Name of Student Teacher: Mr Timothy Joshua Ong

CS1: English Language

Subject: English Language

(1128)
Date: 7th March 2016
Monday (Even Week)

Class: 106
Secondary 1 (Express)
Time: 8.20am 9.40am
(80 minutes) 4 periods

Class Size:
40 (23 F, 17 M)

Learners Characteristics:
Mixed ability (Average to high ability learners)

Unit: Situational writing skills

Topic: Appropriate tone in personal emails

Reflections (Choose 1 aspect of the lesson to reflect on- positive or negative

one. It can be written in point form not more than 1 page)
1) What happened? (What did my students do? What did I do?)
My CT, Mrs Sharmiila Singh-Gruber needed 2 of the 4 periods for this lesson to provide
feedback on students essays for their common test. Seeing her go through this feedback
session brought great insight on providing targeted feedback on students errors. It also
acquainted me with some of the more common errors that students are prone to committing.
Moreover, I was working my way through the Modal verbs worksheet, eliciting responses
from students as I explained how each modal was used, when a fire drill took place. Though I
had a rough expectancy of this drill occurring, I could not help but hoped it would have took
place after my English class. Alas, it was not to be.
2) Why? (Why did I think things happened this way? Why did I choose to act the way I
did?)
Mrs Gruber used a powerpoint that incorporated ungrammatical examples of students writing
paired with the corrected form of the same sentence. This allowed students to discern their
errors and it also made them more cognizant of the grammatical sentences (or what their
writing should have been). Mrs Gruber did this as the students were able to catch on to the
mistakes quickly and some even volunteered to correct the mistakes on the slides. Through
this manner, students are leading and taking charge of their own learning. Moreover, when the
fire drill bell sounded, I immediately stopped my lesson and got the class to line up to proceed
to the evacuation area. I did not prolong the lesson as I wanted to communicate to students
that their safety is my number one priority, and not finishing a lesson.
3) So what? (What have I learnt from this?)
I have learnt techniques of providing guided and targeted feedback pertaining to students
essay writing skills. Moreover, I am also more aware of the language areas where students
are weak in. Finally, I learnt to be adaptable in the face of unforeseen circumstances.
4) Now what? (What do I want to remember to think about in a similar situation? How do
I want to act in future?)
I would want to think about putting students needs at the center of any feedback session in
future. Feedback for essays can be tricky and I want the focal points to zoom in on supporting
students learning. Hence, the nature of such sessions must be student-driven and not
teacher-centered. I would also want to act in a calm and composed manner when unforeseen
situations (such as a fire drill/ evacuation exercise) arise in future.