Self-feedback on the microlesson on 'preteaching vocabulary in a reading class'

Lesson: Pre-teaching vocabulary in a reading class
Level: Intermediate
Class size: 07

MY STRENGTHS ON THE MICROLESSON

Two of my key strengths on the lesson were: elicitation and interaction.

I felt I elicited the words well by using strategies such as questioning, using my body language to act out a part of the word, and most importantly, using pictures which I had chosen to help my students get at the word.  Secondly, I was able to engage the class in an interactive way.

MY SHORTCOMINGS ON THE MICROLESSON

My pedagogical judgment went wrong in two respects namely, selecting the pre-teach words for a reading lesson and the amount of time spent on teaching the important words before a reading lesson. Firstly, some of the words were beyond the conceptual and cultural levels of my students. In spite of the fact that my students were experienced teachers, they were not able to get at a few words. That said, had I used the technique in an actual intermediate class, I wonder if the interaction and the elicitation would have taken place to the extent it did with the peer group.

I also wish I had taken words from a “real” text rather than from an “imaginary” text. Had I chosen the text and then selected words to pre-teach, my lesson would have had a much better pedagogical value. Perhaps, I had put the cart before the horse!

Secondly, I had spent almost 17 minutes in pre-teaching vocabulary. Given the fact that a regular session runs for 50 minutes, spending almost more than a quarter of an hour just to pre-teach important words  in a reading lesson would be a fallacious idea. Such lessons are bound to go up in smoke, which indeed happened in my case.

In addition to the above, I also felt that my teacher talk time increased my lesson time. For instance, for a few words, I gave additional explanation which was not necessary. 

MY PLAN OF ACTION

In order to make my teaching more useful to my students, I will:

1. be more pragmatic in planning my lessons – that is to say, I would choose texts or vocabulary items at students’ conceptual levels;
2. be more pragmatic in my thinking and in my decisions when setting question papers, teaching, and when setting classroom activities so as to make my teaching purposeful to my students; and
3. teach more micro lessons, reflect on each of them, and maintain a CPD portfolio – in the form of a blog – with self-feedback reports, observers’ feedback, and microteaching videos. I believe all of these will help me better understand gaps in my teaching and view my professional development in transparent terms.