my reflection about Unit 8 presentation on May 20, 08 May 25, 2008

I assumed I messed up my presentation on May 20. Actually one of the reasons for that day’s bad appearance was that I didn’t advanced rehearsal well. In the other hand, I didn’t count on the time of group discussion accurately. Though I didn’t calculate the time on the spot, I considered I had waste too much time on some meaningless activities. It was out of my previous plan, and I as well didn’t follow my schedule to run all the procedure. It was pity that I really gave others a bad imageL

        My original plan was that at the beginning I would say a story related to my GO design which was a Winnie and his sweet hearts. I planned that I would say the short story and meanwhile relate to the actual purpose of the activity (group learning sheet doing), and then I would give a clean instruction about how to co- finish it and share an application about using the theory in the practical teaching. But after I broken speech about the Winnie story, I gradually forgot what I had to do next. It was really a tough challenge for me, especially for my explanation after each group’s board writing. I also found out that I couldn’t speak out a complete and organized sentence, and I still couldn’t deliver my message entirely. It was my weakness that I still need to try my best to conquer my stage fright, and I also had to create more opportunities to practice my English presentation. However, the most important work for me was that I needed to rehearsal well and sharpen my speaking ability advanced.

        But I could say I still did a small job on my learning sheet (Winnie and hearts_graphic_organizers), and I really gained some experiences from producing it. I would continuously apply GO in my teaching.

Taipei Lishan High School visit on May 13,08 May 25, 2008

I believe students studying in Lishan High School would have an abundant and beautiful learning environment. Lishan was our second visiting school, and its campus environment was as gorgeous as Long- Men Junior High School. We met this school at 7:50, and this time was the first class beginning time for senior high students. Because this school was located in Neihu which was so far from my living place, I needed to get up earlier than usual. It also made me rememorize my high school life and did some comparison with Lishan.

Lishan truly disobeyed the traditional high school system and framework. Just took its outside appearance for instance, its school’s dimension was so huge and picturesque. Students can gain broader view sight by learning in this area. Second, through this school’s introduction we know that this school strongly prove them become a scientific, outstanding, international, and finally the world- class high school. Their educational goal is to make their students become not only a rational (scientific) but also sensible (humanistic) person. So under this learning aim both teachers and students in Lishan would integrate “science” in their teaching and learning. Not except for the English teaching, students would have the extra courses which are unique in senior high school in Taiwan’s education now to do some specific subject researches with their guide teacher. So students can already gain the ability about individual searching.

The third one would be the important on for us, future’s English teacher. Their English classes adopt the whole English teaching environment. Teachers totally speak and teach in English, and this policy can improve students listening skill and get used to the language use of English. I also discovered that teachers from my observations they didn’t focus their teaching on linguistic competence anymore. Instead, they’d like to focus the central meaning of the reading and help students get the blue picture of a unit. Teachers used graphic organizers to be one of their main teaching materials for the reading, and this method could make students construct a complete structure of reading itself. But it didn’t mean that their teaching would emphasize on the grammar and vocabulary and so on. However, they utilize the GO and combine the other learning parts together and making students know the true learning not only focus on the linguistic parts. But they should learn how to mix all the elements such as listening, speaking, reading, writing, and Gr together to attain a full English learning.

My first observation was class 109. Teacher Yuan in her class used lots of multimedia such as ppt and video to be her teaching assistants. Yuan used the ppt to review students’ vocab and meanwhile she required students speaking out each explanation of vocab. It was a good way to make students speak in English in class. Then she played the video related to the content and suitably explained the extended meaning about the video. Before the class end, she assigned two students to play a short role play whose materials were derived from the video. It really made students enjoy it and pertain the learning in the practical usage. My second observation was teacher Huang’s teaching. For me, she was an energetic teacher. I could say that her students really loved learning English in her class. At the beginning of her class she used the body language to point out today’s learning aspect. Then she used lots of ppt to give students the rough image of this unit, and she also used GO to support her main idea of reading. Her whole class was really organized and tightly. I hope I could one day did a great job as her did.

reflection about the efl class on May 6,08 May 7, 2008

This class had approximately three parts, and every part was meaningful to me. I’d like to focus on the first and the third part which was talking about a new methodology- GO ”Graphic Organizers” in this reflective blog. The first part could roughly belong to the introduction about the usage and application of GO. Alice had introduced it on the last class, and we also had the homework to practice it. At the beginning, I thought the theory of graphic organizers was abstract. For me, I couldn’t understand its’ importance for students, especially for students’ linguistic competence. But after Alice’s explanation and my practical operation, I gradually discovered its’ value. The graphic organizer is like a map of an article, and learners (readers) can through the instruction of map know the whole structure of the reading.

My thought was reinforced by a teacher who was from Taipei Fuhsing Private School. In her speech she also repeatedly emphasized on GO. She said that GO also popularized in the elementary English teaching, and so many teachings today utilize this skill to make learners construct the structure of meaning tightly. She also gave us some samples about the GO which have common used in the junior high school. Students by teacher’s instruction really can create their own GO, and by their design and explanation teachers can evaluate how degree students understand the articles. The students’ examples above deeply support my idea, and I consider I would apply this method in my teaching in future.