CBLP: Reflection blog 5 (In-service reflection)

Hailey Cho

- What have you accomplished so far?

PEDAL CBLP group folder

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1Dx5Kw8rFwhsMDWFkjh80fA48bG20lo-w

LEVEL 3+ Curriculum (in development)

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1YjZ03acsDCd24X1DQxWnoFkfd9EWauyu/edit

I am currently developing a curriculum for level 3+. I had 9 classes this semester, but as future PEDAL
will have 2 classes a week, I am designing a curriculum for 18 classes. I first figured out language points
that might be beneficial to level 3+ students. As level 3+ will be divided into level 3 and level 4, I tried to
include a wide range of grammar points based on the proficiency of students I taught this semester so that
level 3 and 4 teachers can adopt language points and further develop curriculum based on their students.
Then I decided on topics that would be linked to the language points and set learning goals about what
students would be able to do with the language point. As many PEDAL teachers benefited from previous
PEDAL resources, I have also added links to the resources on relevant topics.

While working on the curriculum, some concerns have arisen. I have explored previous PEDAL lessons,
and I could find some popular topics that a lot of teachers have done before, for example, World
Englishes and intercultural communication. I found the topics informative and wanted to include them
in the curriculum. Then I could see they taught a lot of jargon such as ELF, inner/outer/expanding
circle, Big C culture vs. Small C culture, Low context vs. High context… etc. Based on my understanding
of my students, I think the vocabulary will benefit students in level 3+ because being aware of the
concepts will let them not only better understand the content of the topic but also possess critical
perspectives in communicating in their L2. At the same time, considering that the PEDAL class is aiming
to teach English for daily use, I have been partially doubting if learning the jargon can develop their daily
interaction skills. Therefore, I think the terms are good to mention but doubt if they could be the key
vocabulary for the class.

I have talked with other teachers who taught level 3+ online this semester, and we all agreed that during
the semester we often focused on providing students with opportunities to speak in English rather than
instructing language points like certain grammar points. Finding the language point appropriate for
advanced learners was my concern when I started teaching, as they seemed to be familiar with most of the
grammar points. Therefore, in the current curriculum, I included a wide range of grammars from forms
that future PEDAL teachers can briefly check on assuming students already know about such as passive
verb, and perfect tense which will be easily embedded in students’ language practices to grammars that
might not be familiar to students so that teachers can take time introducing it such as emphatic “do” or
inversion in fronted structure.

Another concern is deciding vocabulary to be taught. From level 3, teachers can employ a variety of
authentic materials as meaningful inputs in the class as students can process them. In addition, based on
my experience, the vocabulary taught in the class highly depended on meaningful input. In other words,
my students were exposed to the vocabulary through meaningful input, so the content of meaningful input
decided the target vocabulary. Therefore, I am thinking of noting that the vocabulary that I put in the
current curriculum is just examples that future teachers can refer to when they further develop the
curriculum.

- How has your understanding of the community issues broadened and deepened as a result of service
learning?

While teaching in PEDAL I was glad that I could contribute to the community. Not only did service
learning deepen my academic knowledge regarding the class content but also it let me understand issues
in the PEDAL community, TESOL community, and free ESL instruction community, as a member of the
communities. I could understand different stakeholders’ perspectives by going through the challenges
PEDAL faced during the semester, and I learned a lot during the process of negotiating different
needs/preferences and achieving an agreement. For example, I learned that working for a community
involves various layers of interaction. During the semester we had time to discuss the project with
our faculty advisor Dr. Kozlova, we also had meetings with program coordinator Hannah, and
PEDAL teachers had to talk to each other all the time about the project.

It was also interesting that PEDAL teachers realized the need for a curriculum after we started
teaching. It reminded me again that “doing” brings a lot of insights and lets us move forward, as we
could understand the PEDAL community’s needs after actively engaging in the community. In
addition, CBLP blogs also gave me opportunities to reflect on my progress and the blogs let me
generate new ideas.

- How do the aspects of the course content added to the CBL experience?

Readings at the beginning of the semester about community-based learning enabled me to have
new perspectives on community work, and while teaching in PEDAL, course content significantly
contributed to my CBL experience.
When teaching in PEDAL, I had to decide everything - from the topic, language points, and objectives
to activities and class materials according to my students’ needs and proficiency. I started with
deciding learning goals and tried to come up with activities that not only could make students
engaged but also could let me assess if students achieved the learning goals intended by the
activities. Backward design and evidence-based engagement have become a foreground of my
lesson design and also become an important part of my teaching principles in lesson planning.
As Dr. Kozlova explained during the last PEDAL meeting, designing a curriculum is a succession of
designing each lesson. Therefore, the process of developing the curriculum did not feel far different
from lesson planning and the course content had a direct connection to the project as well. Among
multiple takeaways from the course content, the use of authentic material was the most captivating.
I learned the importance of including language and materials that I can witness in real life in the
classroom and tried to implement it in my lesson plans and PEDAL curriculum.