Teaching Report
I had my second students’ teaching on March. 13th, 2015 in the morning, it was 50 minutes long, and 6 students showed up, they are first grade. As my classroom teacher requested, I wrote the grammar points with examples on the blackboard right before the class, the reason was the first grader needed to have a clear picture about what they are going to review. There were 8 grammar points I needed to cover. As the students sat on their table, I briefly introduced myself. I had a special design for the first grammar point-S怎麽VP? I gave out blank white paper to each one, and asked them to fold the paper and put names on it, and then showed me. As they were folding paper, writing the names, I asked:“你怎麽折紙啊?你的名字怎麽寫呢?”And then I presented the PPT at the same time, students looked at the whiteboard, I tried to ask them recall what I just said. Combined with the example I put on the blackboard, I asked them to read together. In order to check if they really mastered this grammar, I took out the flash card I prepared in advance, called on each one to create sentences by using the words on the card, such as “怎麽做”, “中國飯”, “日本飯”, “美國飯” or “怎麽說”, “漢語”. After this, I introduced the negative form of this grammar point, I said:”你們知道我姓什麽嗎?”, they answered:”不知道”as I predicted. Naturally, I responded:”你們怎麽能不知道我姓什么呢?”. Still, I took those flash card out again and let them practiced the negative forms. However, the students were confused about the negative form-怎麽能不. And then I tried to read the examples again slowly for them to digest. My classroom teacher helped me to make it more clearly. For the rest of the grammar points, I simply introduced them and analyzed, such as when we processed to “一邊VA,一邊VB”,I explained that these two actions happened at the same time. And then showed students the ppt, sometimes the picture on it was a hint for them to create a sentence, such as when we talked about “Sentence, 不就SV了/就行了”, students looked at the boy who feels frozen, and then gave more advices for winter by using the structure. And meanwhile, I presented the flash cards to them for practice. However, sometimes, I let them work in pairs to discuss when we progressed to the grammar point-“再VP也VP”, students always could make good quality sentences after discussion. I didn’t finish all the grammar, there was no time for the last one.
In general, the validity of this drill class is justified; I designed the course according to the grammar points given by the classroom teacher. And the students took a lot of practice, for each grammar point, I called on everyone to make sure they have equal chance to speak. I also provided help for them when they needed assistance to understand the grammar. Nonetheless, this drill class was not interesting; I should have involved some fun activity into the knowledge. I noticed that the 6 students are at different levels, however, I didn’t know before the class, so next time in my classroom teaching, I will pay more attention on heterogeneity. In addition, I was not fully aware of their prior knowledge, for the first graders, I had to engage more English into the teaching. As the classroom teacher reminded in the class, they might know the grammar itself, what they didn’t understand was my instruction and directions. On the whole, my classroom teacher helped and encouraged me a lot; besides, the students in Columbia University are diligent and cooperative. This was a wonderful experience.
I had my second students’ teaching on March. 13th, 2015 in the morning, it was 50 minutes long, and 6 students showed up, they are first grade. As my classroom teacher requested, I wrote the grammar points with examples on the blackboard right before the class, the reason was the first grader needed to have a clear picture about what they are going to review. There were 8 grammar points I needed to cover. As the students sat on their table, I briefly introduced myself. I had a special design for the first grammar point-S怎麽VP? I gave out blank white paper to each one, and asked them to fold the paper and put names on it, and then showed me. As they were folding paper, writing the names, I asked:“你怎麽折紙啊?你的名字怎麽寫呢?”And then I presented the PPT at the same time, students looked at the whiteboard, I tried to ask them recall what I just said. Combined with the example I put on the blackboard, I asked them to read together. In order to check if they really mastered this grammar, I took out the flash card I prepared in advance, called on each one to create sentences by using the words on the card, such as “怎麽做”, “中國飯”, “日本飯”, “美國飯” or “怎麽說”, “漢語”. After this, I introduced the negative form of this grammar point, I said:”你們知道我姓什麽嗎?”, they answered:”不知道”as I predicted. Naturally, I responded:”你們怎麽能不知道我姓什么呢?”. Still, I took those flash card out again and let them practiced the negative forms. However, the students were confused about the negative form-怎麽能不. And then I tried to read the examples again slowly for them to digest. My classroom teacher helped me to make it more clearly. For the rest of the grammar points, I simply introduced them and analyzed, such as when we processed to “一邊VA,一邊VB”,I explained that these two actions happened at the same time. And then showed students the ppt, sometimes the picture on it was a hint for them to create a sentence, such as when we talked about “Sentence, 不就SV了/就行了”, students looked at the boy who feels frozen, and then gave more advices for winter by using the structure. And meanwhile, I presented the flash cards to them for practice. However, sometimes, I let them work in pairs to discuss when we progressed to the grammar point-“再VP也VP”, students always could make good quality sentences after discussion. I didn’t finish all the grammar, there was no time for the last one.
In general, the validity of this drill class is justified; I designed the course according to the grammar points given by the classroom teacher. And the students took a lot of practice, for each grammar point, I called on everyone to make sure they have equal chance to speak. I also provided help for them when they needed assistance to understand the grammar. Nonetheless, this drill class was not interesting; I should have involved some fun activity into the knowledge. I noticed that the 6 students are at different levels, however, I didn’t know before the class, so next time in my classroom teaching, I will pay more attention on heterogeneity. In addition, I was not fully aware of their prior knowledge, for the first graders, I had to engage more English into the teaching. As the classroom teacher reminded in the class, they might know the grammar itself, what they didn’t understand was my instruction and directions. On the whole, my classroom teacher helped and encouraged me a lot; besides, the students in Columbia University are diligent and cooperative. This was a wonderful experience.