Feb 20, 2024
Class topic: Drone definition
Lesson Plan
Reflection
Frankly speaking, I felt unsatisfied after this lesson because I designed too much work for students. In addition, it is my first time to use a digital platform: “FORMATIVE” as the teaching interface. I put lots of effort into preparing and editing the content of teaching. I selected the most suitable from various materials, edited the content into two versions of English difficulty for different levels of students. However, students are not familiar with the login procedure and the interface of this platform. They spent much time exploring my expectations and assignments. This is the first part I didn’t expect.This causes time wasting.
The next part is to improve my instructional strategies to guide students to get familiar with English learning. Since this curriculum aims to teach both drone knowledge in English. Although it simplifies English content and complexity of grammar, there is still a huge room for improvement in the practice of teaching both content and language. Also, I set the expectations too high for the students so they didn’t perform as well as I expected.
The third part is to build an English atmosphere. I attempt to have students warm up speaking English, however, they are from different classes and not familiar with each other. Therefore, they do not feel comfortable speaking English in the classroom. Furthermore, in my school, students don’t speak English in their English classroom. They are merely taught English grammar and vocabulary in English classes. In this once a week elective class, encouraging students to speak English requires the teacher to skillfully guide them and create an English speaking environment. It is also challenging to lead group discussion because students are learning in mostly teacher led classes. They tend to have no ideas about what to discuss, which requires gradual guidance.
In the next class, I will attempt to have them discuss in Chinese to generate ideas first and then express their ideas in English. For grouping, I will group them randomly to let students get familiar with each other. I believe that they will be more comfortable talking with each other in English. For the teaching platform, I will reduce the loading of students reading and showcasing learning outcomes. I provided too much information even though it has been simplified. Students are still overwhelmed. I will reduce the content to meet students' needs. Last but not least, designing more dynamic classroom activities is also essential. Since students quietly read materials, teenagers need some dynamic activities like group discussion, gamified instructions, or hands-on activities. With interchanging dynamic and static, I believe that teenagers will be able to learn more efficiently and enjoy my classes. The aforementioned modes of instruction will further create more interaction between students and students and the teacher.
