Johnson Reading Reflection

June 6, 2014

4. I had no plans on becoming a teacher.  As soon as I quit my job in Canada, I originally came to Korea for vacation.  While I was here, my cousin asked me if I wanted to help out for a summer program.  She runs a hakwon and it was only supposed to be for a month.  But it just so happened that I started to like being a teacher, more than I had ever imagined.  I quit my job, thinking I was going to back to school in Toronto.  But in the back of my mind, it wasn’t something I was totally interested in.  I didn’t really like what I was studying in University so I thought that I should take my time in making a decision before I regret it. So I ended up staying longer and now it’s been nearly 2 years.  I had taught at Sunday school for a number of years, and I had tutored students for many years as well, so teaching was not 100% new to me. 

As I was teaching here, I felt that I had an advantage over other teachers because not only was I a native speaker, but I was Korean by blood as well.  Although I was raised in Canada, I was raised under traditional rules.  So I felt I could be a better teacher because I could relate to them more.  However, the main problem I was having was, as Johnson puts it, hypocrisy.  I was expecting my students to learn and I thought I was trying hard in teaching them.  But I realized, especially after taking this course, that I was expecting them to learn, but I wasn’t trying to learn myself.  I was trying to teach the materials that were in front of me, while trying to satisfy my co-workers ideas and feelings.  It was hard at first when my co-worker had so many expectations but could not express his emotions and feelings properly. 

I am enjoying life as a teacher and I enjoy seeing the children learn and change right in front of me.  I worked on a farm for many years so I got to see animals being born, and seeing them grow up.  But it was interesting to see students grow.  They were growing with my influence.  With that in mind, I couldn’t just do whatever I wanted.  I need to learn how to be a good teacher for all types of students, and I hope to do so, whatever language or subject it may be. 

I just turned 30 so I don’t know if I want to be a teacher for the next 20-30 years, but I feel like I am at the age where I can try things out.  Maybe things could change once I get married and settle down.  Perhaps stay here or maybe go back to Canada.  But one thing for sure is that I enjoy being a teacher and I want to be one wherever I am in the world. 

5. I understand the stories in Johnsons reading, and I understand how they might have marginalized but I don’t think I have felt marginalized yet during my years of teaching.  I think the main reasons are that I haven’t been teaching for a long time and also that I teach at my cousin’s hakwon.  So she’s been helping me in every way.  However, one thing I could think of is my relationship with my co-worker.  He felt that he needed to control everything.  I was appreciative of the fact that he wanted to help and he wanted me to go back his ideas and lessons.  But as time progressed, I wanted to do things differently and I tried to make small adjustments, but my co-worker would get extremely upset.  However, things got better as time progressed and now I do have more leniency.  For now with my problem, I think time and experience will help solve my situation.  

Reflection 13 – More Questions…

June 5, 2014

I really wanted to record one of my classes this week and reflect on it, but I didn’t really have a chance to.  This week was a reduced with the holiday, and I had many test this week.  However, I kept thinking of the topic we learned last Saturday in terms of teaching writing. 

Dictation is something I do with most of my reading classes.  For every class, we do it for almost every lesson.  At first, my co-worker strongly felt that it was a good idea, and because he is superior to me, I had to go along with it.  Because it’s something that we do so often and consistently with the students, I feel it has helped them in small ways.  They are slowly getting used to it, their writing neatness is improving, and generally I feel there are a lot less “huh?” and “what?”s. Individually, I could see improvements and their confidence level seemed to be improving as well. 

However, I do agree that it takes a lot of time, they’re writing down sentences that are spoken at speeds that are not realistic in a real conversation, and there could be many other things that could be concentrated on.  This week, I kept thinking about this.  While I was giving the dictation, I kept thinking if this was a good idea or not.  I kept thinking about the writing examples that we learned in class, which were the fill-in-the-blank example and the re-ordering example.  They would both help the students think about the sentence structure a little more.  I then, thought about how connected reading, writing, and grammar actually were and how they should go together to produce better results.  I didn’t realize it because there are 3 different teachers who teach those areas.  I felt that we were basically going our own way and not really connecting them all together. If I use those two examples, rather than writing what I say, they would practice writing something that they may have learned in grammar class, which would help them with their writing; and it would also be connected to the reading class.  There would be more practicing from all classes together.

Another aspect I thought about was pair work.  After we read a passage, I would ask them comprehension questions and they would answer back.  I would try to mix in personalized questions, and some of them would answer well.  But after learning that pair work could be more productive, I tried to do that with my higher level students. 

At first, it seemed like a good idea and it seemed to work.  There was more student-student interaction.  It was also good to see the higher level students helping the lower level students.  Everyone was working together and I felt it was a more productive way for them to learn the story, as well as the language.  However, this week because I couldn't record my class, I got to sit back while they were doing it, and think and see what they were actually doing. 

I realized that the higher level students were helping the lower level students, and it was always the same case.  My question was whether the lower level students were actually learning.  Are they just practicing writing?  Or are they actually learning more about the story, than if I was to talk to them and ask them questions?  So that led to me to ask: what if I gave more speaking tasks, where I give them discussion questions.  However, will that lead to the higher students dominating the lower level students all the time?  What if I put the lower level students together?  That would mean that the higher level students would keep going up, while the lower level students go up slower…wouldn't it? 

The more I thought about it, the more questions I was getting.  The main question I had was: what’s the best, most productive, and efficient method for my students to learn, understand, and comprehend the story, while improving on all areas of their skills?  The only answer I had at the moment was that I should just slowly try different methods, and just see how it goes.  It’s not up to me so I have to discuss with my co-workers before anything is changed.

Non-stop planning and…experimenting…?  I guess that’s the duty of a teacher.  But I wish I found the answers soon...

Reflection 12 – ICC MT

June 3, 2014

This MT went better than I thought.  Prior to this day, I spent several days thinking about what I wanted to do and I was in panic mode.  As soon as someone helped me with the topic, I was able to finish it, but I didn’t plan it as well as I wanted to.  As a result, I modified part of my lesson plan as I went along, but they were things that I normally do, which I will explain later. 

For my preview stage, although I did not teach it, I planned for a vocabulary game, but I realized afterwards, that maybe this wasn’t really necessary for my lesson plan.  I thought that it would’ve been an interesting activity, but it would have taken too much time and I think it would it have been more suitable for a different lesson.  Afterwards, I wanted to show them a picture and remind them of camping or vacation in Korea.  I realized after watching the video that I had explained too much, when I wasn’t going to even teach it. 

For my presentation stage, I started off with my top-down task of scanning the article and underlining all the subtitles.  I wanted to reduce my teacher-talk so I tried to speak more clearly so that they would understand.  I realized throughout my video that I could have personalized with the students more, instead of watching them, looking at the time, and trying to go by my lesson plan too much.  I was just moving back and forth with a paper in my hand, which didn’t really seem “teacher-like”. 

I had them the students discuss with their partners on their answers.  Some missed a few, so they were able to help each other find the right answer.  They generally seemed to do it well, and they didn’t seem to be confused.  I tried to make it more dialogic so I had the students ask each other, but again, I could have personalized with them more.  This part was not planned. 

I wanted to ask them if they knew where the article was taking place, but I wasn’t getting the answers I was expecting, so I had to rephrase my question and they were able to get the right answer.  A few thought it was the states, but the right answer was Canada.  I made a joke about how it was the best country in the world, but I realized the main topic was on culture and how there shouldn’t be any stereotypes, but I was doing just that.  My students would have joked around and said that Korea was the best.  However, thinking of that again, I knew that even that might have not been appropriate for the students to learn. 

I’m not sure if I had taught the top-down task properly, but because there were so many subtitles, I thought that it was a good idea to have the students scan it and check for the subtitles, because underlining could help them find the answers for future questions, and could help them scan the article better.  I wanted them to read for gist.  If they had for details right from the start, I don’t think there would have more questions and confusion. 

For the top-down-bottom-up task, I had the students’ think of 3 things that they have and have not done in Korea based on the article.  This is where I wanted them to think of the grammar part of the TLC for present perfect and also wanted them to think about their own culture and compare it with the other culture (Canada).  The students seemed to do the task well and did not seem lost or confused.  Afterwards, I had the students ask each other and share their answers.  But while they were discussing with each other, I should have written the questions and answers on the board to help the students discuss with each other.  I was thinking about whether to do this or not but I thought that it may have been considered as isolation so I decided not to do it.  But regardless if it was or not, I should have just done it…

Another thing that I did that was not planned was asking the students about hunting in Canada.  I thought that it would have made them think about the article more and think more about both cultures.  I don’t know if it’s possible to hunt in Korea, but I would assume that all of my students would have never hunted before.  But I know it would be something they would find interesting. 

For the bottom-up task, I made more of a conscience effort in speaking more clearly so I wouldn’t have to speak too much.  I told them to discuss a scenario that I had given them.  Originally, I wanted them to look closer into the text by thinking about how much it would cost for them to do both of their activities for the day.  However, thinking about my students, I thought that it might have been difficult, so I took it out at the very last moment (during the break).  However, again, I should have left it in because I realized that that would have been a better way of doing the BU task.  In this part, I wanted the students to practice speaking with simple future sentences, without having to teach them.  The “students” for this MT did very well, but I’m not sure if I would have gotten the same results with my real students. 

Generally, I wanted to reduce my ‘umm’s’ and ‘ok’s’ but I realized that I was still saying it too much.  I felt that I wasn’t as nervous as my previous MT’s, but looking at the video, I realized that I might have been more nervous than I thought because I kept moving around with the lesson plan in my hand.  I know it would have been different in my real class, but I should have personalized with the students more by going around and actually talking to them, and not just listen to them to see if they are simply doing it or not. 

I felt that I was speaking less and the students were speaking more with each other.  They were using the language, using the article to help with their discussion, and they were discussing things about the other culture.  I didn’t feel that there would be any stereotypes because I feel anyone from any country could have taken part in this assignment.  Students from around the world could have discussed with each other and shared their opinions.  It would have been interesting to see students from different cultures, participate in this lesson. 

Through this assignment, I learned that it was possible to tie in all aspects of speaking, writing, reading, and listening into one lesson.  I normally taught a reading comprehension and I did not think about or teach grammar.  But after reviewing previous notes and comments, I realized that I did have to think about vocabulary and grammar (TLC) for my lesson because that’s how they learn the language.  This assignment made me open up my eyes as a teacher, made me think more about what I have been teaching in my hakwon, and it made me think of ideas of what we could change at our hakwon.   

Reflection 11 – Successful class...or was it…?

May 27, 2014

It’s been a while since I reflected on my blog, but it doesn’t mean that I have stopped reflecting and thinking on my own about my class and my teaching techniques.  In this blog, I wanted to reflect one of my reading classes.  I recorded several weeks ago, but didn’t have the time to reflect on it.  Because almost half the class was missing, I felt I was able to personalize with the students more.  However, I do feel that this class atmosphere has generally improved and the students seem to be enjoying the class more, and feel more comfortable in speaking and answering questions in English.

The class started with an open discussion about the missing students and they all answered well, naturally.  In this class, we usually go over the vocabulary, do a dictation, then discuss the main story, which includes discussion and doing a worksheet together. 

I started by asking some target vocabulary, which was a review, and most of them raised their hand trying to answer in English.  They don’t respond in Korean unless they ask and I allow them.  I then asked a word from the example sentence for the target vocabulary, followed by questions that referred to the picture in the book.  I felt that the students were comfortable with answering the questions.   I tried to make it more dialogic so I tried asking personalized questions to help students relate to the topic and word.  Because this was a review and they had practice, I felt they were ready to answer the questions.  But the question is if they really learned the word and if they would be able to use them naturally.  However, they generally seemed to understand and had a good time in class.

After reviewing the previous classes’ two target vocabulary, I read the next sentence first so that they could listen to my pronunciation.  The students read together aloud (although there was one student who liked to fool around).  And similar to above, I would ask questions based on the word from the example sentence and the picture. 

I tried to help a student with their pronunciation and I first tried to help him through individual repetition, but I didn’t want to put him on the spot, so I asked the whole class for choral repetition, then I asked other students for individual repetition.  I didn’t want to spend too much time on it, so I just moved on quickly.  I also asked another student right away when they said ‘white’ wrong.  But I simply asked them what they said, and they were able to self-correct the pronunciation.  The students are getting better and they are able to realize on their own if the pronunciation is correct or not.

After I asked personal questions throughout the lesson, I tried to give them more time for them to respond and not let the dominant voices speak for them, and in doing so, they were able to speak more. 

In general for the vocabulary section of the lesson, I feel it went well.  The students reviewed the words, learned two new words, and were able to speak about their own selves from all of the open-ended questions. 

For the dictation section, I was pleased to see that some of the students had memorized the example sentences from the book so they were able to write down the sentences without my help.  It was clear who did not memorize.  Their dictation skills of listening and writing seem to be improving over time.  I noticed that I had to repeat the sentences more and more over time.  Next time, I think I should try asking them to listen to the sentences first, tell them to think about it, and then write it down.  Hopefully, it will help improve their listening skills and I won’t have to repeat so many times. 

For the main story, I asked them review questions on the pages up to where we were supposed to read.  Then, the students read rotationally and afterwards, I asked them comprehension questions.  I tried to ask more dialogic questions, but I think the dialogic discourse was too long.  I noticed that although the students were speaking more, that I may have talked too much.  But I’m not sure how I can reduce my teacher-talk further at the moment.  However, I did try to get the students to ask each other the questions for the worksheet.  In all my classes, I try to get the students read the questions more. 

In general, I feel that this class went better than expected.  Having only four students helped because I was able to focus on them more.  I want to strive for a class like this, where there is more open discussions and personalized questions that allow the students to speak freely more and help raise their confidence ins peaking.  This is not always the case.  However, I think I may have to reduce the length of the open discussion, and try to plan it more so that they use the vocabulary from the story more.  Also, I have also tried to teach pronunciation more, trying to not put the student on the spot.  I tried to use my hand as a mouth and my other hand as a tongue.  This helped them learn more, and it helped me realize how they were pronouncing words by them telling me how they were using their tongues.

This class was recorded several days ago, before they took the unit test.  They all did very well on the test, which I was quite pleased with.  I hope I continue to have more classes like this, where the students continue to learn and enjoy learning English.  I hope the process of them enjoying learning will be productive.  Over time, I want to see if my teaching techniques are good and that my students are really acquiring the language. 

Tech Tool Blog

May 9, 2014

I was trying to think about what to write about for this blog because I don’t use any tech tools in my class.  The only thing I thought of was my video camera on my phone because I use it to record my students’ presentations.  Then I realized I put those presentations up on BAND.  And this is the tech tool that I would like to talk about. 

You may all have seen this on TV and at the theatres on the previews, but BAND is a phone app and it’s a private space for groups.  It’s similar to Kakao, but you can more things and it’s more suitable for sharing.  

At our hakwon we use BAND with our student’s mothers.  We put up any announcements or anything interesting for our parents and we have separate rooms for each of our levels/classes.  The good thing about this is that you can put up videos without worrying about the size.  So far I haven’t had any problems uploading videos (although I’m not sure if it would allow you to upload video sizes similar to a movie).   With Kakao and along with other similar apps, you’re limited to the size of what you can upload.

You can upload pictures, chat with individual members or as a group, you can mark things on a calendar, and you can create a poll.  The good thing is that everything is shared.  You can upload and do everything from your phone, or there’s also a desktop version that you can install as well.  It allows you to stay in touch with your student’s parents and they can voice their concerns or questions.  If there are teachers that don’t have a personal relationship with their students’ parents, then teachers could use this and stay in touch with each other. 

We first started BAND to allow the parents to see how their children were doing at our winter camp.  We were trying to find a place we could upload pictures and videos.  Then we eventually used whenever we had to make announcements.  Then I started using it to upload videos of the presentations of the students.  I started incorporating presentations into our units, so they would do one presentations almost every 2 or 3 weeks.  We originally put them up to show the parents their progress.  However, the parents have been using that to improve on their presentation skills.  Originally they would memorize their presentation speeches at home, but the parents were helping them more with memorizing, and also with their presentation skills.  The parents know that presentation skills is important, not only to English, so many of them try to help their children to help improve their confidence level.

Although the parents are not able to attend the class and see for their themselves on how their children are doing, this tool has allowed them to see what their children are doing in class, so they can help them accordingly.  I suppose other teachers can use this tool to upload lessons or other videos so that parents can teach their children at home (for additional work, or cover missed lessons).  Students can also watch their own recordings (ex. speaking) so they can distinguish for themselves what mistakes they have made.

I believe this tool is beneficial for all teachers, parents, and teachers.  If you are interested, check out the website at: http://www.band.us/home. 

Reflection 10 - Vocabulary Blog

May 9, 2014

This week I have done some minor things with my classes that I have not done before.  Generally, after starting this course, I found myself doing a lot of things that I learned and naturally incorporating them into my classes.  For my higher level reading classes, we would take up a comprehension worksheet together in class.  Then I changed it around to make it more dialogic so I had them work in pairs to complete the worksheet.  They were shy with each other at first, but they are getting used to it and they communicate with each other a lot about the questions.  It allowed them to speak to each other more in English and it allowed them to help each other understand the story and the questions a little more.  Afterwards, we would take up the answers together and I would ask each pair or individuals on the answers and we would talk about them. 

This week, I got the students to ask each other the questions, instead of me reading it to them.  It was interesting to see that they asked each other quite well, but it was more interesting to see that they put more effort in answering the questions in full sentences.  Normally, they would give me one word answers or short answers.  Also, instead of just asking if the sentence statements were true or false, I would ask them to make the sentence statement true if the answer was false.  These new methods and techniques seem to get the students more interested and it creates more dialogic interactions. 

I was getting used to having students ask each other questions in my other younger speaking classes, but I was wondering for a while of how I would incorporate them into my reading classes.  I never realized I could have incorporated them directly into my lesson plans and I certainly didn’t expect it work out so well. 

As for teaching vocabulary, I found reading Harmer and Nation interesting because vocabulary is something that I teach quite often.  I tried to incorporate some of Harmer’s activities but I didn’t know how I could incorporate them into my lesson plans yet.  I teach a somewhat strict, tight lesson plan and I don’t have much room for creativity because I have to basically teach the same materials and technique (to a certain degree) with my other co-workers. 

As for Nation’s article, I could be wrong, but I found myself teaching some of the things that is suggested.  However, I wanted to learn more from next week’s STG class and see if I am interpreting this article correctly. 

What I normally do with my reading classes, is teach the target vocabulary that’s in the textbook.  There are 8 or 10 depending on the level.  The target vocabulary has an example sentence and a picture to go along with it.  I would give the students a typed up definition sheet and we would read the example sentences, and the definition.  I would review two of the words every class.  So for the two words, we would read the sentences out loud together, and then I would ask questions about the word, such as if they know what the word means, what a synonym would be, ask them questions about the picture, ask them questions about other words in the sentences, and also ask them open ended questions.  Then I would ask them to make up and tell me some example sentences.  Recently, I would ask them for a synonym for each target vocabulary, and I would ask them to give me a sentence using the target vocabulary and a sentence using the synonym.  I have been using this method with my higher level classes and I feel that it is helping them learn the word more.  For homework, they would get a sheet where they would copy down the word, definition, and example sentence for a number of times.  Remember, this is just a review for the word and the homework sheet is intended for review.  The first class when I teach vocabulary, their homework would include a fill in the blank sheet and also a sheet where they would have to write example sentences using the target vocabulary and the synonym. 

However, one thing that I started doing this week was have my other lower level classes try to come up with an example sentence.  My co-worker thought that having them make sentences was hard, so I tried to listen to him and abide by his suggestions (Korean style).  However, I just thought of asking anyways and if it was too hard, I was going to move onto something else.  To my surprise, they came up with their own sentences pretty quickly.  They weren’t complicated, or may not have been correct, but they tried very quickly and some spoke correct sentences.  If there was a word in a different form, then I would ask them what the original form is and we would talk about it in different ways. 

I was quite pleased with this because I feel getting the students to think of their own sentences, will allow them to think in English more.  It will also allow me to see if they understand the word and see if they are using it correctly. 

I still don’t know what the best method for teaching vocabulary is and I know it is one of the most important aspects of English.  I know I will have to continually think of ways of teaching it more efficiently.  Generally, the atmosphere in all my reading classes is getting better and the students are feeling more relaxed.  They are laughing more and they are enjoying English a lot more.  I remember when I first started teaching them and some of them were thinking of dropping out.  Now, I have to get them to stop laughing and pay attention.  But they’re good kids and I hope they continue to enjoy learning English.

Reflection 9 – I feel like I am slowly moulting!

April 28, 2014

This second MT was quite interesting.  After I finished, I still felt the same as my first MT.  I felt that it went horribly wrong and that it did not go the way I wanted it to go.  My intention for this lesson was talk go through an article that they would eventually use for a debate.  For two of my reading classes, we’re trying to introduce debate into our reading program so it’s still a working idea.  I knew this MT was going to be challenging because I had to combine my original teaching style, with the assignment.  An article like this is supposed to be a little challenging to my students, but it’s a level that my students would be able to comprehend when planned more carefully. 

Before watching the video, I realized the first thing that I should have done was to have the students read aloud, not silent reading; rotating students after reading one sentence.  I never do silent reading, and I don’t know why I did that.  My front page was written for rotational read aloud, and I would fix their pronunciation, but my lesson plan had it differently.  I didn’t give the students enough time so they felt it was too hard.  I should have however, told them that they would pre-read this article several times before coming to class so they would’ve been familiar with it.  In any case, I feel reading it together aloud, would’ve helped them understand the story more. 

It was difficult teaching this class as if it was my real class and finding the motivation without a preview.  I was concentrating too much on the format of my lesson plan and the format of the Harmer format (p. 291).  Therefore there was no real interacting going on.  There was T-S interaction and T-S-S-T interaction, but but I felt I was just mostly telling them what to do like they were just following orders.  There was no real personalizing and interacting with the students.  I feel I could’ve created more motivation and interaction if I asked discussion or personalizing questions during the comprehension check phase, where we took up our answers to the sheet.  I had students ask each other what the answers to the next question were, but before I did that, we could’ve created a conversation about the questions.  Originally, I was saving the discussion question to the end.  Again, I was thinking too much on how to do the TD, TDBU, BU method. 

For the lead in, I tried to ask them if they can find the URL so they could be able to find it on the internet if they want.  However, after watching the video, I could have asked them if they use the internet, if they use it to do homework, and basically personalize with them a little more.  Even if it was a question or two. 

I asked the students what the subheadings were, but I could have asked them to quickly scan the article for a minute and then I could have asked them what the subheadings were by TSST interaction.  After, I could have asked them to tell their partners what they thought each subheading was going to be about.  This, I believe, would have been top-down.  After reading, I could have changed the questions, and one of them could have been how their answers changed.  When the students were discussing in their groups, I could have interacted with the students more instead of just walking around quietly. 

One thing I should have done was to write the answers to the questions beforehand.  I thought I would have been able to handle the answers fine, but I forgot on the spot. 

Compared to the first MT, I felt I was more relaxed, but I still had the jitters and I was able to concentrate on a little more, but my plan didn’t work out the way I planned.  I felt I had more communicative feedback than evaluative compared to before, I still feel that it was not enough feedback.  The students are at a point where they need to start thinking more about this topic and speak more in English.  I felt I was just trying to follow my plan too much. 

I feel I am improving but there is a conflict between my original style and what I am learning and it’s definitely a good conflict.  I am learning a lot by watching others too.  I am concentrating too much on the teaching formalities, rather than personalizing with the students.  However, I know that my classroom atmosphere is totally different.  The constant question I have is how I can successfully and efficiently teach a lesson.  I feel like this is just the beginning of my moulting stage!  I hope I change for the better!