Wichada Wisanbannawit TESOL 427 Sister Amanda Wallace Winter 2013

Team teaching and tutoring journal Team teaching at English Exchange was a great experience. It was probably one of the highlights of this semester for me. It gave me the opportunity to test and observe my personal teaching philosophy and gain experience of teaching with other people. Team Teaching Journal My teaching team consisted of Alec Miller, Jessica Giles, and myself. We did teaching on the night of Thursday February 7, 2013. We planned three activities for the program that were flexible with the time. We really wanted to focus on getting students to talk and have fun, but they would also learn something from the activities as well. Here is a copy of the lesson materials we prepared for the teaching session: Outline: Presentation from the language center Introduction: Wi (I) conducts the opening. Introduce ourselves. Opening Pray. Brief what we plan to do for the night. First activity: who am I? (Cocktail party) Second activity: Words into a story Last activity: I see the light Closing:

Materials: Treats Random names of famous people

Random words (categorized into verb, adjective, and noun) Projector (for the last activity) Before the program started, I tried to go and talk to each student to get to

know them and make them feel relax and comfortable. We were supposed to start the program at eight oclock, but there were only about seven to eight students so we decided to just started at 8:05 PM. Ryo from the language center did his presentation first. I wanted to have more people participated, so while he was doing it, I was outside by the door inviting and trying to convince students to come and join the program. We had about twenty students participated. Regardless of what time each student came, they all stayed and participated until the end. We set the seating into groups of 4-5 people. After the language center presentation, I conducted the opening of the program, introduced my team and we had a pray. We then started off with the first activity, who am I? First, we gave an instruction of the game, and then we did an example by showing them how to play the game. We handed out pieces of paper and had everyone picked out one randomly. We told them that if they had not known who the person on the paper was, they could change and pick a new one. We gave them a few minutes to think about what they were going to tell people about themselves. We wanted them to go around the room and get a chance to talk and interaction with everyone. During the activity, we invited and handed out the treats (brownies) that we provided. We made it kind of more like a little party. We participated with the students including a couple senior missionaries who came and joined us that night as well. I was Britney Spears, so I tried to act and talk like her and gave hints to students about what my character did and looked like. The students responded to the activity very well. Everyone was able to participate. The activity particularly helped students to break the ice and get to know each other. One thing that I noticed from the activity was that some students did not go around and meet different people. They were mostly just standing with the group they were already in. What I would do differently in this activity is that I would make this to be like a competition. I would tell them that

they had to talk and guess as many people as they could, but they should take their time learning from other students. I think it was good and important that we were participating with them instead of just sitting or watching them did the activity. I learned that by doing so, we were able to assist students who needed help individually and to ease the intention between teachers and students. During the activity, more students showed up, so we just told them what we were going. We spent about fifteen minutes on that activity. We asked the students to go back to their seats, which were set in groups of 4-5 people. Then, we preceded the second activity. Jessica introduced and gave introduction words into a story. I handed out words randomly to each of the three groups (approximately about 16-17 students). Each group received three words of noun, three words of adjective, and three word of verb. First, we let them talk and discuss about the meaning of the words, and if no one in a group know, then they could ask us, teachers or the missionaries who were native speakers. And then they had to use all the words they had to make a story. Like what we did on the first activity, we walked around and checked if they understood the instruction or the meaning of words or not. It appeared that some students did not pay attention or did not understand what we instructed them. Each group had at least a word that they did not know the meaning. However, the students were not reluctant to ask for help and for the meaning of the words. Overall, the activity went well, the students had fun and learned more vocabulary. Nevertheless, I felt like this activity was not quite as successful as I was hoping for. I found that not all students fully participated. Some of them were just more quite and not so much helping their group completing the tasks. The group, which was consisted of Polynesians, was making the loudest noise. They finished before two other (Asian) groups and were just chitchatting and joking aloud. I had to tell them to keep the noise a little bit down while others were still working on the task. I learned that students with different cultures may need different methods and class rules for their best learning. Although it might be a good way to let them to form their own groups with their friends, so that students would have fun and willing to participate activities, but they can be easily carried away with different topics or to something else that do not

relate to what we do in the class. When teaching the lesson next time, I would mix them up together, for example, one group has two Polynesian and two Asians. That way, they would be able to focus more on doing and completing the task, but would not feel so uncomfortable with others who they do not know. After all the groups finished, a representative from each group shared their stories to the class. The students were very creative with their stories. And we spent about twenty minutes total. The last activity was the singing activity. It was only about five minutes or so. We used the projector and the screen to show the video on Youtube that we prepared for. The song was called I see the light from the Disney Movie, Tangled. Most students had seen the movie before, so they were pretty familiar with the song. We showed the clip video had the subtitles or lyrics, so that students could read and sing along. I was pretty surprised that all of them sang regardless of gender! I have realized after that second language learners really enjoyed learning through music and media. After we sang, Alec closed the program by saying thank you for all students who came and participated and inviting them to come again next time. I really enjoyed this experience of team teaching. I learned how to work with others in teaching, which we had to create the activity, and worked together as a team. I was glad to work with Jessica and Alec. They both were good teachers, and they still are. Another ideas, I experienced was that it is important for teachers to have loud, clear, and firm voice. When students get too noisy, teachers should be able to get their attention and continue on the lesson plan. Tutoring Journal I completed my tutoring on Thursday March 14 at 3:30 4:30 PM. We all agreed to combine two sessions into one-hour session because everyone had been very busy and it would have been more difficult for them to find another time to meet again. We had our tutoring at hale one lounge because it is spacious and no one really go in there during the day, plus. it is easy to be found since all my tutees live on campus.

I had three sweet and smart tutees. Dauanie was from the Philippines and majoring in business management. Jia was from China. Her major was Hospitality and Tourism Management. Jia said that she was already out of EIL, but EIL 343 was her supplementary class. And last but not least, Joann was a freshman and this is her first semester here at the school. She was from Taiwan and majoring in business management. Here is a copy of the lesson materials I prepared for the tutoring session: Outline: Introduction/break the ice Identifying clauses ninja Noun Clause + practice Adjective Clause + activity Adverb Clause +activity Closing: final game

Materials Worksheets Colorful pens Pictures Magazines Small white board A stuffed animal Starburst (candy)

I took about four hours planning the lesson for this two session combined tutoring. It was quite difficult to try to think of fun activities for the lesson on grammar especially on clauses. I was so glad that Sister Wallace gave us opportunity to brainstorm, discuss, and create ideas of activities and share with the class. I studied and researched on the type of clauses to make sure that I fully understood what I was going to tutor. I created a lesson handout and printed out one for each tutee. (Please see the attached file, clauses lesson) It is basically a summary of all clauses including the functions and examples. Jia was the first the one who was on time. I got a chance to ask questions to know more about her. She brought her Writing Academic English with her. I found out that they had learned about clauses already. After I knew, I was a little less worried about how to try to explain them. Jia and I were talking until about 3:35 PM and the other two tutees came. Once everyone was ready, we all sat on the floor in the form of circle. I introduced myself to them again officially. I told them where I was from, what year of school I was in, and my job. I learned that the tutees were classmates, so they already knew each other, but I noticed that they were not close friends. I asked them to tell us one thing that was unique about them (something that no one else there knew about them). It was very nice and fun to break the ice with them. I started the tutoring by helping them to recall what are dependent and independent clauses. First, I asked them directly if they could tell me the differences between them. Everyone answers me confidently and seemed to

remember them quite well. Then, I told them to pick out one colored pen that they wanted to use. I handed out the short exercise for them to identify clauses. (Please, see the ninja-and-clauses file). I gave them a couple of minutes to complete it. When everyone finished, I had them read one by one, and one sentence at a time and tell if that clause was an independent or dependent clause. They all did an excellent job! I gave out the clause handout that I wrote myself to the tutees. I chose to tutor on the noun clause first because I thought this topic would be the one that we would spend time on the most. Since they all learned about all clauses before, we just went over each section. I wrote on the board S V O and put (noun clause under S(ubject) and O(bject) to show them that it can act as a subject or and object. After we reviewed the noun clause, I had them pick out another colored pens (one more for each person). I asked them to write down a sentence using the noun clause, and used the one (out if two) color to identify the noun clause in their sentences. I personally like to use them because it is fun and thought it would use in the tutoring as well, so they would not get bored writing. And it appeared that the girls liked to use them! After they finished the task, we went around clockwise to share their answers. I think this quite a successful lesson. Although it was not so exciting, but everything went smoothly and they girls were engaging. It took about twenty minutes for the noun clause lesson. We moved on to the next topic. We continued reading on the handout on Adjective clause. I reminded them how it functioned, I added Adj Cl to the S V O that I wrote earlier behind the subject and the objective to show the relationship of the clause. I then pulled out the pictures I prepared. I gave them an instruction that they would have to write down a sentence using the adjective clause from what they could describe the pictures. We did about two pictures and everyone took turn to share what they wrote down. I saw we had been doing a little too much writing, so I changed the activity a little bit. Instead of having them writing, I called out one tutee and she had to make up a sentence right when I showed everyone a picture. I think this activity was helpful to the tutees. It helped them better understand the use of the clause in speaking. Jia and Joann

took awhile (about a minute or two) to think about what to say using the adjective clause; Dauanie did not take as long as them. She was more fluent than Jia and Joann. I encouraged and gave them compliments on their performance and confidence. The last lesson topic, adverb clause, we reviewed the last section in the handout. And I added (adverb clause) at the front and the end of S V O because it can be place freely. The activity we did on the game was similar to the last one we played on the adjective clause. But instead of me choosing the pictures, I had three fashion magazines and handed one to each tutee and let them look through and choose any pictures they wanted and created a sentence using adverb clause to describe the pictures. I gave them a few minutes to do so. I think fashion magazines were good tools for the activity. Girls like to read and look at them, so I thought it would be fun to use them in the lesson. While they were finding pictures and making a sentence, I prepared myself for the closing activity. For the closing, we played a game to test them all of the three clauses. I created seven sentences; 3 noun clause, 2 adjective, and 2 adverb clause sentences. As we sat in a circle, I put the (cute) stuffed animal in the middle. When I said each sentence, whoever figured out and knew what type of the clauses it was had to grab the stuffed animal and answer quickly. If they had correct answer, they earned a starburst candy! The tutees were paying full attention. I had to repeat each sentence a couple of times. Jia was the fastest to answer. Dauanie was a little slower than everyone else. So, I did was I gave an opportunity for her to answer and when she answered wrong, I kept asking her until she gave the right answer and explained why that sentence was a noun, adjective, or adverb clause. This game was exciting and a little competitive. It did not only test their comprehensive of the clauses, but also their listening skills because they had to listen to me carefully. I was able to demonstrated and explain them the clauses. I was very confident in what I was teaching. The tutees were paying attention and participating the whole session. I would do differently when teaching or tutoring

next time is I would prepare more games and activities for them to play. The tutoring session was successful for me as a student of teaching. I really enjoyed tutoring so did the tutees! I know that they had a good time because we were all smiling and happy to be there. At the end, they showed me their appreciation by saying thank you to me. I was so glad I got good EIL students. They were sweet and smart. They were willing to participate and answer questions. I learned from this experience that will make me a better language teacher that it is important to prepare the lesson and be approachable and a good communicator (clear explanation, and connecting students to you and to each other). Task Ideas Lists (for teaching speaking) Role play Tango seating Storytelling (from pictures) Taboo Interviews Cocktail party technique Inside-outside circle Scavenger hunt Picture dictation Big Wind Blows Who am I? True/False stories Debating 3-2-1 activity (fluency) Prepositional Basketball Team guessing game What will you bring on vacation? Change place, change face Food flashcards Find the murderer