Lesson no. 3

Lesson no. 3

17 June 2009 / Wednesday

(16:30 – 17:55)

I needed to make some eleventh hour changes to the lesson plan of today. I had made a lesson plan yesterday but when I began to check the exercises from last time I noticed that many people didn’t understand the concept of telling the time entirely. Since the explanation about this topic was still fresh in the minds of the students, I thought it was best to clear all the doubts that remained about this topic first. (The lesson preparation that was meant for today will be used on Friday)

The lesson was started with drawing a clock on the board (just like last time). This time instead of explaining everything myself I asked students to tell the time. The explanation and the questioning were integrated.

This time there were two teachers in the class i.e. me and Ruben. He was a great help. I asked him to take over a few times so that he could continue with the general lesson about telling the time, in which each student was invited to the board to tell the time portrayed at the clock we drew. In the mean time I could explain this topic to new students, latecomers and to students who didn’t understand it completely.
(The handouts consisted of clocks in which the clock needed to be read by the students and they had to write the time in words e.g. twenty past one)

While the general class was taking place, handouts were given to the students so that they could work on them if they wanted.

Although I had prepared some extra and more difficult handouts for students who had asked for them, there were still a few students who were done even with them. So for next time I need multiple and more difficult handouts for some people.
(These handouts consisted of a story with 10 MCQ’s and a grammar handout about simple present and future tense with some exercises)

The months of the year were repeated and this time the students were also invited to come to the board to tell when they were born. It was a good idea of Ruben to ask the students to speak the sentences out loud, once they had written them. I’ve never done that but we all learn new things all the time :) Prepositions (e.g. on) and articles (e.g. the) were missing sometimes in sentences. But writing is a good practice not only for these two things but also for the spelling of the months.

Ruben was a great help today. I don’t know what I would have done without him. Thanks a bunch for your help :)

Error analysis:

- I forgot to tell the students about the timings of the lesson of Friday, as there were quite a few new students. (need to ask the COA to put it on the notice board tomorrow)
- There were a few new people in the class today, and I noticed again that the students have different levels of English. I didn’t have enough variety of handouts so I need to work on that.
- I forgot about the time. At 17:55 I saw the clock, and I was like :o we need to finish right away. I really need to prepare my lesson as if it is an hour lesson or a 45-minute lesson. This will probably give more structure to my lessons, but I really need to work on that.