paraphrase

Reflection of Final Project

         When I observed the speaking class, there were 25 students. Twenty of them were ELLs. The lesson was about how they could leave an important message. The lesson had many features of sheltered instuction, and they modeled in many ways. First of all, the lesson reflected the GLAD sheltered instruction model. The teacher explained the lesson by telling a story about her experiences and sharing the students' experiences. The lesson covered by inputting strategy in the GLAD model. The lesson was very clear for the students, and the teacher wrote the language objective of the lesson on the white board. The teacher tried to explain the group activity to the students. The students shared many reasons for excusing from the work, and they corrected their mistakes by using two different types of verb tense. The teacher was checking for students' understanding during the lesson by using a variety of question types to encourage the students to use critical thinking skills about many excusing reasons.

        Moreover, the teacher gave specific feedback for some students, and she spoke slowly and loudly during the lesson. The language of the teacher was lowering for the affective filter of ELLs. The teacher gave the students graphic organizers to write many possible reasons for not coming to work, or for being late for work.

        Moreover, the teacher modeled practice in the SIOP model by giving the students a conversation paper with some blanks. The teacher asked the students to make a group of four. Then, they completed the conversation, and practiced it with a partner. I think I will use this method, because it affects students' understanding, and it let the students participate with the class in many activities. Students should know to be responsible for their conduct. In addition, during the lesson, I noted that the teacher did not answer for all students' questions. She gave them some time to think, and that reflected the interaction components in the SIOP model.  Giving students time is a strategy to make them critical thinkers. I will give my kids and my students wait time, because this strategy gives them a chance to come up with great ideas. Stahl (1994) said that students should have some time to process information, to reflect on what has been said, observed, or done, and to consider

what their personal responses will be. After a few seconds of uninterrupted silence, a significant number of positive outcomes occur for students and teachers.

      According to Gebhard's article (2005) the most significant thing is critical thinking, and I want to explore it in my future teaching. I'm still wondered that how I will use this strategy in a classroom. Giving students time to analyze and discuss for what they have learned, we will have many students which are critical thinkers.

 For future, I will include critical thinking strategy in every lesson to improve students, knowledge and provide them with an opportunity to engage actively in the classroom.

      In this experience, I noted that the numbers of students are very big. I asked the teacher how she controls all the students, and she said that she usually puts them in a group that helps her to check all the students at the same time. The teacher finished the lesson by asking the students to call her and leave a message by giving a reason for their absence. I think this is a great way to assess the students.

      Finally, in this experience, I really have gotten many benefits because I have never observed teaching. I really want to be a teacher for student ELLs because I used to be an ELL, and I know what they feel.