Pedagogy 2020-21

Table of Contents:

Teaching writing…………………………………………………1

Teaching speaking………………………………………………2

Teaching reading………………………………………………..3

Articles……………………………………………………………4

Reflection…………………………………………………………5

L1 in the classroom…………………… ………………………6

Lesson planning…………………………………………………7

How to teach English writing?

The process of acquiring writing skills for students is not simple.  The writing process is divided into three parts: free, guided, and controlled. Teachers need to decide which part to use and for what purpose.  For example, Tali Shashua’s lesson on how to write an email focused on guided writing.  As part of her lesson, she gave her students a prompt in which they had to write the content of the email.  I think guided writing is efficient.  In one of the lessons I taught, I put on the board some prompts according to which the students had to formulate their sentences. It was much easier for them to write this way.

Something I would like to learn more in-depth is free writing.  I would love to know how to get students to write freely and express themselves in English.

How to teach English speaking?

Learning to speak English is an essential part of language acquisition.  Students should feel confident to try and speak freely without being afraid of making mistakes. Otherwise, they will never learn.  In the lesson about speaking, we learned how to create a safe environment for students and encourage them to speak.  One of the lectures was by Lori, in which she explained how to teach the subject in elementary grades.  One of the activities I particularly liked was the guessing game.  During the game, students are required to guess which word matches the picture.  I did this activity in one of my classes; I created cards with words and pictures and told the pupils to mingle and find pairs by guessing only.  After about five minutes, I added a table with the translations of the words on the board for help.  The students had a great time.  I achieved the goal of the lesson, which was creating a dialogue between them.

I would like to learn more in-depth how to encourage students to converse English even in their free time and enrich their knowledge.

How to teach English reading?

As part of the lessons, we learned how to teach the class students to read in English.  We must first divide the lesson into three parts, before the reading, during the reading, and after the reading.  Each of the sections should have a tailored activity that will assist students in the reading process.  I especially liked Rania’s ideas for pre-reading activities.  I actually got to use one of them.  These are some questions I asked the students before we jumped into the text like

1. What is the title?

2. Mark capital letters and numbers in the text.

3. Find a word you do not understand and translate it.  I found that this activity helped students get the tip of the iceberg about the text they were about to read.  Something I would like to learn more in-depth is how to make students not get tired of reading.  They usually give up after three or four lines and have no strength to keep reading.

I would love to learn some way to make them persevere and not give up.

Articles

During one of the pedagogy classes, we had to read articles related to the topic we chose, summarize them, and present them to the whole class.  The subject I chose was “10 accessible and inexpensive things that could serve a classroom teacher”.  I enjoyed this article. It had lots of tips on how to improvise and do things on the spot.  Few things that I liked about the article and even used in my class were: stickers, colored markers, and playdough.  I found that stickers help raise motivation among students.  The playdough helped them bring out the creative side within them.  The article has served me and made me change my way of thinking.

Moreover, the presentations delivered by the rest of the class turned out to be fascinating, from which I drew ideas on how to conduct the class.

Reflection

The second topic we studied is reflection. Jennifer taught us the meaning of reflection and what its benefit is. Reflection allows the teacher to look back on the lesson and reflect on several things:

1. How was the lesson conducted?
2. Did the students enjoy it?
3. Were the lesson goals eventually achieved?

Reflection is used as an assessment tool for the teacher to examine herself. It helps to think about what to do differently and what to keep.

As part of the lessons I taught, I discovered that reflection helps me change the things that did not work out in class and learn for next time.

L1 in class

Another important topic we learned during this year is the use of L1 in the classroom.  I enjoyed Penny Urr’s presentation on the subject.  Penny explained the disadvantages of using L1 in class.  She noted that it is necessary to use L2 in the classroom so that students hear as much English as possible.  By doing so, students would be more attentive and communicate with each other in English. Also, their thinking will happen in English.  In addition, using L1 in the classroom will create a situation where students will look at both languages ​​as equivalent.  However, it is crucial to translate L2 items when presenting vocabulary, explaining, and give instructions.  Penny Urr’s idea served me in the decision to use a vocabulary translation.  During most of my lessons, I used her tips for integrating L1 into the classroom and still maintaining the English language’s priority.

I would be happy to receive further guidance on:

A way in which the use of L2 would be about 95 percent of the lesson. especially in classes where students do not understand the English language so much.

As part of this topic, we were asked to conduct interviews with students and our cooperating teacher.  During these interviews, I learned that the practice of L2 in the classroom is minimal.

I understood from their answers that students do not understand the teacher when she speaks English. Also, the teacher told me that she avoids the overuse of English because of the level of the students.

Lesson planning

During the first semester, we learned fascinating topics related to the course of a classroom lesson. One of the topics is lesson planning. Lesson planning is the first and most crucial detail for creating a productive and successful lesson. As part of pedagogy lessons this semester, we learned why we need a plan and how to create it. We found the value of having over planning than under planning. In addition, we recognized the effectiveness of the lesson’s objectives. Objectives help us focus on the lesson’s goals and evaluate our activities after it ends. We realized that there are lots of benefits to early planning: prevention of surprises, stay on track, recycle, etc.

We got templates on which to write our lesson plans, which saves lots of time.

For me, the preparation of a lesson plan has been helpful in practical work.

I felt some peace knowing what I had to do at any moment during the lesson. The lesson plan helped me relax and deliver the materials properly.

There was one thing that I felt that needed further refinement in is how to plan a suitable lesson for levels of students in the class. Our focus was on planning for the whole class as a group. However, we have to learn how to plan a lesson for students who are experiencing either difficulty or success.