12/11/15
The
second Dutch lesson I found a lot different than the first. It had a similar
structure, but the teaching style was a lot different, reflective of the
different learning goals. As students of language-teaching, we were to focus on
the student and teacher activity during the lesson.
In
the first part of the lesson, a review of what we’d learned already, we went around
the room snake-style saying the questions and phrases we’d learned to one
another. The teacher’s role was to facilitate our use of and learning of the
language. To do this, Miranda didn’t talk as much or teach us vocab and
language rules – she let us try the phrases out on each other and figure it out
on our own.
The
most significant activity we did was with a handout. In pairs, we had to try to
guess the rule for making the present tense of regular verbs. Miranda stood
back and watched, letting us puzzle over it. Like the reviewing part of the
lesson, she didn’t play an active role as teacher, something I found effective
and useful. She allowed the learners to learn on their own. We were in charge
of our own comprehension and it was up to us to put effort into making
connections.
The
teacher’s role was much more passive in this lesson, allowing us to learn
actively and engage with the language and each other. When she stood back, we
were forced to try speaking on our own (though there was a bit of looking to
her for assistance as we struggled to pronounce certain words) and try it out.
While she did help when we were stuck, we primarily had to remember and listen
to each other to pronounce correctly. The teacher and learner’s role was the
same with the worksheet activity. Miranda again stood back and let us work it
out on our own. The amount of STT to TTT I found really good – we did most of
the talking, and Miranda did a good job facilitating that.
While the activities were effective in facilitating
learning, I didn’t think they were supremely varied or interesting. Although
the question-answer review style is a good way to get everyone in a classroom
to participate in the language, there was just a bit too much of the same thing.
I got a little bored after the second time. The handout activity was also a bit
dull, as it was pretty simple and the answers were obvious. However, the most
important thing in the lesson was achieved – through the activity, I learned
(basically) the rule of conjugating regular verbs.
Hi Morghan,
ReplyDeleteGood commentary on the teacher's and learners' roles in the lesson. I appreciate the comment about the repetitiveness of the speaking exercise, although you may have noticed that I did try to vary this a little by not just snaking around the room (e.g. use of small groups for the telephone number exercise). The repetition in the grammar exercise, too, served a purpose - although it may be a relatively simple rule, it takes a good while for it to 'stick' properly, and the repetition served to reinforce the pattern. In all, though, a good post.
Miranda