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0 Reflective Writing

On the 4th of April 2018, we conducted micro teaching simulation in pairs for the purpose of
fulfilling the requirement of Task 4 for this course. This essay will be reflecting on the approaches
and issues on the teaching of grammar in the primary classroom.

Rationales for every activity/material is important as it influence students’ learning. For set
induction, balloons containing adjectives were used to get pupils intrigued to participate. This is
because students were excited to know what was inside the balloon before they wrote it on the
board. Moreover, the revelation of the message from Captain Fantastic made the students felt
that they were on a mission in that lesson. As for presentation stage, interesting PowerPoint slides
were used to provide wider examples to the students on the adjectives and also the S-V-A table.
This enabled me to deliver the knowledge easily within a short time before moving to the next
activity. Task sheets consisted instructions and clues were given to each group during the practice
stage. The rationale was to stimulate creativity and critical thinking by discussing who the suspect
was based on the clues given as well as a preparation for the next activity.

One of my weaknesses was the inconsistency of sentence patterns used confused the
students. This is because, the S-V-A table provided the students with the knowledge of
constructing a sentence of having the described nouns came before the adjectives. However, few
of the sentences in the homework had the described nouns came after the adjectives.
Consequently, this led to a confusion to the students as they were not exposed to different types
of sentences. Fortunately, clear explanations and examples from Aliya had given them the
insights of how they need to answer. Besides that, too many examples in a picture hindered
students’ focus such as selecting and describing the picture consisting numerous superheroes
(Chitravelu, Sithamparam, & Choon, 2007). Hence, reducing the number of superheroes to three
will help teachers to save up time and maintain students’ engagement. Thus, these issues have
helped me to realize that I should plan well and anticipate possible issues that might happen
during the lesson so that I could equip myself with suitable alternatives.

On a positive note, knowing that the setting was not allowing the students to write the
adjectives word at the front due to congestion and not having a whiteboard, I still managed to be
versatile to handle the situation by capitalizing Mr. Hisyham’s mini whiteboard where students
only have to write their words on it and show it to their friends by raising it up. Other than that, I
managed to increase my self-confidence level in teaching. Having confidence as a teacher can
improve your overall effectiveness as well as your well-being (Smith, 2018). Microteaching

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provides me the platform to practice the pedagogical skills that I have acquired throughout my
study. For instance, I managed to display characteristics of an effective teacher that able to
transfer the knowledge in a fun and meaningful way with clear instructions as well as performing
good classroom management. Thus, this will significantly boost my confidence in teaching a real
classroom although there is still plenty of room for improvement.

As for improvements, activities that balance individual and group work create a better
learning for students. During the practice phase, every group had to come out with a poster that
described the suspect. Although the activity was fun, not all of the pupils were able to fully
participate. To overcome this issue, a teacher can make the students draw and describe the
suspect individually before they are going to discuss with their friends to select only one suspect.
By doing so, students get the chances to have their own view before collaborating with their
groupmates’ which teaches them to give and receive others’ opinions. In addition, labeling
students as a negative pupil could affect the students’ self-esteem. According to Markman (2014),
when people are identified by a label, people willingly accept statements without evidence of
validity. Therefore, the labeled students are more often to get bullied by others in various forms.
To avoid this, I can adapt the activity that makes myself as the suspect that is wanted to be
captured by the students. This at the same time will make learning more fun as students would
not expect this coming.

Overall, this task has given me new experiences in carrying out the lesson plan in a
classroom. Thus, ones should develop teacher’s professional qualities for them to be able to
deliver the lesson effectively.

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2.0 References

Chitravelu, N., Sithamparam, S., & Choon, S. (2007). ELT Methodology Principles & Practices
2nd Edition. Selangor: Oxford Fajar.

Markman, A. (2014). Psychology Today. Retrieved from The Danger of Labeling Others (or
Yourself): https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/ulterior-motives/201406/the-danger-
labeling-others-or-yourself

Smith, K. (2018). Professional Learning Blog from IRIS Connect. Retrieved from irisconnect:
https://blog.irisconnect.com/uk/community/blog/5-ways-to-boost-your-confidence-as-a-
teacher-1/