1st Self Evaluation + self evaluation table + a lesson plan

Today I had my first class which I would like to evaluate by myself. First of all, I think it is interesting to evaluate the very first lesson which I gave at my English teaching practice at school. Second, it was new experience for me (at least here in Lithuania), so I would like to start evaluating myself from the beginning.

To begin with, I wrote down a lesson plan where I planned every bit of the lesson. It was more or less an introductory lesson, where I introduced myself and students introduced themselves. Later on, we were working on a new topic: Transport. This lesson was an interesting one because first time I was sitting not at the back of the class. This time I was sitting at the front and I was the teacher. My supervisor was sitting at the back of the classroom and sometimes watching what I'm doing. It wasn't disturbing as I heard from the other colleagues of mine. I actually forgot that students' "real teacher" is at the classroom. My students were ready to learn even though sometimes they were making jokes. I think my voice was clearly audible to all the students because they were quiet and listening to me all the time. Sometimes I spoke a little bit too fast (while translating new words) but then I got used to the rythm and became a bit slower. My lesson plan was really useful because I knew where I have to do one task or another. I was following my lesson plan but as I said it was an introductory lesson so I couldn't know how long students are going to introduce themselves. It was a bit longer than I planned. But it didn't disturb the lesson itself, it was going quite smooth. We used Enterprise coursebook (4) for intermediate level students. In my opinion it's a good book for my students because they are not very good at English. However, the topic which we are talking about now is at 12th unit, so we are going to finish this book soon and we will start working from a new one (at least my teacher told me like this). Also, I wrote some useful words on the blackboard so that students would be able to remember these words more quickly. I actually didn't have any problems in managing the class because I gave them clear instructions of what we are going to do. None of the students were left silent when we were doing a speaking task. I involved everybody into the communication activity. There was nothing unexpected in the classroom and I think I succeeded in achieving my aim. At the end of the lesson teacher praised me and said that I was a good teacher. All in all, I evaluated my teaching critically and drew conclusions.

1st Self-evaluation table

Rate the lesson according to the following scale:

1…………………2……………….3…………………..4…………4.5………….5

Does not at                 neutral                                        Is a totally

all reflect                                                                    accurate reflection

what went on                                                               of what

                                                                                   went on

Personal qualities

1. My voice was clearly audible to all the students all of the time     1 2 3 4 5
2. I spoke at the right speed                                                           1 2 3 4 5
3. I controlled the level of my own language                                    1 2 3 4 5
4. I established and maintained a purposeful working atmosphere    1 2 3 4 5
5. I developed positive relationships with students that result in             

students feeling safe and confident.                                            1 2 3 4 5

General shape of the lesson

1. I identified clear objectives appropriate to the subject and the           students                                                                                     1 2 3 4 5

2. The overall shape and balance of the lesson worked out as            planned                                                                                      1 2 3 4 5
3. My lesson plan was very useful                                                   1 2 3 4 5
4. I followed the stages of my lesson plan                                        1 2 3 4 5
5. There was variation in types of activities                                      1 2 3 4 5
6.  I set tasks for whole class, individual and group work                 1 2 3 4 5
7. The time each activity took worked out as planed                        1 2 3 4 5
8. The pace of each segment was appropriate for the type                  of activity                                                                                   1 2 3 4 5

Materials, aids

1. The materials were appropriate with regard to the age and level of the class

- in terms of their linguistic difficulty                                           1 2 3 4 5 

- in terms of their functional difficulty and use                            1 2 3 4 5

2. My blackboard was clear and well laid out                                 1 2 3 4 5
3. My visual aids were necessary, clear and effective                      1 2 3 4 5

Classroom management

1. I did not have problems in managing the class                              1 2 3 4 5
2. I gave clear instructions and demonstrations                                 1 2 3 4 5
3. The sitting position of the students was appropriate for the typeof the activity involved                                                                 1 2 3 4 5

4. The arrangement of groups and other students’ movement in theclass went on smoothly                                                               1 2 3 4 5

Questions

1. The questions were phrased correctly to get the answers I                wanted                                                                                       1 2 3 4 5
2. The types of questions were varied                                              1 2 3 4 5
3. The types of questions were graded from easy to understand to difficult                                                                                        1 2 3 4 5
4. I distributed my questions among the students equally                   1 2 3 4 5

Communication

1. I gave the students an opportunity for genuine communication       1 2 3 4 5
2. I ensured that the students take part in communication activities    1 2 3 4 5

Students’ response

1. All the students were interested all of the time                               1 2 3 4 5

Errors

1. I coped effectively with the students’ errors which arose in theclass                                                                                           1 2 3 4 5

Checking

1. I paid enough attention to each student in the class                       1 2 3 4 5
2. I checked that every student had understoodthe main teaching point                                                                1 2 3 4 5

Unexpected

1. I coped well with everything unexpected                                      1 2 3 4 5

Summary

1. I succeeded in achieving my aim                                                  1 2 3 4 5
2. The students gained much from the lesson                                    1 2 3 4 5
3. I evaluated my teaching critically and drew conclusions                1 2 3 4 5

                                                    

                                       1^st SELF EVALUATION LESSON PLAN

Student-teacher: Agnė Verikaitė

School: Vilniaus Viršuliškių Secondary school
Date: January 31, 2011

Time: 12⁰⁰ – 12⁴⁵

Form: 11c                                                                                                             

Level: intermediate                                                                                                
Materials: Enterprise 4 Intermediate

Topic: Transport  

Aims:  1) to introduce myself and to get acquainted with students;          

            2) to make an introduction to the new topic “Transport”;

            3) to teach a vocabulary related with a new topic.

Time	Stages	ACTIVITY		Objectives	What if…?
		Teacher	Student
12:00	Introduction (2min)	Greets the students, asks if someone else is coming to the lesson, checks attendance and starts the lesson.	Greet the teacher and answer her questions.	To create a welcoming atmosphere.
12:02	Warm-up       (15min)	Introduces herself and asks students to do the same.	Students introduce themselves, their names and hobbies.	To create a pleasant atmosphere and to look what is the level of each student.	If students are shy or cannot answer by themselves, teacher helps – asks questions, gives examples.
12:17	Checking HW (10min)	Asks students one by one to answer their HW (their HW was to write a review about a book or a film and retell it).	Students answering one by one, others are listening to their classmates attentively.	To revise what is review writing and to develop learners’ skills to speak about their favourite books or films.	If students didn’t do their HW, they have to do it for the next lesson.
12:27	Presentation    (15min)	Presents a new topic: transport. Asks some questions about means of transport: 1) What is your favourite means of transport? Why? 2) Which is the fastest means of transport? Which do you think is the safest? Introduces new vocabulary. Asks students’ to write down the new words into their vocabularies or notebooks.	Students answering one by one. Listening attentively and writing down the new words. If they don’t understand some words – ask the teacher.	To check the knowledge of the students, to raise their interest into a new topic. To enhance learners’ vocabulary.	If students cannot answer, teacher helps them by asking more questions (maybe easier than previous). If it is difficult to understand the words – repeat them again, till there will be no questions.
12:42	Setting-HW    (3min)	Sets HW for the next lesson: to read the text “Worldwide Taxis” and translate into Lithuanian. Also, students who didn’t prepare their reviews – prepare for the next lesson.	Write down their HW.	To encourage students’ individual work at home and raise their interest at the new topic.

January 28, 2011

Today I observed  last 2 lessons. It wasn't so tiring as before.

The first lesson was with 9th form students. Students were writing a test today from adverbs, Past Continuous tense and Past Simple tense. Teacher gave me the test while they were writing. It was quite easy but a lot of students didn't understand the tasks even though the teacher explained them everything before the test. Also, they were asking the meanings of such a words like "run, quick, easy". Students were talking through all the lesson, making jokes and etc. It was a chaotic lesson. Teacher tried to stay calm but I think, it's so difficult not to loose your nerves in such a lesson. I understood the teacher quite well. Later on, she even called the social worker to talk with the students because what they did at the classroom was too much and over the top. Later on, they tried to do some exercises, but it didn't go very smoothly because lots of students again ignored everything what was happening in the classroom. Teacher gave HW and the lesson finished.

The second lesson was with 11th form in other words "my class". Today they were checking their reviews about films or books. Only few students did this task, so teacher said that this HW remains for the other lesson. After that they did grammar exercises on Present tenses. They read one by one and explained the rules.

Next week I am going to start my teaching practice experience. I hope everything will be alright.

January 27, 2011

Today I was observing two more lessons. This time I observed not English lessons. It was Lithuanian language lesson and Russian language lesson.

The first lesson was with 2nd form students. They had Lithuanian language lesson. Today's lesson was about riddles. Teacher and students found out what is riddle and tried to describe it. Later kids were telling some riddles aloud and others had to guess what are the right answers. After that, they were doing some exercises from practice book about riddles. Also, they had to draw the answers of the riddles on the new sheet of paper. Kids were very excited about this task. When 15min left till the end of the lesson teacher saw that kids are tired and not concentrating on what is she talking, so she asked them to stand up and do some physical exercises. At the end of lesson teacher gave HW tasks and revised what they were learning today.

The second lesson was with 7th form students. It was Russian language lesson. Students came with jackets, so teacher asked them to go to the other teacher and put their jackets there. It took 5min, so the lesson started a bit late. She gave one minute to prepare for the lesson and then said that today they will revise what they were learning these past few weeks and at the end of the lesson she will give them a short test. Most of the time they were revising the material: doing exercises, speaking. Students were quite motivated and eager to learn, teacher was interested to teach them. I can say that she was satisfied by her work. From time to time she was making jokes, so that students wouldn't feel tense at the classroom. Later they got tests with tasks and were writing them till the end of the lesson.

Tomorrow I am going to observe 2 English langauge lessons. These will be my last observed lessons.

January 26, 2011

Today I was observing 2 more lessons.

The first lesson was with 8th form students. Teacher was a little bit late but after she came to the classroom the lesson started. She checked the attendance. Actually it was the very first time when someone checked attendance through all my observed lessons! It was a good thing. Then they revised what they learnt last time (questions: who? which? where?). After that they checked HW and started a new topic: some, any, no. Teacher explained the rules, gave examples. Then she gave some exercises. Also, I didn't like that teacher was speaking in Lithuanian all the time. She could say something in English and then translate. The thing which I liked is that teacher played some jokes with her students to make atmosphere more cosy and students really felt more relaxed.Later on she gave some HW and the lesson finished.

The second lesson was quite challenging because it was with 3rd form students. They were so active and alive in the classroom: all the time moving, talking, asking, laughing, etc. At the beginning of the lesson teacher asked some students to enumerate months, so that they could get a mark. Later on she introduced a new topic: ordinal numbers. They were learning what suffixes are added to the number if we want to make it ordinal number. Then they did some exercises and the teacher set their HW. After that they were listening to some song and singing together. When teacher saw that they are not listening anymore, she said let's play a game. They were very happy and excited about that. After they played a game the teacher remined their HW and the lesson finished.

Tomorrow I am going to observe two more lessons, but this time not English language lessons.

January 25, 2011

Today I observed 4 lessons. It was quite tiring. I stayed at school from 8:55 till 12:45.

First lesson was at 8:55 in the morning. It was my class - 11c with my supervisor. Today all 11 students came to the class. I was quite happy because I didn't know them all. After I saw them, all lesson I was trying to remember their names and it was quite successful. Students and teacher were discussing how to write a good review. They were doing some exercises. Also, they emphasized on Present tenses because they had some difficulties about it.

Second lesson was quite boring. It was with 10th grade students. Only half of the class came to the lesson. Teacher worked on a simple principle: gave a new topic and then - practice (doing exercises) and so on. They were trying to learn question tags, phrasal verbs with turn, word formation and key word transformation. I think, teacher gave too little time for each topic (something like 5min for each). Students were confused sometimes. Also, from time to time she was threatening students with bad marks if they won't stop talking. What is more, she was explaining everything in Lithuanian. In my opinion, it is better to say in English first and translate into Lithuanian or vice versa. All her explanations and rules were quite mixed. Students were working all the time together with the teacher, there was no individual work. Also, there was an interesting fact - in the class there was one student who didn't say anything and teacher didn't give him a chance to talk at the lesson. She was always overpassing him when students were reading sentences. It was quite strange, I didn't understand it. The funny fact was that students were correcting teacher's Lithuanian language all the time :)

Third lesson was quite ok. I was observing my supervisor's 12th grade students. Some of them were quite successful in the class. Most of the time they were checking mistakes which they have done in their tentative final English language exam. Teacher was asking if everything is clear and explaining, giving examples, answering their questions. She emphasized on prepositions, sequence of tenses, homogeneous parts of sentence and key word transformation. After they checked their exams they continued on working from the book. The topic was "appearance". They had to talk about their best friend on the spot: his/her appearance, age, outstanding features. While they were speaking teacher was giving some advises and explanations. The only bad thing was that teacher gave them HW task only after the bell rang. They were already going out from the classroom.

Fourth lesson was the best today. It was the lesson with 3rd grade students. I really liked the lesson because students were eager to learn more, they were very interested in what is going on in the classroom. Teacher was speaking very fluently in Lithuanian and then translating everything in English. They were practicing to read some text and repeating words they learned last time. They all were successful. Even though it was a late lesson students were concerned and ready to work. They checked their HW and did some exercises in the classroom. They had listening, reading, writing and speaking tasks. Everything was  coherent. I liked the lesson. It was one of the best lessons I've seen in these two days.

January 24, 2011

It was my first day at school and I've started to observe the lessons. First impressions are not bad.

In the morning I've met my supervisor. I think, she is a great teacher. She showed me the classes, books and other material they are using in the classroom. Later she introduced me to the other English language teachers. Then we had a brief talk about everything: students, pupils, university, school, studies abroad, etc. I really enjoyed it and I felt much more cosy than I felt before meeting my supervisor. At 12 o'clock my supervisor had a lesson with 11th grade students. I observed the lesson because later I will give lessons for this class. The students in the class were quite calm and motivated. I really liked them and I was quite happy to get this class. There were only 5 students in the classroom, normally there are 11 students. But my supervisor said it is normal that some of the students doesn't come, so i shouldn't be worried about it.

After this class I went downstairs to the other class, where i had to observe 10th grade students' lesson. It was rather awful. Teacher was quite relaxed but students didn't pay any attention to her, they were keep on shouting, sometimes walking in the classroom. Also, the structure of the lesson wasn't clear. I actually didn't understand what was the purpose of this lesson, because they were doing too many things at the same time. It was a big mess. After the lesson I compared 11th and 10th grade classes and decided that there is quite a big difference among them.

Tomorrow I am going to observe more lessons.