Observe Fang-chi's Teaching

This morning around 10:30 I met Fang-chi, a student teacher at NHSH. We discussed her teaching I observed on the DVD her mentor Ms. Tsai (蔡孟芳老師) gave me on Nov. 27. In fact, I already watched it around 2 weeks ago. However, because Fang-chi had been busy, we didn't have time to talk about the class until this morning. Last night I listed her teaching procedure as observed and also my comments/questions based on the notes I took two weeks ago. Then I found I forgot some parts, so this morning I watched it again and  completed my feedback.

Fang-chi taught a story about the Thao, an aboriginal group in Taiwan. Her teaching procedure goes as follows:

1. Greeting

2. Briefly review the vocabulary.

3. Students share the KWL chart in which they answer the questions: "What do you already know about the topic?" and "What do you want to learn from the lesson?"

3. Students are re-grouped and in each group the members get a slip of paper with the same paragraph from the reading text. There are six paragraphs, and so six groups.

4. Each group discusses the content and each member draw a picture for the paragraph.  (10 minutes)

5. Students go back to their original group and share and talk about their picture with the members. (10 minutes) After all the members finish in turn, they have to order the sequence of the story. They are also asked to write a summary of the whole story on a piece of paper the teacher gave.

6. Each group writes their order on the blackboard.

7. The teacher goes over the answers. Two groups' answers are different from others'.

8. The teacher has the class open the textbook and listen to and read the story.

9. The class discusses the correct order.

10. A group of students go to the front in turn with the picture they drew and share their story in Chinese.

11. The teacher guide the class to do "Story Pyramid," talking about the characters, their personality, the background of the story, the problem, and its solution.

12. Students do "After You Read" and "Comprehension Check" in their textbook.

13. The teacher ask the class to finish the last part of the KWL, "What have your learned?" as the assignment.

All in all, Fang-chi did a good job! The class I observed was activity-oriented and student-centered. Besides, she was very good at time management. Students did something different every 10 minutes. Good pace.

A few suggestions I gave are:

1. Give clear instructions, for example, "Write a summary in English" instead of "Write a summary."

2. Have students speak more English.

3. Check if students have learned some new language items from this lesson.

4. Let students defend their answer before showing them the correct one.