A Synthesis of Learning

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TESL 0120

 Phew! I have come to the end of  the TESL Speaking and Listening Course and read, analyzed and internalized a great deal of information. As I have said in the past, I have taught English as a Second Language before, although quite a while ago. I have also been working in the public school system for about ten years. Reading the assigned readings and completing all of the activities for this course has been somewhat of a refresher for me, but some of the information has definitely been new as well. 

 Differentiation is an idea that is familiar to me as I have been working as a teacher for many years and it is considered best practice. As I reviewed the speaking and listening differentiation assignment, ideas on how to adapt the lessons for below-level learners and above-level learners came to me instinctively. Diagnostic, formative, and summative assessments were also not new to me as I have been incorporating them into my classroom teaching. As a result, I was able to create assessment methods for listening and speaking lessons. 

 What was new to me within this final unit was figuring out how to combine my background knowledge in education, and specifically literacy, with my newfound knowledge in how to teach ESL in this day and age. Diving into the Canadian Language Benchmarks and exploring strategies for teaching multi-level ESL classes opened my eyes up to many new ideas for how to teach listening and speaking. Although I have created many lesson plans in my day, designing a scaffolded speaking and listening lesson plan for an ESL class took quite a bit of time and energy! I think that the end result synthesized my learning in this course and as a result of going through the process of creating it I feel much more prepared to teach my own ESL class. 

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