fairly good, except for two areas: vocabulary exercise and grammar focus. In Korea, I seem to develop a habit of relying on my Korean co-teacher to translate if there is any confusion, therefore neglecting to plan my instructions before class. Q: When focusing and helping individual groups, some other groups started talking in Korean, which is a common problem. How can I prevent this from happening? Is it a disciplinary approach that’s needed or something else? I & A: Transitions and activities outside of the text were the two main things I planned and focused on. Since this class is heavily revolved around the text, my goal was to spark motivation and interest in using activities that I personally developed with transitions that flowed smoothly as a continuous learning experience, instead of just simply doing one exercise to the next. I & R: The lens that I chose to focus on sparking motivation was Wajnryb’s (2005) task of ‘the learner as doer.’ I designed the last activity to be free from the text while creating a task that uses cognitive, affective and even physical responses. (I encouraged the class to use hand gestures and facial expressions.) “Having this active learning to be both more personal and more memorable is ultimately more effective” (p. 34). This activity was not only the summary of the class lesson, but a follow up in the sense that every activity that they did previously was leading to this task. In explaining the activity, I pinpointed all the lesson objectives as well. This was probably the most effective instructions I had during the whole lesson.

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Mentor Teacher Evaluation Form PAGE 4: PASTE THE MENTOR’S EVALUATION FORM BELOW

(Refer to Appendix A)

Teaching Report Template PAGE 5: REPORT OF PRE AND POST MEETINGS WITH MENTOR

On this page describe your pre and post meetings with your mentor teacher noting specifically the observations and comments your mentor had about your class. How do these comments compare to your observations of your teaching on pages 2-3? What did you learn about your teaching and how will this impact your pedagogy? What did you learn about being observed, mentored, or evaluated and how will this impact how you observe, mentor, or evaluate other teachers?

I discussed briefly with Professor Jocelyn Wright my lesson plan the day before the

class. When we talked I had a few alternative options written down, in case she had any

disagreements or different opinions on how to approach the lesson. She really enjoyed

my first take of the lesson plan and had no further questions. Although I observed,

Professor Wright’s classes on numerous occasions, I’ve only been an observer in this

particular class a couple of times before I taught on that day. Despite this, I was pretty

comfortable and familiar with the type of class and material.

This particular class was all first year students (non-English majors) on their second

semester of mandatory 2nd language English. They need to serve 2 years of second

language classes in order to graduate from this 4-year university. In my full time position,

I teach elementary students, ranging from low-level beginner to intermediate English.

The English lessons in the university class are practically the same material I teach daily

at my elementary schools; so therefore I was quite familiar with the target language and

how to approach it. Following the curriculum of the textbook also made planning less

burdensome, but Professor Wright allowed me to moderately alternate, cut out, add and

mix whatever exercises the textbook provided within the lessons 3 pages. I used this

opportunity to show Professor Wright some of my ideas by changing some activities and

lessons, but yet not straying too far away from the textbook. This lesson planning

opportunity provided me with the experience to follow along the lines of the institutional

textbook but yet not be so dependent of it.

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The reason toward some of the changes I made from the textbook was for class timing

and to make it relatable to the students. During our discussion the night before, Professor

Jocelyn informed me that the lessons are very packed because the institution cut an hour

from every week of the class time compared to last year, so therefore an extra page or

two from the textbook is added to each class day. This did seem a little overwhelming for

each class, which is why I had to cut out a couple of exercise sections from the text. The

first thing I changed from the text was the introductory ‘hook’, which was a chart

showing the record sales of different musical genres in the U.S., followed by questions. I

felt like this section wasn’t too interesting for the students because it was too much added

American culture to a chapter that’s already deeply revolved around that culture. I

replaced this with a PowerPoint that contained some Korean culture and American

culture that’s popular within Korea. I felt like this change made the lesson more relatable

with meaningful learning while promoting more student interests. Also, with this change,

it allowed me to ask more personal follow up questions to the class, which I observed in

my own reflections. As a result, the activities became bits and pieces of conversations

using the target language. When planning this, I kept Wajnryb’s (2005) statement in mind,

“the danger is that because one learns to use a language by using it, learner passivity and

non-involvement will in fact sabotage outcomes” (p. 124).

The second change I made was during the audio listening exercise. I basically took the

same questions found in the book, but changed them in a different format with ‘2 Truths

and a Lie’. I wanted to do something different and unexpected for the students in order to

prevent boredom and predictability. The third and final change I made was the final page,

which contained the pronunciation and speaking section of the chapter. The

pronunciation practice had audio media with a list of sentences to practice focusing on

asking questions. The speaking sections contained a survey that a student completes with

a partner, but Prof. Wright and I had both agreed that this was a weak exercise in the

sense that it didn’t adequately and efficiently cover the entire lesson given that day. Also,

another reason for this change was time, in which I had to not only improve these

sections but combine them together. The speaking section survey I changed into a partner

interview activity and the pronunciation focus I covered during the activity explanation

and practice before I let the students start on their own. I believe that these changes made

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the lesson better and more effective than what the textbook provided. In speaking with

Professor Wright before and after the class, she agreed. In summary, I strategically made

these changes in order to fulfill some of the guidelines of interactive learning, which I

support strongly in my teaching career, such as: “doing a significant amount of pair work

and group work, using real world context, producing language for genuine, meaningful

learning, performing tasks using actual language use, and practicing oral communication

through give and take” (Brown, 2007, p. 54)

This experience has taught me that alternating and changing textbook curriculum is

necessary in language teaching, not only for adapting with the teaching style of the

instructor but also to adapt with the learning style of the students and their interests. Not

every class is the same, and not every class is completely homogenous in terms of

learning style and level, as Wajnryb (2005) points out that the “more we discover about

language learning, the more we are confronted by the diversity of contingent factors:

people learn in different ways, at different rates, with different styles and exposing

different strategies” (p. 36). The students that I taught in this particular class, had been

exposed to the same lessons of English in their classrooms since elementary school, and

although many of them are still lower level, they still have more of an understanding than

a typical beginner who hadn’t been exposed to the language. The changes I made in the

lesson provided a little more challenge, more opportunities and at a faster rate. Some of

the activities from the text that I didn’t change, ended up being a little too easy at times,

like Prof. Wright observed and wrote in my evaluation about the vocabulary activity.

After the lesson, I met up with Prof. Wright. She was extremely professional and

friendly throughout the observation, mentoring and evaluation. I learned a lot about

myself through this process. Even though I knew Prof. Wright before this project began, I

was extremely nervous to teach in front of her, because her teaching experience and

position is much higher than mine. I was afraid to appear unprofessional in comparison to

her, but after our first experience of this project, this fear quickly diminished. After this

experience, I come to the conclusion that if the mentor is very professional during the

process then it makes the job easier for the mentored, therefore, making it easier to be

professional as well. Before and after teaching, during the evaluations, Prof. Wright’s

professional and comforting presence made it easier for me to gain confidence and

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professionalism. Also, during the actual teaching, I was extremely nervous at first, but

then after 10 minutes, I forgot that my mentor was actually there, making my teaching

more comfortable and smoother for the remainder of the class. This experience prepares

me for the future, when I’m given the opportunity to become a mentor, observer and

evaluator. Now I have the realization, from this experience, to provide my student-

teacher with the most comfortable, friendly and professional performance I possibly can

during our meetings, evaluations and observations, because as a result, they will likely

show their true ‘colors’ of professionalism, teaching ability and personality. This way of

performing as a mentor could also help prevent negative roles from the student teacher

such as passive conference and adversarial (Gebhard & Oprandy, 1999).

Before Prof. Jocelyn gave me her notes and observations of my lesson, she asked me

three questions: What do you feel are the most successful parts of your lesson? What

were the least successful? Any changes you would make? Gebhard and Oprandy (1999)

labeled this as the “opening evaluative move” in which the evaluator “serves the ball” (p.

37). This was my first evaluation, so this was a new concept for me to experience. This

beginning part of our evaluation, I felt to be the most important because it gave me the

chance to observe myself, to highlight my successes, to explain my weaknesses, and to

have the opportunity to show my mentor my own awareness of myself and how to go

forward. Most of the weaknesses in my lesson and performances, I had told her before

she provided the evaluation, which emphasized our mutual agreements. The main

agreement and weakness that I need to work the most on, was providing directions. This

was mainly due, not because of my ability, but as a result in a lack of planning. “Plan

your directions” seemed to be the underlying theme of this project from both mentors. As

stated on my reflection, I feel like this habit of unprepared directions comes from my

convenience of having a co-teacher that speaks the student’s primary language. With this

helpful tool, I don’t really need to plan or effectively provide instructions because I have

a co-teacher at hand to translate. Prior to this project, I didn’t ‘plan’ any of my directions

but just my lectures, activities, exercises, etc. As noted in my own reflection and mentor’s

evaluation of the lesson, the obvious weak areas are within my instructions of activities,

and since my planned pronunciation segment was within the instructions for the partner

interview activity, this segment of the lesson was poor as well. I will focus more on this

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area in my teaching future and fix certain aspects of my instructions such as not handing

out the worksheet while talking (students pay attention to the paper and passing them

around instead of focusing on me), holding the book/worksheet and pointing at the items

while explaining, so they have a clearer understanding of what I’m talking about, etc.

There were a few weak areas where Prof. Wright showed me that I didn’t even realize

or considered. In my PowerPoint (ppt.) and writings on the board, there were a few

punctuation and capitalization mistakes. One example was that a couple of sentences on

my ppt. had two exclamation points instead of one. This was during the instructions

where I wrote, “Now it’s your turn!!!” A part of me feels like I developed this habit with

certain areas of my lesson because as I teach with my elementary students, I base a lot of

ppt. themes on comic books. Comic books tend to add more than one exclamation point

and question marks; this is actually very popular with Korean literature of younger

audiences in comic-book story form. Another part of the class that I ‘slipped up’ on was

commenting “the smart group” to one of the group of students. I had no memory of

saying it, but I do tend to say it in my elementary school classes as well. I never thought

of it being damaging to my students in any way, but now in reflecting the comment, I can

see how this can be interpreted to the rest of the class as being ‘less smart.’ This insight

has led me to examine my words more carefully, even with compliments. These negative

aspects of my lesson, I accepted with a collaborative conference role, and was deeply

interested on how I can change and perform stronger in these areas (Gebhard & Oprandy,

1999).

There were only a few weak areas in my performance and lesson, but that was greatly

outweighed by the positives. Much of the positive areas that Prof. Wright commented on

were in communicative approach, timing, pedagogy, class control and presence such as

confidence, relaxed, good eye contact, clear and loud voice, gestures and overall

atmosphere. These were the areas that I especially focused on during my own reflection

and hope to solidify more in the future. As a native teacher overseas, it’s crucial to bring

a friendly, warm and open environment in the classrooms because of the important

responsibility of providing an image of your country, language and character to your

‘new’ home as a guest. This overall project, my reflections and my mentor’s evaluations

has helped me achieve a more positive image of a teacher overseas.

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References

Brown, H.D (2007). Teaching by Principles: An Interactive Approach to Language

Pedagogy (3rd ed.). New York: Pearson Education.

Brown, R. (1988). Classroom pedagogics – a syllabus for the interactive stage? The

Teacher Trainer 2, 2 13-17; 3, 8-9. Retrieved from: http://www.tttjournal.co

.uk/uploads/File/back_articles/Classroom_Pedadogics.pdf

Gebhard, J. & Oprandy, R. (1999). Language teaching awareness. New York, NY:

Cambridge University Press.

Wajnryb, R. (2005). Classroom observation tasks. New York, NY: Cambridge University

Press.

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Appendix A: Mentor Teacher Evaluation