Naomi Waterhouse-Johnson

C&T 491: June 29th, 2016

Profesora Manuela Gonzalez-Bueno
Lesson Plan #3: Final Review Reflection
Katie Anderson and Is second lesson plan was much different than we originally
expected (or planned) it to be. While at first we believed we would be given some more creative
liberty with our second lesson than our first, it turned out not to be the case. When we were given
our official schedule for the middle school at the beginning of our time at Kyunghwa, we
realized that most of the duration of our stay would be spent helping our students prepare their
memorized English speaking tests. For our first lesson, we were unable to teach all of our classes
due to conflicts with the speaking test. We were able to be somewhat creative with our content,
but the lesson itself was restricted due to the girls level of English and their affective filter (they
were still adjusting to our presence). For our second lesson, we designed a review of all three
units the students would be tested on, incorporating elements of listening, reading
comprehension, group work, and speaking activities.
As for the strengths of the lesson, we were able to review all of the grammar rather
seamlessly, although it was collected from multiple different units and situations. However, due
to the nature of reviewing for a final, we faced major difficulty with structuring our review to
best fit the expectations of our co-teachers. As dictated by the test makers, the students needed to
have specific patterns and exercises memorized to do well on the test. As teachers, we faced the
dilemma of making the lesson a communicative language review or a textbook memorization
review. Somehow, we figured out a way to balance the two. Since we had to teach a full unit
covered on the test (an issue we discovered halfway through a class period), we were made to
base our instruction completely from the textbook and use specifically listed examples. We used

a comic strip activity from the textbook as well, deciding to perform the dialogue and have them
exercise their listening skills, filling in blanks where we had erased words and phrases.
Concerning our worksheets, we contextualized almost every question in a conversation, even if
we could not combine all the grammar into one all-encompassing dialogue. Lastly, we attempted
to make our review game (a pass-the-ball icebreaker game) teacher-facilitated only, rather than
teacher centered. In our game, the teachers only roles were to make the first toss and read the
review questions.
Concerning weaknesses of the lesson, it is difficult to tell since our active time was
restricted for almost every period we taught. Our plan itself fills a full 45 minutes with every
objective and activity being addressed, but with time needing to be set aside for a co-teachers
supplemental instruction, it was near impossible to include our ball game. Do to the fact our
direct instruction segment was originally developed during a less than ten minute passing period,
our lesson plan had to be modified several times. At first, we were almost exclusively reading
from the textbook, since we did not have enough time to incorporate any visuals in relation to the
content. As we continued to teach, we became more familiar with the material as well as the
students response to the content and were able to adapt our instruction based on our
observations. We found that visuals are especially important in fostering student understanding.
Altogether, this lesson did not feel entirely ours. We were subject to editing from many
sources, and we were unprepared to teach grammar to the students for the first time. However, I
would like to focus on the strength and adaptability Katie and I showed as teachers during this
difficult week. Even though we very easily could have given up on our situation and made more
of a mess, we held everything together and made a strong attempt to help our students learn.
Even though we were not able to teach our content in the style or method we would have first

chosen, we still found a way to teach communicatively. My greatest hope is that our students
took something solid away from our lesson, that maybe they will be able to retain what they
learned after the end of their testing period. Given the situation, I am satisfied with Katie and Is
lesson and how we performed as teachers in the face of organizational chaos.