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Reflection on 3rd Teaching Practicum

On January 16, 2017 I executed my third and last teaching practicum. In which I

continued teaching the process of writing informal letter. This lesson was different from the rest

of the two lessons taken before. In the first two lessons the students did not follow any kind of

format and structure rather they enjoyed free writing. In third and last lesson I taught the format

and the structure of informal letter writing.

The class started with warm up activity, which comprised of discussing students home

work assigned to them in previous class. Four randomly selected students shared their home

work with the class and got feedback from the teacher and rest of the students. After warm up

activity I discussed the format and the structure of informal letter. The students were encouraged

to share their knowledge about the topic. They participated in teaching learning activity and

shared their insights from the last two classes. Followed by the teachers input the students were

given a sample letter (see appendix A) to read carefully to further understand the structure and

the process of informal letter writing. After reading the letter the students discussed in pairs the

technical pints i.e. salutation, senders address and post statement etc. Pair discussion led the

students to the individual task in which the students were given task sheet (see appendix B) to

complete based on their understanding from teachers input, sample letter and pair discussion.

The task sheet was all about structure of the informal letter, which the students completed in

pairs in the given time. After accomplishment of the given task the students were given the

format of informal letter (see appendix C) to write an informal letter to any of their friends or

relatives. The students kept seeking the facilitators support and assistant throughout the process.

At the end of the class I assigned home task to them.

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Overall, the students and I enjoyed the class. I observed student- student interaction and

teacher- student interaction. Due to multimodality (i.e. warm up activity, reading the sample

letter, discussion in pairs and completing the task sheet in pair) the students maintained their

level of interest throughout the class and enjoyed the lesson. It is a worth remembering learning

for me that the students do not get bored if the teacher brings variety in teaching strategy. The

students participation in the class and their learning outcomes are subjective to teachers

preparation for class, designing activities and input. This lesson revealed to me that multimodal

semiotic resources from teacher for instance activity sheets, chart related to the lesson,

encouragement, colour sheets and video or audio recording boost up the students interest and

learning out comes. The students materialize their learning when they touch, listen and watch the

things related to the topic. I found the students very enthusiastic towards the materials provided

by the teachers.

The classroom was too congested and packed with students to even move the chairs

therefore I could not assign group work. I had to follow same setting arrangements throughout

the three teaching practicum.

Since it was the third and the last teaching practicum therefore as compare to first and

second lessons it was improved one due to the feedback from the facilitators and the mentors.

But still there were some rooms for improvement to make the future lessons better. The format of

informal letter reinforced the teachers input that how to write an informal letter and the key

terminologies of informal letter i.e. salutation, senders address, body of the letter and post

statement etc. However it restricted the students to be limited in writing because the format was

one pager if there were more space the students could write more ideas and could write detailed

letters. In todays lesson I realized that no matter how much the activity is simple and easy for
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the students to understand, the teacher must give the required time to make the task clear to the

students. Because some students cannot get the task in one go. Due to limited time I gave

instructions only once as a result some students were not clear about the task and kept asking

during the activity. According to Ms. Mirat Al Fatima Ahsan in a class the time ratio should be

40 % for teachers input and 60 % for students activities and output, I will follow this time ratio

in my class in the years to come.

The responds to home task was not satisfactory, I could not get the idea that why do they

not take home task seriously? There maybe two reasons of not doing home task; the students are

not used to of doing home work or the students have done the home task and afraid of sharing in

front of class and pretend to have not done the home task.

Overall the lesson was good and I met my objectives and the mentors also liked and gave

encouraging feedback, which will be taken into account to make the future lesson plans affective

and fruitful.