Date: November 5, 2014
Class: Reading Composition 3
The Planning Conference
1. Goals:
- Article “The World’s Game”
- Sentence fragments: Handout
- Great Writing: Unit 1 Introduction to
Paragraphs (Concluding Sentences and transitions)
2. Specify success indicators:
A. in-class discussion
- Article “The World’s Game”: Quiz (Answer
the comprehension questions)
- Sentence fragments: Exercises shown in
the handout
- Great Writing: (a) p. 27 (b) Activity 19
(p. 32) (c) Pair activity (d) Review four features of a well-written paragraph
(p. 28)
- In-class writing – a well-written
paragraph
B. Assignments:
- Summary: The World’s Game (due on Friday)
- Great Writing: Activity 18 (p. 29-30) and
Activity 20 (p. 32-34)
- Sentence Correction Worksheet (collected
from the students’ writing)
3. Anticipate approaches:
- Sentence fragments: Discuss the answers
with the classmates first and with the whole class
- Great Writing: (a) p. 27: Discussion (b)
Activity 19: discuss the “topic sentence”, “an unrelated sentence”, and write
“a concluding sentence”(c) Pair activity: put the sentences in the correct
order (d) Review four features of a well-written paragraph: first reading the
paragraph from the group activity, and discuss the features of a well-written
paragraph
- In-class writing: choose a topic and
start to write a complete paragraph in class (20 minutes)
4. Establish personal learning focus:
- if my students can write a complete
paragraph
- understand the problems my students have
in their writing
- help my students recognize their errors
in writing à self-editing
- if I give clear instructions for each
activity and assignment
5. Reflect on the planning process:
- need to manage the time well for each
activity
- need to prepare 3 well-written paragraphs
for the pair activity
Reflection Conference
1. Summarize impressions:
Overall, I think the class went well. The
students understood the main ideas of the article, “The World’s Game”, the
corrections of the sentence fragments, and the features of a well-written
paragraph. While the students worked on the pair activity, they collaborated
with one another and completed the activity. However, we took a while to
discuss the exercises in the handout of sentence fragments. The students seem
to lack of knowledge of using adverb clauses (subordinating conjunction). As a
result, I ran out of time to give the in-class writing by the end of the class.
2. Analyze causal factors:
I used to discuss sentence fragments in
week 4 or week 5, but I moved this topic earlier (week 3) this session because
I hope my students could recognize the errors in their sentences sooner.
However, I neglected that the students haven’t learned adverb clauses
(subordinating conjunction) in grammar, and I also lost the focus on
understanding the complete meaning of the sentences, rather than correcting the
sentences with my students. In addition, I am going to revise the handout of
the sentence fragments and focus on “missing subject” or “verb” first.
3. Construct new learning:
First, I will coordinate with the grammar
teacher more often and understand the students’’ learning objectives each week.
During this session, I am collecting the sentences from the students’ writing,
and using these sentences to help my students do self-editing. Moreover, I am
going to let my students recognize “adverb clauses, adjective clauses, and noun
clauses” as they read the Tuesdays with Morrie. Besides, I am going to require
these clauses into the in-class writing rubric in order to assess if my
students write these clauses correctly.
In the future, I will still discuss
sentence fragments earlier, and focus on the students’’ common issues: missing
subject and missing verb. In addition, I will set up BBLearn for my students to
practice at home.
About the pair activity, I am going to
write down the directions, and let the students read the directions before
starting the activity.
4. Commit to application:
Right after this class, I talked to the
grammar teacher and understood that the students are going to learn adverb
clauses next week (week 4). About the directions of the activity, I start to do
it every class. Besides, I am collecting the sentences from the students’
writing to make the sentence corrections handout as well as helping my students
work on self-editing.
5. Reflect on process:
For me, I think it’s a good way to reflect
my teaching. Although I have taught this class many times, I still modify and
revise the materials and my teaching methods every session.
Supervisor's Evaluation
Date: April 17, 2014
Class: Academic Skills 3
The Planning Conference
1. Goals:
Students understand the purposes of “time
management”.
Students understand the importance of “time
management”.
Students reflect how they have managed
their time during these four weeks.
Students keep track of their time for the
following week.
2. Specify success indicators:
In-class:
Students reflect what they have learned
from the EE presentation and the interview with an American friend.
Students write how they have arranged their
time since week 1, and then they share with the peers.
Out-of class:
Students need to complete the time
management assignment by next Thursday.
Students write a paragraph to reflect their
learning habits and time management skills
3. Anticipate approaches:
- individual writing/reflection time
- peer sharing
- class discussing
4. Establish personal learning focus:
- understand the difficulties that students
have faced for arranging their time
- help students to understand/face their
problems à why can’t they finish the assignments on time?
- advise students to fix/improve their
problems
5. Reflect on the planning process:
- using my personal time management as an
example
- sharing my personal learning experience
- sharing/learning from the interviewees; if
time allows, otherwise, I will do this activity next week.
Narrative of Teaching Observation
One of the goals of this class session is
to help students understand the importance of time management. First, students
were asked to think about the meaning of time management and how the
interviewee (an American friend) and the presenters from the Dept. of E.E.
arrange their time in their lives. Students shared their opinions with class.
Next, I shared my pie chart with students. Then, students reflected how they
have organized their time for these four weeks on the pie chart. After that,
students shared their pie chart with one another. Subsequently, I interpreted
the definitions and examples of the quadrants (urgent-very important, not
urgent-very important, urgent-not important, not urgent-not important) of my
personal activities and asked students to give couple examples for each
quadrant. Lastly, students were asked to keep track of their activities for a
week and draw a new pie chart showing how they used their time by next
Thursday. Meanwhile, students need to compare the pie chart they drew in class
and the new pie chart, and write one-paragraph reflection on how they have used
their time and any changes they plan to make in the future.
Reflection Conference
1. Summarize impressions:
I would say the class went smoothly, but
ran out of time for drawing, discussion and sharing.
At the beginning, some of the students were
willing to share the meaning of time management and what they have learned from
the presenters and the interviewee. After I shared my pie chart with class, the
students worked on their own pie chart. During this moment, a few students
didn’t understand the directions and ask for help. However, the students spent
more time than I expected to complete their pie chart. I gave the students
approximately 10 minutes to share their pie chart with at least two classmates.
All of the students were willing to share their pie chart with one another, but
we ran out of time. After their sharing time, we discussed about the meaning
and examples for each quadrant. Some of the students were eager to share their
opinions for the quadrants. As a result, the discussion was longer than
expected. Before at the end of this class session, I interpreted the assignment
and also confirm with the students to see if they understand how to complete
it.
2. Analyze causal factors:
Most of the students were willing to share
what they had learned from the EE presenters and their interviewee. However, a
few of them seemed to lose their memories and those who had no ideas about time
management. Actually, these students are the one who hand in late assignments
and/or not follow the instructions in class.
I was a little surprised that a few
students found the difficulties to draw their daily pie chart; however, it was
nice to see every student was willing to share their pie chart with one
another.
3. Construct new learning:
I will give students a pre-assignment which
asks them to keep track of their daily activities (at least three days) before
this class session.
I will modify the reflection journal and
add a session for time management. (We use monthly and weekly planner, but some
of the students do not use it appropriately.)
4. Commit to application:
The pre-assignment of time management will
be given in advance.
Start from week 5, I will require the
students to include how they arrange their time for the week into their
reflection journal.
I would like to pay more attention on the
gestures that I’ve used during the lecture, and to see if which disturbs my
interpretation.
I would like to see if I provide an
appropriate example (like a model) for students before they start to do the
assignment/activity.
I would like to know if I give clear
instructions for each activity/assignment.
5. Reflect on process:
I would say it is a good way to film and
review the video of my class. I realized that I use a lot of gestures as I
interpret the instructions of each activity. In addition, I can listen to not
only my pronunciation, but also review my interpretation of the lesson.
I would like to invite another instructor
or have an intern to visit my class, as well as to observe other teachers’
classes.
