Level A: Unit 1.1

Activity 3 (Question and Response): Cut questions and responses into slips. Do most cutting before class, but do not separate the questions from responses until you know how many students will be in class. This way, everyone will get a partner.

Activity 4 (Conversation Order): Cut into strips before class.

Overall, this lesson plan was very effective. For almost the entire time, students were engaged, visibly processing, and demonstrating progress. The most effective activities seemed to be 3 (questions and responses), 4 (conversation order), and 5 (writing). After a period of time, having students who had correctly completed activity 4 walk around the room to help peers worked well.

Several real-time modifications were made, some of which were less than ideal. First, we only had half a piece of chalk, so students could not write their answers on the board, and the written and oral review became simply oral. A written component would have been helpful for activities 1 (listening) and 2 (contest). Second, we got a late start due to a logistical problem, so had to cut activity 5 (writing) short and skip activity 7 (role-play) entirely. Third, I changed the journal homework to be the same assignment as last week's because new students had joined the class and many returning students had forgot theirs.

In hindsight, I would change the warm-up activity to be related to the day's lesson. I would spend a little more time explaining the grammar section; though today's class was mostly review. I would give students more time to speak in pairs and groups and present to the class, and I would make the homework assignment more specific (i.e. a topic similar to the one slated for role-play).

This said, the lesson plan and its execution facilitated some important student responses: Those who previously were scared, no longer looked intimidated. They even volunteered to speak in front of the class! Those who previously struggled to understand, no longer looked confused. People went at the activities with a palpable hunger. They were visibly proud of themselves for certain things, most of them grinning when they left the class. Feelings of progress and positive self-worth are important in language study (Oxford, 1990), so I hope to continue to foster them in my lessons.

Last but not least, a self-evaluation:


*Activity 2 was inspired by Stephen C, Fulbright ETA 2010-2011. Activities 3 and 4 can be found in "Look Who's Talking" by Mary Ann Christison and Sharon Bassano. The reflection chart was developed by Ginger R. Davis, professor of history at a university in Hanoi.