Video Lesson Reflection 3

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wVxDfuuillE&t=14s


 What is your general reflection on the lesson?

Personally, I did not find watching this lesson too enjoyable. While there are many good aspects to this teacher’s style, it came across as very controlled and with very little room for making mistakes. While control can be good in a lot of situations, in this case, there is so much control that the learners are unable to express their ideas freely and without being quietened. There is a lot of teacher talk and not enough student talk in this class and while that can be because the learners are very young, it is more likely die to the atmosphere that the teacher is trying to maintain. There is a constant ‘shushing’ of any background talk or noise. The learners can’t talk unless spoken to which, because there are around 20 students in the class, makes me wonder how much language practice each student gets in a single lesson.




What do you think about the warmup used by the teacher?

I think that it is a good way to start the lesson. The class was in general silent for the warmup and this was also the case for the warmup. For the warm-up, I think it was a great idea as it made the students focus on listening to the teacher and the question. It also displayed a great idea of TPR (total physical response). By having a physical action for answering the question, it solidified the answers in the students’ minds. Also, as it was a group activity with the use of clapping and stomping, it helped with the confidence of the students who may have had the answers wrong as their accidentally wrong answers are hidden by the sound, this can be a confidence booster as their mistakes are not obvious to the whole class. 


However, the quiet approach to this warmup may be counterproductive for the whole group as the students do not get much chance to practice their speech and pronunciation. It works as a singular activity but if the whole lesson has a similar structure, it becomes counterproductive in a language class.




What lesson transition strategies does the teacher use?

The transitions between activities are very smooth in this lesson. When the students are moved to sit on the carpet, they are using colour vocabulary to practice using coloured flashcards. Once they are all sitting on the carpet, the teacher uses activities that require them to sit together rather than at separate tables so the actions of them moving there are not wasted by irrelevant activities. 

It is worth noting that the teacher changes activities quite often and this is good to see as a child’s attention span is short, and having a variety of activities helps keep them focused on what they are doing and keeping the group activities together on the carpet followed by individual work at the desks creates a clear divide in the types of activities that they are doing. Doing this regularly can be helpful for the lesson structure and the student’s understanding of what is expected of them in each situation.




What teaching aids does the teacher use? 

Coloured cards, flash cards/ images, rope, toys, worksheets

A lot of these teaching aids are really good. Especially the rope, it was a great idea to allow the students to figure out the different shapes and make them with the rope. It allows them to think for themselves and work according to the vocabulary. It is also a lot more meaningful than just repeating different words without doing anything, it is a lot more memorable. 

Coloured cards and flashcards are also very good tools with diverse applications and use with a visual reference which is, once again, a memorable tool for the students. Overall, all of the materials and aids that the teacher uses are great in helping the students visualize and memorize the vocabulary and remember the lessons as “the lesson in which we made shapes out of a rope” is a lot more beneficial than “the lesson in which we looked at words and pictures and repeated their names”.




What would you do differently?

I would try to incorporate activities that allow the students to practice speaking more often. Things like pair work or group discussions, even at the simplest level can be very beneficial to the students. Even things like group answers and group repetition would be great. In general, activities that allow the students to speak as much as possible would be the best. This teacher has some good activity ideas, however, I don’t think that they are used in the best way due to the aforementioned reasons.



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