Tanya Cowie Videos- Adult ESL Class Beginner Level 1/2

 

Time Objective Observations Subjective Observations
0:00-2:00 Warmup- Tanya asks “how are you”, students reply” fine thank you. How are you?”. She then draws a happy and sad face on the chalkboard.  I like how she immediately begins teaching, even in the warmup. Introductions and greetings are very important, and this is a great way to practice.
0:30 Within this warmup, she notes the intonation of the voice and facial expressions during a greeting. So many things that we don’t think about, just do automatically!
1:20 Notes the different responses to “what’s the matter?” visually on her body to prompt responses. Acting out the vocabulary would make it easier for students to understand.
2:00-4:35 Tanya hands out students name cards and asks them each how they are. They have the choice in how to respond and have the visual prompts still on the board. Good way to interact with each student directly and develop rapport. Also allows students to warm up and get used to using the vocabulary. As well, they get the chance for 1 on 1 feedback.
2:35 Student provides a different answer to “what’sthe matter.” T uses it as a good example of another response for the rest of the class and writes it on the board. Many times she adds additional useful information to the board. Demonstrates the need to be flexible in your teaching plan. If one student has a question or uses a response, the rest of the class is probably thinking the same way.
4:35-5:05 Tanya explains the difference between “I am cold” and “I have a cold.” Tanya uses lots of physical demonstrations to explain the vocabulary and grammar to the students. This will provide easier comprehension.
5:05-6:57 Tanya moves the table at the front to allow students rom to form two parallel lines at the front of the room for the next activity. She pairs the students up and joins the activity. Students will practice their greetings with each other. Students rotate partners each time the bell is rung. Moving the table and joining the activity is a great way of changing the typical dynamic between teacher and student. This activity is great for getting students physically moving and interacting with different accents.
6:57-7:15 Tanya has all the students repeat “sorry to hear that” back to her before they can go back to their seats. Good way to check comprehension and close the activity.
0:00-6:00 Lesson 1-“Welcome to Tanya’s clothing store.” Points to several hats, pants, belts, and shirts hanging on the wall as students repeat back the vocab. Looks like a fun activity! Very dynamic for students to engage with real items rather than images or imagined objects.
  T generates greeting with student assistance and writes it on the board. “Welcome, can I help you?” “No, just looking/looking around.” “When you need help, call me.” “Yes, I am looking for a…” “They are over there.” “Thank you.” “You’re very welcome” She seems to have established an expectation that students will repeat phrases back to her and that they will readily volunteer answers. Great to see student participation.
6:00-7:00 Students are placed in pairs and practice the dialogue 4 times, once with each item. Tanya moves around the room and helps the students as the need it. Good for the instructor to engage with students as they complete the activity to gauge comprehension of the skills.
0:00-2:45 Lesson 2- T further explains store dialogue. Writes it on the board, has students verbally repeat each sentence while erasing a word each time. This is a really neat way to memorise the vocabulary and the dialogue. Good for people who are used to this learning style of talk and repeat back.
2:45-6:00 T hands out papers to each student. Students write out certain key words from the dialogue to practice their spelling. Next, they fold over the paper to hide what they wrote and attempt to spell and fill in different words. Repeat 3 times. This form or repetitive writing practice is nice because students are able to moderate how challenging they want it to be. If they are struggling they can peek at the previous paragraph or check their work instantly.
6:00-10:03 Students now are asked to take turns at the front in the role of customer and store owner to practice the dialogue. The dialogue is still on the board. Tanya provides encouragement and positive feedback and correction of pronunciation. The students all seem ok with the risk of participating and Tanya does a good job of providing feedback in a way that minimizes embarrassment for the student.
0:00-5:03 Go Fish- hands out cards, gives one group the cards to demonstrate the game. Students play in their groups. They have the vocab words in front of them. All the students help each other with vocab and the game. It is nice to see their enthusiastic participation.
  Tanya writes the game dialogue on the board and explains. I am assuming this is because students were struggling to communicate during the game?
5:03-5:45 On the board, Tanya explains the articles used in the game. This is important base knowledge to have. When to use “a” in a sentence. I like how she drew her chart on the board with the lines going to different items.
0:00-2:10 Review Activity- Tanya asks students to identify the clothing items on the wall. Then reviews how we identify a singular or plural noun by adding ‘s’ or “a pair of” Nice to have the real items there for students to interact with. Adds legitimacy to the lesson.
2:10-5:05 Tanya hands out paper from previous class and reviews answers. Questions appear to be about vocab, syllables. Uses different symbols to denote stress, tricky consonant pronunciations, and syllables. She asks students to recite and repeat the words after they have been written. She appears to use mainly one syllable words in this assignment, with a few 2 syllable and 3 syllable words. Good way to introduce the concept of syllables without being too challenging. Once they know what they are they can use bigger ones.
5:05-7:45 Tanya pulls out a bag and removes each clothing item one by one, asking students to identify them. Again, adds authenticity to the classroom.
0:00-2:04 Closing- As students leave, they are asked to identify what they are wearing. Colour and item of clothing. This is a nice way to wrap up the lesson and make students use their new vocabulary in a realistic context.

Reflection: It was interesting the watch the interview at the end of the class and see her goals for how she wanted the class to go. I could tell she paid careful attention to repetition of the vocabulary and keeping the activities fun and engaging. I think it would be so rewarding to work with a group like that because you would (hopefully) see some really nice progress. I also think I would enjoy teaching the really practical, useful, language and skills because you know your students will immediately see benefit from it. I like that she used real examples of the items she wanted them to learn because it brings reality into the classroom. If they have those concrete examples to work with I think it would be easier to memorise because they may be able to personally identify with an aspect of the item. It is also nice that her class seems to have a mix of levels and cultures because students will be exposed to different accents and styles of speaking. I also appreciated the way the classroom was set up. Having students sit at round tables promotes more collaboration and community and having multiple boards around the room forces the teacher to change where she is speaking from. It creates a more dynamic classroom.