Teaching Post 9/11-9/13

This week's teaching went really well. On tuesday we did peer reviews in class, so the students read each other's Process Essays and offered constructive feedback (I hope). After that we did some preposition activities. Upon reflection of the Tuesday lesson I believe that I should create my own "peer review" sheet based on the one that is offered with the course materials. The peer review sheet they have isn't too bad, but I think that more could be accomplished with a little tweaking. If I have enough time before the next essay is due I will see if I can make some changes. Time is a big factor though.

The preposition activities basically included identifying prepositional phrases and also an informational gap activity that includes a word bank. I chose preposition activities because it seems like it is a big problem for all of the students in my class, however, I was speaking with one of the professors and he/she believed that I shouldn't spend very much time on preposition work, but rather focus more on things that obscure the meaning of my student's written text. Anyway, I think I agree with he/she, but I also know that a few of my students need help in certain areas like prepositions and welcome the activities.

On Thursday (today) I tried something a little different. We continued to talk about the Process Essay (an essay that basically tells how to do something, fix an appliance, bake a cake, etc. or informs one on the process of how something has happened). I wanted to reemphasize the key features so I decided to bring in a bunch of food and "recipes." The recipes were not really recipes they were just lists of instructions on how to perform a task with food, such as the following:

Raisin Peanut Butter Apples
1. Rinse all of the apples
2. Cut each apple into 8 pieces, be sure to cut out the seeds
3. Spread the peanut butter over the top of the apples
4. Place the raisins in the peanut butter on top of the apples
5. Serve on a plate to your guests


I then split the students into groups of two or three and had them turn the instructions into a body paragraph. After completing the paragraph the students switched recipes with each other and proceeded to perform the tasks. This provided a great deal of interaction and I felt like we were able to get away from the - "just sit in your desks and write" style of a traditional writing class. After completing the tasks we were all able to socialize during break by eating the snacks and drinking hot chocolate - perfect for international students! In the second half of the class we completed an introductory paragraph together, read and corrected the body paragraphs that the groups did and completed a conclusion paragraph.

Upon reflection I think I will emphasize and model the body paragraph to the students - there were only a couple of groups that didn't include a topic sentence with their body paragraphs, but I felt like I didn't emphasize that enough and modeling always helps.

I felt like I was using a Communicative Teaching Approach in class. I thought that through the activities we were doing, including the exchanges between students that a majority of language components were being used as well as the real-life situation of following a recipe. The students did work on accuracy by writing a paragraph for someone else to use, but fluency was emphasized while everyone was eating and talking. I believe the students not only grasped the structure of their essays, but also were able to enjoy it and build on a lot of other functions as well.

I will continually pray for new ideas and ways to apply the materials in my courses.