TP1 feedback

Hi everyone.

I had an idea after TP1 to share our feedback from our TPs so that everyone could see what could go well and what to avoid. As Luke put it before, I personally tend to get a bit Homer Simpson like, so I learn one new thing but forget something else in the process! 

I'm going to share mine here for all to see. I realise this blog doesn't really come with attachments, so I had to type it up I'm afraid, but perhaps people could comment below with their feedback too? It'd be helpful for everyone methinks. 

TP1 Feedback: Oliver Lloyd

Lesson aims: Ss will be better able to listen for gist and specific information in the context of a TV documentary about sleep.

Strengths: 

• You established the context effectively and elicited some key lexis.
• You clarified the essential lexis fairly effectively and reasonably quickly.
• You set a clear task before Ss listened each time (though you could do more to ensure that they read all questions before listening for specific/detailed information).
• You made some effort to ensure that all Ss were involved in feedback.
• You graded your language effectively and gave clear instructions for each activity.

Recommendations:

• You must ensure that every stage of your lesson includes STT, i.e. student-to-student interaction (see also below in relation to receptive skills tasks). You could get to STT a bit more quickly - ideally, try to get the Ss talking within a minute of the start of the lesson. If you find that you need to pre-teach more than one item of lexis for the very first activity, think about adjusting the activity so that this isn't necessary. It took you 7 mins to get to the first S-centred activity - this is too long! (Oops...)
• Make sure you don't confuse single-word vocabulary with lexical chunks - you could deal with "a waste of time" far more quickly as a single item rather than separately clarifying every vocabulary item (I explained what "waste" means and got them to say "time"). Pre-teaching (and T-centred clarification in general) is not a productive use of lesson time (so me explaining "waste of time" was, ironically, a waste of time!) so do only what's absolutely necessary, and keep it quick.
• You must give Ss a chance to discuss their ideas after listening or reading and before whole-class feedback. This is essential for learners, as they need to process what they have heard and formulate ideas, and struggle to do this while listening. Conferring with a partner afterwards gives them a chance to consolidate their understanding and build confidence in their response to the task.

This lesson met the standard for this stage of the course because you partly achieved your aims and set and personalised a clear and meaningful context for the lesson. You must include STT in every stage in future lessons.

So basically, in a nutshell, I need to STFU and allow for more STT :D Great news for my fellow lower-int teachers: you're going to get a quieter Ollie tonight.. although I do hope I don't suddenly forget everything else I did right (whatever that was).

I'll also share my FOTL assessment first draft tomorrow.... when I get around to writing the thing. 

So yeah if you think it's a good idea, could everyone share their feedback in the comments section if they have a spare 10 mins? Or post an image to the blog? I think this kind of thing might really help everybody.

CELTA love (ok I just threw up in my mouth there... won't be writing that again).

Ollie