Pre-Intermediate and Intermediate Reading Lesson

  • Before Class: Students are lively and chatting in both English and their first languages
  • The class takes their seats in a U shape that goes along the walls of the classroom, with another smaller row between the teacher’s desk and the back row of desks
  • When class starts, the teacher hands out personalized nametags that the students created on the first day of classes
    • I thought this was a brilliant idea for many reasons. Not only is this a great way to learn the students names, but you can also expedite attendance while showing your students that you know who they are.
  • When they have the attention of the class, the teacher reminds the class of how they prefer their questions to the class answered, called aloud opposed to raised hands.
  • A student had come in a few minutes late, they had quietly taken their seat while the teacher changed their status on the attendance sheet.
    • While in my experience this is a common occurrence, I appreciate it as a student who has both been running late, or on time/early for a class I like it when my lateness is not acknowledged because I don’t want to disrupt the class, but also that it doesn’t create a fear of being late or the mentality of “well I’m five minutes late so I might as well not go because I’ll get in trouble”.
  • When going over the homework from the previous class, the answers are spoken aloud by both the teacher and the students going one by one. After all the answers have been said, a copy of the correct answers are put on the board so that students can check their spelling
    • While this may be common practice, it hadn’t occurred to me to show the spelling of the answers so that students can check their spelling
  • Gives students a paragraph to read for a few minutes, then afterwards reading the paragraph out loud at a pace similar to that of conversation.
    • While some students might have trouble following along with this pace, it does get them familiar with a more conversational pace that native speakers have opposed to slowly going through line by line and making sure every word is understood.
  • When looking at the paragraph with the class, the teacher showed how to find definitions within a text with parenthesizes.
    • This was another instance of it never occurring to me that that is a method of determining meaning within a text without using a dictionary.
  • While reading another paragraph out loud to the class, the teacher sat in an empty space in the middle of where the students were seated (mostly on the one side of the room to see what is shown on the projector), and read out loud another paragraph while the students follow along.
    • I really liked this, because it visibly takes away the degree of separation that some people might have between teacher and student. Not only that but it helps make sure that the students can hear what is being said that they might not be able to get if the teacher was farther away. It also helps keep students on track by being in a closer proximity.
  • When a student isn’t paying attention, and laying their head down the teacher was very firm about no sleeping in class. The tone caught me off guard as it was a little harsh, but I understand that the teacher finds this very disrespectful.
    • While I was not able to be there for the very first class, this might be an important rule to implement at the start of the course, as well as other things you expect as classroom etiquette. This will help those that come from cultures where sleeping might be allowed in class to know that you should not do it here as well as other rules that might not be commonplace in their home country.
  • The teacher has a good gauge for words that might be a bit harder for students in this lower-mid level class, as they not only elaborate further on definitions of words, but also potential situations they might be used and elaborating further on idioms that might be within the text.
  • Reminders that while reading their texts, to re-read passages a few times so that they might be able to glean the meaning of some words by the surrounding sentence. As well as that if you can replace the word and the sentence makes sense, its meaning is probably similar or the same.
  • The teacher reminds the class that you need to be honest with your learning needs, that getting answers wrong is not a bad thing, but that it just means you or the class in general needs a bit more time working on whatever it is they got wrong.
    • I loved this. During my time as a student I have been made to feel stupid or lesser than because I needed more time to practice certain concepts that I could not quite grasp. I think it is good to remind students that getting an answer wrong does not reflect on them as a person.
  • Walks through idioms more in depth, using ones the class already knows as examples before introducing new ones to the class and explaining their meaning. Then listing scenarios where these idioms might be used in everyday life. Doing through the examples again as a listen and repeat.
    • I think doing a listen and repeat afterwards is a smart idea so then they will hopefully be more comfortable when the time arises to actually use the idioms they learned.
  • Gives the students the task of doing some solo work on a worksheet within a booklet handed out in a previous lesson. After a few minutes the class was lead to go over the answers. While going over the answers, again using real life examples with the answers that the students might come across in their lives within Canada. Not only that, but also using the resources put up in the classroom as well. Pointing to maps and other pictures to help visualize the examples they’re coming up with for the class.
    • I think this is a great idea! Not just to put up examples and resources for the students but to bring attention to them and use them for examples within class time. This is something I would like to include in a future class that I lead if circumstances allow.
  • After giving a few examples, the students are then asked to think of their own examples that they may have heard already, or translating idioms in their own language and explaining their meaning. This lead to a brief conversation on similarities and differences of idioms in various cultures.
  • Before giving the class a 10 minute break, and saying so to them, the teacher gave them a list of new vocabulary words to work on for the week and lead them through a listen and repeat of the words on the list.
    • This particular teacher didn’t have an outline of the plan for the class, and so I thought giving them one quick task before letting them have a break was a good move. The class had gone for a little over an hour at this point, and they could tell the class was getting a bit restless.
  • 10-15 minute break
  • After everyone had settled back in from their break, they were given another worksheet of fill in the blanks. The teacher then came around to check on both their progress and gauge about how much longer people might need to complete it.
  • Then once they had deemed enough time had passed, the teacher once again sat in the middle of the class, and read aloud the paragraph with brief emphasis on the answers while the class reads along.
  • After this activity, let the class know that they had finished the chapter and that there would be a test the next class on what they just finished covering. Then using the last ~20 minutes of class time, the teacher had gone over key points of the chapter intermittently checking for understanding and clarifying points that may have been more muddled for students.
  • During this review session, the teacher asked questions and got the students to give examples to show they understand the content.
  • Before ending the class early, the teacher explained what is going to be on the test and how to best study for it. This particular test format was made so that if you know the vocabulary for the chapter, you’ll get at least a passing grade.
    • During my time as a student I always appreciated it. This gives the students an idea of what to expect and can severely reduce test anxiety.
  • When the class finally ended, albeit a few minutes early the teacher let them know that they would be sticking around for a few more minutes in case anyone had questions or needed clarification on anything.
    • I think this is a great practice, as it gives those a chance to ask questions one on one in case they may have been hesitant to reach out during class time.