1st Journal Entry

Hans Humberto Oviedo Gómez

Reflective Teaching Course

M. A. Edgar Alirio Insuasty

Neiva, September 29^th, 2015

Reflecting upon my Lesson Plan Intervention # 1

Since the conception of the lesson, the idea about how to design a lesson plan by trying to achieve some patterns became a challenging task. Making emphasis in Learning Strategies throughout a workshop design was my initial concern about what I pretended to reflect in my lessons. The importance of developing materials have become a proposal in my personal interventions and practices. As stated by Nuñez and Tellez (2009), teachers should do their best to develop the most effective, appropriate and flexible materials for their students and their programs. Due to that concern, the effectiveness of materials used for English language teaching depends on how meaningful, relevant and motivating these materials are to the learners. This is done by bearing in mind learners’ needs, interests, attitudes and expectations.

This lesson is the compilation of three divided activities from a workshop designed for a Basic English II course at Universidad de la Amazonia. This first lesson reflects to some extent, the application of a workshop developed to foster content-based instruction towards controversial topics (critical thinking) by targeting the communicative skills in undergraduate students. This Abortion workshop was designed to be developed in three different but continuum sessions, moving from general concepts and vocabulary related to the topic to the possibility to perform, state positions and argue by giving supports.

The main goals proposed in the objectives for the first of the three sessions were to explore vocabulary related to abortion and, to organize ideas with the use of a mind map while reading a general concept about abortion.

In practice, the development and design of the workshop was meaningful. The topic selected was a success and students were active at participating and very creative when drawing, selecting, and presenting their mind maps in a clear way including what was required in the instructions.

I could realize that one of the main facts in the first intervention was that objectives were not as clearer as I wanted. At the beginning of the first session students were shy. This could be improved by stating a better “hook” in the anticipatory set and relating it to their prior knowledge. Although a picture was presented, students were a little bit confused about the topic. Sometimes, the language I used was not understandable for the students. I should look for other words like synonyms in order to avoid misunderstandings in the instructions.

As mentioned above, there are some aspects I have to improve if I teach this lesson in the future. First, selecting a better way to present the topic, not only by showing a picture, but also, by asking questions that led students to guess the topic. Second, trying to have more language elements available, not in the case of materials or tools, but in the case of most common expressions or vocabulary and clearer language. I have to be aware that instructions were clear and understood by students. In this sense, students do not get lost in the activities and the pacing and time will be better handled.

Vocabulary Activity

References

Nuñez, A. & Téllez, M. (2009). ELT Materials: The key to fostering effective teaching and learning settings. PROFILE Vol. 11, No. 2, 2009.