My TESL Journey

TESL 0170 Practicum in Teaching ESL Teaching Observation Overview For my practicum I observed an Entry level (CEFR A1-A2) integrated skills class that included listening, speaking, reading and writing. The class takes place from 9-3, Monday-Friday with an hour off for lunch from 12-1. I observed two full days of lessons, from 9-12 and 1-3 on Tuesday, July 9 th and Thursday, July 11 th . The morning classes are based on the units in the class textbook. The afternoon classes focus on a specific skill depending on the day of the week and use supplementary materials. The lesson topic during my observations was “On Vacation.” The learning outcomes for the lessons I observed were greeting someone arriving from a trip, asking about someone’s vacation and discussing vacation preferences. There were thirteen students in the class from a variety of countries including China, Japan, Taiwan, Korea, Saudi Arabia, Iran and Brazil. The age of the students ranged from fourteen to about f...

TESL 0170 Practicum in Teaching ESL Self-Evaluation I completed the majority of my TESL Practicum in an Entry Level (CEFR A1-A2) integrated skills class that included listening, speaking, reading and writing. There were thirteen to seventeen students in the class from a variety of countries including China, Japan, Taiwan, Korea, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Brazil and Switzerland. The age of the students ranged from fourteen to about fifty. Each class was three hours long and the curriculum was based on the units in the class textbook, with some supplementary materials and activities. I communicated with my sponsor teacher before and after each lesson to discuss strengths and areas for improvement. I also met with my Practicum Supervisor after one of my initial lessons and after my final lesson to receive feedback on my teaching. Upon completion of my practicum, I have come to have a greater understanding of my strengths as a teacher and areas that could be improved upon. One of ...

TESL 0170 Practicum in Teaching ESL Today was my fourth and final lesson for my TESL Practicum and I have to admit, I was a little sad to be finished. I have spent a lot of time with the Entry level (CEFR A1-A2) class and have gotten to know the students quite well. They are a motivated and interesting bunch from a variety of countries, and they are open and willing to do any type of activity. Today we were working on the Taking Transportation unit and our lesson focused primarily on airport announcements. The lesson followed a similar format to the previous lesson I taught and included teaching and practicing new vocabulary, listening comprehension, pronunciation, a quiz game, a discussion game and the teacher evaluation I created. Some of the activities were a review of material studied earlier in the week. I think that it was an engaging and successful lesson and my sponsor teacher said that I did very well. My Practicum Supervisor attended the second part of the lesson toda...

TESL 0170 Practicum in Teaching ESL The professional development resource that I selected to engage with and analyze is the free online CLB Bootcamp provided by the Centre for Canadian Language Benchmarks. The CLB Bootcamp is a 10-hour self-directed online training course that introduces and explains the CLB’s, as well as how to use the CLB’s for lesson planning and student assessment. The CLB Bootcamp is divided into three modules: CLB Basics , Planning and the CLB and Classroom Assessment and the CLB . Each module is then broken down into three to four sections. The material is presented in a format similar to a PowerPoint presentation, with links to resources, documents and example materials. There are also optional short quizzes throughout that can be taken more than once. It is not necessary to complete the sections or modules in order, or even to complete them all. You can pick and choose which areas you want to learn more about. If you do complete all of the modules...

TESL 0170 Practicum in Teaching ESL Today I taught the third lesson for my TESL Practicum. This time, I taught a High Advanced (CEFR C2) Speaking class in the afternoon, from 1-3. Teaching this class was quite different from the Entry level class I had taught before. For this class I was able to speak at more or less my regular speaking rate and I didn't have to use basic vocabulary.  I followed the same procedure that my Sponsor Teacher used and began the class by having the students formulate some discussion questions based on the Words of the Day from this week and the topic of the unit in their textbook. Students then discussed the questions in small groups. This provided them with fluency practice. Then I moved on to the lesson that I had prepared on limericks. By studying and reading limericks aloud, the students were able to practice pronunciation and fluency in a fun and interactive way. We discussed rhyme and rhythm and identified the weak and stressed syllables in s...

TESL 0170 Practicum in Teaching ESL I taught my second lesson for my TESL practicum on Friday from 9-12. I taught the same Entry level (CEFR A1-A2) integrated skills class and continued working on the Shopping for Clothes unit. This time I was also being observed for the last hour by my Practicum Supervisor. The focus of the lesson was on navigating a mall or department store and included vocabulary and expressions to use to explain locations and directions. The lesson included reviewing the previous day's homework, teaching and practicing new vocabulary, listening comprehension, pronunciation, role-play and games. I tried to include a balance of activities and to switch between teacher-led and student-centered activities to keep the students engaged. Students had an opportunity to work independently, with a partner, with their table group and with the whole class. In addition to the text and its digital and online components, I also used the smartboard notebook, a clothing b...

TESL 0170 Practicum in Teaching ESL On Tuesday I taught my first lesson as part of my practicum. The class is an Entry level (CEFR A1-A2) integrated skills class and uses the text Top Notch 1. This week the unit topic was Shopping for Clothes and my lesson focused on the Preview section. The lesson included reviewing the previous day's homework, introducing the topic of clothes and clothing departments, teaching and practicing new vocabulary, discussion, listening comprehension and writing. I incorporated a mix of teacher-centered and student-centered activities, and included individual, partner, small-group and whole class activities. There was also a combination of productive and receptive tasks. Since this lesson was the introduction to a new unit there was a bit more teacher talk and and vocabulary instruction. I made use of the digital textbook, online text and notebook function on the smartboard. I also used, modified and created some supplementary materials to introduc...

TESL 0170 Practicum in Teaching ESL For my practicum I completed a Teaching Observation Journal. The link to my journal can be found here: Sheila Bostick Teaching Observation Journal

TESL 0160 Transitioning to the Classroom Something that I have often done in elementary and middle school classrooms is work together with the students to create a class contract or list of classroom expectations. I think that this would also work well in an ESL classroom with children or adults. Basically what we do is come up with a list of norms to be put in place regarding the way we should act/behave in the classroom. The teacher does not create a list of rules and tell the students what they are. Instead, the students and the teacher have a discussion about what is okay and what is not okay and will ensure that everyone is treated with dignity and respect. The basic questions I would discuss include: How do you want to be treated by your peers? How do you think your peers should be treated by you? How do you want to be treated by your teacher? How do you think your teacher wants to be treated by you? After discussing these questions and creating a list on the whiteboard, s...

TESL 0160 Transitioning to the Classroom In the final unit of this course we focused on classroom management, which included reading a chapter from our text, Teaching by Principles: An Interactive Approach to Language Pedagogy by Brown and Lee.  Two sections of the chapter on Classroom Management really stood out for me because I think that they are the basis for all classrooms, not only English language classes. In addition, they are inclusive to students of all cultures and learning styles. At the beginning of the chapter the authors shared a list of  General Guidelines for Classroom Management,  which were adapted from those described by Marzano and Marzano. I had been somewhat familiar with these guidelines as I had read about them in the study of inclusive education for public schools. I believe that these eight guidelines are key to creating a positive classroom environment. The guidelines are: Establish clear teacher and student roles Articulate unambiguo...

TESL 0160 Transitioning to the Classroom One of the assignment that we had to complete in this course was a Job Analysis. In the first part of the assignment, we were to explore various aspects of a specific, cultural environment and its implications for the ESL or EFL teaching profession. In the second part,we were to apply our findings by choosing a short activity from our existing ePortfolio and adapting it for the use in the chosen context. Below is my job analysis for a part-time Adult ESL Instructor position at the Red River College Language Training Centre in Selkirk, MB.  For Part 1 of the Job Analysis I created an Infographic on www.canva.com .  Part 2:   Adapted Activities for Chosen Context I created the original activities described below in a previous TESL course for use in a High Beginner conversation class. I have adapted a couple of activities from the original lesson plan to make them suitable for a Stage II, CLB 6 Intensive ...

TESL 0160 Transitioning to the Classroom In Unit 1 of the course we selected a teaching context for an ESL/EFL teacher and conducted research online to find out more about it. Then we shared our thoughts and findings. What follows is the result of my research on a particular ESL career path. I selected Teaching Context 5: A Canadian ESL teacher moves to Japan to teach EFL. I was interested in learning more about the process of going to teach overseas nowadays as compared to the 1990's when I went to South Korea to teach English. I found that the requirements and the procedure for teaching in Japan now are quite similar to what I experienced when I taught in South Korea. There is an abundance of information online about how to get a job, different places to work, what daily life is like for a teacher in Japan, as well as blogs where current and former teachers share their experiences, good and bad. I read through several websites and blogs and watched a few different vid...

TESL 0150 Resources Development and Integration In the final unit of this course, we explored the use of technology in education. We were asked to consider the advantages and disadvantages of using technology. What follow is my post regarding this topic. Technology is increasingly becoming a regular part of language education. There are both advantages and disadvantages to its use in an ESL classroom.  Some of the advantages include: it can be very engaging/interesting for students it can be interactive it can increase student participation  it can provide variety to a lesson it can meet the needs of different learning styles there are a wide variety of resources/technologies available it can help to develop technological literacy it can save paper :) it is usually up to date, whereas texts may be outdated Some of the disadvantages include: it requires instruction/learning in how to use it, for teachers and students teachers need to stay up to date ...