11/11 Review Test on Lesson 7

The Eighth Hour

1. Check the answers on Ss' workbooks. The English assistant wrote down the answers on the board. (5 min)
2. Elicit questions from Ss. Solve their questions before the review test started. (5 min)
3. Doing the test.(30-35 min)
4. Check the answers. (5-10 min)

REFLECTION

At first, I had no idea what kind of answers Ss would produce. After the first class, I got a grip on Ss' possible answers and was able to help them solve their problems more confidently.

I also learned that I have to trust my linguistic instincts.It is possible that there may be some mistakes in the test sheet and also the answer sheet.Some of the questions, especially the translation questions are not well presented in a reasonable context. The ambiguity made Ss confused and also made me feel uncertain how far I should explain to them and what types of answers could be accepted. I hate to tell Ss that they should stick to one possible answer, for example,環遊世界 should be 'travel around the world'('take a trip around the world' is accepted this time), not 'go all over the world' because Ss should be allowed to make mistakes and try out the language they learn. However, these mistakes are counted as grades,which are a huge concern for Ss. The ideas of encouraging Ss to produce the language and evaluating their production by grades seem contradictory to me. It seems that Ss get punished for their mistakes, which is an essential process of learning a foreign language. If the tests or the answers are rigid, how can we encourage our Ss to try out the language? I'm a little skeptical about the function of 'translation practices' in the review test and I'm not sure which position I should take.

11/10 The Magic Book & Ss' Inventions

The Sixth Hour

1. Give back Ss' Magic Books and ask them to do the sentence structure translation in class. At the same time, I wrote down the answers of the exercises from the textbook on the board. Let Ss check the answers by themselves. (40 min)
2. Ss' inventions were roughly categorized and ten of the most creative or interesting inventions were chosen. Read those inventions to the whole class. (10 min)

REFLECTION

Ss' inventions somehow reflect their personalities and their current needs; they also differentiate each class from another. Ss of Class Gong and Min are more concerned about their school work, while Ss of Class Cun create more inventions that are related to their general school life. I think next time, I can also read some of the creative inventions from a particular class to another class. Let Ss know that there are a lot more possibilities they could have thought of, not just limited to study, tests,and grades.

11/8 Sentence Structure & Doreaomon Role-Play

11/4 Monopoly / Cat's-eye reflectors

The Fourth Hour

11/3 Vocab quiz/ Reading text: Monopoly

The Third Hour

1. Discuss the review test on Lesson 6 (Rainbow, 15-20 min)
2. Vocabulary quiz (15 min)
20 questions (fill-in-the-blanks) were prepared by using the exam producer, the question tank. When Ss were finished, ask them to exchange papers and check the answers in their textbooks. Some of the tricky answers were shown on the board. Ask individual or all Ss to chorus the answers.
3. Explain the reading text of the introduction part and the first invention, Monopoly. (15-20 min)
Before the explanation, play the reading demonstration on CD and ask Ss to listen and read at the same time. Important grammatical points were presented in skeletion form on the board. Try using example sentences related to Ss.

11/2 Vocab Game/ Listening Activity/ Silent reading

The Second Hour
1. Lead Ss to pronounce the vocabulary, including 'Words for Production' and 'Words for Recognition". Fresh up their impression for the vocabulary. At the same time set the computer. (5min)
2. Activity one (20 min) Bang/Around the World (Speak Louder)
a. Explain the game rules first.
Game rules: Choose two students at opposite ends of the classroom, and have them stand. Show them the Chinese or English definition of the new words. The first student to call out the correct answer stays standing. This person then competes with the person sitting next to the one who just sits down. The student who stays standing in the end is the winner.
b. After the explanation, give Ss two minutes to quickly browse the vocabulary and try to memorize it.
c. Use PPT to show each of the Chinese definitions, (only few are presented with Enlgish definitions)
c. When it’s difficult to tell who answers first, show the next word. If both of them fail to give the answers, play the next slide.
3. Present the picture of those inventions mentioned on p. 109. Listening comprehension. (15 min)
4. Silent reading & reading comprehension. (10 min)
5. Remind Ss that they will have a vocabulary quiz on Wednesday.

REFLECTION

The game is awesome! I think next time we can use more English definitions in this game, to add more diversity and to increase the difficulty.

11/1 Vocabulary of Lesson 7

The First Hour
Vocabulary teaching (50 min)
a. Guide Ss to pronounce the new words.
b. Teach the vocabulary by categorizing the new words into verbs, nouns, and adjectives.
c. Present them by using PPT; only the most essential sentence patterns or expressions are presented.
d. Ask individual Ss to read the example sentences out loud.
e. Round up with the idea of suffix –ive.

REFLECTION:

The first hour was terrible. I did follow my schedule but the way I presented it was kind of messy, especially the notes I wrote on the board. When I was teaching, I wished I had been a walking dictionary that I could come up with any easy and beautiful sentences anytime, for any vocubulary. I stumbled a lot in the first hour, partly because I was nervous and because when I saw those advanced Ss, like Judith or Tiffiney, I lost my confidence.
One big problem of today's teaching is that there could be more teacher-student interaction. Sometimes I raised a topic but I didn't know how to continue with it. And suddenly the atmosphere frose. Like Rainbow suggested, I can ask more wh- questions and make the Q & A more meaningful. For example, I asked Ss of the second class to raise their hands to show whether they'll go Dutch or let their boyfriends pay all the bills. After raising their hands, I didn't have much feedback but continue teaching the next word. :P Next time, I can ask individual Ss 'why' they choose a particular answer; then, it will yield more interaction between us and the interaction will be more natural.

The follwing are a few other things I learned today:
1. Apart from 'include' and 'including', the usage of 'included' is also very
important. I'll supplement this point when I go through the reading text.
2. While metioning something important but not included in the textbook,
I can remind Ss to write them down. Leave some time for them to do
that.
3. When talking about a new grammatical concept, such as the idea of 'suffix', and there are quite a few examples that contain new words, the most important thing is to explain how the suffix '-ive' works. Instead of giving a thorough explanation of each word, I can pick one or two easier words to explain how the suffix works and ask Ss to check the rest of the unknown words in the dictionary.