The leader of our group handed out the instruction paper first before starting her activity. There were three advertisements on the paper and we had to discuss first how and what these ads are advertising about. The instructor asked me to read the articles on the advertisements. Making the students read some sentences out loud in class seemed to be a great way to enhance their participation. To add, I believe that the students should have more responsibilities to speak than the teacher during the class. And then, the instructor divided us into two groups, but the thing that was a little bit bad about the role was that the instructor put the professor into our group as another instructor to help me and my partner. She also took the task of helping other students in her groups instead of being one of the players. Anyway, in pairs, we had to create an advertisement using one of the topics such as, smartphone addiction, choco pie, sexual discrimination, etc. The first step was to write at least a paragraph as individuals to introduce the topic. After that, we had to compare and contrast the paragraphs written by our partners. When we all have done that, we had to choose the best sentences and write an integrated paragraph again. Actually, I struggled with coming up with several sentences since the sentences she asked for were too broad. I also thought if she and the professor were participants, I guess there would have been more diverse opinions while discussing. At this time, I think the leader has failed to manage the time because it was almost half an hour even before each team finished drawing the ads. Overall, this activity served the pedagogical goals to make the students talk more and help them to come up with creative thoughts or ideas, but it was a time consuming activity.
Professors activity:
For this time, the instructor prepared a card game for us, but he did not give us any instruction papers and just explained the rule just in words. So, honestly, I was a little bit confused while playing the game and I remember that I made several mistakes since I misunderstood the rules. Of course, I know that he maybe meant to help us to develop our ability to listen and understand without reading any written things, but it would be better for everyone if he prepares the instruction papers for us. Anyway, this was a game that needed good brain use and teamwork was the most crucial factor in this activity since it was not an individual work or pair work. Accordingly, I felt it was really helpful for everyone to create teamwork by asking some questions to the team members while playing the game. It also seemed to be meaningful in that we were able to concentrate on our listening skills. However, I felt that the students have spoken less frequently in this activity than all the other activities weve been working on in this semester. Overall, I think the instructor served the pedagogical goal to encourage the students teamwork by leading them to be interacted with each other.
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Anonymous
Date:
RE: Teaching Listening and Speaking (Spring 2019) - Week 11 Reflections for Wonderful
I decided to make an intermediate medium-level activity. I tried to focus on integrated skills, including writing, speaking, and listening. I assigned the professor to help the group, instead of being involved directly, as from weeks of observation, the professor trying to help the groups to find their ways; however, I thought that he was leading the groups and wanted less intervention from the instructor perspective.
I had planned the activity to take about 40 minutes, because the last time, I remembered that the students tend to take less time completing activities than what I thought. However, it seemed that the students took more time than what I thought when the students are involved in activities that do not have answers and where they have to use their creativity. Thus, the groups only went over 1/2 of the activities that I prepared. So time management is still a big homework for me, but as the professor said during class, I did achieve my classroom goals, after all. I was satisfied enough to keep my students keep interacting.
However, I also had problems with the students not wanting to write the sentences. I will probably focus more on note-taking rather than completed sentences next time. I tried to solve this problem by asking questions to the group with only key words, but failed to make them write sentences. I thought that my topics were familiar and easy to describe... maybe it was not? Providing a guideline also seems like a way.
I prepared the material in color because in one of the other activities that our group mate had planned did not go well because she had printed the picture in monochrome. It was hard to control one of the students; she tend to go ahead with the directions written on paper than what I asked her to do. Probably next time, I should try not writing down all of the instructions; maybe I will just speak aloud, so that the students focus on listening and be on track with my instructions. I felt that I did not make a clear end and is trying to figure out how I can make the clean cut next time.
So both activities were meaningful in that the students actively engaged in discussion activities to find a meeting point. The input and the outputs of the activity were comprehensible, and the students seemed to not have major problems; when the students had questions, they were not reluctant to ask for clarification. Moreover, the activity served pedagogical goals and authentic goals at the same time, which is to create advertisements. The sense of reality may differ by how much the students are involved in the activity, so it would be the best if the students are engaged in the activity by working as best as they could.
2.Professor's activity
Stars for the activity:
In this activity, the students were given cards. The rules were basically similar to the famous game [Uno], but we had some missions to clear. The students always needed to have more than 4 cards in their hands during the whole play time. When they did not have adequate cards, they could skip their turns.
The professor asked a student to read the instructions out loud. This seemed as a good strategy to make that certain student understand the rules, but the others looked pretty confused after the student had read them loud. They kept asking questions, and the instructor had to keep explaining them, and continued on even though the students were fully understood. However, the students seemed to understand the activity as the game was continued, so I guess that was a strategy that the professor used that I don't know of. Maybe it could be a type of top-down strategy.
The game itself was very entertaining, and the students seemed as if they were having fun achieving the activity's goal one by one. The problem that I saw was that the students did have fun, but lacked of interaction that of what the professor had emphasized and encouraged the students to do. Just encouraging the students to do so did not seem very effective; the aspect that makes the students essential to speak seemed necessary.
Therefore, this activity was meaningful in that the students able to talk about what they have and what the group should do. It was also comprehensible, but some sentences seemed to be unheard by the students within the group (this was no problem and the professor elucidated them well) To add, the activity served its pedagogical goal since people do not usually discuss about which cards that they have out of class. On the other perspective, there are times when students have to discuss with others about their cards; such as when playing card games.
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Anonymous
Date:
RE: Teaching Listening and Speaking (Spring 2019) - Week 11 Reflections for Wonderful
Teaching Listening and Speaking 2019 1513869 Juyoung Seo
Yeonjins Activity
First, the activity of Yeonjin began. There were three images on the paper she handed out. The activity was about advertising, and had to be teamed up to discuss what the advertisement represented. For the first time, hosting asked me to read the words written in the advertisement. This method was new because it was not used in previous activities and was able to increase student concentration and participation. After that, three people became a team, professor and hosting joined each team. The two people were given the role of helper for each group. The activity that had to be divided into teams was to make advertisements. Among various topics, I and my team member decided to make an advertisement for Choco Pie. The first step is to write several paragraphs per person. I had to fill it out. Then, with my team members, I was comparing paragraphs and making sentences for advertising. A little bit, the regret was that the team member were not active. Time was running out, and the sentence was not completed, and the presentation was completed only with paragraphs. If there were any participation in hosting at this time, the team member might have been more active. I think a small number of people did not have enough ideas because making advertising phrases had to come up with from the beginning. If six people joined the team and came up with the idea, it would have been a better idea. At the end of the day, they had to finish by drawing advertisement, but both teams failed to draw because of the tight time. I was a little bit sad about the time distribution. However, I think this activity reached the educational goal because it was an activity where students came up with ideas by talking.
Professors Activity
The activity that the professor prepared was card game. At first, he ordered student who had not prepared for the activity to read the instructions. However, since it was all the first time, the student seemed confused, and not all seemed to understand. After that, the professor cleared it up again, so I understood, and started playing the game. The rules of the game were brain games and games that needed teamwork, not individual matches. Therefore, I think the biggest goal of the game was to share and share your information with team members. However, I was sad that students did not exchange information more often than I thought. The game was fun, but I think the purpose of listening and speaking was less than the previous activity.
