On 1st February, 2021, I joined the LLC Conversation Club’s Social Room. The session started as the instructor introduced the first slide with vegetables and food items on it. A good topic (Food) was covered. I could relate this session to the Community Language Learning Method, as I felt the teacher harnessed positive energy and understood students’ fear as well.

Reflections

  1. There are a lot of things that appealed to me as a language learner,
    • She engaged students right from the very start, that is from the very first slide. Students started coloring in the pictures like broccoli, peas, burgers etc. Clubbing the coloring plus learning activity is a fantastic idea.
    • Interestingly, cameras were on and students really enjoyed as they spoke about their favorite food. Additionally, interactive whiteboard was used numerous times.
    • One point worth mentioning is that the teacher formed questions based on students’ responses, highlighting the importance of spontaneity and adaptation strategies required in a classroom setting.
    • Teacher had a back-up computer ready, which is very organized of her. This preparation was helpful in regard to the problem* mention under point 2.
    • Students were actively responding, helping each other with words if someone got stuck somewhere. For example, a student fumbled with a vegetable name and another student wrote “cucumber” quickly in the chatbox. It is really good to see students developing social bonds, highlighting that better L2 learning takes place in a friendly & supportive environment.

 

 

  1. Nevertheless, there were some problems as well
  • *By mistake, a student ended the meeting instead of logging out of the classroom. It took 7-8 minutes to get started again. This created a break in the entire session.
  • Breakout rooms were created for 4 minutes, time was insufficient for everyone to speak, however teacher continued discussion in the main room upon knowing this fact, she adapted well as per the sudden new situations arising in the classroom.
  • I feel few more slides would be good as focusing on the main activity, on 1 slide, for 15-20 minutes creates monotony.

 

 

  1. There are many take aways for me from this observation.
  • Firstly, the excitement the teacher brings in the classroom, even in an online setting.
  • Secondly, the teacher goes to & fro the slides, ensuring fixation of concepts.
  • Thirdly, has backup lesson plus backup laptop ready.

 

I would love to incorporate the above-mentioned strategies adopted by the instructor today in my teaching, in addition to using all the features of Moodle like, breakout rooms, painting, typing in chatbox etc. Moreover, I would like to do things little differently by adding more slides in my PowerPoints as I feel it breaks the monotony and keeps students engaged throughout the 1-hour class.