On 8th February, 2021, I joined the LLC Conversation Club’s Social Room for delivering my 1st practica. The topic covered was ‘Friends’. I believe it was an apt topic considering, friendship is what I aimed at developing with the students.

 

Reflections

  1. There are a lot of things that appealed me as I reflect upon my teaching:-
  • I warmly welcomed students in the class and encouraged them to turn their cameras & mics on to have an interactive session.
  • I tried to make the session engaging from the 1st For this, I turned the interactive whiteboard on & told students to type their best friend’s name.
  • In the warm-up, students were told to type the number of friends they had, this activity was aimed at adding variety by using public chat.
  • A new activity was planned ‘Friendship Rainbow’ wherein students placed themselves in a colorful semi-circle. Students were provided with various topics (eg. favorite color, movie, etc.) to ask each other. This activity was aimed at having a great interactive session and add something new. I successfully achieved both these goals.
  • To ensure students don’t feel bored, a lot of activities were planned using various tools like polling, typing in the chat bar, breakout rooms, drawing perfect ovals/circles & different colors to type.
  • Number of colorful slides were planned to introduce activities relating to the topic and to not let monotony creep in.

 

  1. Nevertheless, there are a few things I would like to do differently:-
  • I tried covering all the slides I had made, unaware that I could skip a few slides if the students are enjoying a particular activity.
  • I would want to adapt as per the students’ preferences rather than focusing on following the lesson plan.
  • I would be watchful in the future about some sensitive topics (e.g. religion), so as to not include them in my lesson planning. All went well but this is just a precautionary action.
  • I would create breakout rooms for a longer duration as all students did not get the chance to talk.

 

  1. My key take-aways are as follows:-
  • To always make more slides as it is better to prepare more but at the same time not let the lesson plan overpower the interactive session, skipping a few activities if need be.
  • I went a little overboard in terms of time, so I would not repeat this in the future.
  • To keep making colorful slides as students enjoy it. I also feel it breaks the monotony and keeps students engaged all throughout the 1-hour class.
  • I would adopt the scaffolding technique, by giving little information on the topic to students and then gradually adding a little more. This ensures an intriguing environment conducive of L2 learning.