Mini Portfolio - Teaching Demonstration

Philosophy of Teaching

My view of teaching is that teaching is a leading the followers to a particular goal. The leader is the most experienced and mature one among followers and the teacher is also knowledgeable, experienced, and mature in subject(s). Followers are the ones who watch the leader and follow what the leader does according to the leader’s footsteps. Thereby, the success of journey to a particular goal depends on the leader as his or her decisions and teachings decide what leaners do. Teaching is also a process like this, and the teacher is the role model of his or her students. The success of students depends on how the teacher leads his or her students to the goal and on how well the teacher implements the teaching process. 

In a classroom, different kinds of students can be seen and as a teacher, we can identify the strengths and weaknesses of every student and we can address their weaknesses using different methods. It influences the equity in the classroom, and everyone has a chance to learn. As a leader we have to be positive among the followers although it is an impossible situation. When it comes to teaching, we have to be positive with students by using our encouraged words and words can do a considerable impact on leaners. When selecting a teaching theory among different theories, it should be an approach consisted with the positives of all the theories, as different theories address different situations in the classroom.

Reflective Summary

As a TESL undergraduate, having an opportunity to do a teaching demonstration is a motivation and measurement for me to identify how the classroom setting is structured. Before the teaching demonstration, I made a need analysis for myself to identify what I am going to teach, the level that I am going to teach and how I am going to teach. With the results of this need analysis, I selected to teach past tense for intermediate level (grade six students). In order to plan how I am going to teach; I designed a lesson plan of 40 minutes. 

For the teaching demonstration, I used Lead-in and Pre-task activities. Likewise, I used curved rows as the classroom layout and warmers and fillers to adapt the leaners’ situations accordingly. As the warmer, I asked students to recall what they did the day before and they answered well as it is a simple question. What I needed was to give them the idea of the lesson before revealing the lesson and they identified it easily along with making a good interaction throughout the lesson. Likewise, I made some mistakes intentionally to teach some theories and it was also successful, as they already know the lesson without knowing the title of the lesson. Thereby, without making an additional effort, students have acquired the lesson, and I was able to teach a considerable scope of the lesson to students easily. As challenges, having an imaginative classroom with the peers can be seen, as I could not find out the real interaction and knowledge level of students. When I taught the lesson, peers have given the answers on their level, and they were supportive. Nevertheless, when it comes to a real classroom, the situation and knowledge level can be different.

To make the engagement of the audience, I used small talks with them and made them comfortable to engage. As an example, in the warmer, I asked what they did the day before. Although it is related to the part of the lesson, it is a small talk to make the audience more comfortable. Likewise, to make their engagement, I asked to apply the lesson with their real-life incidents in the past. Since students are keener to tell their stories, most of students engaged with the lesson unintentionally. Additionally, I made mistakes intentionally when writing on the board to let students to find out the mistakes. 

Through the teaching demonstration, I learned that walking around the classroom and making eye contact with students is a good approach to keep the engagement of students. Through these approaches, students realize that the teacher is aware of them, and they motivate themselves to keep their attention with the lesson. Likewise, making students comfortable with the teacher also provides a positive engagement with the lesson. Thereby, my intention is to make the classroom setting properly and accordingly before teaching the lesson.

Observation

My observation was conducted before my teaching demonstration, and I observed my peer Tharushi Kodikara (HS/TE18/0023) who taught verbs (action verbs) for elementary students (grade 04). For her demonstration, she used warm up, lead in and pre-writing tasks. At the start of the lesson, in order to warm up students physically, she asked students to stand up and clap. Through this warmup activity, her intention was to grab the attention of students and it was successful. After the war-up, students behaved in a more energetic manner. In the lead in activity, she used flashcards with the pictures of a set of verbs (run, eat, drive, play) and asked students to find out the correct verb. And also, she gave the opportunity to students to discuss it with their friend. Here, she used the technique of eliciting and students have to come and grab the verbs rather than giving it to them by teachers. Likewise, she used attractive visual effects as elementary students like attractive pictures. In the prewriting task, she used a communicative approach and divided students into four groups. After distributing a worksheet, she asked students to pick the verbs out of other words and fill in the blanks using correct verbs. This task is an evolution of the lesson, and she was navigating the lesson of verbs to sentences level. 

Throughout her demonstration, she made an environment for students to engage not only with the teacher but also with their friends. It is a phycological approach since elementary students are keener to talk with others and engage. Likewise, she used a learner centered approach and made a comfortable learning platform for students. As a conclusion, her teaching demonstration is adaptive to learners, and it can be easily achieved by students through engaging.