9/27 Readings

References: Chapter 3: Lesson Planning and Chapter 7: The ELT Curriculum in "Methodology in Language Teaching: An Anthology of Current Practice"

Chapter 3 focused on the essential parts of a lesson plan in an English language classroom, and what the typical model of this lesson plan would be by giving examples. A daily lesson plan is described as "written description of how students will move toward attaining specific objectives" and "the teaching behavior that will result in student learning" (pg. 30). I know that as pre-service teachers here at ISU, lesson planning becomes the bane of our existence, so to speak. I know that when a professor assigns a unit plan, there is a collective internal groan from every student. Lesson plans, while they are not the most difficult thing to do, are merely time-consuming and require one's full attention, which at times is hard to give. When I am writing them, I have to keep reminding myself that there is a greater purpose in all this time I am putting into it, and that is to give my students a well thought out and well-conceived lesson that they can learn something from. The book describes lesson planning as having internal and external reasons; internal being that makes us "feel more confident, learn the subject matter better...and to anticipate problems before they happen" (pg. 31). The last one is probably the most important. As a pre-service teacher, I have no idea how to anticipate problems. I have not had much experience yet in front of a class, and I can honestly only hope to learn this while student teaching, which I have been assured will happen. I am not optimistic in the fact that every student is going to be a little angel and behave well every single day. Teachers have to think on their feet at all times; I know that it is something I have to work on because I tend to be cautious and calculating and I take a while to make a decision which helps me when I am writing lesson plans because I am meticulous. I know that most days it will not be a problem, but I do have to prepare myself for it. Reading about the specifics of a lesson plan is second nature to me at this point, but not necessarily in the ESL context so it was interesting to see if there were any glaring differences between the ones I have done and this type of lesson plan. Both start with "appropriate and clearly written objectives" (pg. 32), and in these objectives, we must set our goals for the day, and use action verbs to describe what they will be doing that class period. It is important that these objectives are not vague, because it can hinder the students and the teacher in the lesson process. There needs to be a result in mind, and I learned in my C&I 216 class that each lesson must have a concrete product attached to it, and that is generally homework, but I believe students should be able to go home with something they have done, because it is a confidence booster for them, especially when they are not in a mainstream English class and need all the emotional support they can get from a teacher.

Chapter 7 deals the ever-changing models in ELT (English language teaching) and what the author describes as a "flexible" model. A quote that stuck out is from Carl Rogers, "the goal of education, if we are to survive, is the facilitation of change and learning" (pg. 69). It is a pretty strong statement to make, and one with which I totally agree. Teaching has honestly got to be one of the most flexible careers I can think of; it is seemingly strict because of standards and all that red tape, but when a teacher is in the classroom, we run the show. We make the day-to-day decisions, and there generally is no one around to question it. We are on our own for the most part, even though we do have some support from administration or from a mentor when we are starting it. It is a scary thought, however; soon, I will be in front of my own class with my own lesson plans, not ones I have generated for a professor. Students depend on me to learn Spanish or English! It is a high-pressure situation and people do not give teachers enough credit for what they do every day, but I digress from the topic. Finney (the author of the chapter) goes on to describe the changing models of ELT, starting from classical humanism, which is presumably the oldest model and "content is knowledge which has been identified and agreed to be universal, unchanging, and absolute" (pg. 71). I know when I read this, I cringed. Nothing in education is absolute or unchanging. Education is a continuous process; we are learning new things every day, every hour, every minute and adding to our knowledge. True, some things will not change, like a math equation, but language is always changing. There is always new slang or new words generated by other people, that's what I love about it! Obviously, as Finney states, "these foundations are not longer acceptable" for the reasons of diverse learning styles (pg. 71). The newest or most current model is called progressivism, which is that "the purpose of education is...to enable the individual to progress towards self-fulfillment" (pg. 73) and is based in developmental psychology. While this may be the most modern, it is still subject to skepticism. I think if we are going off of Bloom's Taxonomy, the highest level being this level of fulfillment, this is a good way to look at it. I mean, when I was reading it, I was thinking...well, this kind of seems like a weak statement. I think the U.S. education system nowadays is trying to make students focus on their uniqueness, which is fine, but weren't students unique and diverse before? Yes, it seems intuitive to add that thinking to our teaching, but that does not mean it has to take over our lessons. The fact is we still have our content to teach and we cannot make each lesson perfect for every student. There will be some lessons that visual learners will not like, and there will be some that hands-on learners will not like, but everyone has each multiple intelligence and learning skill, and our job as teachers is to access these and show them that they cannot always lean on what works best for them.