MOCK TEACHING FEEDBACK & IMPROVISATION (AO2) (Week 8)

Hello everyone.

As promised, I am back to share the feedback I got from my lecturer. The whole lesson conducted had been successful as most of the learning objectives and learning outcomes had been achieved. However there were a few elements that were either missing or too much in the mock teaching session that I had conducted. Allow me to share some of them with you.

1. Repetition of praise.

• I had used words of appraisal during the lesson. Unfortunately, I had repeated quite a number of words to appreciate my students instead of replacing them with other words. To improve, I will tell them to try harder and then proceed to praise them. This is to encourage them to work harder to gain recognition in a positive way. This is also known as positive reinforcement.

2. Excess of activities.

• I had prepared 3 activities to be done in 30 minutes which is not recommended as the students have to rush while conducting the activity. This results in the information learnt not moving into the long term memory, but instead stays in the short term memory which will then fade away because of lack of repetition. Thus I will prepare short but informative activities so that the students can still learn although the duration is short.

3. Teaching of grammar as a lesson.

• Grammar cannot be taught as a lesson on its own, but can be integrated while teaching other components. In my lesson, I had asked students to brainstorm descriptive words and jot them down in the circle map and then write an informal letter to their friend. The next time if I were to conduct this activity, I will ask the to write the informal letter first and then extract the adjectives from there. I would also take them to the field or ask them to observe the scenery from the classroom and describe anything that they see. In this way, they can also learn adjectives, but not directly as a lesson.

4. Correct punctuation usage.

• I was also corrected on the usage of punctuation. I had written some words and sentences on the white board while conducting the lesson. For the sentences, I had failed to punctuate hem with a full stop and comma. So I must be observant as my students are watching my every move and how I do things. If I were to be negligent and leave this mistake as it is, I will not be able to correct my students in the future if they make the same mistake as they can question me back. Thus I need to be careful when it comes to anything I do in the classroom.

5. Usage of informal language.

• I had used some informal language in the classroom environment. As the classroom is a place where formal language and the teaching and learning process goes on, it is best to avoid informal language as it kills the serious mode of the class. So I have to make sure that I am careful with the words I use in the classroom.

I have used the feedback given to improve myself and will continue to work on it as everyday in the classroom is an experiment. That is all for this post. Thank you and have an edifying day.