My TESL Journey

The experience of teaching adults through this practicum has taught me a great deal about myself as a teacher. Teaching during this practicum taught me both about my strengths as a teacher and some areas in which I could improve.  Throughout my practicum, I worked hard to engage with the learners, learn their names, and create plans that get them involved in learning at a deeper level. As a result of my experience teaching in the past, I have learned how to project my voice and make eye contact with learners.  Making eye contact, engaging with learners, and projecting my voice, I believe, all help to create rapport between myself and the learners in a way that makes them feel more comfortable and able to participate more fully in class. One of the most important parts of teaching a lesson for me is the use of comprehension checks.  Throughout my lessons, I try to include easy comprehension checks to make sure learners are understanding what I am trying to teach. These comprehensi

Over the course of my practicum, I had the opportunity to observe 3 sessions of 4 different courses, totaling 12 sessions of ESL courses.  These courses ranged from about 10-18 learners and most of the students were from Japan or China, though there were multiple other countries represented in these courses.  Most of the learners were between the ages of 18 and 40. Most of these courses were based upon English for Academic Purposes and ranged from verbal communication to reading for context. The learning outcomes for all of the courses were similar as they focused on being able to effectively communicate either orally or through written text, as well as being able to evaluate and interpret information. Observing my sponsor instructor taught me about the importance of using textbooks as guidelines while not relying to heavily upon them. The instructor also clearly gave learners time to interact with materials, particularly reading materials. When using materials, the instructor wo

Real Talk 2 - Authentic English in Context Throughout my experience teaching ESL to adults, I interacted with a number of strong resources to help with instructing. The resource I chose to discuss is Baker and Tanka’s Real Talk 2 - Authentic English in Context, a textbook and audio recording set that my sponsor instructor uses to plan and organise lessons. This textbook focuses on using authentic situations to help learners learn to communicate through speaking and listening and the audio files provide examples of different types of conversational situations. The textbook was published 2007.  Throughout my interactions with this resource, I realized it provides many serious benefits to the planning and organizing of lessons for ESL learners, however it faces some drawbacks as a result of its age and the rapid change in vocabulary that is present in contemporary society.  Despite some of its drawbacks, the ease of use, benefits for lesson planning, and learning takeaways make t

This was my last lesson with this class and it went way better than I expected. This lesson put my creativity to the test. I really pushed myself to come up with a fun and creative activity that would fit in with the content of the listening activity as well as fit the course outcomes. I was not sure about the activity until I met with my sponsor instructor and he gave the green light on the whole thing.There were many difficulties to deal with related to the audio recording and the difficulty level of the audio recording, however some improvisation made this activity work out in the end.  Overall, I would say this activity was a success, however, in the future, I would consider finding another audio recording that met the same requirements or attempt to find a re-recording that was at a slower pace.   Another activity that went very well but that I would alter in the future was the warm-up review.  The warm-up review was successful in getting the students speaking and remember

This afternoon was the 4th 2 hour lesson that I taught during my practicum and I only have one more after this. Today, I have a great deal to reflect on because I got the chance to teach two lessons with essentially a lunch break in between. It gave me great perspective as to what it would be like to teach English as a second language full-time, and I have to say, I loved it! While teaching always has its ups and downs, today was a very rewarding day. I finally managed to get my timing just right during this lesson as well as mixed up the groups and pairings throughout the lesson so that learners got a better understanding and perspective during the discussions. This is always something that I intend to do during my lessons, however I often found it difficult because of timing, but this time because the timing was on, everything else fell into place.  I also used the learners names more and more as well as feel more comfortable working with the learners and knowing what the lea

Summaries and thesis statements, what an adventure! I have to say I was not very confident going into this lesson. It was a lesson taught to a class that I had never taught, a topic that was never really clear for me to begin with and I was being observed by more than one person. I found that my voice projected better during this lesson compared to usual, and the learners were extremely engaged and asked many thought provoking questions. These questions kept me on my toes and helped me learn how to better explain some terminology. Additionally, the learners struggled with a task that involved locating the thesis statement of a piece as a class. After more discussion of terminology, the learner were better able to find the thesis statement as a group. Overall, I think the process of finding thesis statements went well, however in the future I would work more on discussion of terminology and the general look and placement of thesis statements.  I still tend to overplan my lessons,

Another great lesson yesterday! A lot of things went well and as always there are some areas of improvement. Last lesson, I had reflected about getting to know the learners better so that I can make sure to use their names properly in class. I managed to do this and was able to use the learners names more during the lesson. During the class, the learners participated in a role-playing exercise in which one learner represented a parent and the other, their adult child. The story of the role-playing exercise was based upon the adult asking their parent if they can move back in. The learners were given a chance to write scripts for their role-playing assessment but conversation was meant to happen as naturally as possible. I was happy to see that many of the learners barely used their scripts and the conversation that took place was natural and flowed freely. I am still having issues with timing. I am used to working at an elementary school where learners like to get work done as

Reflection #1 Teaching today was a little nerve-racking, however after a couple of minutes, I got into the swing of things and forgot all about my nerves. For the most part, the lesson went great. I had a few hiccups that I thought I covered up well, like the technology not connecting correctly even though I checked it in advance. I just kept talking through it while I fiddled with the computer. The listening activity that the learners’ were working on was tricky, as the speakers spoke very fast with a relatively technical word choice. I am glad that I followed my sponsor teacher’s suggestion of using the script when necessary. In this case, I believe it was necessary because the learners were having trouble understanding the information as it was fast paced. Learners’ were engaged during the lesson and I had the opposite problem of when I work with children. Children like to talk constantly and blurt out answers and yet with this class, they participate, but sometimes it tak

During Unit 3, our course focused on classroom management and the importance of having a classroom etiquette outline. With my learners, I always tend to get their help to create the classroom etiquette. While there are many concepts that I make sure show up, when it comes from them, it has more value. As a teacher, I can tell them the rules, but if they don't understand them and why they are in place, they may have difficulties putting them into practice. With young learners, it is important to practice your etiquette so they can see what is expected of them. With adult learners, some may need to be practiced, others may already be understood and learned. The infographic below is a Classroom Etiquette poster I created for an adult ESL course. I find it is important to include images as learners reading levels may vary. 

How can introducing a variety of activities enhance language learning? Giving learners a variety of activities means that they can interact with the material and lessons in the way they learn best. If you use many different activities to teach the same concept, it also gives them multiple chances to use the concept as well to get a deeper understanding of it. In my opinion, student-centered activities will have learners more engaged in their learning and therefore learning more. In my class, I use a project system for my science classes that goes along with the Universal design concept in which learners can present the information in a way that works best for them. I have found that it has made my learners more engaged because even though they are all learning the same topic, they can present it in a way that makes sense for them. I have had learners do presentations, plays, dioramas, etc. It has been very helpful. This has not only helped me in classroom management, but it has

Here is an infographic and activity adaption that I have done as part of my TESL course. The activity is one that can be found in the Activities page. It is an activity to get learners to speak and have conversations. The activity can also be done as an ice breaker activity. Assignment 2

What biases and assumptions might a teacher bring into a classroom in these contexts? In nearly all instances, people act and behave based on biases and assumptions they have gained throughout their lives.  Teaching is no different despite the best efforts of teachers to not allow biases and assumptions from guiding their behaviours.  In the contexts discussed in this lesson, there are a few different biases and assumptions that teachers may have about their learners.  When working with immigrants, teachers may believe that the learners came to North America because they wanted to live in the Euro-Western culture that is present in much of North America.  However, this fails to realize some immigrants came because of repression or economic turmoil in their home countries. Teachers may also have assumptions about the mental states of learners who have experienced torture or extreme trauma in their home countries and may treat these learners differently than other learners in an att

Seesaw I chose to review the Seesaw application and website.  Seesaw is a closed social media platform made for classrooms.  This website and application allows learners and instructors to upload videos, files, recordings and more.  These features create a way for instructors to share resources for the learners as well as a place for learners to present what they are working on.  For any instructors interested in this program, there is a Seesaw Help Center that goes through all of the basics of the website as well as a process for setting up classrooms ( https://help.seesaw.me/hc/en-us ).  Additionally, Seesaw has a Youtube channel that has many helpful videos ( https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYUfnb7MIsGald-Xtig9Umw/videos ). Personally, I like Seesaw because it is very similar to other social media platforms that learners may be accustomed to using as well as a great place for learners to have an environment to share with their peers.  This combination of features that is famil

Context: You are teaching night classes in an adult education ESL centre. There are 14 students (CLB 2) in your class and most of them are factory workers. They are studying a unit on workplace safety and health. You have the Workplace Safety and Health in Basic Language resource available. I chose module 2 - Basic vocabulary for health and safety. The principles for materials development I have chosen to focus on in the activity: Materials should be authentic in terms of text and task (Nunan as cited in Tomlinson, pg 98) I chose this principle because the learners are adults attempting to learn English as an additional language in part as a means of better understanding their colleagues and safety regulations in their particular field.  Authentic texts and tasks can help these learners more quickly understand signs and vocabulary that directly relates to their careers while also allowing them to see how other aspects of the ESL course directly relates to their lives.  Fi

This lesson is based on the material about Aboriginal Governance from the LISTN website.  This material will be used for a CLB 7 classroom of newcomers to Canada who are mostly adults.  The learning objectives for this class are listed as Learn about the Royal Proclamation and historical treaties between the British government and Aboriginal people in Canada Learn about the Indian Act and its effect on the lives of Aboriginal people Learn about the reserve system and its impact on the lives of Aboriginal people Learn about modern treaties between First Nations, the provincial government and the Canadian government and how these treaties might benefit Aboriginal people (LISTN, pg 1) This lesson is being evaluated based on a variety of criteria that look at the suitability of the material for learners at a level 7 CLB, ability of the material to interact with the learners at a deep level, the different ways in which the material hopes to support learning among the learner