Self-Observation - Language Area

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Unit 12, English 10: “Music”

Language Area: Vocabulary

Vocabulary list: - Active vocab: emotion, integral

- Passive vocab: solemn, mournful

Contents
I/ Intended procedure .................................................................................................2
II/ Reflection ..............................................................................................................3
III/ Unexpected Departure from The Lesson .............................................................4
IV/ Reflection After Reading Chapter 3 ....................................................................4

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I/ Intended procedure
+ Greet the whole class
+ Teaching “emotion”
1. Show 3 pictures of people who are happy, sad and angry, one by one; Ask the whole
class, “What does that person feel?”
2. Lead in to the word “emotion” by comparing it with “feeling”
3. Repeat the word then conduct choral repetition of the word “emotion”
4. Show on the screen the written form of “emotion”
5. Ask one S to tell the stress in “emotion”, then show the phonetic transcript
6. Ask one student to translate “emotion” into Vietnamese
7. Show the synonym “feeling”
8. Explain that “emotion” is both a countable and uncountable noun
9. Show 2 examples on the screen. One is “emotion” as a countable noun and one is
“emotion” as an uncountable noun.
Music can express your emotions.
She shows little emotion.
10. Show collocation
Show/ express/ display emotion(s)
11. Ask a student some concept-check questions
“Is smiling an emotion?”
“Is fear an emotion?”
“Can you give me some more examples of emotion?”
12. Conduct choral repetition of the word, synonym, sentence examples and collocation
+ Teaching “integral”
1. Show a picture of a car without wheels, ask the whole class, “Can the car run without the
wheels?”. Show another picture of a clock without the battery, ask the whole class, “Can
the clock work without the battery?”
2. Lead in to the word “integral”, “So we say that ‘The battery is an integral part of the
clock.’”
3. Repeat the word then conduct choral repetition
4. Show the two possible phonetic transcript of “integral”
5. Use synonym of “integral” to show definition: “necessary and important”
6. Show 2 examples:
Music is an integral part of our lives.
The battery is an integral part of a clock.
7. Show collocation: “an integral part”
8. Ask a student a concept-check question: “Is English an integral subject of your study?”
9. Conduct choral repetition of the word, synonym, sentence examples and collocation
+ Teaching “solemn”

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1. Lead in to the 2 words by showing on the screen a sentence in students’ textbook: “Music
makes a funeral more solemn and mournful.”
2. Show a picture of people in a funeral, ask the whole class, “Are these people smiling?”,
“Are they happy?”
3. Lead in to the word “solemn”
4. Repeat the word then conduct choral repetition
5. Show the written form, phonetic transcript and 2 examples, then give students some time
to look at them
6. Conduct choral repetition
+ Teaching “mournful”
1. Show a picture of a crying woman, ask the whole class, “How does this woman feel?”
2. Lead in to the word “mournful” through its synonym “very sad”
3. Repeat the word then conduct choral repetition
4. Show the written form, phonetic transcript and 2 examples, then give students some time
to look at them
5. Conduct choral repetition

II/ Reflection
*Overall: The whole lesson is teacher-centred without me noticing it.
*Strengths:
- The lead-in part of each word was easy to understand (using pictures to elicit information
from Ss)
- Definitions were easy to understand for students, using familiar synonyms to students
(integral = necessary and important)
- I used clear, simple and appropriate examples. (Music can express your emotions. She
shows little emotion.)
- I used language that is accessible to students and appropriate to their proficiency level.
- My voice and pronunciation were clear and loud so students could grasp the spoken form
of the words
- Know how to emphasize the word I want to teach.
*Weaknesses:
- There was no clear connection or a context between the words so the students may find
it hard to associate between the words.
- I did not pay attention to each individual, only cared about the class as a whole.

*Suggestions and notes:

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- When asking a student to provide the stress in the word “emotion”, after reading the question, I
should have let students have 5 seconds to dwell on the question first, before calling a student to
give the answer.
- Shouldn’t have used L1 translation for giving meaning of the word “emotion”, L1 is used for
checking understanding, not for giving meaning.
- Should have elicited the countable noun and uncountable noun form of “emotion” through the
2 examples and lead students to realize the difference => Increase STT (student talking time)
- When leading in the word “integral”, could have used an example of “emotion” such as “Are
emotions important to human?” to make some association
- Could have used synonyms “important” or “necessary” to lead in “integral”, such as “Are the
wheels important to the car?”
- When asking one of the students some concept-check question, we can increase teacher-student
interaction by asking the whole class for confirmation to check their attention like: “Class, do
you agree with your friend?”
- When asking the whole class but receive few responses, we should raise our voice and ask again
to get students’ attention. DO NOT ignore and move on.
- Should have conducted repetition after teaching all the words, not after teaching each word
because it made the lesson become repetitive and boring
- Should have conducted individual repetition to ensure students’ attention on the lesson and also
find possible mistakes

After reading Chapter 3 on Reflective Teaching,


I decided to add this below section.

III/ Unexpected Departure from The Lesson


A student who doesn’t know how to identify stress.
When I asked this student to identify the stressed syllable in “emotion” after conducting
repetition, she answered “The first syllable”. I told her it was incorrect and spoke out loud the
word once again in hope that she can realized it. But then, she confessed to me that she did not
know how to identify the stress. I know that I could not ignore a problem this big. So I tried to
explain to her in a simple way by comparing the stressed syllable with “dấu sắc” in Vietnamese
and told her to notice when I raised my pitch like that. This time when I spoke “emotion”, she
guessed it correctly.

IV/ Reflection After Reading Chapter 3


The thing that I remember the most after reading Chapter 3 is this quote:

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“If a teacher never questions the goals and the values that guide his/her work, the context in
which he or she teaches, or never examines his or her assumptions, then this individual is not
engaged in reflective teaching.”
And this is what I base on to write the below reflection.
*Overall, the aim of my lesson is to teach students to USE the word “emotion” and “integral”,
and UNDERSTAND “solemn” and “mournful”. Therefore, I think what I prepared is not
enough to teach the students to USE the two active vocabulary and UNDERSTAND the
passive ones.

 There should have been a more effective activity to check students’ understanding and
make them ACTUALLY use “emotion” and “integral” in a sentence.

For example: After teaching these 4 words, I may get the class to work in pairs or in a table
to write down 1 sentence example for “emotion” and 1 for “integral”. The aim is that after
understanding the words, they have a chance to use it in a sentence and familiarize with
not only the spoken form but the written form as well.

 For the passive vocab “mournful” and “solemn”, although they are just passive vocab, I
still should have asked some concept-check questions rather than just conducting
repetition after showing examples.

*Other suggestions:

After encountering the case of a student who did not know how to identify the stress (this may
also be one of the T’s assumption that students should know how to do this), I think I need to
address this problem throughout my lesson.

 First, when showing the way to identify the stress, I SHOULD NOT focus ONLY on
the girl who had problem and instead facing the whole class when explaining.

 Second, even when the girl understood, I should still seek for potential students who
had the same problem by asking “Is there anyone else who doesn’t know how to
identify the stress?”

 Finally, I can check if the problem is solved completely in a subtle way, by asking
other students to identify the stress in the other words that I am teaching to teach.

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