Standard 4~5

Lesson Plan

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Lmy8RXXV0yvl7l5IJTpuQWwnlxgjbcKVCe3UBJcsELs/edit?usp=sharing

Reflection

I originally thought that Standard 4-5 was my strongest part and that I would perform best in it. However, the students' reactions and the feedback from my mentor highlighted my lack of understanding of the subject matter and my teaching ability. Since the video recording that day, I have felt very discouraged about teaching. After the online meeting with my mentor, I felt even more frustrated. 

After meeting with my mentor, she pointed out that I had not done a good job with the “content knowledge”. I immediately adjusted my lesson plan and implemented it right away, hoping to make up for what I had not done well. I would like to analyze and improve the following points:

1. Background of the Lesson

On the morning of the class, an earthquake occurred. The students were shaken by aftershocks for the entire morning and had to take a difficult drone and English class in the afternoon. This was a bit too much for them, and they were not motivated to learn. Due to the earthquake in the morning, I, as a school safety officer, had to spend a lot of time and energy inspecting school facilities and evacuating students. In addition to my work that day, for the TEACHNOW course, even though I had already sacrificed time with my family, I was still unable to effectively complete many of the assignments. In order to do a good job of Standard 4-5, I had to prepare for the field trip, a guest speaker visit, the leadership project of the teacher community, serve as a lecturer for the school's digital learning sharing session, lead students to participate in the STEM project contest, and complete all the assignments for standard 1-3. This left me with not much time to do a better job of the details of Standard 4-5. In the video, the students' motivation to learn in the classroom was low, and I also did not have enough energy to conduct the class. This resulted in a performance below expectations in this recording. I believe that these things are not easy to avoid. I believe that I have done my best to prepare for Standard 4-5, and I may not have gotten a very high score, but the experience I have learned is intangible, and it is nourishment for me.

1. Challenges of Teaching in English

From the perspective of the school environment: Our school is a public high school, and English is rarely used on campus. Even in English classes, students mostly passively listen to teachers explain English grammar and vocabulary in Chinese. They do not have time to practice listening and speaking. Although I have discovered this problem and want to design different English learning methods in my courses, I can only teach one class per week in the end. Students still find it quite difficult to learn professional knowledge in English. In this regard, I feel that the school environment and the main teaching mode will greatly affect the way students attend classes. A single teacher needs more time and effort to cultivate teaching with foreign languages to change this situation. Or it may not even reach the so-called ideal state.

From the perspective of teacher-student interaction: We all know that learning a language requires creating an environment to increase practice opportunities. However, my own English ability still needs to be improved. I cannot express the sentences I want to express accurately. Because English is rarely used in my daily life and classes, my instructional language and body language as well as classroom activities also need to be supported by proficient English language skills. Because of this, I have not created a very fluent and realistic language use environment. Moreover, students' English ability is also insufficient. Even if they have ideas, they still cannot express their emotions in English. 

This reflection made me realize that my understanding of ESL is somewhat wrong. I originally wanted to create an ideal classroom environment for students to learn what they want to learn in English. However, due to the language use of the general environment, students are not motivated to learn because they feel a lot of pressure when they use or learn too much English. I once investigated the proportion of English they want to use, and most of them want it to be less than 50%. This makes me feel difficult to grasp. I originally thought that they would get used to it if I spoke more English, but in fact, it caused stress and low learning. In short, if the learning of a second language is to be combined with the learning of professional knowledge, it must be combined with the language use environment of the school and society. Students must have strong motivation to support learning knowledge in a second language to be successful.

In this course, I faced the conflict between using English for teaching and students' learning motivation. I think I will continue to use English as the main teaching language in the future, simplify the learning content, leave more time for students to absorb and understand, and slow down the teaching pace. I think this may be the way out of the current predicament. I look forward to the next course to gradually improve.

1. Misconception of Standard 4-5

During my meeting with my mentor, she pointed out a serious flaw in my lesson design for this course: I did not make content knowledge the core teaching content. In addition, she asked me the following question: "The candidate introduces differing perspectives into interdisciplinary lessons in efforts to help students understand the different cultures and backgrounds of diverse populations while making lessons more relevant and meaningful to learners." I was stumped and could not answer. This made me feel inferior, as I had been so confident in my ability to meet these two standards but had not even met the basic requirements. After talking to her, I began to reflect on my shortcomings and gradually realized that I had not done enough to use resources from different cultures and backgrounds, help students understand their own cultures and backgrounds, and respect the cultures and backgrounds of others. In other words, integrating multiple perspectives into interdisciplinary courses. Through this experience, I finally realized that my understanding of content knowledge and interdisciplinary course design is actually very lacking. Next, I will need to watch some more related videos and books, and I would also like to ask the instructor to provide me with teaching demonstration videos for me to learn from.

Teaching is a continuous learning process. Don't be afraid to make mistakes. Learn from mistakes and keep growing. With time and experience, I will become a better teacher. This is how I encourage myself to overcome the frustration and difficulties.

How I incorporate literacy into the PBL:

To address the shortcomings identified by my mentor, I designed a literacy activity for the end of the lesson. This activity utilized a modified Frayer model provided by my mentor and incorporated four questions aimed at reviewing the knowledge and English content covered in the previous lessons. My mentor also advised me to create activities that would allow all students to practice, so I simplified the learning content and divided it into several sections for read-aloud practice. Additionally, I used these questions to train students in higher-order thinking skills. Finally, I taught students how I use AI to help myself practice English. As the last part of the literacy activity, students were required to complete either an infographic or notes in preparation for the summative assessment in the next lesson.