Naomi Waterhouse-Johnson

C&T 491: June 20th, 2016

Prof. Manuela Gonzalez-Bueno

Lesson Plan #1: Reflection

From an overall standpoint, I am happy with the first lesson plan Katie Anderson and I
have created. There are definitely areas where we shine and areas where we could improve on
many things. The subject of our lesson had to do with American restaurants, specifically how to
properly read a menu and order food at different restaurants. In the second grade of middle
school, the girls vocabulary is still very limited, so this topic which requires more knowledge
of food than anything else was extremely well-received by our students. We worried at first
that the material would be a little too difficult, but the girls were very quick to pick up the
language and vocabulary we were introducing to them.
Something Katie and I can take away from this first lesson is that areas of improvement
and problem areas change from class to class; every class we taught had a different range of
levels (novice-intermediate), a different demeanor (excitable versus calm), and had a different
dynamic they were used to (based upon co-teacher expectations). In many classes, the concept of
practicing a restaurant conversation between four-person groups (there were four designated
parts of the conversation) was simple once shown an example. However, in some classes the task
was lost, and Katie and I realized that some girls did not understand or speak any English.
Concerning demeanor from class to class, some were outrageously outgoing and willing to
volunteer for anything, while some others would sit in silence when asked to practice with a
partner for the rest of the class. Lastly, the co-teachers we work with daily do not seem to have
well-developed classroom managements skills. Due to this, there have been periods where we

have to re-engage with students and grab their attention multiple times during our lesson. They
are not used to having to pay such close attention to their regular teachers lessons.
As for the strengths and weaknesses of our lesson plan, we ended up modifying our
content by introducing types of restaurants rather than educating the students about a specific set
of foods, e.g. Apple pie versus desserts, Chicken Alfredo versus Italian food. When we only
introduced specific foods, we actually spent more time doing teacher-student centered activity,
instead of giving brief explanation and moving on to student practice. With some advice from
our peers (Annie and Brooklyn), Marisa, and Prof. Gonzalez Bueno, we were able to remove
elements from our lesson that were not based on the TESOL/EIL principles we had learned
recently and further develop the structure of the plan. Most significantly, we removed choral
repetition (reading in unison) almost entirely from our lesson and attempted to reduce the amount
of teacher-led instruction in our class. By doing this, we incorporated more communicative
principles by demonstrating the dialogues we used in our instruction rather than reading them,
and taking more individual answers from students (especially during the menu activity and the
practice dialogues).
When we first started teaching our lesson on ordering food, both Katie and I felt that the
goal of our lesson had not truly been fulfilled. Instead of providing our students with practical
knowledge and giving them a social space in which to practice, we felt as though we were the
only ones truly talking. After modifying our lesson, everything became smoother, and it seemed
that our students took more away from the period. By the end of the week, both Katie and I felt a
sense of accomplishment.