Your Assignment and My Reflection on Team T's Lesson

Hello everyone.

First, Team T I would like you to write a reflection about your class on your blog. I would like everyone esle to write about what they particularly liked about Team T's lesson and some suggestions for an even better lesson. Please write in your blog by Tuesday, June 7 and please comment on someone else's blog by Wednesday June 8. The Blogs belonging to the Team T members are: Tommy's Box; Ryo's Room; To-chan; theroomoftunobue.

Please E-mail me and tell me whose blog you commented on. Thanks!

• What I Particularly Liked about Team T's Lesson
  
  First, I met with Mr. Abdoreim after your lesson and he was extremely happy. He said that your lesson was very "wakariyasui" (easy to understand) and he is really looking forward to his next lesson! I thought that you all taught with a lot of enthusiasm during the lesson and your enthusiasm seems to have rubbed off on Mr. Abdoreim. Overall, I think your lesson was very successful as your student was extremely satisfied! Now, I will talk about some areas that you can think of improving on in the future.
  
  Some Suggestions for an Even Better Lesson
  
  I really thought some kind of warm-up would have been nice. When the lesson began you immediately started the dialogue which was a little sudden. Although Mr. Abdoreim does not speak much English, you can do a warm-up by simply introducing yourselves "Hello, (point to your self) I am (say your name)". It would be a good way to introduce "I am".
• Remember for input to be effective it has to be meaningful and comprehensible. Sometimes, your English might have been too difficult to understand. When Toru and Tomohiro did the dialogue I thought that they spoke a little too fast. Also, when Tomoka introduced the dialogue she said "The situation is ... ". This kind of language is too difficult for a beginner to understand. Before Toru and Tomohiro speak, you can say "The time is 7AM" and write 7AM on the board. I think that some kind of introduction like this would have been a little bit more comprehensible for Mr. Abdoreim.
• When teaching "Good Morning" and "Good Evening" it probably would have been best to write the phrases on the board.
• You never told Mr. Abdoreim to look at his textbook. I think it would have been nice to use the pictures/dialogues in the textbook a little more.
• In the initial dialogue you tried to teach Mr. Abdoreim the following phrases all at once: 1. Good morning 2. Are you ____ ? 3. Yes, I am. 4. Nice to meet you. 5. Are you from ___ . 6. I'm from _______. I think that this was a little too much to teach at once. I think it is best to only introduce a few phrases at a time: Here is an example of one way to do this:
• Example of How to Introduce Only a Few Phrases at a Time:
• Your first dialogue could have been using only "I am". For example, Dialogue 1: The Scene ~ It is 7 AM. Toru: Good morning. Tomohiro: Good morning, I am Tomohiro. Toru: I am Toru. Confirm the meaning of "Good Morning" and "I am". Practice "I am" and good morning by having class members introduce themselves. After this, do Dialogue 2: The Scene ~ It is 7PM: Taku and Tomohiro are meeting each other for the first time (introducing the scene in Japanese is ok): Dialogue: Taku: Good evening. Tomohiro: Good Evening. Taku: Are you Tomohiro? Tomohiro: Yes I am. Nice to meet you. Taku: Nice to meet you. Confirm the meaning of the dialogue. Then practice in pair work. Or do a whole class activity such as this: Student A: Good evening, are you Student B? Student B: Yes I am, nice to meet you. Good evening are you student C? Student C: Yes I am, nice to meet you. Good evening. Are you student D? Student D..... Lastly you can do Dialogue 3: Scene ~ Taku wants to know where Tomohiro is from Taku: Are you from Tokyo? Tomohiro: No I'm not. I'm from Iwate. Go over the meaning. Then have students try to guess where their classmates are from. Example: Teacher points to Student A and Student Y. Student A: Are you from Mizusawa? Student Y: No I am not. I am from Misawa. As a final exercise you can try to consolidate all the main points.
• On your handout "collect" should be "correct"
• Mr. Abdoreim was a little confused about the difference between "Good Morning" "Good Afternoon" and "Good Evening". One way to make this cleared is write the following on the board: Good Morning - 6 AM - 12PM; Good Afternoon - 12PM - 6PM; Good Evening - 6PM - (Times are open to interpretation.)

Again, you put in a commendable effort and I can not say enough about how happy Mr. Abdoreim was to take your lesson. Thank you for doing this lesson in front of the class. I think we all learned a lot from watching you!