Not to let a word get in the way of its sentence;
Nor to let a sentence get in the way of its intention,
But to send your mind out to meet the intention as a guest;
That is understanding.
(Chinese proverb, Forth Century B.C in Wells 1981)
I think, that one of the elements was successful in the lesson were the objectives learning, in each activity the objectives were achieved, because in each task the students practiced and made them correctly, that was one of my principal aims. To think in every activity carefully, meaningful and in a communicative way for the students, it was not easy, but the result was good; because the students could interact each other, when they worked in pairs they helped to theirs classmates, they participated and the most important objective they learned and produced their own sentences.
To contextualize all the activities in the plan was meaningful and got the students attention from the beginning to the end.
Go from controlled to free work took the students and the teacher to a communicative class, at the end, we practiced the four skills in the lesson in the different activities were planed.
Communication contributes to grammar acquisition
(Rod Ellis 1997)
Not everything was perfect, there were some aspects not successful in the lesson, for example, when we drilled the models, the students were not prepared for that activity, it was the first time I presented language in that way, in this group, so they felt insecure about doing choral repetition some students did it, and others were distracted, and individual repetition some students were afraid about talking and make a mistake, they did it, but it was difficult for both teacher and students to encourage them to feel comfortable and participate.
When I gave instructions for the two written activities, the students did not understand them, because they do not to use to pay attention to them, and they started to do it incorrectly, so when I monitored the activity I noticed that the students were confused about it, I had to stop the activities, and gave an example and checked the instructions again asking to the students what they had to do. I as a teacher had to recognize that it was a mistake not to check the instructions before starting the exercise.
Time was another aspect not successful, because the activities lasted less than I thought so the lesson finished before the time was considered, there were 10 minutes before , I do not like to improvise so I left the students go. I could do another activity in that time, but I was not prepared in this occasion;
I consider that is not good to improvise, because the students can notice it, and question the teacher, and could be not motivate to continue working in class.
The successful of a lesson is to have a good lesson plan, because you prepare the correct activities, tasks, language for the group you are going to have class, is the most important knowledge I have learned in the last two task I had delivered.
To avoid difficulties in my next lessons, I will change some points in the activities; one of them is to check the time for every activity, to have the average of time for the complete lesson. Another change is to write an extra activity, if I have time left over, I could make the extra activity.
Another change is to plan activities with different interactional patterns, because to create atmosphere of involvement and togetherness, group work, pair work, give the students the opportunity for production and practice between them, in that way they can improve the four skills, and reach communication.
The most important change is the attitude; improve every day in my practice, and use my new knowledge. Motivate the students, and make them work.
How to take further development on my linguistic and professional understanding and skills?Well, first I have to recognize, that we learn trough our mistakes, and correct them, then I need to read more about language teaching, and my reading have to impact in my own practice, at the moment that I have to plan and in my every day practice.
To prepare a better plan, make the course interesting, explain clearly, and make all the students participate with different interactional patterns, give them challenge activities, and the language has to be contextualized and meaningful for the students.
This would not necessarily mean changing or disguising the classroom in the hope that it will be momentarily serve as some kind of “communicative situation resembling situations in the outside world.
The classroom itself has unique social environment with its own human activities and its own conventions governing these activities
(M. Breen and C. Candlin,1979).
To conclude, the lesson plan and the activities chosen for a class, have to be planned thinking in some factors: the students the age, interest, likes, and dislikes; the situation has to be in context, and meaningful, the teacher should be motivator, facilitator, well prepared, and knows her aims; those activities should be successfully integrated and focus on meaningful communication.
Teacher has to be sure students know the vocabulary necessary for the activities, be sure students understand instructions clearly so that they know what to do, and the students should be encouraged to say what they need to perform the activity.
Keeping those in mind, take us to a successful lesson; to achieve its aims, and to the students learning and produce the language, that is the main point.
