Procedures of Teaching
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The learning activity is divided into three parts: Pre-teaching, Whilst teaching, and post-teaching.
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In the Pre-teaching, the class started with the Greetings, Praying, then checking attendance. Apperception was also given in order to have the students recall previous schema. I felt that it was right to add a little bit of review on their descriptors specifically adverbs and adjectives to make sure that they know what background knowledge is needed before the actual topic. Next is to also give an example on what I expected them to do such as doing their activity as well where I also made a descriptive text given the picture.
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The whilst teaching part focused on their activity, in which I gave first the instructions and another set of example on what I expect their activities to turn out. The learning was also fostered when I went around each group and guided them one by one. The small group of 4 or 5 students allowed a more guided way to teach them as I got to guide students depending on the guidance that they needed. During their presentation, it was also important for me to remind my students that they need to listen carefully at the presentor and give feedback on how well they did and what they could improve in in their presentation.
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Post teaching focused more on summarizing the topic and making sure that students learned something. I had them answer an exit ticket that asked them about their time with me so I can also gauge if they understood something. The class ended with the usual praying together and saying thanks before dismissing them for the day.
Time and Classroom Management
While planning the activity, I made sure to have an extra 10 minutes so I can adjust parts of the lesson. My goal was to at least have 10 minutes for pre-teaching, 1 hour for whilst teaching, and 10 minutes for post teaching. I had a lot of extra time which proved to be useful as I was able to confidently give extra time to my students when they requested more time to finish their activity
I had to take in mind that the students I am teaching are in Level 10 which is around the ages of 15-17 years old. My goal was to make sure that they are participating well in class. I was also lenient on purpose for the extra activities or extra chatter that they made as it made the classroom more vibrant and helped the classroom more conductive to learning as discussion was allowed. It has always been one of my teaching goals to not create a rigid classroom where students are shy to speak up.
I employed a little bit of trick to get them to settle down when it gets a little noisy. I asked them to say “Shhhhh” after I say “Waterfalls?”. With my loud voice and a response that is similar to making someone quiet, it was effective in calling back their attention to the activity happening inside the classroom.
Problem-Solving
My main problem is instilling in my brain that the English competency of students in Indonesia is different compared to the Philippines. I had to lower my expectations of their English proficiency and instead guide them to learning more about the language. One of my biggest observations is how they can get shy due to their low confidence in their English especially verbal. Hence, it was my goal to compliment them when I can, and to push them to just speak freely. While grammar is important, I do not want to be a perfectionist because I want them to focus more on making sure that they get their points across. So even if I encounter some grammar mistakes, I do not focus on correcting those. I do not want them to lose confidence, because I believe that the way they can improve English is if it part of their constant practice which they cannot do if they lose confidence.
When I do correct their grammar however, I do not say it negatively. I focus on suggesting them how to improve it before explaining why. Such as when a student used ‘he’s’ instead of ‘his’. I explained that the other one is a shortcut for ‘He is’ while the other one is a term for possession. I want them to understand first why I had to correct them, so they can associate the experience as a learning opportunity, and not a shameful experience because they were corrected.
Anecdotes
Sir Ali was a very big guide in my development of lesson plan. He provided me a careful breakdown of the lesson plan to guide me how to do it. One thing that also helped me is his advice in the point system of activities. Initially, my activity only warranted one point per sentence. However, he suggested that I can add extra points such as the presence of some content words in a sentence, or if they have correct grammar. I saw this as a good idea because it will lessen the students feeling low if they got 0 point just because for example it was an incomplete sentence. I felt that it was an advice that I can also use in the Philippines to lessen students feeling dejected and that atleast they were able to have points because they knew something or did something right.
