The Joy of teaching Yr 7
My journey continues – and I was pleased to see my blog getting read by ‘external bloggers’…I had thought it was more of an ‘online’ journal to manage my own thoughts and feedback (and have a paper trail for accrediation!), but Steve, if you’re reading this – I am not on Twitter, in fact never heard of it – but I am on Facebook and on Skype and well, here – and I am looking forward to talking to you about Second Life, as I have somewhat taken on the role of exploring benefits of IT in language teaching withing our staffroom.
But first things first. After a shocking start to the week (I had missed my accrediation training course at AIS on Monday, my day off school), I had another lesson oberved by the Head of our department and I am happy with the way the lesson went. Well – happier at least after the last time she came in. The aim of the lesson was to revisit the pronouns and etre, to rehearse spelling and the alphabet, learn to state “I am from + city” and finish off with a listening/reading comprehension to extend their vocabulary base. What worked really well was the my movement around the class (berger allemand – Jose je t’ecoute!), the fact I had their attentions and managed them well in between tasks – they were attentive and on task today. I was commended for having a girl write out the pronouns on the board rather than doing it myself and she also liked how I approached the reading comprehension: After 2 listenings, asking them to find expressions that I give them in English in French. I still need to work on giving instructions clearer and providing more scaffolding before expecting them to produce language. The suggestion was made to have them repeat after each ‘bubble’ and to ask them to rote learn a dialogue which they have then to perform before asking them to make up their own dialogue. And whilst this (rote learning) is totally against pretty much all things we learned at uni, I am tempted to try it…thinking back, I learned French by imagining conversations with my (French) boyfriend and learning them off by heart – and I am pleased to say that most of my imaginary dialogues were played out at some stage over ensuing years! I will also try to incorporate even more song into my lessons and add another dimension of rythm to my lessons that way.
I am collecting my annotated lesson plans from the lessons I was evaluated on, which should be a good starting point for the teaching portfolio, which I aim to get done this year. But like I said – overall a good lesson and I look forward to trying the suggestions in upcoming classes….but no room for complacency and rest – there’s still lots of lesson to be planned and Second Life to be explored…..which brings me back to Steve. How far is your school from mine??
Signing off
JKO
